First Coco Grow Questions - Journal

gr0w

gr0w

Well-Known Member
Hey guys,

this is my first coco grow and just switched the light cycle into flower (12/12)
I am just wondering if there are any tips/ advice you fellow growers would have that will help me grow these to their full potential.

The Grow:
- 2x4 tent w/ 6" exhaust fan w/ speed control and 6" carbon filter
- 2x fans (one at bottom of tent and one in the middle)
- 450W LED full spectrum grow/bloom light
- 2 Plants in 7Gal GeoPot with 70% coco coir and 30% perlite with a top layer of Hydroton
- Running two drip rings with a 5Gal bucket reservoir for Nutrients with a 80GPH pump.
- I am using R/O water with CaMg+, FloraTrio (micro, grow, bloom) and a little bit of HydroGuard left over from my DWC grow.
- Plant Strains are unknown.

I will turn this into a Journal as they progress.

Thanks 420

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gr0w said:
Hey guys,

this is my first coco grow and just switched the light cycle into flower (12/12)
I am just wondering if there are any tips/ advice you fellow growers would have that will help me grow these to their full potential.

The Grow:
- 2x4 tent w/ 6" exhaust fan w/ speed control and 6" carbon filter
- 2x fans (one at bottom of tent and one in the middle)
- 450W LED full spectrum grow/bloom light
- 2 Plants in 7Gal GeoPot with 70% coco coir and 30% perlite with a top layer of Hydroton
- Running two drip rings with a 5Gal bucket reservoir for Nutrients with a 80GPH pump.
- I am using R/O water with CaMg+, FloraTrio (micro, grow, bloom) and a little bit of HydroGuard left over from my DWC grow.
- Plant Strains are unknown.

I will turn this into a Journal as they progress.

Thanks 420.
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Looking good my man. Anyway whenever you get a chance maybe you could lay out your specs on the drip ring for watering? Been looking at doing the same thing with my plants
 
Thatdude84 said:
Looking good my man. Anyway whenever you get a chance maybe you could lay out your specs on the drip ring for watering? Been looking at doing the same thing with my plants
Click to expand...

if you look closely at the pictures you may be able to follow the tubing to see how it works, but here is a rundown. I can take pictures if you need
--
I just simply run a submersible pump inside of a 5 gallon bucket with my nutrients, run a 1/2" tube up into a 90* elbow with a hole in the lid, run a 1/2" tube into a Y connector.
I run a flow control valve into the first drip ring as it was getting much more water than the 2nd plant
I then run a 1/2" tube to the 2nd plant drip ring.
The drip ring Is a piece of 1/2" tubing as well with a 1/2" tee to connect it into a ring shape. then used 4 sprayer heads punched into the ring. very simple. there are DIY videos on youtube
I have the system on a timer that turns on twice a day for 1 minute flood 9:00am and 9:00pm (which is too long so I will have to put another flow control inline to slow it down. or find a timer that does seconds (also adding an inline filter))

Dr Fish said:
If you can afford it, another light would really help them realize their full potential....
Click to expand...
yes, I will be picking up another light after this grow for sure. the footprint isn't as big as I hoped, but I will daisy chain a second 450W to it.
 
gr0w said:
if you look closely at the pictures you may be able to follow the tubing to see how it works, but here is a rundown. I can take pictures if you need
--
I just simply run a submersible pump inside of a 5 gallon bucket with my nutrients, run a 1/2" tube up into a 90* elbow with a hole in the lid, run a 1/2" tube into a Y connector.
I run a flow control valve into the first drip ring as it was getting much more water than the 2nd plant
I then run a 1/2" tube to the 2nd plant drip ring.
The drip ring Is a piece of 1/2" tubing as well with a 1/2" tee to connect it into a ring shape. then used 4 sprayer heads punched into the ring. very simple. there are DIY videos on youtube
I have the system on a timer that turns on twice a day for 1 minute flood 9:00am and 9:00pm (which is too long so I will have to put another flow control inline to slow it down. or find a timer that does seconds (also adding an inline filter))


yes, I will be picking up another light after this grow for sure. the footprint isn't as big as I hoped, but I will daisy chain a second 450W to it.
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Hell yeah man that's exactly what I needed. Thanks im gonna make me one
 
Thatdude84 said:
Hell yeah man that's exactly what I needed. Thanks im gonna make me one
Click to expand...

forgot to mention that I used some metal tube stakes to hold the drip ring down as it kept wanting to pop up on the one side due to the Fabric Pot Pushing it up.

No Problem, Glad I could help
 
First Coco Grow Questions/ Journal

Currently I am doing a drip ring system for nutrient feedings. I picked up a second pump so I can have a second Reservoir to do fresh water feedings every other time on a timer. To even further extend the period of time I can be away from plants.
But here is an update thus far.

Day 3 into transition week: (following Nebulas drain to waste feeding schedule)
----
Feed Reservoir:
PPM: 580
pH: 5.6

Fresh Water Reservoir:
R/O water with CalMag and hydroquard
pH: 5.6

Plants are looking healthy and seem to have responded to the coco transition very well. (Originally grown outdoors in soil)
The plant on the left has very little training and the one on the right has been topped once.

Working on Building a pvc Scrog net this weekend

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Got the automated feeding done now.
Got the nutrients reservoir (blue lid) and the fresh R/O with CalMag (orange lid) (both pH to 5.8) all done and working well

I Have the nutrient reservoir pump on a timer (Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday) and the water reservoir pump on a separate timer (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday).
Currently have the timers to feed for 1 minute, but is too much. So I ordered some timers that can do seconds coming in a few weeks. This way I can find the perfect feed time for 20% run off.

This will surely make things easier and less time consuming.

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Spitz said:
Pretty neat setup! Do you have checkvAlves in the 1/2" to keep your buckets from pumping into each other?
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I do now LOL!
I figured that out after I took the picture.
Had all my fresh RO water flow into my nutrient res.
oops.
 
Thanks! I like the setup a lot. I have run 8-10 plants in coco the last couple of years and I keep things very simple. I have never flushed a plant in coco but I do water to a quart or so of runoff 1 time a day. I have 2 water cycles per day. 2 minutes every morning and 1 minute late afternoon. I use 3G equivalent hard pots and i adjust the 2 minute watering for runoff. The 1 minute session is just to keep it drenched. The time is static and I control the amount of water with inline ball valves.

For nutrients, I just use Advanced PH perfect GROW for coco. I use it for flowering too and add GH koolbloom for added PK. No other vitamin, bugs, microbes, etc... I don't really care to have living soil in my house. Outside is a whole other story. I've gotten so lazy I don't even check PH anymore.

You do have my curiosity sparked with that air pump. Is your intention to add O2 to the root zone or to keep your nutrient solution stable for multiple days? It's something I've thought of doing. As mentioned, one more light will do you wonders in there.

Keep up the good work and keep us posted. Peace!
 
Spitz said:
You do have my curiosity sparked with that air pump. Is your intention to add O2 to the root zone or to keep your nutrient solution stable for multiple days? It's something I've thought of doing. As mentioned, one more light will do you wonders in there.

Keep up the good work and keep us posted. Peace!
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Hello Spitz, Thanks for the Reply.
The air pump is to introduce air to the solution to keep the nutrients mixed and stable. I just have 1 small air stone in each reservoir. I like to mix up 5 gallons of each reservoir at a time and it cuts down on how often I need to make a new batch.

I just purchased two Optic Led Optic 4 lights that were on sale. So once those lights come I will be taking the 450W Meizhi light out and putting in one of the new lights.
Than later the 2x4 will turn into a veg/drying tent to keep a constant flow of plants.
In a couple months I will be moving into a bigger tent (4x8), which is why I bought two lights.

Tomorrow Will be first day of early bloom. Nutrients are all mixed up tonight and ready to feed for tomorrow. I will post a small update
 
First day of early Bloom: (following Nebulas Drain to waste feeding schedule with GH trio)

Nutrient reservoir:
PPM: 501
pH: 5.89

Fresh water Reservoir:
PPM: 185
pH: 5.8

Plants are looking really good and seem to like the feeding schedule I am giving them. Got most of the plant in the Scrog.

Picked up a new light that will hopefully be here soon so I can get these babies some better light and bigger buds.

Here's some pictures:
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Cleaned up a bunch of lower growth as well.
 
Nice setup. I love your dedicated chemistry lab!

Actually, I love the whole setup. As you have seen from my setup, I'm loving coco + perlite, and had thought to do an automated drain to waste system next time. Your system takes that idea a step further. I will be following with interest.

gr0w said:
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Going into week 3 of flower. Early bloom Week 2:
Reservoirs are the same as last week with the ppms/ ph sitting around the same.

Both plants are looking well fed and growing.

I am Still waiting on this damn new light to show up so I can actually fill the footprint I need to fill. I'm done with these blurple china leds.

Not much of an update, but here are some pictures.

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Super excited.
My Optic 4 LEDs have finally arrived and got one in the 2x4 tent now.

What a huge difference in lights compared to my meizhi 450w light.
Kind of crappy the small height of my tent won't allow me to hang the lights quite how I would like them. But until the 4x8 tent is setup. This will do.

Here are some pictures.
I am super happy with the build quality of the light. And the best part is it has a built in timer.
 
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