Let's talk coco slabs with drippers

[yts farmer]

cheers for the info bubeast.

when i first saw the odorsok at my hydro shop i heard 2 of the blokes talking about them and 1 said to the other that he couldnt believe that the owner had orderd them.didnt question him on them or anything but thought they looked good and are very lightweight(nice and easy getting it home as it comes flat pack)but wondered how good a job it would do because of the thinness of the material.

will be intresting to see how long they stay effective for as opposed to a traditional c/f.

now youve said they work well i might get 1 for my grow tent.

 

[meduser180056]

Great thread...

Has me seriously thinking about switching to Coco slabs.

It seem like the canna slabs are sized for 600 watt grows being that they are a meter long and all.

My question is how many slabs would be optimal for a 4x4 space with a 1000W?

Also how many plants per slab?

 

[meduser180056]

Anyone Home?

 

[gaiusmarius]

i like to use 4 plants per slab, but thats because i like to keep my veg phase short. in a 4 foot by 4 foot space you would use 5 slabs. you can only plant 2 or 3 plants per slab and top them to fill the space. or you can use 5plants per slab and keep your veg phase even shorter. a lot will depend on your strain too. some stretch 3 to 4 times in the flowering phase, while an indica dom. plant might barely double up in size. to get yourself the best chance of good yield numbers, you should use 600 watts for approx 1,20 by 1.20 meters, depending on your reflector. my reflectors for eg. are made to light up a maximum foot print of 1 meter by 1.50 meter. concentrate the light too much and it becomes difficult to get good gpw numbers, dilute the light too much and you will waste too much time and energy on small runty plants. the right balance is every thing.

 

[meduser180056]

Thanks for info.

I don't have a 600.

But I do have a 1000W light so I'll be configuring this slab set up for a 4x4 space.

So 5 slabs per 1000W?

I thought I would need more like 10. How many slabs do you have under a 600?

Also the strain I'm using is Indica dominant with practically zero stretch so I'm pretty sure I could go 5 per slab from what your describing.

Thanks for the help!

 

[meduser180056]

After my clones root in rockwool what's the next step?

I'm rooting the clones in those lil tiny rockwool cubes.

Should I transfer them to larger RW cubes once they show roots or can they go in the slabs just like that?

 

[gaiusmarius]

t is best to transfer them to larger cubes first, keep them in those cubes until the roots are growing out of the bottom, then plant them on the coco. like this you only need a few more days of veg phase before you can 12/12 them if it's a sog grow that is.

 

[gaiusmarius]

well the reason i said 5 slabs is because of the space you quote 4 foot by 4 foot. this is aprox. 120cm by 120cm in that space you should use no more the 6 slabs or maybe 7. i use 5 slabs per 1 meter by 1 meter so the extra 20 cm should allow you to add another 2 slabs max.

i personally love growing on slabs, but there are things to be said for pots of coco. specially the fact that you can move the plants around to let them get the most from the light. smaller plants in the center and bigger ones around the edges.

 

[meduser180056]

Right on now I got an idea for how many slabs I"ll need. I'll go for 6 or 7.

I gotta build some tables soon.

I hear ya about being able to move pots around and I even thought about just doing a drip into coco pots, but the slabs look so easy and convenient.

One of the main reasons I wanna try the slabs is you don't have to fill up pots for transplants etc.

Right now I handwater plants in Pro-mix. Lotta transplanting and a lotta watering.
With coco slabs those two chores should get a lot easier.

Peace

 

[gaiusmarius]

one of the tricks with slabs is to preveg the plants in to bigger rw cubes. in that time the faster plants will show the fact, meaning that, when they all have roots poking out of the cubes you will be able to judge which plant should be placed where on the table. you want to put the smallest clones right under the lamps and slowly let them get bigger till the edges which you use for the largest clones. or for the stretchy strains if you do multi strain, which i wouldn't, not to start with.

 

[meduser180056]

What size RW cube do you recommend for the pre-veg? Do you do this pre-veg stage with floros or under the big lights?

I'm only doing one strain, but I know what ya mean about slow growers. Sounds like a good enough method to get an even canopy.

Actually setting up the drip is the most confusing part to me since I've never done hydro style at all. I'll probably need a lil help when it comes time for that.

 

[yts farmer]

3 or 4inch will be sufficient.peace

 

[gaiusmarius]

the easiest thing to do for a drip system, is to go to a green house or grow supplier. and let them show you the drip systems they have. they don't all work the same way and you need to buy your pump with the specs of the drip set up in mind. in the end putting it together looks more complicated then it really is.

you need a pump, then a piece that connects your pump to a inline particle filter, then comes a one way valve, after that you need a translating piece from the one way valve to the type of main hose you will use. now lead the water to the table and down the middle with the main hose and what ever corner or junction pieces you need. ending the line with an end piece or stopper. with most systems you take a hole puncher and punch holes in the main line where you need them adding the drip lines that go to each plant.

if you are doing it with just a few plants, then you can use that see through hose and a small pond pump using junction pieces to take the water line to each plant.

peace

 

[humble1]

thank you gaius for showing us all how easy it can be playing with our oversized lego sets

what about using 1/2 gal grow bags filled w/coco as an intermediary rather than rw cubes?

 

[gaiusmarius]

sure man, i have been wanting to use pots of coco instead of the RW cubes for a while now. but i never seem to have the time when the point comes and end up going for the easy solution, lol. rw cubes are ready to go, no mess with filling pots of coco etc. but on the other hand the rock wool is pretty horrible stuff. just seems to work so damn well for the pre rooting stage.

basically it's always good to go step by step with the transplants. don't add a new clone directly to a 3 gallon pot of coco. always do it step by step, let the plant fill each new pot with a healthy network of roots, before you transplant to the next size. the last transplant should be no latter then a few days before you switch to 12/12. once you are flowering, it's too late to transplant.

 

[humble1]

one more for the road:
i've got my babies transplanted into their 1/2 gal bags with a coco/perlite mix.
one 6x3 and one 3x3 under 600s
what veg nutrient should i use. i'll be running monkey juice in bloom, but i heard their grow has too much ammonia.
could try a small canna batch or floranovagrow or progrow(botanicare)
anybody?
bueller?
bueller?

 

[gaiusmarius]

vegging is easy, use what ever veg nutes you have. canna coco A+B does work for both veg and flower in a very reliable fashion. hesi coco A+B is good shit too, then there is the nutes truecannablis told me about recently. also great coco nutes. of course there is the cns 17 veg formula which also does the job.

when it comes to flowering, i'm a great fan of canna a+b personally, but i have heard good things about the monkey juice too so it should be interesting. hope you do a thread.

 

[humble1]

i'd love to do a thread, i just need a secure unrelated location to upload my pix. i'd do it at the library but mine has a time limit.

 

[alih92]

In this picture:http://www.icmag.com/gallery/data/500/55892.JPG
there are wires coming out of the drippers... where are they going into a multihead nozzle, tees, or separate pumps?

 

[yts farmer]

gaiusmarius: www.growell.co.uk take a look at their 25mm dripper setups.do you think those 12 topspins are any good or have you seen these before and do you know if there any good??