"FloraCoco"

pray4pistils · Jan 9, 2007

Hey, guys. I'm midway through my first grow and am having a blast.

I'll have some pictures up to show off my whole set up tonight or tomorrow, I think. Some of the techniques I'm using are pretty interesting -to me, at least. That's because I've been forced to improvise quite a bit given my growing environment.

Anyway... this post is about adapting the wonderful Flora Nova nutes to work ideally with coco.

I've had pretty good success lately with my plants in 75% coir and 25% Home Depot perlite. It's soooooo much better than the Miracle Gro time release crap that I had before. I've finally got no more burned tips, drainage is better, and the fine line between watering enough and watering too much has been erased. So, the question is, what else should I add for use in this new substrate?

Here are the vital stats:
Seed: BAG is beautiful! (Sativa-leaning cross?)
Mix: 75%/25% coco/perlite
Veg: Grow@~450ppm per watering
Flowering: Bloom@~325ppm per watering
Supplement: 1/8th teaspoon epsom salt/gallon
pH: 6.0 (adjusted down from 7.1 tap water via phosphoric acid)
watering method: hand w/moisture meter (allowing slightly wet dropping to slightly dry)
watering frequecy: checked nightly
Humidity veg: ~50 - 60%
Humidity flowering: ~40%

Again, things are working fairly well right now. However, I'm jealous of all this Canna A + B talk. If I can feed these babies better, I'd like a go of it. What do y'all think?

Guest · Jan 9, 2007

currently on my first grow with soil using nova nutes, im thinkin about going wit coco my next grow. i dont want to buy different nutes so i would want to finish the nova bottles ya digg

so let me get this straight, when u use coco u water everyday? cause u cant do that with soil

Guest · Jan 9, 2007

Pray4Pistils,

According to alot of experienced coco growers in this forum, you may get even better results hand watering / feeding everyday....

I personally had only 1 run of coco, but used flora nova as well, on the advise of my local 'dro store employee. At the time, I had no idea that it was more like hydro than soil so i watered as if it were a soil plant.

The grow came out ok til the end when what I think to be the salt build ups from lack of run off or flush may have affected the leaves slightly. One thing to note however, is that the roots definately packed teh container more so than soil (all the way tot he top), and the yield came out pretty decent considering what the plants looked like as a result of the salt issues.

Guest · Jan 9, 2007

z0r said:
Pray4Pistils,

According to alot of experienced coco growers in this forum, you may get even better results hand watering / feeding everyday....

I personally had only 1 run of coco, but used flora nova as well, on the advise of my local 'dro store employee. At the time, I had no idea that it was more like hydro than soil so i watered as if it were a soil plant.

The grow came out ok til the end when what I think to be the salt build ups from lack of run off or flush may have affected the leaves slightly. One thing to note however, is that the roots definately packed teh container more so than soil (all the way tot he top), and the yield came out pretty decent considering what the plants looked like as a result of the salt issues.

thanx for the info good lookin

pray4pistils · Jan 9, 2007

roots, indeed!

roots, indeed!

z0r said:
One thing to note however, is that the roots definately packed teh container more so than soil (all the way tot he top).

Thanks for the comments and yup... I can see more roots in this grow than I ever saw in soil. They're jumping out the top and then dipping back down into the coco like some sort of dolphin or something.

Anyway, I'm hoping that some of the nerds around here can add some info with regards to the chemistry. Is there anything in particular that should be added or adjusted to make the Flora series more ideal for coco? Any tangents are still appreciated, though. It's good reading.

Peace,

pray4pistils · Jan 9, 2007

doofus...

doofus...

I'm such a doofus. After all this talk, I just watered my flowering plants with the grow formula. Whoops. :pointlaug

Now, what's going to happen? (sigh)

gaiusmarius · Jan 10, 2007

hi pray4pistils

basically you are on the right track, watering daily or at least every other day is best. at the same time keep the feed levels slightly below what most companies recommend.

i'm sure you could keep using that flowering nute you are using, as long as you do regular flushes and judge the amount you give by what the plants tell you you should be able to finish it off ok.

but your best bet is to get a coco specific fert, it will make your life so much easier and you will be able to rely on the fert being perfect and only have the dosage and ph to worry about.

both hesi and canna will do a wonderful job, this i can tell you from experience. i have also heard good things about the advanced coco nutes.

you can always use the veg nutes for the veg phase on coco even if the canna coco a+b are for both veg and flowering.

Guest · Jan 10, 2007

pray4pistils said:
I'm such a doofus. After all this talk, I just watered my flowering plants with the grow formula. Whoops. Now, what's going to happen? (sigh)

Don't sweat it. No biggie at all. You won't notice a thing.

I noticed from your post at the top that your ppm's were very low. I have used floranova in coco, and you can up those ppm's and water/feed every day. Try and use the instructions on the side of the bottle for feeding. For flowering, those ppm's can be around 1000 - 1400. Just always try to water at least 3 times a week with a 10 - 15% runoff. Those babies will really take off then. If you see a little burning on the leaf tips, then just back off a bit, but I doubt it will happen.

Cheers,
SH

pray4pistils · Jan 10, 2007

feedin' time...

feedin' time...

gaiusmarius said:
i'm sure you could keep using that flowering nute you are using... (snip) but your best bet is to get a coco specific fert

Thanks for the advice, gaius. First, I'm going to run through these bottles of Flora because they do work really will. So, maybe by the end of the experience I'll know exactly how to augment those nutes to make them optimal with the coco medium.

suburbanhomeboy said:
Don't sweat it. No biggie at all. You won't notice a thing.

suburbanhomeboy said:
I noticed from your post at the top that your ppm's were very low... (snip) For flowering, those ppm's can be around 1000 - 1400.

Wow, that's a lot of food! I did read the bottle and figured that was for 1x weekly feeding. So, I divided the recommendation by the ~4x/week feeding schedule that I figure I'm on right now. Hmm, I'll try upping the concentration and see what happens. So, this is not advisable on the vegging plants, then? What kind of ppm might be reasonable there?

Btw, here's my first flowering female in all her LST glory. I have no idea what strain she is. Indica & Sativa hybrid? What do y'all say about that?:

And, here's a write up of my grow set up. Comments either here or in the other thread will be well appreciated! Thanks!

Old Man Time · Jan 10, 2007

Nice thread.

Im running the floranova line with GH coco.....its a killer combination. So far I havent had any issues....and its essentially hydroponic......which is supposed to be tricky

NPK · Jan 10, 2007

I'm also a coco beginner using FN nutes, and so far, it's been a snap. I'm flowering my first round and vegging my second and I've had no problems whatsoever. The thing that sold me on FloraNova (which I purchased when I was still in soil) is that the line is higher in magnesium than other brands. Also, it says on the bottle that it's well-suited for soilless and hydroponic applications, so 'nuff said!

I started off my clones at about 400-500 PPM, gradually increasing strength as the plants grew. I read somewhere on here that you can turn up the volume all the way, so to speak, because the coco stores the nutrients and the plants use 'em as needed. I'm still using a somewhat lower PPM than recommended on the bottle--around 800-900 PPM--but the plants are doing great. I put my Caramellas in coco less than two weeks ago and the roots are already busting out of the drain holes in one-gallon pots. The shit's an amazing medium! I only wish I'd started using it sooner.

I know everyone says to use coco-specific nutes, and I probably will give 'em a shot when I'm done with the FN...but the stuff is working more than fine for me, and part of me doesn't really want to fix something that's not broken.

Guest · Jan 10, 2007

Another FN user here... I'm runnin urkle.. she likes a lot of food. I'm almost at week 2 of flower and they have been happy at ec 2.3-2.4 which is about 1600 ppm on my meter. They get fed twice per day in a recirculating set up. The're under 1k hps lights and gettin co2 so they are being pushed pretty hard.

I tried the canna a+b in veg and and experienced a bad mag def. I followed the canna feed schedule for heavy feeding which topped out at ec 1.8.. still wasn't enough. I guess I could have just gave em more of the canna nuts but with the probs I just felt better going back to the Flora Nova which I know pretty well. I may try the canna again at a higher ec and see what happens.

BlueBear · Jan 10, 2007

A fellow on CB . com uses the GH 3 part in coco and throws his plants in flower as soon as roots poke threw the RW and gets a zip per plant like clock work. I picked up the 3 part tonight to folow some of his techs. I would think about a coco nute, but if the 3 part works for me I wil stick with it since my local store caries it.
Adieu

NPK · Jan 10, 2007

GroNut, I helped a friend trim some Urkles that were grown in two-gallon pots of coco, and the herb was amazing: big, beautiful, rock-hard buds, and relatively easy to trim, too. I'm sure those plants yielded at least three ounces each.

I'm hand-watering right now but want to switch to a recirculating setup when funds allow. Would you mind sharing some of the details around your system? Plants per table, pump strength, etc.?

gaiusmarius · Jan 10, 2007

GroNut, it is true that the coco can store a lot of salts before they start to cause problems, but you still might want to do a flush with plain water once in a while, just to be sure your coco doesn't get too hot.

a good indicator of the coco ec level can be got from measuring the run off. by keeping the run off from getting too much higher then what you are giving them, you insure the plants will stay healthy with no salt build up able to occur.

acidblue · Jan 11, 2007

anyone use the Fox Farm brand in Coco?
My local store was out of PBP-don't carry CANA- so I bought some
Fox farm grow big.
Haven't tried them yet still got some PBP left.
But i'm getting low.

Guest · Jan 11, 2007

NPK said:
GroNut, I'm hand-watering right now but want to switch to a recirculating setup when funds allow. Would you mind sharing some of the details around your system? Plants per table, pump strength, etc.?

Sure man, it's really easy :joint:

I have my pots sittin on e&f trays which are a couple inches higher than the the top of the rez. I use a 800gph mag drive pump for 27 plant sites, 9 plants per 1000hps, open 1/4" feed lines with no drippers. I feed twice a day for approx 6 mins each time. the runoff just runs back to the rez. the buckets are 3.5 gal and I'd guess they are gettin a half galllon at each feeding. it's very simple. Easier than drain-to-waste cause the amount of water each bucket gets is less crititcal as none is wasted. the bigger rez the less maintenace required so keep that in mind.

Thanks Gauis.. I am super stoked right now.. the plants are lookin great and droppin the ppms a lil at a time. It took me a few tries but I have them dialed now and you know how rewarding it feels when you get em dialed in :woohoo:

thanks a lot bro.
peace :wave:

NPK · Jan 11, 2007

Thanks man, that sounds very straightforward. I want to go the no-dripper route, too...it seems like they'd just present additional clogging opportunities.

vta · Jan 11, 2007

gaiusmarius said:
GroNut, it is true that the coco can store a lot of salts before they start to cause problems, but you still might want to do a flush with plain water once in a while, just to be sure your coco doesn't get too hot.

a good indicator of the coco ec level can be got from measuring the run off. by keeping the run off from getting too much higher then what you are giving them, you insure the plants will stay healthy with no salt build up able to occur.

Whenever it was time to change out the res, I would just refill with R/O and a little Clearex and run that for a day...then back to FN.

Guest · Jan 11, 2007

NPK- that's how I look at it too. the lines closest to the pump get just a tad more flow but I don't think it's much of an issue. peace

What's up vta.. good to see ya. thanks for the tip.

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