First Time Small Coco Grow - 4 Plant Mixed Strains Scrog

[Phsyll88]

Hi, new to the site. First time grower. Looking for any tips or suggestions.

What strain is it? 2 barneys amnesia lemon, 1 pineapple chunk, headband, gigabud. Feminized except the headband that was a colorado bag seed.
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Gigabud, pineapple chunk and 1 amnesia lemon have sprouted...2nd amnesia no luck yet. Germinating using peat pellets
If in Veg... For how long? All just sprouted except for headband that has been vegged for 2 weeks as test subject.

Indoor or outdoor? Indoor 3x3x5 tent
Soil or Hydro? Canna coco in 2 gallon pots
Size of light? 600W MH and 600W HPS (for later)
Running a standard reflector hood with digital ballast
Temp of Room/cab? 80-88 F
Using a 190 cfm fan with about 6ft of total ducting and attached carbon filter
PH of media or res? PH is between 5.5 and 6 for the headband. Using airrated tap water on the seedlings so they get a little calmag (although this area lacks that particular nutrient in the tap)
How often are you watering? I will be watering 1-2 times a day using the general organics GoBox set of nutes and guidelines. Will PH solution to 5.5

I recently decided to go with a ScroG setup and fashioned together some pvc pipes to make the frame at about 8" above the tops of the pots.
Made the screen by drilling holes through the piping at 2 1/2" all the way around then used 18ga coated wire, interlaced/weaved for the netting.

I will be looking at an air cooled hood but have been hard pressed to find one small enough to fit into my tent with attached ducting and 4" to 6" couplers (although i may go the halfass route and choose the aluminum tape, this may save space too)

Any suggestions would be nice, especially on an air cooled hood selection...

Pics coming soon

 

[Phsyll88]

 

[Phsyll88]

So the headband is in soil, which is a problem. However the 2nd lemon amnesia has yet to sprout, all the others sprouted while still solely in the peat pellet. Ill probably transfer over the already vegging young headband to the 4th pot. Good thing i made a test plant.

If you think thats not a bad idea or you just want to call me stupid and tell me the right way i should be doing things ill take that too.

 

[Phsyll88]

Finally getting around to posting. So far so good with a few of the plants. Pineapple chunk and gigabud are doing great from what i can tell. My late sprouting seedling is finally starting to get going but its brother isnt catching up to the others either. I see some white in the main vein of the amnesia lemon leaves (the one that is actually growing well) and the color in both the amnesia lemon leaves are more pale than the other 2 plants

Look at the pictures and please give me any suggestions or anything you see may be wrong.

Im PH-ing to 5.8 and only watering with the gobox nutes and guidlines every other day. In between i water with distilled and cal/mag, sometimes a few drops of the basic veg formula in the box "thrive."

I moved the 600w hps a little closer but checking the surface temperature of the leaves with an infared laser thermometer doesnt reveal much of a temp change. Staying under 80 deg.

My humidity is real low at around 26% with the outtake fan going balls to the wall and the hot lamp. Ive been adding wet towels and leaving waste water to evap and possibly help but i think there is just too much negative pressure to build up proper humidity. I dunno....

The 2 usb fans on the intake holes on the bottom of the tent are blowing 70 deg temps in to it at a pretty good pace and keeping my lil ladies dancing nicely.

 

[Phsyll88]

 

[Phsyll88]

This was right after watering again so the leaves look a bit droopy in the pics.

This is the 8th day after the last pics i posted.

Is this the expected growth for a coco grow?

 

[silverrocksta]

Hey looking good. One thing i would consider is watering them everyday, this is technically a hydro system so giving it full nutes everyday, multiple times if possible(this is my firat coco grow as well so im by no means an expert)

 

[silverrocksta]

I would definately try and get your heat down too. Shouldnt get over 80 and 76-78 is what i find the sweet spot to be. What are you temps when lights off?

 

[Phsyll88]

Temps are in the low 70s with the lights off 71 or 72, the tent is in the house so im trying to get it to suck in as much AC as possible.
I got the air temp down to the low 80s with the lights on (at plant level), 91 at the exhaust. I suppose thats good, means im sucking out some heat.
I bought the laser pointer thermometer and am reading temps on the leaves and they are in the high 70s with the fans on them and the lights on. Woo, im glad, i was worried i was screwing up majorly.

I may have mispoke. I am watering everyday, just not with nutes everyday. From researching it seemed to be ideal to feed nutes every other day to avoid a build up of salts and possibly a throwed off PH level from all the nutes building up in the coco.

Do you PH the runoff at all? I dont but wondering if i should

Thanks for checkin it out and for the tips. Ill be watching your grow

 

[silverrocksta]

I dont bother testing the runoff. I feed full strength everyday, havent had problems yet but they are still young, so only time will tell

 

[Phsyll88]

If it aint broke, dont fix it lol. If they are soaking up the nutes then that could only make them stronger i figure. Maybe ill try doing that and see how they react, might wait till they get a bit older though

 

[Phsyll88]

headband 1 week after toppong. Seems to have worked well.

amnesia lemon runt. Looking good

gigabud living up to her name. Just topped at the 5th set of upper leaves. Like the headband was

Pineapple chunk staying right with the gigabud. Proud of these 2. Chunk also just got topped.

last and least...my "good" amnesia lemon isnt so good anymore. Seens to be getting some root problems, possibly from overwatering. Leaf surface temp is still staying below 80 with 600W blaring about 30in from the pots.

I am going to hault on the watering everyday until my little amnesia can straighten her ass up. I read about watering only when the weight of the pots suggests you do so. Im going to try this method maybe with all of them.

Im still giving full strength nutes, following guidleines of the GObox.

Giga bud did have a few yellow spots show up on 1 of the bottom leaves but im hoping that is just PH burn.

Any suggestions on the amnesia lemon problem or possible diagnosis's would help.

To summarize. I am going to an every other day schedule until i notice the pots are starting to dry out. And we will see the topping results in about a week.

One more thing, and this could totally be because of the strains but the pots i mixed with a heavier oercentage of perlite are the pots that are holding the 2 largest plants by far. But i suppose that race is very unfair

 

[Phsyll88]

Woke up this morning and the gigabud is now drooping a lot. I read that when using the brick coco you are suppose to squeeze the excess water out of the coco before putting it into the pots fluffy-like. I didnt do this and my coco was wet and soppy when i put it in, maybe making it more compact to start with and the roots arent getting thw oxygen typical coco recieves. Im not too sure at this point.

I pulled the 2 problem childs out and beat around the sides to help loosen the medium up a bit and let more O2 in. Also poked a pencil up through the drain wholes making sure there isnt any clumping thay could cause blockage.

We will see how this helps. They are sleeping right now. I know no one is reading this but one can pretend.

 

[OldHippie07]

I read that you are using full strength nutes. I was taught to use nutes at half strength in cocoa. Full strength usually assumes once a week feedings. In cocoa I use nutes at every feeding. When in veg and small pots I try to water twice a day, slowly till runoff just starts. What is good about cocoa is that you cannot over water because there is always about 30% oxygen in the medium no matter how much you water. Once they are moved to 5 gallon pots l water every other day. Usually takes about 3 to 4 quarts per pot. Full strength might be to much especially for young plants. I give very little nutes the first 2 weeks and build up to the regular feedings.

 

[Phsyll88]

They have shown signs of overwatering. See the picture of the gigabud above. As for the nutes the younglings seem to be loving them and growing big until the recent problems. When knocking the coco around a little i tipped the pot a little sideways and got a few ounces of extra drainage and this is 16 hours after the previous watering.

So either the coco is not as aerated as some other kinds or my pots dont drainwell. The perlite i heard helps to drain the water but then i read somewhere else that the porous nature of it allows it to retain water in the medium longer.

Right now i am keeping it simple. It seems there are tons of opinions out there on what to do in coco and there are so many variables that there isnt just one that is right or wrong. I decided what i am going to do is treat it like most other plants and more like a soil grow but without letting it get TOO dry.
Keep it simple, PH the water and nutes and address any signs as they appear.

Right now they are telling me they are water logged

 

[Phsyll88]

Flushed my lil ladies yesterday (plain ro water, calmag and ph'd to 5.8) because of the obvious toxicity that was appearing in all of them. The nutes i have can be used for soil-less grows but i think is typically intended for soil and should be weakened substantially for everyday watering.

So now they are flushed and i will start watering every other day and with nutes every other time i water. Im going to start with onoy half strength nutes on those days (every 4th day) until they tell me they are hungry.

I may be switching my nutes to nutes meant especially for coco. Probably canna a+b since i am already using canna coco.

All 4 plants have showed signs of slow growth upwards but the 2 nodes from topping are starting to make some new leaves and the undergrowth is growing pretty steadily. This is my first grow so i dont know what to expect really

Things could be better....

 

[Phsyll88]

Oops. Ill have some more close ups in a few days

 

[Phsyll88]

Check out the white preflower hairs on the gigabud....

Gigabud

Gigabud

Pineapple chunk

Lemon amnesia

Lemon amnesia runt.

Ran some more plain ro and calmag today. Going to hold off on any nutes for a little while longer.

 

[OldHippie07]

Is the gigabud an auto?

 

[Phsyll88]

With my order i got 1 auto amnesia. Unless somehow that found its way into the gigabud bag which was also a single seed...i have heard that some preflower is normal but this thing looks like its about to bud, its got a good skunky smell coming from it too.