Hydro Coco Quasi Hempy Grow

Bloom ~ Day 5

Day 5 of bloom and the ladies are taking off like...well weeds!
Tonight they started to show pistils too.
Right now they're doing the OG stretch as I like to call it. They grow about 2-3 inches per day during this stretch.
It's very important for me to monitor this stretch so i stay ahead of them keeping the lights above the canopy. Every day they're jumping up like they want to eat the lights so I need to make sure they dont burn themselves.

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Right now they're feeding on 5mls FloraNova Grow + 5mls FloraNova Bloom + 1ml Floralicious Concentrate + 10ml FloraNectar per gallon of water. ph 6.4
Since they started showing pistils tonight the Nova grow will be cut out for a full 10mls of Nova Bloom per gallon for the next watering

I also have a little side project going in the bloom cab...
I'm trying to grow an avacado tree in there too! It's potted up in Roots 707 soil and gets Nova grow @ 5mls per gallon once a week.
Hopefully one day i can make some home grown guacacannamole! :rollit:

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RoorRip
 
Re: Bandit420's Hydro Coco A GoGo

Hey Bandit - looking great! Love the set-up. I'd be lost without my SSV. I have a bit of an issue with sinuses/occasional asthma, so the SSV has helped me enjoy the herb without having all the smoke-related ickiness.

mmmm..... avamacado.....
 
Re: Bandit420's Hydro Coco A GoGo

xlr8 said:
Hey Bandit - looking great! Love the set-up. I'd be lost without my SSV. I have a bit of an issue with sinuses/occasional asthma, so the SSV has helped me enjoy the herb without having all the smoke-related ickiness.

mmmm..... avamacado.....
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Thanks xlr8! Hi five on the SSV! :high-five:
The SSV is incredible! It's like an amplifier for herb or something. The high is so intense it's crazy!
I just efiled my taxes so in a few weeks Uncle Sam will be covering the bill for a real nice glass water filter and a custom wand for it.
For the wand I'll probably have SSV make it but for the water filter I might hire a local artist to make something insane with some horns or tenticles.

I really want something similar to this pipe for the water filter but instead of stripes I would like it to have a coral or watery look with some aqua & yellow in the coloring. And then of course instead of having a bowl it would have an inlet for the whip ;)


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:tokin:
 
Re: Bandit420's Hydro Coco A GoGo

Bandit420 said:
Well I just checked the standings and you're pulling way out in front VOJ!
Down to the home stretch now Buddy! Good luck! I think you'll take this one! :high-five:
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Well, you both have me "smoked". I'm definitely out of it. :goodluck: to both of you. I have to agree though - only winners in this contest.

Sweet idea on the water filter bandit!
 
Re: Bandit420's Hydro Coco A GoGo

hey man just went through the journal so far and was just wondering if you would explain your bud cab's ebb and flow system a little further for me. When the system is automated you said the ebb and flow valves are daisy chained together at the bottom of the buckets? exactly how far does the water fill up into the buckets when it is done like this? or are they top fed like you are doing manually as well as automated?

i mean correct me if im wrong but with your daisy chain hose you are watering each bucket individually with different ebb and flow deals right?
 
Re: Bandit420's Hydro Coco A GoGo

BlazinUSA said:
hey man just went through the journal so far and was just wondering if you would explain your bud cab's ebb and flow system a little further for me. When the system is automated you said the ebb and flow valves are daisy chained together at the bottom of the buckets? exactly how far does the water fill up into the buckets when it is done like this? or are they top fed like you are doing manually as well as automated?

i mean correct me if im wrong but with your daisy chain hose you are watering each bucket individually with different ebb and flow deals right?
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I guess it's kind of a semi automatic ebb & flow :)

Every bucket is top fed manually with the watering wand. The water passes thru the top bucket and into the bottom bucket. The drains in the bottom buckets are very close to the bottom so the water immediatley goes thru the drain tubing and into the collection bucket. When it gets to be about three inches deep in the collection bucket the float switch kicks on the pump and moves the used water back into the main rez.
I'll get some more pics of it up soon that should help clarify anything :rollit:
 
Re: Bandit420's Hydro Coco A GoGo

kick ass man, i dont have any problem with being there for my plants daily, i say that id actually prefer it that way lol for vacation and weekend fun expeditions i think to make my system self supporting i would just set up a top feed drip on a timer.

for a good while now i have been extraordinary interested in the combination of coo and hydro, it sure seems to me like you got it together. I also have been telling myself that a couple of cabs in my grow room instead of trying to use the whole room would be much much more efficient.

Not only could i use my lights more effectively, the temp, humidity and c02 are under a much more controllable scale. With tax time coming i think there is probably alot of changes and updating to be done! rep on the setup and ideas man
 
Re: Bandit420's Hydro Coco A GoGo

BlazinUSA said:
kick ass man, i dont have any problem with being there for my plants daily, i say that id actually prefer it that way lol

for a good while now i have been extraordinary interested in the combination of coo and hydro, it sure seems to me like you got it together. I also have been telling myself that a couple of cabs in my grow room instead of trying to use the whole room would be much much more efficient.

Not only could i use my lights more effectively, the temp, humidity and c02 are under a much more controllable scale. With tax time coming i think there is probably alot of changes and updating to be done! rep on the setup and ideas man
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You're onto my plan Bro!
Basically all i've done is use all of my gear to it's advantage. Splitting up the room into cabs has done exaclty what you described in giving me the home field advantage over enviromental conditions and to be able to create an optimal enviroment for the ladies.

Setting Sun was the one here that got me into coco. I doubt he even knows it too lol! He posted some things that really got me going on it and once I found what was right for me I ran with it. Till now I've always been a soil grower with a few ventures into hydro but always going back to soil. Now I've gone coocoo for coco and I cant imagine growing with any other medium indoors. :)

My next posting on the logistics of this thing will be how i prep and use coco and the types of coco i use. So far i can say that this is the easiest type of grow I've ever done and it's results are top notch!
 
Re: Bandit420's Hydro Coco A GoGo

im here and waiting i got a few more weeks before i could do anything toward switching anything like this anyways, whatever is in soil now i will finish in soil but i am most certainly going to follow your next post about the coco and stock up on some. I also just did a bit of searching and found some airpots in 5 packs for relatively cheap and some 3.5 and 5 gal buckets for like 2 bucks a piece! Cant wait to be getting that hydro speed growth!
 
The Bandit420 Coco Mix

I use three types of coco in my garden, chips, matting, and coir. The matting is optional depending on the size of drain holes in my containers. I also use it as a bottom liner in all of my Air Pots

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The chips or croutons of coco act just like hydroton in that it drains very fast and retains very little water.
The coir is very fiborous and holds lots of water for a long time.
All are very low in salts, are inert having no nutrient value, and are ph neutral.

I have no exact ratio to how I blend my coco yet. I think I'm getting close in finding a good balanced blend that holds a bit of water but is still very fast draining.

Right now my blend for this garden is one brick of cocotek + one block of chips.

To reconstitute the coco the instructions say to simply use plain water.
Since cannabis is such a heavy feeder of calcium, magnesium, and nitrogen I use a precharging solution of 10mls per gallon of Liquid Karma and 5 mls of General Organics CaMg+. To reconstitute one block and one brick mixed together takes about 7 gallons of solution.
My entire ten plant garden using ten 3.5 gallon bucket containers required 3 each of the bricks and blocks of coir & chips.

I do all of my mixing outside because this can be a rather big messy job. I highly recommend using a big tub or something like a kiddie pool.
I use a big tub I found along side the road and put in however many bricks & blocks I'll need and then pour in the solution. After about a half hour of soaking the coco is workable and can be mixed.
After it's all mixed very well I let it sit over night to marinate in the precharge solution.
The next day I drain all of the solution and it's ready. Before I use it I give each handful a good sqeeze to drain off any excess solution before I put it in a container.

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These measurements are for making five gallon batches of precharge solution

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This pic show 2 bricks + 1 block. Another block was added later

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I think that about covers my coco blend! It's not perfect or exact but it works great for me! The biggest thing to remember is that the more chips there are the faster it will drain and the garden will need more frequent waterings.

This type of blend can be used indoor or outdoor. It can also be used for ebb & flows, hempy, or any other type of garden where Hydroton was previously the optimal choice in medium.
The makers of these coco types also claim that it can be used for up to three gardens. It's also Omri certified organic so once it's all used up it can simply be dumped into a compost heap or spead out in a yard.
 
Re: Bandit420's Hydro Coco A GoGo

Late to the show as usual! :)

Bandit420, I'm honored to have had my ass handed to me by you in Nug of the Month - can I squeeze into the second row of this grow if I share some fresh qwiso SAGE hash?:smoke2:
 
Re: Bandit420's Hydro Coco A GoGo

Lucky man said:
Thats quite the system there Bandit. I am envious.:bravo:
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Thanks LM!
I could'nt be happier with the way this is working! This is the first indoor grow I've done where every thing is custom built for me and my space.
Everything is working the way it was planned and in some cases it's exceeding expectations.
I always knew somewhere out there was the perfect set up for me. After rolling with so many different systems I never would have guessed the perfect one for me would be a combo of several different ones. But at the same time I dont think I would have ever come up with this if it was'nt for my work with soil, ebb & flow, & ebb & gros.
Then on top of that I was able to apply some things in my garden that I've been watching other growers here on 420 pull off. Especially the Hempy growers.
I also took some things from growers like Pit Viper & Hogdady.
If it was'nt for PV's work with FloraNova and his detailed posts of ppms & ph I would be a nervous wreck running at the numbers I do. 1400-1800ppm probably scares the shit out of most growers like it did me but not anymore :)
Then HD inspired me in that it's time to get hardcore and jack up this garden to get it running like a sports car :)
I blame the coco craze I'm infected with purely on Setting Sun & Horse Badoritz. Those guys lit the match and now it's a freakin' bon fire!

So now when I take a step back and look at it all, none of it would be possible if it was'nt for the wealth of information here at 420 and the amazing growers that share that info. None of the growers I mentioned helped me one on one so I doubt they even realize their impact on me. Their general daily postings as well as the postings from countless other growers is what really helped drive the inspiration.

:high-five::420::high-five:

Zombo said:
Late to the show as usual! :)

Bandit420, I'm honored to have had my ass handed to me by you in Nug of the Month - can I squeeze into the second row of this grow if I share some fresh qwiso SAGE hash?:smoke2:
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lmao!! Well I'm being taken to the woodshed for an ass whoopin' from VapedOutJoe so it's all good Brother!
And with a request like that I have a chair in the front row center for you my friend! I'm sure that Sage hash will burn just fine in any one of these!

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Choose your weapon! :)
 
Re: Bandit420's Hydro Coco A GoGo

I'd have probably harvested after a month of flowering if not for 420. Be on about my 6th crop by now.

I think I still like that swirly pipe the best but it's a tough call.... very nice Bandit!
 
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