Hey Everyone! About 10 months ago I started a journal with the intention of it being a long, ongoing journal. Even to the point that I thought it would be the last one that I would do no matter if it was one year or ten years later. I was finding doing journals on every grow that I did made for a lot of different journals so I decided to put it all into one. When I made that journal I never anticipated how big it would get. With the 420 Magazine Forums upgrade it switched pages numbers around and it would be very tough for new followers to find the key information that I had listed in the past. Since the forum did a revamp, I decided to do one too. I needed to update some small tweaks in my feed schedule and the way I do things now anyways so this new journal will reflect all that! Not a ton has changed so if you followed me before it will probably be along the same lines. I'm always thankful for the people that follow me and I look forward to seeing some new faces around here. I have always said that if you have any questions, please ask them. Chances are other people have the same questions as you and just wont speak up.
My History
I have been growing now for just under 2 years total. I started with 2 Mars Hydro Reflector 96s and one tent. I grew in soil and I grew all the same strain, Nirvana Aurora Indica. After this grow I decided to give coco a shot because I really liked what
@TheBlaze did in his grows. I had a few hiccups to start but nothing drastic and was using a very basic feed formula, the Lucas Formula. I had good results for my first coco grow but was not thrilled with the quality of the bud. It was good but I felt like I could do better than the Lucas Formula was giving and I was right. I did some research on coco feed schedules and really learned about nutrients and put together my very own schedule. It seems to really work and a few people like
@DobeWan are using it and having really gorgeous plants. I also came up with my own training method called Quadlining. This training method has quite a few people trying it out and having great results. It has landed me 3 Plant of the Months in a row here on 420Magazine. The best part is I was a total rookie when I started growing. Everything I have learned has come from this website and I'm thankful to be able to give back to this awesome community.
Feed Schedule
One of the most frequently asked questions in growing is about nutrients. You could constantly chase your tail trying to find the right way to use nutrients. In my opinion nutrients are necessary but not as important as environment or light. Both environment and light can change the amount of nutrients your plant needs but the nutrients can't say the same about effecting the other two. It is still important to get the nutrients schedule correct but the hard part is everyone's grow area is different, requiring different needs for the plants. Learning about nutrients is something worth doing. It's eye opening. I tried to follow people's schedules and realized I never fully understood what I was giving my plants and at what stages they needed boosts or decreases in certain nutrients.
With that being said I use GH products for now. It's the 3 part series as a base with cal-mag. I run a few additives as well. I might add one or two more to the lineup but am really happy with all these. They are affordable and I get very good results.
Here is my feed schedule. If I decide to veg longer then I will just follow week 5's veg nutrients until ready. With that being said, you have to learn how to read your plants. different strains use different levels of each nutrient. Some of them drink more than others. This is just my rough guide. Currently I really don't use exact measurements anymore to get the perfect ratios. I kind of know if I put certain amounts in what my end PPM will be and I haven't had to use PH up or down in a long time with this schedule. It is almost always right at 6.0.
I also pre-treat any coco that I use with a soaking of 1-1-1 N-P-K and a PPM of around 350 with cal-mag being about 150. Aways pretreat your coco and soak it. Coco is a medium with nothing in it. If you give your plant nothing it will not like it! This is one of the most common problems when transplanting or even from growing the seed from the beginning. The plant needs calcium and it can't get any unless the coco has some sort of nutes loaded into it. I also sprinkle Great White on the roots when I transplant to help the roots not miss a beat and hopefully causing very little stress when transplanting.
I water with nutes everyday and I usually mix up 5 gallons each time and then use that to water for a couple days. In the beginning I try to keep the coco relatively damp and not saturated. I am a firm believer that roots want to go exploring and if they are have enough water then they won't. A larger root mass means a larger plant and more bud potential. I run a drain to waste system by hand feeding but I don't always want to see runoff, in fact most of the time I don't want runoff. In the first weeks of veg I get very little runoff ever. As the plants get larger and enter vigorous veg I start to get runoff every few waterings. After stretch in flower I begin watering twice a day. The first watering I don't want runoff and usually if I give the same amount a while later it will cause just a little runoff or none at all. This happens daily, by now the roots have filled the pot and the plant should be focusing on bud swelling. The biggest key to watering is knowing how heavy your pots are when full saturated and how light they are when dry. You can judge how much each plant is drinking according to that and it's the best way to do so.
Once a week I water to runoff of about 30% just to flush out any buildup of salts. I usually will only water once the next day to keep things from over-saturating. You will not kill your plants by overwatering in coco but you can do damage to the roots if they are constantly soaked. It can also cause algae buildup and bugs love that. The very last two-ish weeks I flush the plants (about 12 days before I want to pull them) and use Florakleen and ph to 6.0. I measure runoff until it is the same as what is coming out and then from there on I water as needed with regular, unPH'd water until the end. The Florakleen breaks down any remaining salts and the water flushes them out. By PH'ing to 6.0 it allows the plant to grab anything else it needs before I lock it out with regular water so it can finish.
The best way to determine how much to water is to pick your whole plant up right after you give it a full watering (with some drainage coming out the bottom). Use that as your gauge for how much the plant needs. I like to keep my plants to where they are asking for water a little bit everyday. The pots are usually pretty light when I pick them up. I noticed in my last grow the saturation of roots happened at the bottom of the pots mainly. I am use Hydroton now to prevent that. My water is a ppm of 34, which is great. I make beer as well and we are known for having some of the best water. In coco it is essential to always keep cal-mag levels at a certain base. Plants in coco use a lot of both. I fill my 5 gallon bucket with water and then add cal-mag until my PPM is 200. After that I add nutes to hit the PPM for the week using the N-P-K ratios listed in the table. These ratios are based on what the plant needs at given points in the 10 week flower lifecycle.
I will focus a lot on quadlining and training when the time comes. The girls I will be training are Chemdawg, Purple Envy, Super Iced Grapefruit and White Rhino. All plants who either won me an award or I've had great results from. I will do a separate post on those later. Thanks to all that come along for the ride this time! To all newer people, please ask questions if you have any!
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