Hey all

This is my first grow journal. This is also my first coco grow. I'm excited about using this new medium. I have experience with soiless and hempys with pretty good success, but from all the threads I have read about coco, I feel this just might be my new medium of choice.

You are all welcome to join me on my journey to Cocoland. If all goes well, I may not come back.

I just received my beans in the mail. I found a great site that sells single seeds, so I purchased a few to check it out. It only took a week to get them. I was pretty impressed.

I bought;
Og kush- Reserva Privada
Jack flash#5- Sensi seeds
Bubba kush- Green house
Tangerine dream- Barney's farm



This grow I'm trying the Tangerine Dream




I currently have some LA Confidential and Ice Cream at different stages using hempy buckets with perlite/ vermiculite mix. I love the ease and growth rate of the hempy since you hand water like soil but it acts like passive hydro with a mini reservoir.

I think the coco will improve the growth rate as well as the smell and taste. Word is that coco will increase the stickiness of the bud compared to perlite/ vermiculite.

I'm using compressed coco, which I prepare by breaking up into a bucket with holes in the bottom. Then rinse with distilled water to make sure all the salts are washed out. Apparently today's coco coir is much cleaner than it used to be.



Before I use the coco, I "charge" it with a low nute and calmag solution.

The Hempy bucket

Once my seedling is big enough I will transplant her into a 1 gallon hempy bucket. I drill a 1/4" hole 2 inches up from the bottom of bucket and fill it with perlite up to the hole, then straight coco (I'm considering 75/25% coco/perlite mix) for the rest.




I will eventually move up to a 3 gallon hempy bucket about a week before flipping to 12/12 to give the plant some time to recover.
Moving up allows roots to grow during the first couple of weeks of flower before root growth tapers off.

The rez on the bottom allows for less frequent watering.
It's important to water with nutes every feeding, cause even tho it looks like soil grow it really is soiless and should be treated like hydro. When I first transplant, I water every day until the roots hit the rez. You can tell this because growth really takes off.

I then will water every 1-2 days depending on the plants needs. I tell by weight. If the pot feels about half heavy, I'll feed her. Apparently it's hard to overwater coco. I will water until I see it start to runoff.
Coco drains very well so you should see about 10-20% runoff
The great thing about hempys is that once you move up to 3 gallon buckets you can get away with a feeding every couple of days as compared to 1-2 times a day with regular drain to waste.

The scrog



I only have 8 sq ft of area and 5 ft of height to flower so the 400 hps and screen allow for great yields in such a small area. I get 50 watts/ft coverage and my light can get as close as 7-9 inches above the canopy. I found that chicken wire with 2x3" holes work great for this use. I try to keep the screen about 8" above the top of the bucket for easy access for watering. I try to keep the light around 9" above the canopy, raising it as required.

My biggest challenge is the heat. I find that below the canopy the temp stays around 75-78 degrees, but above can get into the mid to high 90's. The rootzone stays fine, but it has to have some effect on the growth.

I either top or lst my plants while in veg and let them bush out as long as I can, then when I put them under the screen, they fill up about 75% of the holes. This allows room for stretch and training so that every 2x3" hole will be filled which a bud.

I have to say that a "carpet" of buds blooming is quite something to see. Not to mention that every bud is getting optimum light exposure.
I remove all little stalks and growth under the canopy, except for the fan leaves. I let them do their job and will fall off when done.
I'm a firm believer in leaving fan leaves alone. You can tuck the big ones under or cut them in half if they're intruding on bud sites.
Removing all the growth below allows for the energy to be utilized in the bud development.