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Cheeb's 5400w Coco Grow

C

Cheeb

Hey all,

If any of you coco growers ever visit the hydro forums you may have seen my recent attempt at trialing the Sure to Grow Ebb&Grow bucket inserts. I was unable to dial the medium and couldn't stand looking into a room of shitty plants so I scrapped the idea after I was unable to turn things around. If you want more info regarding my thoughts on the STG inserts please visit that thread as I do not want to go into it here.

Fortunately I had 3 giant white widows and 25 unidentified clones which will be taking place in the room....so this is my coco blog. :woohoo:

I have a little experience in coco but not much. I'm typically a Hydroton Ebb&Grower, and got started in growing using SWC/DWC. I've never grown in soil...coco is as close as I've came. Wish me luck!

Currently handwatered, but need to come up with a autowatering system fast. Any tips. Just need something for one grow as I'll be going back to hydro after this..thinking of a CPVC "bar" down the middle w/ 1/4" drip lines from it to the plants...I'd like to shoot for little run off. I've got nothing to catch it besides the pond liner in the room. Any runoff would have to just evaporate.

Any recommendation on drippers (pressure compensated, flag, basket, 1/8 sketti)?
How do I ensure equal flow to each grow bag? recommended pump size?

- -

Room Specs:
5400w (9 600w in Daystar ACs)
12" MAX Venting the Lights
Atami Bcuzz Coco (purple bag)
Runing Sentinel Co2 Generator w/ GreenAir SPC-1 Controller
Nutes - Hesi TNT (veg) and Hesi Coco w/ PK13/14 (bloom)
may toss in some piranha over the next few weeks.

Any comments, tips, ect definately appreciated.

Love this 1st pic - get your sexy on! thats yoyo hangers which didnt work out well enough. was unable to lift the lights as high as I needed so I added the light pole and am using mini-blind style hangers to raise/lower the lights.



The 3 white widow monsters above have been under a T5 for a short period. They've been fed RO water using Hesi TNT, Root Complex, and Hygrozyme every watering. Have never checked the pH on these..but with my RO being 5.8 the nutes prolly knocked it down to around 5.3 or so. They are in 3 gallon smart pots.

The smaller plants are either blueberry for afgan mango (cuts got mixed). They were left in a clone tray off to the side of an HPS for awhile. They are acually much older plants that jut got their break. They've been getting about 500mL every watering consisting of Hesi TNT..sometimes a dash of piranha.

Note - that grey trashcan in the pics is filled with hydroton from a previous hydroton run. I really need to take it out bucket by bucket..damn I'm a lazy F'er. Its heavy stuff and I'm a scrauny dude. :headbange
album.php



Peace
CHEEB :nanana:
 
Mist

Mist

Member
Those plants look great and those 3 in the back are MONSTERS!
Can't wait to see them all flowered out.

GO COCO!!
 
DiscoBiscuit

DiscoBiscuit

weed fiend
Veteran
Great job Cheeb, especially the metal duct between the hoods. Nice touch. Sorry I can't help ya with the irrigation. I have a few ideas but will defer to the pros.
 
C

Cheeb

thanks for the replies guys.

The widows are some monsters.. I was given these 3 as strongly rooted cuts from a friend.. tossed em in some coco and have been giving them HESI nutes. They are loving it..gotta little lanky from being under the T5s crowded..

Liking the hesi nutes..there is NO salt residue with this stuff.. it is a very clean nute. I hope it performs in bloom.

Disco,
While the metal ducting between hoods looks great - I F'd it up. Instead of taking the time and using my screwdriver to tighten all the duct clamps.. I used my drill.
When it got tight it pinched the ducting which created leak. I can hear air getting sucked out in those pinched spots. Makes my co2 generator kick on often..and I'll be sure to throw an ozone generator in the attic for lost smells.

I'll keep the pics coming as things progress.
 
M

*mistress*

Member
Veteran
not fan of automation. hand-watering gets it done for x-xxxx plants, using cheapo back-pack/5 gal sprayer w/ 3-4' wand; especially if only doing 1 run. would not try to config a manifold for 1 season.

just water every other day, until get couple drops of water come out of drainage holes. in those bags, should take all of 10 mins to do entire room - if dont over-water...

in 3-5 gal containers/bags, will only need ~1/3-1/2 gal every other day. if must water daily, would only apply ~24-32oz (max) per day... want oxygen in media; too much water doesnt allow h20 to break down to h & o...

best way to determine if need water is by indv weight of the bag/container w/ plant in it though... can physically measure when + how much to input. plant will tell you by weight (moisture content) held in media & roots.

nice! enjoy your garden!
 
simple green

simple green

Member
Sweet setup you got there....

My first coco run I hand watered but wanted to be able to skip a day or two without concern if needbe....and it's weird...i think the automation is kinda cool :)

I like these basket stake drippers personally....

http://www.horticulturesource.com/product_info.php?products_id=1055

If you want to do a quick easy run you can use 1/2 or 3/4" line and close it in a big ring(s), punch holes in it and stick 1/4" barbs right in them to the 1/4" line. I "Raindrip" makes a little $4 punch to put the perfect size hole into the larger line.... did it and never noticed a leak.

A nicer manifold is picos http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=62654

As far as pump size I could only guess b/c I used timed gravity watering when I automated....
 
rooted

rooted

Member
i would normally run a pair of 1/2" lines through the plants, then open spaghetti lines off that......great for recirculating systems

since you're trying to control runoff, you probably want to use drippers

if you do run open lines a 250gph hydrofarm pump is good for 25 or 30 plants depending on how high the water has to be pumped up

hope that helps, your lab is the ants pants :yes:

:joint:
 
D

dongle69

Looks sweet!
Wishing you success finding an automated watering solution.
The canopy looks like it will fill in fast!
 
C

Cheeb

thanks all!

few more pics.

I decided to take mistress's advice and stick with handwatering. Its a lot more work then I'm used to, but I'm sure I can swing it for 1 crop. It is nice to look into a room with NOTHING but plants..so simple and clean.

1st off - my homemade watering wand. Its basically 3/8" hose ziptied to a plastic broom handle. I then plugged the pump into a little keychain power switcher from the dollar store. I hit on - pump comes on - hit off it turns off. Nice! Done! I can hop from grow bag to grow bag without a whole lot of mess/spilled water. Did have to add a little 1/4" barb fitting to prevent siphon once pump was turned off.



- -

some garden shots - the 25 coco plants are starting to really GO! Tied them down a bit..The larger widows are a bit droopy from being underwatered I assume. I tried to make a little 3 plant dripper w/ open 1/4" line to each widow pot. Not really digging it - I get a lot of runoff before I get a well saturated pot. Maybe in a recirculating setup..I'll be sticking to the broom handle.



- -

Unfortunately I am getting some type of defficiency. The smaller plants are just showing some minor blemishes..the large widows are showing some rust between the veins. Take a look as the pics below and let me know what you think. I'm assuming its cal/mag def since I'm using coco in RO - heard its pretty common. Everything has been getting Hesi TNT Complex @ 20mL per Gal & 6.0 pH. EC unknown as TNT doesnt register correctly on the meter. Any help is greatly appreciated.

small coco plant defs


large widow plant def


Calcium / Magnesium Deficiency?
Would Botanicare Cal/Mag at say 3-5mL per gallon correct this?

pH has been 6.0 for everything. The larger widows may have gotten some lower pH around 5.2 because I added some Ruby Fulvic acid one watering not knowning it dropped pH that much. Havn't checked runoff pH yet. Coco is Atami Bcuzz.



Peace
Cheeb
 
simple green

simple green

Member
Nice idea on the power switcher thing.....I might use one of them on pumps and only water on timers when i'm not going to be around....


Beautiful looking garden you got there!
 
M

*mistress*

Member
Veteran
nice innovation w/ the diy water-wand! :respect:

other members here probably better @ looking @ plants & diagnosing.

those do look like older leaves though. leaves do lose efficiency as they age. here, older leaves that are beyond repair are removed. your new growth looks good; eliminate sickness & let the new shoots gets all distributed energy.

foliar feed of molasses @ 1-3 tsp per 32oz/1 liter, ph 7.0+ should provide general tonic of mg, ca, fe, k & b1...
 
Mist

Mist

Member
All the plants are looking pretty good in the coco. Sorry to hear you are having deficencies with those nutes. Have you done an entire grow with them yet?
A easy fix for an Mg deficency is Epsom Salts added to your watering schedule. A low but effective rate is 1tblspn for every 5 gallons of water/nutrient.
I really like the DIY equipment too. I love to build little devices like your remote controlled waterer.
 
C

Cheeb

Thanks for the replies.

Sorry to hear you are having deficencies with those nutes. Have you done an entire grow with them yet?
Click to expand...

I've never grown using Hesi nutrients - and actually have only grown a few single coco plants to harvest..and that was when I was younger. I believe I used 280ppm tap water w/ Lucas formula and was blessed with health.

I'm out of my element here with coco & these nutes. I normally go lucas w/RO in Ebb&Gro buckets in this room.

I'm sure it'll work out.
Cant wait to start flowering.

- Cheeb
 
C

Cheeb

bored/insomniac so here goes an update for anyone interested..

Needed to cut off the window ac as its getting chiller out now..started to look a little funny with a window banger running near the end of sept. (at least in my parts). Because I'm now exhausting the room I had to turn off the co2 burner for now. I'm sure the ladies hate me for that. Going from 1500ppm to 500-600 or so cant be easy. Hopefully come winter I may be able to cordinate the exhaust cycle to allow me to run a little gas.

Also added Cal-Mag round ' 3-5 mL per gallon.
Today marks the 1st sunrise of their 1st 12hr rest. Day 1 Flower

Larger widows in the back still arn't 100% (flushed em), but they are showing signs of improvement.

picture.php
picture.php




- -
How I keep up with the clean water.
 
Mist

Mist

Member
Those coco plants look like you got them dialed in pretty good. I know about the bored insomniac thing too, LOL!
Nice that you are getting some cold weather, bastart! It was a nice chilly 94 here yesterday. But cooler weather is coming on my end too and I can't wait to be able to let them cool off at night during lights out. Really brings out the color and fattens them up when they can get down to 40-45 at night.
 
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