New to Coco - On the right path?

[2Lazy]

EDIT: 4/18 - - Ironically, much of this first post is not how I completed my grow. Keep reading

Hey Everyone! I'm new to this forum, but not forums in general, and this is definitely the best place for information. I've read through the stickies and a few journals and I feel like I have a pretty good idea of how to grow with coco successfully my first time. I'm making my purchase Friday and was hoping I could get input as to how on track I am.

I have a 2x4 tent and a 400w system with an eye hortilux blue MH for veg and a standard HPS for flowering. RO water <100 ppm. This is my sixth grow, but my first without soil. This time around I'm growing several different strains to see how they all react to this medium.

I am growing Three (G13 x Hash plant x Big bud), Two (Sleestack x Skunk), Two (LA Conf x Skunk), Two (Kandy Kush x Skunk), Two (Kushberry x Skunk), Two (OG18 x Skunk), One (Williams Wonder x ???), One (G13 x ???) and One (Erkle x ???). They're germinating in rock wool cubes right now.

I'm concerned about drowning, so I'm going to mix in a drainage medium, probably hydroton as it absorbs less than perlite. I'll get Canna's Coco because I have access to it and I've read it's the best available.

Nutrients... They are still up for debate but here is where I'm leaning and why.

I want to use Advanced Nutrients Sensi two part for Veg. I've seen two journals and one testimonial that have convinced me these nutrients offer an increase in veg growth.

Canna and the modified Lucas (H3ad) formula are my other options, and I know I should keep it simple, but I'm finding the appeal of Sensi Grow and Bloom irresistible, like MSG. I'd go Canna because it's really inexpensive to get started with and I like that it contains fulvic acid and humus in the A & B. But when it comes down to it, they are both two part systems, and will accomplish essentially the same effect.

To supplement the grow I'll use Canna's Rhizotonic and Cannazym when I get an idea of my ppm levels with the Sensi. I'm hoping Cal-Mag won't be needed in addition, but I'll have to wait and see there. I'm under the impression that adding calcium causes more issues than it solves and that its better to flush and start over with the right pH.

Flowering nutrients is a few weeks off so I haven't set anything in stone. I could continue with AN sensi bloom two part and Bud Blood, maybe with some Canna PK 13/14 and Cannaboost for the end. Then again, I could switch it up and just go with General Hydroponics and the modified Lucas if I don't like what I see.

I'd rather get it right from the get go if you know what I mean.

I feel like House and Garden, Canna, and GH all have followers, so it just doesn't totally matter so long as I stick to a program and follow it. Keep my ppm in range, and my pH monitored and it should be hard to fail.

I'll take any input, if you think Sensi Grow two part in coco is fine, please let me know.

 

[Vegan]

I have a 2x4 tent ...I am growing Three (G13 x Hash plant x Big bud), Two (Sleestack x Skunk), Two (LA Conf x Skunk), Two (Kandy Kush x Skunk), Two (Kushberry x Skunk), Two (OG18 x Skunk), One (Williams Wonder x ???), One (G13 x ???) and One (Erkle x ???). They're germinating in rock wool cubes right now.

I'll take any input, if you think Sensi Grow two part in coco is fine, please let me know.

on the nutes depends on how much ya wanna spend,,i got a bit of GH nutes layin around so iused that,,the ol H3ad6/9 ratio it worked fine enough,,didnt like the cns17 ,,sometimes i like to feed micros a little higher,,so a one size fits all is not for me..
holy crap you got fifteen plants in veg,,better flip em early..

 

[2Lazy]

holy crap you got fifteen plants in veg,,better flip em early..

Nah, I've got 15 seeds right now, and not a taproot yet. It's going to take a bit before I know how many I'll be vegging, I don't expect all the seeds to crack. Hopefully I'll manage to keep this whole thing legal with regards to my state, with 12 veg and 6 flowering. Time will tell.

As far as what I'm willing to spend. I'd like to keep it reasonable, but I don't have an issue with spending upwards of $200 for the nutrients for the entire grow.

I figure I'll get back whatever I put in.

 

[2Lazy]

I know I'm new, but I could really use some input fellas.

 

[2Lazy]

Well... I guess this is the wrong place to get advice. 70 views, 1 post. Whatever, grasscity it is.

 

[metal_god69]

Well... I guess this is the wrong place to get advice. 70 views, 1 post. Whatever, grasscity it is.

haha dude.... have some patience!!!

I use AN Connoisseur A+B, SensiZym, Big Bud Liquid, Overdrive, SuperThrive and Botanicare Cal-Mag Plus for my flowering regiment. Plants could not be happier.

This time around i used Botanicare PureBlend Pro Grow, Liquid Karma and Cal-Mag Plus for veg, plants also loved it. But I only saw good things happened after i realized Cal-Mag Plus is needed when using PBP Grow/Bloom as they are very weak in cal/mag/iron, so caution with it.

Again....patience dude good things come to those who wait.

 

[2Lazy]

I've decided to add Cal-Mag plus and Silica Blast to the mix.

 

[Castelvetro]

your adding things before you start, big mistake, keep it simple. see what works, how the plants respond. id recomend 6/9 with flora series or 8ml with floranova. pk boosters are mostly a waste, just up the bloom if running the two part floraseries nutes.

 

[2Lazy]

At this point I've had several days to do some honest footwork down to my local hydro store where they are growing a few kinds of chard, peppers, and tomatoes in their own coco setup. Great advice from the dude at the store, and he showed me the effects of using several different nutrients.

The best thing I think he said was to use Bontanicare's Cal-Mag plus because it contains the iron they'll need. His suggestion was to use it at about 2ml per liter for the first flush, and then about 1ml per liter for the rest of the grow, adding or subtracting based on my run off ppm.

I've also learned enough about cation exchange to say firmly that supplementing Calcium especially in the beginning (I'm using pure RO water) will result in the ideal cation exchange later on. By implementing a gentle flush every two weeks I'm hoping to keep build ups out.

I'm set on the Sensi Grow for veg, guy at the store said it'd work fine, but that I should really consider nutrients designed for coco as they have a little more science behind them.

I'm not going to invest heavy into Sensi Grow A & B; 1 liter of both will cost me about $25 and can last me 4 weeks or so. If I find it unusable or if my plants suffer at all I'm in agreement that just going with tried and true 6/9 rather than getting any more Sensi.

 

[HAPPYTREE]

Sounds like you are on the right track 2lazy.
I am using House and garden (have used FN and canna) for veg and flower.
using botanicare cal mag ,sweet alternating and skipping some feedings
pk booster advanced big bud(powder)

also supplement with liquid kharma(mainly foliar withcal mag) ,roots exelerator and mychorhizae.SP?

I agreee with the store owner stick with the nutes designed for the medium, just easier and should give you the best return on your effort this go around . you can experiment once you see how the mediumworks. Then again its pretty hard to mess em up in veg.

I feeel the key to coco is make sure the ph stays on, dont let it get bone dry and dont over feed(nutrient wise) . make sure the pots runoff.10 %at least

by the way how are you going to feed Ie ebb n flow ,hand water,run to waste , top drip etc etc
what size pots you growing in
I also use canna coco ...but straight up without hydroton or perlite.
HT
PS:Im pretty stoned and food comma-d after xmas dinner but can answer some more ??s if interested.

HT

 

[2Lazy]

Sounds like you are on the right track 2lazy.
I am using House and garden (have used FN and canna) for veg and flower.
using botanicare cal mag ,sweet alternating and skipping some feedings
pk booster advanced big bud(powder)

also supplement with liquid kharma(mainly foliar withcal mag) ,roots exelerator and mychorhizae.SP?

I agreee with the store owner stick with the nutes designed for the medium, just easier and should give you the best return on your effort this go around . you can experiment once you see how the mediumworks. Then again its pretty hard to mess em up in veg.

I feeel the key to coco is make sure the ph stays on, dont let it get bone dry and dont over feed(nutrient wise) . make sure the pots runoff.10 %at least

by the way how are you going to feed Ie ebb n flow ,hand water,run to waste , top drip etc etc
what size pots you growing in
I also use canna coco ...but straight up without hydroton or perlite.
HT
PS:Im pretty stoned and food comma-d after xmas dinner but can answer some more ??s if interested.

HT

Today I went to the store. I decided to go with the Canna Coco A&B set up for simplicity. I also chose Botanicare's Cal-Mag plus as a supplement.

Tonight I soaked up 3 of Botanicare's compressed bricks with a solution of 15ml A and 15ml B with 2 tsp Cal-Mag, and about 1/2 tsp of General Hydroponics pH down per gallon to get the pH appropriately just below 6.

It turns out that the 3 bricks need about 1 gallon of solution each, not 1/2 gallon as recommended. I got about 15 liters of coco out of the 3 bricks for $10 so it definitely wasn't the most economic investment. I have a line on a dozen of them for $25 so that should be a better investment and will fill the remaining planters.

Next Saturday I will begin using Canna's Rhizotonic to encourage the roots, I'll will consider using Liquid Karma. As of now I'm only planning on Silica Blast and Cannazym to round out the vegetative nutrients, but I will give it some research and see if the evidence is behind the snake-oil exterior. Mycorrhizae is also on the consideration list but I think it's suited better for an organic grow.

Thanks for the input. I wish there was better info, I feel like I've read so much, and yet there is so little detail behind quite a bit of fluff. Experience can't be substituted for so I'm just going to learn the hard way.

 

[Calimed]

You will be happy with the canna nutes. Be careful to not make your regime too complicated though with a ton of supps. You may not need cal mag in the bay area when using canna.

 

[Work2much]

Damn, I tried to answer this twice in detail but keep getting kicked off.

My 2 cents, Canna is good, but overpriced.

FNB has the best cost/quality/quantity ratio. Simple one bottle fert. I like Liquid Karma or Flourolicious + as a jack of all trades fix the problem before there is a problem additive. Also, the H&G roots excelerator is outstanding.

The main thing is, don't obsess over the nutes too much, they are all about the same, there's not one out there that really blows them all out of the water. In coco, the initial PH of the coco itself will determine a large part of the grows sucsess.

 

[Work2much]

Also one more thing, I've never had to use Cal/Mag, and I've tried a bunch of different nutes in Canna coco. YMMV

 

[2Lazy]

You will be happy with the canna nutes. Be careful to not make your regime too complicated though with a ton of supps. You may not need cal mag in the bay area when using canna.

I need Cal-Mag+ because I'm using Reverse Osmosis purified water with an EC of 0 to 5 ppm, so it's very clean. I've found my tap water to be disgusting to me, why would my plant like it?

As far as supplements go I have a very good understanding of the plant's biology and feel confident in saying that all the nutrients I've selected are needed.

I chose a chelated 2-part primary nutrient regiment, there were many but I feel I picked a good one. The Cal-Mag+ is an experiment, but the guy at the store showed me some really convincing results with their plants, and as far as I can see no one that has used it online has had anything bad to say about it. I'm using it to aid in the CEC.

Rhizotonic is a given, I'm building the roots. Silica Blast is used to build healthy plant cells and strong stems, and to keep the plants from getting sick. Cannazym is an important solution as it aids the micro-bacterial community and helps break down dead root structures.

The only one that is a maybe is Liquid Karma. I could probably do without it, but I might decide to use it at a low strength if I have $20 lying around.

When I flower I will use the same 2-part chelated primary source, but I will use a blooming agent (Bud Blood) in the beginning, a growth encourager (Gravity) at the end of the flowering stretch, and a carbo loader (Honey ES) throughout most of the bloom to feed the microbacteria and provide a nice sweet scent.

I know a person can grow something with just one bottle of FN, but I'm trying to do this for a long, long time. Growing is going to be a life long passion for me and I'd rater do my experimenting now, 3 years into my growing life and now that I have a complete grip on the process.

Thanks for the input guys! I don't think Canna Coco was very expensive for 1L of both A&B running me about $26 total. $13 per bottle is pretty reasonable in my opinion. Growing indoors isn't cheap! I dunno who spread that rumor This grow is going to run me about $350 in coco and nutrients, and another $500 for equipment like an air cooled hood reflector and a hannah pH/EC/TDS combo meter. Just those two items are $300, then I have to add in the $95 Hortilux MH bulb, 5 gallon smart pots for flowering, and a DIY reservoir/drip controller.

It's all good though, because even if I invest $900 into this grow, and with the $800 I put into the last one, and then add in the $40 a month for power, I still come out WAYYYYY ahead of where I would be purchasing it from a medical dispensary.

 

[!!!]

Put hydroton on the bottom of the pot if coco blocks the drain holes, otherwise it's not needed. Mixing it with coco would be a waste of root space because hydroton is HUGE. Perlite works ok. Straight coco works great too..

 

[Calimed]

I'd like to see your grow journal once u set it up. Good luck with your grow!

 

[robbiedublu]

I was the same as you, long time soil grower and switched to coco a while ago. I kept it simple at first and used only canna. Coco (which requires no flushing, good to use right out of the bag) as well as nutrients. I was and remain very happy with the results. I've grown several crops with just their line of nutes plus cal/mag and now have enough confidence to make small changes, one at a time, here and there. My advice is keep it simple at first and learn. Stick with one brand and see how it goes. I love growing in coco and wish I had made the switch years ago. If you use canna coco right out of the bag you don't need to add anything for drainage either.

 

[northernlightss]

Just a little advice get the giant bale of coco. I get the Botanicare block. It runs me 14.50. It makes 70 liters for about the price you would pay for 20 liters.

As far as drowning, water the newly transplanted seedlings once, until roots start to show through the bottom. The problem most people have with over watering in coco is they do not let the plants establish a solid root system to utilize the coco most efficiently, and end up with root rot. As soon as they are rooted, you can water as much as you want and long as the pots don't sit in standing water. I sometimes water 5 times a day with my 5 and 3 gallon buckets and never ever once over watered. Each pot gets a gallon plus of nute solution. The more water being introduced the more oxygen that is being pulled into the coco.

Use cold water to water, and I even fill my watering container with a waterfall effect from my shower head to let it fall about 5 feet before hitting the water, creating tons of oxygen akin to biobucket theories. Cold water has a higher dissolved oxygen content.

Let your plants root well before soaking them, then treat it like hydro, you will be amazed at the health and speed of the growth. I have a ak99, cindy pheno, in a 5 gallon pot that went from 5" x 5" x 5" to a bush that is 2 feet square, all in three weeks veg. Hundreds of tops. Most days an inch of growth is expected, watch the lights lol.

 

[northernlightss]

Wholesome sweeteners molasses added at every feeding at 5-30 ml per gallon depending on stage of growth, will act as a chelating agent preventing nutrient salt buildup, as well as provide great levels on iron, calcium, and magnesium, along with micro nutrients. Much better than paying hydro store prices for something that does the same thing. I was skeptical about it aswell, but I will never buy another additive again, the taste of my buds is great, along with excellent plant health all through the growing cycle. Try it or another blackstrap molasses, this has the highest levels of nutes, you won't be disappointed.
http://www.wholesomesweeteners.com/brands/Wholesome_Sweeteners/Fair_Trade_Certified_Organic_Blackstrap_Molasses.html