Good job rinsing it out, most people dont do that.
Ase's Perpetual Fun With Coco
Seaweed Farmz
New Member
Nice thorough washing of the coco there Ase. I usually hydrate all my Coco to a workable consistency fill my Coco pots then run gallons of water through it to wash out the salt. Then I saturate it with pH water and calmag I'd use rapid root too if I had more of it but I use it for the first 3 weeks of veg so it's basically there anyways.Transplant
I decided to start with some new coco for these girls so I took pictures of my process of rinsing, charging and then transplanting. I am lucky to have a huge drain table to do this in but big rubber or plastic storage bins or garbage cans work as well. First I take the dry coco brick and add a bunch of regular tapwater.
I then take a strainer for vegetables and quickly strain some of the moisture out. It is still pretty wet at this point but the water I dump is amber and full of dust and sand. I strain them by taking a small bucket and flipping it upside down and placing it in a larger bucket. I then put the strainer in there and dump the wet coco into it. I use another strainer to push down and it does the job pretty well.
I then made a batch of 1-1-1 N-P-K nutrients at 400ppm (6.2 PH) with 200ppm being cal-mag. I also added 1 Ml/Gal of Rapidstart. I dumped that into the buckets of coco and they get soaked again. I let that sit for an hour and then strained it, this time way slower and straining more moisture out then the quick strain before. Here they are getting charged before straining.
After rinsing the hydroton I put a 1 inch layer into the bottom of the airpot and then started filling coco on top. On the last layer I put an empty pot that is as big as the ones the babies are in and then pull it out. It creates a perfect hole for the young plants to go in. I sprinkled Great White Mycorrhizae in the hole. I then got each plant, held the stem between my middle and index finger and lightly squeezed the outside of the small pot until the plant slides out. I then sprinkle a little more Great White on the roots directly and flip into the premade hole as gently as possible.
The girls when they were done. Had great, healthy, white roots on all of them. I think I did it without causing hardly any stress so I do not expect any delay. Once I see aggressive veg growth I will top them. Likely sometime in the next 4-6 days.
DobeWan
Well-Known Member
Ase, do you have the option of prepared coco and choose the brick form? Or is the prepared coco not an option? I've been using the bagged Mo'Koko available here, just curious if there's a reason why I should choose bricks over it. I still pre water my coco with nutes like you do before transplant.
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- #664
I do have that option. There is a really cool hydro store a few minutes from my house. It is like a small warehouse and has almost anything you could want to grow, both indoor and outdoor. However, I just get the bricks sent via Amazon and do it this way. I can find bags of the prepared stuff online too but it's just easier to ship it this way. If I thought I remembered right the bricks are cheaper too but I might be wrong there.
From what little research I did about it, it seemed that once it's all properly washed it all ends up about the same. I don't think it matters one bit. I would still wash it either way and then charge it with nutes. You just never know and I don't trust any tags saying its ready to use with coco. I want to know for sure that it's washed properly and the only way to do that is to do it myself. The plants are most fragile in the beginning and I don't want any struggle and unwashed coco can cause that. I'm probably being overcautious here but I feel like this is a stage where I'm not risking anything.
I always flush new coco and charge it with 1/4 strength nutes. Also run a butt load of calmag through your new coco. New coco will bind calcium so you want the coco to already have bound up all the calcium it can hold. That way when you add calmag you know exactly how much is available to your plants. If you pay attention a lot of coco growers have calmag issues early on because the calmag they add is being locked up by the coco. Eventually the coco is saturated and the problem clears up but they have no idea why.
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- #666
Flower 25 - Veg Day 13
All of the veg girls have bounced back from their transplants. The Lemon Venom didn't skip a beat and just kept going steady. The Cinderella 99 as well and she has finally caught up to everyone. The Ice is doing well also. The Jock Horror is finally coming around but looked a little wilted yesterday compared to the others. The Jock Horror had the best root ball of the 4 so I thought it would take right off but it's been the slowest. Today looked a little better and maybe the coco it was put in was a little too moist.
The little Lost Coast OG is popping hairs now and is going to be pretty small.
The Purple's are amazing. Still no signs of any issues and starting to noticeably get thicker. The Purple Envy just keeps amazing me. Going to stack incredibly well.
The Purple Kush was a surprise for me today. It stretched a lot and I was beginning to think it might not stack and have a lot of gaps. She's really thickening up though and I am beginning to think I was wrong. Pleasant surprise.
All of the veg girls have bounced back from their transplants. The Lemon Venom didn't skip a beat and just kept going steady. The Cinderella 99 as well and she has finally caught up to everyone. The Ice is doing well also. The Jock Horror is finally coming around but looked a little wilted yesterday compared to the others. The Jock Horror had the best root ball of the 4 so I thought it would take right off but it's been the slowest. Today looked a little better and maybe the coco it was put in was a little too moist.
The little Lost Coast OG is popping hairs now and is going to be pretty small.
The Purple's are amazing. Still no signs of any issues and starting to noticeably get thicker. The Purple Envy just keeps amazing me. Going to stack incredibly well.
The Purple Kush was a surprise for me today. It stretched a lot and I was beginning to think it might not stack and have a lot of gaps. She's really thickening up though and I am beginning to think I was wrong. Pleasant surprise.
GROWant
Well-Known Member
I agree. When using coco definitely make sure you get some calmag in there. Especially if you are using an RO or filtered water
DobeWan
Well-Known Member
Ulga indeed!
Are you going to go for couchlock with the PK, Ase? PK is one strain in which I'm well versed - prior to entering the medical system it was the premium strain I could most easily find, and it was the first strain that helped me with my stomach issues, so I've had it a lot over the years. I find a powerful PK gives me a strong physical high but doesn't have a narcotic effect like, say, a Hindu Kush. It doesn't make me want to go to bed on its own, but will let me sleep if I want to. I hope you enjoy it, it has a special place for me and I'm sure I'll grow it in time.
Are you going to go for couchlock with the PK, Ase? PK is one strain in which I'm well versed - prior to entering the medical system it was the premium strain I could most easily find, and it was the first strain that helped me with my stomach issues, so I've had it a lot over the years. I find a powerful PK gives me a strong physical high but doesn't have a narcotic effect like, say, a Hindu Kush. It doesn't make me want to go to bed on its own, but will let me sleep if I want to. I hope you enjoy it, it has a special place for me and I'm sure I'll grow it in time.
Suntana
Well-Known Member
Hard to see Ase does the lost coast have buttons on her?
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- #670
I expected to have similar effects to what you are describing. It is turning out great and I can't wait to try it out. I am not too familiar with Purple Kush so I'm looking forward to it.
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- #671
Very hard to see but little budsights are forming. My grow area is pretty dark with minimal real light so I mostly have to snap picture with the flash on. If i get really close you can't see hardly anything. I always have trouble taking pics at this stage. It is about the size of the Gorilla Glue Auto I had that one time. That got me about an ounce.
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- #672
Welcome to my journal guys! The Lemon Venom that you have interest in is doing probably the best right now.
For those of you that don't know, GROWant is a new light sponsor to 420 Magazine based out of Florida, USA. They have communication and customer service like Gorilla Seeds do. I cannot vouch for their product as I haven't grown with their lights but if I was going to purchase a light I would start by talking to their friendly staff. Either way it is always great to expand the community and sponsors, especially good sponsors.
Suntana
Well-Known Member
GROWant ., nice to meet you, thanks for the Intro Ase.
Annabanana
Well-Known Member
Your plants are looking as healthy and happy as usual, Ase! Respect.
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- #675
Thanks Anna. Both the Purples are blowing me away. Really focused on the Veg girls and not making any mistakes with this group. I want 4 plants that look like the Purples this next time. If I can do that maybe I can finally hit my 1 lb in a 4x4' goal.
Thanks all for the info about washing Coco and charging with nutes! I'm pretty sure I had calmag probs at the beginning but only just now did I understand why! Thanks again
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- #677
Thanks all for the info about washing Coco and charging with nutes! I'm pretty sure I had calmag probs at the beginning but only just now did I understand why! Thanks again
Yeah I had the same issue with my first plants in coco. All I knew was that I wanted to try coco but I was doing 1/2 strength off the bottle nutes and didn't even really know what N-P-K was. I knew I needed cal-mag but didn't know why either. It's essential in coco and seems to be the #1 problem. The #2 problem is not charging coco when transplanting and the plants slow way down until the coco gets fed a few times. Same concept.
You're always welcome for the info, now put it to good use! Btw I am headed to your journal to take a look. Hope you don't mind!
Much Respect! Learning easier now that I'm researching your words. Eventually I'll get there but this broken brain keeps me rereading in the meantime.
Ase, do you think organic nutrients give lower yields yet better quality?
Ase, do you think organic nutrients give lower yields yet better quality?
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- #679
Ahhh, the question that never seems to really have a definitive answer does it? I've done a ton of research on this and here is what I've come up with. Let me tell you in advance that I've never grow with all organic so my answer is purely based on what I've read and my experience with non-organics.
I've always used GH 3 part series. I used soil for my first grow and liked it but had a ton of bugs and constantly had to deal with that. I followed TheBlaze at the time and he was growing in coco. Funny now he is back in soil and I'm the one in coco. Either way he grew with General Hydroponics and I had seen quite a few others use their nutrients with great results. My first grow in coco+perlite and GH nutes was just with the 3 base nutes and cal-mag. I used the bottled nute recommendation and cut it in half. Weed turned out pretty good and I had good sized plants. A couple weeks into flower on the 2nd grow I did a blitz of research on nutrients schedules and bought bloom enhancers and started changing my ratios weekly and adding Floralicious+ and Unsulphered Molasses. I also was excited at the way my plants looked and bought gallon jugs of each of the 3 part series. Basically all that just to say I've grown with the same stuff my whole time. I figured I get great results so why change it so now I am using it up. I would like to try something different for fun though but I feel obligated to use it up first.
I have the full Dutch Master (420Mag sponsor) line for coco that I won in the Plant of the Month for May contest. I need to sit down and do the math to figure out how close their schedule is to mine and adjust some of their ratios to suit mine and then I will give it a shot. I am looking forward to trying something different and seeing if I get a different result. However my research has basically proven that it's all the same and you just need to know how much of it and when to get the amounts as other lines. Then I will have at least a comparison to go off of for synthetic nutes.
After that I'd love to do an organic grow just to try it out. I've heard all sorts of things about organic growing but I've seen very little on organic growing with coco. I do think if you use all authentic ingredients (this is my theory with cooking too) that you are giving yourself the highest ceiling for quality. With that being said we know in farming that the best fruit isn't always the best yielding. I think the same concepts apply to weed. However, in the end I do not believe it makes that big of a difference in either quality of quantity if that makes sense? Maybe this year I will try it out and test my theory but I don't think it's a game changer.
I've always said light and environment are the two most important factors in growing. I'll throw in grower experience as a close 3rd. Nutes are not in my top 3.
That statement makes so much sense. So I have the proper light, I have the proper environment, I have the proper growing medium and I am still happy with my first harvest under my new light. I just didn't want to chase the dream of huuuge buds while growing 100% organic if it's not logically possible from a novice pov.
I can accept my yields could be smaller because I'm so happy with the quality of what I've made. You have so much insight, I kinda asked you a holy grail question, but I looove learning from others' experiences. Soaking it up like the sunshine. Thank you for such a detailed reply. I'm excited that I'm understanding broader concepts.