Coco Loco Is An Amended Coco Coir Soil

NickHardy said:
What you gping to use for support? We start with toothpicks then go to BBQ skewers or chopsticks. Others these cool steel U Hoops.

Nick
Click to expand...
I have some plant ties. I haven't really thought about it yet.

I agree. I feel like the stem is pretty beefy. I'm just more disappointed that more seeds haven't broken the soil, but even if they don't, maybe it's a blessing in disguise? If none of the others break, then I have more attention to devote to just one plant, and maybe that'll be better overall for learning.

I think maybe the peat pots are too wet. I've just been holding back on the water all together. IIRC the seeds have all the nutrients they need to get them through for at least a week.
 
1000003147.jpg


1000003150.jpg
 
I think I must have messed something up. I'm sure that seedling should be bigger by now, and I think it's more than bad luck that I had a 80% failure rate with germination. Especially when the seeds are supposed to be good genetics. So I decided next time I'm going to be a bit more precise with things. I ordered a heat mat so that I can keep my water when I germinate at a constant 77 degrees and a heated seedling tray with a dome to keep my medium at a constant 77 degrees and maintain a higher humidity. I also ordered a SpotOn PAR meter so I can get good PAR readings for my lighting. I can think of a few mistakes that I've made in this first run, and I only have myself to blame.

I'm just going to sit back and see where this little lady goes and make the best of it. I've already learned a lot from my mistakes. Hopefully I have better luck in the future.
 
I’m just starting a new journal. Popped my 4 seeds about 2 hours ago.

I’ll walk you through there how I treat mine to grow in Coco Peat (made from the dried insides and flesh of the coconut) The popping method is the one used by one of the legit OG breeders ever. Simon of Serious Seeds. Works great for me. On the slow growth. Its now on the tardy side. But as long as its not too wet you should be fine.

Patience friend!

EDIT:

@VetSmoke85 is about 10 days ahead of you in new grow. An excellent grower - in the first post Day #6 above ground his are taller but not as stout yours. Just different strokes.

VetSmokes ViparSpectra Auto Village

Hi All! Here we are for another collaboration with the always awesome @ViparSpectra. Big thanks to them for providing great lighting for so many of us to try out. If you're looking for quality budget friendly lighting, you really can't go wrong with any of the ViparSpectra products. Setup...
www.420magazine.com

(Sorry Vet hope that’s alright - trying to reassure Loco he shouldn’t sorry too much and your journal I’ve just subbed to had the perfect comparison photo!)

Nick
 
I was refilling the water in my humidifier and took a closer look at my seedlings and I noticed two other little helmet heads are popping up, and it almost looks like another one is about to! It's kind of hard to see, but they're charming their way up! :)

1000003151.jpg
 
Day 9 from when I dropped them in water.

1000003154.jpg


They were a bit dry today so I gave them a good spray from every direction with 125ppm of 6.2ph Start and Rhizotonic. I noticed one of the new seedlings had a root coming out of the bottom. I think I'll have to pot up when I get home from work today.
 
1000003155.jpg


I didn't want to make the ladies wait almost 12 hours with roots that were about to burst, so I mixed up 220ppm of 5.8pH water with CalMag, Start and Rhizotonic and mixed the Coco in the bucket, put it in the pots and let the excess drip our the pots. Then I transplanted.

This is beginning to feel like a Charlie Brown Christmas, but I'll just go with it. Lol.
 
NickHardy said:
Well not much with our eyes but we can infer some things from what we see upstairs. That the roots are likely over half way to the bottom of that pot. Its gathering itself to push up after the equally important down. Its literally “putting roots down”

Relax.
Click to expand...
From about 2 days ago? Look at ‘em go. Roots to the bottom no less!

Always hard to tell from photos but a fraction more light perhaps? A little closer? Encourage a little stretch. I would lower to discourage stretch. 🤷🏽

Congrats - that batting average looking way better already!

I’ll be joining you soon all being well. All 4 of mine have cracked and I have little micro tails on two of them at least. I need dark coloured paper towel to see the tails! All being well in the dirt tomorrow and I can stress along with you!

Nick
 
This morning I watered the plants with 260ppm solution. I did 200ml (600 total) in each plant and got a total runoff of 400ml. So basically way too much. Tomorrow I'll do a little less than 100ml. My runoff was 260ppm off the combined runoff. The runoff was also 6.2ph, but I noticed that the ph of the solution I mixed went from 5.78 to 6.01 overnight, so I might need to aim for a little lower maybe 5.6 or so when I mix and test (to get the desired 5.8 when I feed) I watered around the edge of the plant. My thinking was the peat pot would still be wet from yesterday, and I figured it would wick toward the center and maybe encourage the roots to search for the nutes outside of the peat pot into the planter. They haven't changed much, the top leafs moved slightly above the cotyledons.
 
Your Ph will always revert to what it started as. You mix and it comes out at say Ph6.5. You Ph down to 5.8. If you leave it it will go back to 6.5.

You’re not removing the minerals in the water. You’re just temporarily pushing the Ph down. We Ph often twice a day between grows. Morning to Evening feeds both get Ph’d off our central tanks.

If they’re damp on top we don’t water them. If they’re dry to a finger tip, like first joint your forefinger, we water them. Coco lets you know. It can be 2-3 days between watering in the early stages.

Popped Part 2 of our seed process for growing in coco in my Big SIP thread.

Nick.
 
I have wondered about the pH drifting as you described, I appreciate your reporting on this. I always "feed" as soon as I mix my nutrients. 1 1/2 gal. watering can. 5-11 plants uses all that water plus. So, no drift in pH for my garden, again respect growmie,SSgrower Frosted Skywalker in my grow now, Mosca, Rick breeder
1539890794.jpg
 
NickHardy said:
Your Ph will always revert to what it started as. You mix and it comes out at say Ph6.5. You Ph down to 5.8. If you leave it it will go back to 6.5.

You’re not removing the minerals in the water. You’re just temporarily pushing the Ph down. We Ph often twice a day between grows. Morning to Evening feeds both get Ph’d off our central tanks.

If they’re damp on top we don’t water them. If they’re dry to a finger tip, like first joint your forefinger, we water them. Coco lets you know. It can be 2-3 days between watering in the early stages.

Popped Part 2 of our seed process for growing in coco in my Big SIP thread.

Nick.
Click to expand...
It's pretty easy to fix this with a pH buffer like potassium silicate. I feed my coir plant 7x daily currently, never letting the medium and surface dry out.
IMG_20230804_191402410_HDR.jpg

You can see roots all over the top layer. I think it's better to treat coir like any other hydroponic medium that doesn't need a wet and dry cycle. The results from dry outs is a hydrophobic medium and smaller root mass and yield from my experience.

Cheers!
 
Wastei said:
It's pretty easy to fix this with a pH buffer like potassium silicate. I feed my coir plant 7x daily currently, never letting the medium and surface dry out.
IMG_20230804_191402410_HDR.jpg

You can see roots all over the top layer. I think it's better to treat coir like any other hydroponic medium that doesn't need a wet and dry cycle. The results from dry outs is a hydrophobic medium and smaller root mass and yield from my experience.

Cheers!
Click to expand...
I'm glad that you commented, because I was really confused. I had heard to water at least once a day otherwise there would be a build up of salts in the coco, but then there's a lot people who don't water every day. I think I just need to be careful around the middle because of the peat pot.
 
We probably see it more than most.

200L and 100L tanks. In flower the ones upstairs are taking 70-80L to run off per serving. We’ve had them up to two servings a day.

We make a new mix and it comes out at 6.4. Ph down to 5.8. 24 hours later 6.4.

It gets fuzzy on 3rd and 4th from that initial mix but ways up.

With the solos being fed off the 100L tank with the veg/clone tent - they’re getting fed 3-4x a day. There I ph to 5.8 or even 5.7 and won’t adjust unless for the veg tent. I don’t mind them getting a slight range of Ph. As high as 6.1 no higher.

Nick
 
SS/Wastei - do you do a weekly flush?

We call it a Lazy Farmers Sunday. 2ml/litre CalMag and normally a Kelp/amino/sea type common home gardeners stuff at 1ml/L We’ll run double a normal watering of that that through. Typically say 100-120L Especially if changing the formula. Can help with the salt buildup that some worry about.

Love doing it in flower. Our Bloom booster is $20 a feed in full flower 😂
 
They're looking pretty today. I watered them 100ml each (300ml total and got just shy of 100ml total runoff.) My measuring cup only goes as low as 100ml so I'll have to buy something more precise. Ph in was 6.08 ph out was 6.52 ppm in 662 ppm out 220. I mixed 2L of food so that'll last about 2 more days maybe then I'll go up a little in ppm. Pretty happy with the ph out 6.5 is ideal iirc. The pH went up another .07 since yesterday. I think it was 5.89 to start though when I first mixed it. I should have said 5.9. I think I'll mix a little less juice next time and should for a true 5.8 or a close as I can without playing ph seesaw.
 
Back
Top Bottom