I've posted a grow log (long since abandoned) and a mushroom log but since then have mostly posted pics just on the midwest grower's thread in my sig. But I've been refining my growing technique and decided now is the time to try a proper grow log.
The situation: A 3x3 tent with a 400w MH in a horizontal hood and a 4x4 tent with a 600w HPS hanging vertically.
Medium: Coco amended with perlite and vermiculate. I use the compressed bricks from GH; for each brick I'd say I add in at least 12 cups of perlite and 3 cups of vermiculite. That mix gives me just about 6 gallons of medium, which is enough to fill 3...
Containers: 2 gallon Smartpots, those pots made out of strong fabric which airprunes your roots. This feature plus the coco will sustain large plants, 3-4 footers, so long as they are properly...
Irrigation: Tropf-Blumats, the Patio and Deck kit. The blumats are austrian made gravity fed driplines controlled by ceramic cones buried in the medium. The cones sense the dryness of the surrounding medium and when it gets dry, they open up the driplines to let water through. When the medium is saturated, they close up and the driplines stop.
This is the second time I'm running these blumats and they work well if you dont have complications. My last harvest I had blumats in 3 gallon plastic containers of my coco mix, and I removed some rootballs after letting them dry for weeks. The bottom of each rootball was a brown, spongy mass in the exact shape of the container. I took that as a sign of pretty good root growth, as well as coco's amazing ability to retain water.
Nutes: .7 to 1 tsp Maxibloom, 3-5ml Calmag per gallon of water. Ph down to 5.5 to 6.0.
My water is Chicago tap water. I've read the water report and it has mild alkalinity, about 100 ppm. It's ok to use for growing but i think it might raise ph over time; with Coco, which is hydro, I need to ph down to 6 or below for best results. Nute lockout occurs at ph 6.5 or above. Ime.
Also, I've found out that coco likes to hold onto calcium; i thought my chicago tap water would add extra calcium but I was having slow growth/lockout issues until I started using a Calmag additive. I'm using Botanicare's calmag but I'm sure any of them would have worked for me.
The Maxi has cal and mag in it and Ive heard of growers using it successfully without any additives in coco. I may try to phase it out down the road but for now the plants really like the regimen so why fix something that isnt broke?
So the Maxi and calmag are my base nutes. My last res I mixed 14 gallons of tap with 9tsp of MaxiB, 9tsp of Calmag, ph downed to 5.5. The EC on my Milwaukee pen came out to 1.5, which is about 750ppm.
This feeding regimen is on the light side. I supplement feedings every 3-4 days. I mix up a gallon jug of whatever amendments (bloom boosters, silicon, etc) or other ferts that I think it needs and usually give each plant 1-2 cups of the mix.
This is pic of the flowering tent. Because of the angle its hard to tell but theres 7 plants in there. Some of them, especially the one in the back, show ph lockout and calmag deficiency and will never really fully recover unless i veg them out a long time. They should still produce some bud though, just not as much as they should have.
This is a pic of the veg tent, which has not suffered from the ph and calmag issues and are growing very well.
The situation: A 3x3 tent with a 400w MH in a horizontal hood and a 4x4 tent with a 600w HPS hanging vertically.
Medium: Coco amended with perlite and vermiculate. I use the compressed bricks from GH; for each brick I'd say I add in at least 12 cups of perlite and 3 cups of vermiculite. That mix gives me just about 6 gallons of medium, which is enough to fill 3...
Containers: 2 gallon Smartpots, those pots made out of strong fabric which airprunes your roots. This feature plus the coco will sustain large plants, 3-4 footers, so long as they are properly...
Irrigation: Tropf-Blumats, the Patio and Deck kit. The blumats are austrian made gravity fed driplines controlled by ceramic cones buried in the medium. The cones sense the dryness of the surrounding medium and when it gets dry, they open up the driplines to let water through. When the medium is saturated, they close up and the driplines stop.
This is the second time I'm running these blumats and they work well if you dont have complications. My last harvest I had blumats in 3 gallon plastic containers of my coco mix, and I removed some rootballs after letting them dry for weeks. The bottom of each rootball was a brown, spongy mass in the exact shape of the container. I took that as a sign of pretty good root growth, as well as coco's amazing ability to retain water.
Nutes: .7 to 1 tsp Maxibloom, 3-5ml Calmag per gallon of water. Ph down to 5.5 to 6.0.
My water is Chicago tap water. I've read the water report and it has mild alkalinity, about 100 ppm. It's ok to use for growing but i think it might raise ph over time; with Coco, which is hydro, I need to ph down to 6 or below for best results. Nute lockout occurs at ph 6.5 or above. Ime.
Also, I've found out that coco likes to hold onto calcium; i thought my chicago tap water would add extra calcium but I was having slow growth/lockout issues until I started using a Calmag additive. I'm using Botanicare's calmag but I'm sure any of them would have worked for me.
The Maxi has cal and mag in it and Ive heard of growers using it successfully without any additives in coco. I may try to phase it out down the road but for now the plants really like the regimen so why fix something that isnt broke?
So the Maxi and calmag are my base nutes. My last res I mixed 14 gallons of tap with 9tsp of MaxiB, 9tsp of Calmag, ph downed to 5.5. The EC on my Milwaukee pen came out to 1.5, which is about 750ppm.
This feeding regimen is on the light side. I supplement feedings every 3-4 days. I mix up a gallon jug of whatever amendments (bloom boosters, silicon, etc) or other ferts that I think it needs and usually give each plant 1-2 cups of the mix.
This is pic of the flowering tent. Because of the angle its hard to tell but theres 7 plants in there. Some of them, especially the one in the back, show ph lockout and calmag deficiency and will never really fully recover unless i veg them out a long time. They should still produce some bud though, just not as much as they should have.
This is a pic of the veg tent, which has not suffered from the ph and calmag issues and are growing very well.