Coco pH and flushing technique

[mulga bill]

G,Day gr865, I am 65yrs old,retired also (forced retirement,automobile accident 1983 ) I also use for meds. Have been growing on and off since the late 60s only recently discovered "Autoflowers" and fell in love.lol When i finish this grow i will be changing to the "Bubbleponics" style of growing,i am at the moment getting the kit together. I would like to post some pics of this grow but have to have in excess of 50 posts ! ( then i have to figure out how to do it) Anyway,Yes i have performed the flush,my runoff ph remained virtually the same,the plant is still growing well and is well into flowering so i won,t worry about it.So your an agronomist,now that would come in handy,i live out in the wheat belt and am a Jack of all trades and a master of none,but i get along ok.Thanks again for your help, very happy to have met a kindred spirit.Anyway, have to go and get my day started.....

 

[Archiweedies]

G,Day gr865, I am 65yrs old,retired also (forced retirement,automobile accident 1983 ) I also use for meds. Have been growing on and off since the late 60s only recently discovered "Autoflowers" and fell in love.lol When i finish this grow i will be changing to the "Bubbleponics" style of growing,i am at the moment getting the kit together. I would like to post some pics of this grow but have to have in excess of 50 posts ! ( then i have to figure out how to do it) Anyway,Yes i have performed the flush,my runoff ph remained virtually the same,the plant is still growing well and is well into flowering so i won,t worry about it.So your an agronomist,now that would come in handy,i live out in the wheat belt and am a Jack of all trades and a master of none,but i get along ok.Thanks again for your help, very happy to have met a kindred spirit.Anyway, have to go and get my day started.....

Hello Mulga Bill!

I, like you, have spent some time at the same site you mentioned earlier. I have also followed their recommended nutes schedule for GH Flora Nova series nutes in coco. I am in flower as we speak with a few weeks remaining.

Nearing completion of my first grow, I also decided to try "bubbleponics" for my next grow. I'm all set up and on day 3. I plan to get a journal going for this one as well.

I mention all this because I couldn't help but notice how similar our paths are if not identical. Have a G'day!.

 

[gr865]

Yes very similar method, and results. Espalier is used to increase the fruit of a tree and this is increase the bud sites.

I am not in the Southern hemi, USA, in one of the worst states to grow cannabis. Oh well fuckem if they can't take a joke, LOL..

This method does require a longer veg time and a considerable amount of labor through the grow. But fuck I am retired, 69 years old, and an agronomist by trade, so this little grow not only provides me with the medicine I need but also one hell of a fun hobby.
There are some amazing vertical grows if you google them, fun to look at the pics and see how it is all done.
Here is a pic from a unsuccessful vert grow I did, everything ended up in the compost pile but did make some lovely plants.

I got over 5 zips from this plant, worthless shit but good quality. It was not the method of growing but my fuckup that made me dump them all.
Hope is get the answer you're looking for concerning the flushing, as I said I have no problem doing it. But I do it my way. and not with just plain water.

GR

Sorry my mistake, I should have read, I got over 5 zips from this plant, worthless shit but good "Quantity"

GR

 

[mulga bill]

G,Day, Archiweedies, I have about 4 weeks left on a White Widow grow.According to Seedsman. Personally, i think a little longer. It`s been a good few years since i have grown a plant to harvest, also "Autoflowers" are new to me so i`m having a great time watching this plant go through it`s various stages. I have been taking photos along the way and doing a journal of sorts,i may post these in the future. Being my first grow for many years it`s been very exiting getting up every morning and checking her out. And the aroma emanating from the room brings back memories of old, starting this new phase/hobby at this time in my life has got me running around like a blue arsed fly and i`m loving every minute of it. I cant wait to start my next grow using the "Bubbleponics" method. Some very careful seed selection is in order me thinks. What strain will you be growing in your first bubbleponics grow ? I am still in the planning stage and yet to purchase the bits and pieces,but that won`t take me long to do. Yes very similar indeed,i hope we both do well. Keep in touch mate catch you soon......Mulga Bill.

 

[gr865]

I have about 4 weeks left on a White Widow grow.According to Seedsman. Personally, i think a little longer. It`s been a good few years since i have grown a plant to harvest, also "Autoflowers" are new to me so i`m having a great time watching this plant go through it`s various stages.

Bill, I grew some Seedsman WW, let it run there requested time of flower, Don't do it, watch the trichs. I should have harvested at least 10 days before I did.

GR

 

[mulga bill]

G,Day,gr865, Thanks for that bit of info,as they say let the plant tell you when it`s ready....Thanks mate.

 

[Annabanana]

Hey MBill!
I'm about to flush my plants in Coco cos they're looking ill and I can't work out why. I've not been watering to run-off cos I'm following that method used by some very experienced, successful Coco growers - however, I've clearly not pulled it off like they do!! And obviously done something wrong which now requires a flush. It's very complicated this indoor growing biz, yeah? I'm missing my old outdoor growing days and their simplicity tbh. Although, this is a new challenge that I'm enjoying and it beats watching TV. Plus, this 420 community is great!
I just wanted to follow up and touch base with you. How's your grow going?

 

[gr865]

Hey MBill!
I'm about to flush my plants in Coco cos they're looking ill and I can't work out why. I've not been watering to run-off cos I'm following that method used by some very experienced, successful Coco growers - however, I've clearly not pulled it off like they do!! And obviously done something wrong which now requires a flush. It's very complicated this indoor growing biz, yeah? I'm missing my old outdoor growing days and their simplicity tbh. Although, this is a new challenge that I'm enjoying and it beats watching TV. Plus, this 420 community is great!
I just wanted to follow up and touch base with you. How's your grow going?

Hey AB,

Get it done, it will be fine.
I am running my base at 300 to 350 in veg and 400 to 500 in flower. Have my rez at at 1.2 EC and over a 24 hr period my pH floats from a starting point of 5.75+ to 6.0. I finely figured out to let my nute mix rest for 24 to 48 hours prior to putting it in the rez and not to constantly recirculate my lower and upper rez's and it helps keep my pH stable. The ladies are looking great no overfeeding here, Less is More!

What I have done this grow is at the end of a week's rez use, which I fill ever two day, I let it get down to around 6 gallons, pH to 5.8 and run my drip till I empty the rez, this flushes my ladies. When done my EC of the waste water is 1.3 to 1.4 and pH is right at 5.8. Then refill the lower rez with the new nute solution and pH in that rez before I pump to the upper rez for distribution. This has really worked well and I will continue doing this throughout the grow. When I do this type of flush I also add the high rate of SM90 15 ml for fungal gnats. Had them fuckers destroyed a grow. I do this instead of adding SM90 to my rez for daily distribution as I have found that SM90 causes a oil slime in my rez, Seems to be working fine this way.
Only problem I have with this grow is I think I waited to long to start flower, I am supercropping, LST, binding and tying them ladies like I was a masochist, LOL
I know I will love the results but it is requiring a shit load of work. And I this is supposed to be a HOBBY.

GR

 

[mulga bill]

G,Day,Annabanana, If you watch the utube video that Ledrf produced you will see that he does have and say to have a bit of runoff. Are you watering every day? What size pot are you growing in ? What strain, are you growing Auto`s ? Give us some more details AnnaB. Up until recently i was watering my White Widow Auto,when the pot was dry,it was growing ok,so i decided to water every day.Well, what a difference that made,the Girl really perked up,it`s greener,the buds in just this short time have grown longer and fatter and has started producing much more frosty bits and is generally looking MUCH better.More to the point i am much happier ! Anyway, Ledrf, says that just about every problem you might have growing in CoCo will be due to your Ph and NOT watering EVERY day ! If you are worried about over watering DON`T you cannot over-water CoCo.I know what it`s like when things are not going well in the grow room. So Anna, tell us more about what you are doing in the grow room. The first mistake i made was treating CoCo like soil,it is not soil,treat it like HYDRO, water every day! Don`t give up mate, once your grow is on track again you will forget about the old days and power ahead with the new. When i started growing again (indoors) my days have changed for the better,TV,what`s that? It`s like i get up every morning now and take a happy pill, already i am planning my next grow and i know i will do it better than the last.So tell us what`s happening mate.....

 

[mulga bill]

G,Day,gr865, The last time we spoke i was looking into changing the way i grow. Well i had a long talk with my hydro supplies shop,( who is also a friend) he advised me not to go down that path for a number of reasons. Stick to CoCo he said and i will be better off in the long run and thinking about it he is probably right. Gotta go gr, i will catch up with you soon and give you some more details.My girl is doing well and i`m doing well also, catch you soon......

 

[gr865]

G,Day,gr865, The last time we spoke i was looking into changing the way i grow. Well i had a long talk with my hydro supplies shop,( who is also a friend) he advised me not to go down that path for a number of reasons. Stick to CoCo he said and i will be better off in the long run and thinking about it he is probably right. Gotta go gr, i will catch up with you soon and give you some more details.My girl is doing well and i`m doing well also, catch you soon......

Full blown hydro, is expensive but once your set up it is just monitoring. I like you Hydro friend, prefer coco. Doubt I will ever change.
I agree with him, and once you have the coco dialed in your good to go.

GR

 

[mulga bill]

G,Day,gr865, Yes the cost is always a factor,but like my mate said,mate you simply dont have the space to put it in comfortably. I cant say a real lot about it here,but where i grow is also where my wife and i live and one has to consider all aspects most of which i won`t go into now.Yes you are right gr,i shall persevere. This grow has turned out not to badly,despite my mistakes,but that`s what it is all about,learning from my mistakes and doing a better job of it next time.It won`t be long now and i will be able to post some photos of my efforts .This is also my first foray into the world of computers,my son( he is very good with computers )has been teaching me the things i need to know and say`s i am doing fine. All i need to do now is figure out how to get the photos from here to there! can`t be that hard.Anyway gr i am off to the grow room, catch you soon mate......

 

[wiley420]

Hey MBill!
I'm about to flush my plants in Coco cos they're looking ill and I can't work out why. I've not been watering to run-off cos I'm following that method used by some very experienced, successful Coco growers - however, I've clearly not pulled it off like they do!! And obviously done something wrong which now requires a flush. It's very complicated this indoor growing biz, yeah? I'm missing my old outdoor growing days and their simplicity tbh. Although, this is a new challenge that I'm enjoying and it beats watching TV. Plus, this 420 community is great!
I just wanted to follow up and touch base with you. How's your grow going?

I feed to run off but find once a month I need to flush the plants well to reset the coir. Since doing this all issues have gone away. This is just what works for me as u can see in my journal if u like

 

[mulga bill]

G,Day, Wiley420, You flush once per month,can you tell me how you go about it ?What quantity of water do you put through the pot? Do you use plain ph`d water or mixed with nutes ?

 

[Annabanana]

Re: Coco,Ph and flushing technique.

G,Day all. Can anyone answer my questions ?

Hey MBill
I definitely can't answer your question BUT... I had the exact same question so it was really opportune timing for me, thanks!
Oh..and I too have been contemplating using a different growing medium/system for Grow Number 2, as I'm having issues with my Coco atm. However, the experienced growers who have used other methods and whom I respect the opinions of the most - ALL advised me to stick with Coco DTW also.
Regards from a fellow Aussie...Anna

 

[gr865]

G,Day, Wiley420, You flush once per month,can you tell me how you go about it ?What quantity of water do you put through the pot? Do you use plain ph`d water or mixed with nutes ?

Hey Bill,

I post this earlier to Anna, Just what is working for me now.

What I have done this grow is at the end of a week's rez use, which I fill ever two day, I let it get down to around 6 gallons, pH to 5.8 and run my drip till I empty the rez, this flushes my ladies. When done my EC of the waste water is 1.3 to 1.4 and pH is right at 5.8. Then refill the lower rez with the new nute solution and pH in that rez before I pump to the upper rez for distribution. This has really worked well and I will continue doing this throughout the grow. When I do this type of flush I also add the high rate of SM90 15 ml for fungal gnats. Had them fuckers destroyed a grow. I do this instead of adding SM90 to my rez for daily distribution as I have found that SM90 causes a oil slime in my rez, Seems to be working fine this way.

Prior to this I was flushing every two weeks with 5 gallons of pH'ed RO. My RO is < 4 so I first add Epsom and Cal/Magic to bring my ppm to around 120 then pH the water to 5.75 to 5.8 and flush at one gallon per plant (saturation). After that I run my drip for 20+ min to get nutes back into the fold. That worked very well for me. I would flush until your ppm's are in line and your pH is very close to the pH of you mix.

GR

 

[mulga bill]

G,Day, Annabanana, I think the only reason we have been having issues with CoCo is that we were treating it like soil ! I grew many plants years ago, all in soil and still have that mindset. CoCo is Hydro.I will be starting my next grow soon,(in CoCo) this time i will be watering every day,i will be using a different pot size,my approach to nutrients will also be different. In other words,i have learned a lot from this site in the last couple of months, now it`s time to use it ! With every new grow we do we will learn more and i am sure we will get better and better. As they say, practice makes perfect. What issues are you having ? Fellow aussie, great to hear it, i am in the " Riverina". What is happening with your grow ?....

 

[mulga bill]

G,Day,gr865,I was just reading your last post, what sort of a system are you running at the moment ? Do you have a current photo you can show me ? I have just discovered a VERY tiny insect lavae type critter in the plant pot runoff, they would only be about a 1mm long,if that. They are not in the CoCo at the top of the pot, the plant seems healthy enough, but you know, the little fuckers are DEAD, trouble is, i don`t know how to ! ever seen anything like these things before ? maybe there is something that growers use ? I read on a post somewhere a bloke used Peroxide ? The Epsom Salts, what do you use it in the nutrient mix for ? Anyway, catch you later gr.....

 

[mulga bill]

G,Day,gr865, I have just been having another look at your recent grows, so please disregard those questions i asked you about your current grow room, i get the picture !.....

 

[TorturedSoul]

My RO is < 4

Is that normal for RO water? I don't have a reverse osmosis water device, and it has been a few years since I helped a guy who did with his grow - but I seem to remember his RO water being somewhere in the neighborhood of 10x less acidic (pH ~ 5.0) than yours. And that came as a surprise to me; I had expected RO water to be 7.0. I did some web-searching and read that very pure water has no buffering ingredients and, therefore, doesn't take much to show changes (I knew this part)... and that people routinely saw an acidic pH. But, again, I'm thinking that what I read indicated that a pH in the range of 5.0 was normal for RO.

Maybe I am misremembering (highly possible at this particular time ). Maybe the exact range varies slightly due to the specific RO device?

OR... Maybe there is some kind of contaminant getting in, in very slight amounts (as it wouldn't take much to cause a significant change to the pH of pure(/nearly pure) water?

I assume you check the calibration (and recalibrate) your pH meter regularly and that your readings are accurate. So maybe I did, in fact, misremember what I read, lol.

G,Day,TorturedSoul

Hola.

Yes i have read the post about The cation exchange capacity of CoCo,and have been giving it some thought. To be honest with you i am not sure that i fully understand it.I will read it again (during the daytime) that might make a difference lol.

I was left with the same impression (that I need to reread the article when I am fully awake and have time to properly digest the information).

Yes, you are right about my approach to CoCo

It was just a guess, results not guaranteed, your mileage may vary, et cetera.

I WILL be treating it as Hydro NOT like a soil grow!

I'm hoping to do a grow later this year which includes some "hempy-style" containers. I have not settled on a container size as of yet. I would like to use 2-liter bottles, but fear the longer flowering periods might cause that to be stressful. I intend to use a mix of coarse perlite and coco coir. Possibly a 50:50 ratio, but I am leaning towards going with more perlite than coco; perhaps a 3:1 or 2:1 ratio. I have yet to decide whether I will proceed as I normally do (root cuttings, then transfer to more permanent homes) or attempt to root the cuttings directly into the perlite/coco mixture. To be honest with you, I've been somewhat lazy (lol) and the last, IDK, couple dozen cuttings that I've rooted were just cut, a new end made and the stem scraped a little, and placed directly into a soil/perlite mixture - no helpers such as humidity domes, "leaf-haircuts," hormones, special clone room, etc. So if I can use the final container as the rooting device, it'll be easier. I'm not really concerned about "quicker" as it pertains to rooting times; they always get enough moisture via the cut/prepared stem end to keep them alive while they're forming a root system - starting pretty much immediately, lol, because I tend to let them wilt a little before placement which allows me to see the cuttings stand back up, and rather quickly. I don't really go for maximum moisture/humidity levels, feeling this practice to be counterproductive when the sole goal (at that point) is root growth. Plants don't think, lol, it's all just responses to environmental (etc.) stimuli and all that - but in "thinking organism" terms, I want them to have to work for their moisture, to send out more roots - and quicker - than they perhaps might if they're inundated with moisture. So I typically see cuttings that go in (to the medium) wilty, quickly stand up, wilt again a day or three later, get watered and quickly stand back up, rinse/lather/repeat/oh look, roots. I'll just have to get the perlite/coco coir mixture right (to suit ME), I suppose.

Yes again,you are absolutely correct

Remember, I'm only a guy (and a broken-down one at that, lol). I am most definitely not always correct. I just read a lot - and, often, what I read causes me to think. But I am just as capable of being incorrect as anyone else. Always verify my statements with another source.

about the Calcium i am in the process of dealing with that now.

Yes. I consider coco coir to be a hydroponic medium - but not an inert one, per se. It appears that the more successful (coco coir) growers have figured out exactly how the medium behaves. And where that "ladder" is concerned, I have only just begun to climb the rungs.

I am learning new things every day and loving every minute.

Makes sense to me. One cannot love life if one is not constantly learning.

I have some coco coir (partial brick) and a small sack of calcium nitrate to mix up a soaking solution with. I am assuming two or even three soaks (changing the solution each time) after hydrating and flushing the coco is preferred. I am not real clear on the exact procedure; I need to do more reading. I would like to add Epsom salt to the calcium nitrate solution. I'm using tap water which contains a lot of calcium, so will be adding Epsom salt routinely throughout the grow in hopes of maintaining the calcium:magnesium balance, and do not wish to have some portion of that "confiscated" by the coco, lol.

I have much to learn about coco coir and its characteristics....