arellanobrian
Well-Known Member
and some vids of the grow as well haha
Lets Talk Coco! Organics & Salts
- Thread starter BigIrishDoode
- Start date
Bucudinkydow
Well-Known Member
Been following your journal. Awesome job! Thanx for sharing. Makes me more & more convinced coco is the way to go. It appears to be fairly forgiving of FNG mistakes with pretty rapid response to adjustments. I'm soaking up all these reports like a sponge, or coco coir!!
Bucudinkydow
Well-Known Member
Glad to hear you didn't loose your plants, dr fish. Resourceful ingenuity. Yet another case of how forgiving the coco medium is. Living between 2 homes I'll sometimes be an absentee grower with a fam member looking in on them. I'm hoping to devise a "hybrid" timed drip/wick watering system to help me out. Your occurrence instills some confidence that perhaps i can get it worked out. Time will tell.
Dr Fish
Well-Known Member
Jorge Cervantes did a really good write up for HighTimes mag. maybe ten years ago, on a grow in the NL.. They had a level floor framed and lined with plastic to turn most of it into a level flood plane... they had 2.5 gal.buckets with coco/perlite shoulder to shoulder... Watered from the top till the clone is rooted... The floor was flooded to a depth of 1"-1-1/2".. When the plants had wicked up the solution, and the floor was just damp, they repeated.... He said they claimed 1 gpw, and that was with 600hps, if i remember right.... There was more to it than that but if you can find it, it would be a good read...
arellanobrian
Well-Known Member
that does sound awesome, ive seen vaderOG on you-tube from ocean grown genetics grow great bud in just coco with a flood and drain system. he does not wash his coco as he gets the non bricked pre washed stuff and waters 2 times a day for 15 mins. i want to do something similar soon but im going to see how the top feed drain to waste drip system works, i feel there will be less water waste.
just to spark conversation what is everyone's preferred coco mix? I use 3 parts coco 1 part perlite, i feel it helps with aeration even more and is easier to flush the medium.
I have been looking at adding some sort of limestone or any supplement to help with the cal-mag so i dont have to add so much to my feedings as i already add extra for the LED lights im using. And of course im cursed by fungus gnats on almost every grow ive done so i will be looking into something to help with that also.
glimmergrass
New Member
This is my way of bookmarking this thread. A great, great guide to coco -- I wish I had known BID.
I read a few pages and will spend the next few days going over everything. I need more info on building a drip system, I can't find any info on where and how to build such a system for cheap. Makes no sense how there isn't a product out there or more info on such a ingenious idea, top feed drip on some type of water timer.. Minimal water waste too.
Bucudinkydow
Well-Known Member
Everything you need is available at lowes or homedepot. I've just completed my second grow using a timed emitter setup. I'm growing in 2 1/2 gal homemade "rag bags" with 75/25 coco/perlite. Adjustable emitters, tubing, connectors are all available in the irrigation section of the plumbing dept. grab a small pond pump in the outdoor garden dept. I ordered my timer through Amazon but I'm sure you can find a timer , probably in the electrical dept. The only wrinkle I had was mating the 1/2" irrigation tubing up to the output port of the pump. The diameter of the pond pump tubing is a bit different & will require some innovation. I think I bought a small piece of pond tubing that I was able to force over the irrigation tubing. I use three emitters per plant & set the timer to water anywhere from once to three times a day for a duration of 1-2 minutes. I knew I had it right when the bag walls just began getting damp. It'll take a little trial & error & some adjustments occasionally. You'll find coco a great medium for this system since it's SO FORGIVING to over or under watering. I bounce back & forth between 2 homes & am often absent for 3-5 weeks. So far it's worked great for me. Going to lowes later today & I'll take a few pix of the products I used. Also get some shots of my system.
BOOCOODINKYDOW
BOOCOODINKYDOW
Everything you need is available at lowes or homedepot. I've just completed my second grow using a timed emitter setup. I'm growing in 2 1/2 gal homemade "rag bags" with 75/25 coco/perlite. Adjustable emitters, tubing, connectors are all available in the irrigation section of the plumbing dept. grab a small pond pump in the outdoor garden dept. I ordered my timer through Amazon but I'm sure you can find a timer , probably in the electrical dept. The only wrinkle I had was mating the 1/2" irrigation tubing up to the output port of the pump. The diameter of the pond pump tubing is a bit different & will require some innovation. I think I bought a small piece of pond tubing that I was able to force over the irrigation tubing. I use three emitters per plant & set the timer to water anywhere from once to three times a day for a duration of 1-2 minutes. I knew I had it right when the bag walls just began getting damp. It'll take a little trial & error & some adjustments occasionally. You'll find coco a great medium for this system since it's SO FORGIVING to over or under watering. I bounce back & forth between 2 homes & am often absent for 3-5 weeks. So far it's worked great for me. Going to lowes later today & I'll take a few pix of the products I used. Also get some shots of my system.
BOOCOODINKYDOW
That would be awesome! I'm kind of lost where to start. I know what I need but what size pump, emitters, lines, connectors..its a lot of parts lol once together it seems like a simple setup. Like the timer, don't you need a special one? Do they make water timers? Looking on Amazon too many results come back. Anything you can help me with would be awesome!
Bucudinkydow
Well-Known Member
Just returned from lowes. Gimme a few minutes for my super slow internet to up load the pix & I'll be glad to give ya all the details.
Internet impossibly slow this afternoon. I'll give it a try later this evening.
Internet impossibly slow this afternoon. I'll give it a try later this evening.
Bucudinkydow
Well-Known Member
This is the pump I ordered through amazon
This is the tubing I used for transition between between the pump and the 1/2" irrigation tubing
I used an el connector to interface the two different tubing, also from lowes irrigation section. The pump is attached to the other end of the clear braided tubing and lives in an 18 gal tote I use as my reservoir.
As you can see from the previous photo, the 1/2" irrigation goes through the wall into my grow box and terminates in a manifold arrangement.
The emitters come in a pack of five accompanied with barbs. The barbs are inserted into the wall of the 1/2" irrigation tubing and 1/4" tubing is used to connect the protruding end of the barb to the emitters. Simply push the tubing onto each. (Disregard the label beside the emitters; it isn't applicable, sorry).
This tool isn't a must but makes life a lot easier when installing the barbs.
1/2" irrigation tubing.
1/4" tubing
Timer. Simply plug it into a wall outlet, plug your pump into it, set the program and you're off to the races.
I'm often a little fuzzy in some of my explanations. If I've stumbled over a point that you don't understand, let me know and I'll take another go at it.
This is the tubing I used for transition between between the pump and the 1/2" irrigation tubing
I used an el connector to interface the two different tubing, also from lowes irrigation section. The pump is attached to the other end of the clear braided tubing and lives in an 18 gal tote I use as my reservoir.
As you can see from the previous photo, the 1/2" irrigation goes through the wall into my grow box and terminates in a manifold arrangement.
The emitters come in a pack of five accompanied with barbs. The barbs are inserted into the wall of the 1/2" irrigation tubing and 1/4" tubing is used to connect the protruding end of the barb to the emitters. Simply push the tubing onto each. (Disregard the label beside the emitters; it isn't applicable, sorry).
This tool isn't a must but makes life a lot easier when installing the barbs.
1/2" irrigation tubing.
1/4" tubing
Timer. Simply plug it into a wall outlet, plug your pump into it, set the program and you're off to the races.
I'm often a little fuzzy in some of my explanations. If I've stumbled over a point that you don't understand, let me know and I'll take another go at it.
Enkidu
New Member
Subbed. Great thread. I am a Coco Grower (actually finishing first grow of Skunk #1). Planted around Jan 1/16. Used Canna Coco w Perlite @ around 70/30. Also, I used Canna Coco A+B but not sure if I had done everything as instructed. 3 plants originally started but 1 didn't germinate but all 3 were fem's. They started under 12/12 on Feb 25/16 and seem to be swelling up now heading into the 'home stretch'. Since this is my first successful grow, I have nothing to really compare to other then forums and reading. I don't think they have turned out so bad but I will be going organic with aspirations to achieve HB. Sorry, I haven't posted pics; I haven't bothered to figure that out yet. I have no journals and really haven't consulted with anyone on my grow other than a local hydro shop salesman who seems to have some experience.
I have started my organic soilless mix on Mar 1/16. The mix is as follows:
Base:
2.5g Canna Coco (this Coco was partially used; part of my 1st grow included 4 bag seed that ended up being all males)
2.5g Perlite
2.5g EWC
200ml dolomite lime (I think this may be a mistake and should have found a garden lime product)
Used EWC tea to moisten for cook
Amended:
5g Canna Coco
5g Perlite
5g EWC
4cup Azomite
These ingredients I mixed up and added 2.5cups of mix to soilless mix:
2cup Kelp Meal
1cup Organic Tomato Fert
1cup Alfalfa Meal
1cup Crab Shell
400ml Dolomite
1cup Neem Meal
1cup Bat Guano
Used EWC tea to mix
Would love to hear anyones 2 cents on mix. Thanks
I have started my organic soilless mix on Mar 1/16. The mix is as follows:
Base:
2.5g Canna Coco (this Coco was partially used; part of my 1st grow included 4 bag seed that ended up being all males)
2.5g Perlite
2.5g EWC
200ml dolomite lime (I think this may be a mistake and should have found a garden lime product)
Used EWC tea to moisten for cook
Amended:
5g Canna Coco
5g Perlite
5g EWC
4cup Azomite
These ingredients I mixed up and added 2.5cups of mix to soilless mix:
2cup Kelp Meal
1cup Organic Tomato Fert
1cup Alfalfa Meal
1cup Crab Shell
400ml Dolomite
1cup Neem Meal
1cup Bat Guano
Used EWC tea to mix
Would love to hear anyones 2 cents on mix. Thanks
Bucudinkydow
Well-Known Member
Congrats, enkidu, on your first successful grow & thank for sharing your experience.
Enkidu
New Member
Some pics under flash lighting before lights on.
Green life
Active Member
GSC Msnl seeds 1st day of week 7 ready for a nice flush .
Super Lemon Haze 1st day of week 6. Won't be flushing her for another two weeks. Smells like a lemon head.
OG kush 1st day of week 7. Smells like pine needles. The trichimes are really small on the OG for some reason. It's covered in trichs but you can really tell until your finder gets super glued to the bus when you touch it ..
Grown in no brand coco coir, sensi coco, EH honey comb, EH king Cola, EH Plant tonic, protekt, over drive, recharge, mammoth p, SFL 100 and some yummy organic amendments and teas along the way. Drip to waste about 10%, I water every other day in flower feed synthetic once a week and organic once a week. The rest is just tap water. Oh and idk if anyone else has expedited this but when adding re charge to my line up I noticed that when I fed full strength I got leaf tip burn. I'm pretty sure that's what caused it but who knows with so many variables involved.
Sent from my iPhone using 420 Magazine Mobile App
excuse me but I would like to add something I have learned from others ( outdoor growers that don't have the opportunity to get our liquid nutes) they make "teas" and I have read a lot on this but one grower was letting coffee grounds go to mold......and that species of mold is perfect for coco use......growing more microbes in the coco makes for more uptake used to do this for my compost piles and I can tell you coffee grows some of the best microbes for organic gardeners FYI
BedroomFarmer
Well-Known Member
So this is how I made my drip system. I hope it helps. There are many ways to skin a cat but this works for me.
You need a pump. I use a Eco 633 gph pump. You have to pay attention to the head height. This one says 7.5'.
That means this pump will push water vertically up to 7.5'. This is important if your rez is tall you want to make sure you have good pressure. I've ran this pump from 4 to 9 plants no problem.
These are the types of fittings for your mainline 1/2" tubing. You have compression fitting (I use)
And you have 1/2" barbs. This one has a valve to stop water. They sell ones without the ball valve.
Here is what the 1/2" barb and the 1/2" compression fitting look like on the 1/2" mainline tubing.
Here we have your driper tubing/ spaghetti line. It comes in a roll it's 1/4" tubing that comes out of the 1/2" mainline and goes into your pot
Here is 1/4" barb. I use the T type but the have ones with only two barbs. These go into your mainline to connect to the 1/4" tubing
Dripper. Since I'm not using a big pump like a sump pump I cannot use the normal drip irrigation products. Stuff like Manifolds, pressure compensating drippers or button emitters, and antisiphon valves may not work since there is not much pressure in these little pumps. I use these flag emitters because they are pretty much free flow and you can open them to clean if it gets clogged! You can use anything you like. Halos, steaks, even make a ring with 1/4" tubing.
1/4" punch. This is what your use to punch a hole into your 1/2" mainline so you can put a 1/4" barb and connect the 1/4" spaghetti tube.
Here is what it looks like all connected. 1/2" mainline tubing. Either poly or vinyl. I use poly 1/2" because it's rigid and can stand up on its own. I punched a hole with the blue punch. Push in my barb and push on the 1/4" spaghetti/ feeder tubing.
It ends up being water tight. I have leaks sometimes but I just wiggle the 1/4" barb until it makes a good seal.
Here we have the 1/2" mainline that comes out of my rez. I punched a hole put a barb, some spaghetti tube, and my flag drippers. This allows air to enter the tubes once the pump shuts off. If you don't add an anti siphon hole in your tube once the pump shuts off you will continue to be irrigating your plants or flood your room.
Ok so back to barbs and compression fittings. You can use a barb that comes with the pump. screw it into the pump and push the 1/2" tubing in. For me. This didn't work. My barbs were the exact same size as my 1/2" tube so I ended up with a compression fitting. One side goes on the tube the other slips into a female pvc piece.
I'm using a pvc part. One side is threaded and screws into the pump the other side is female and the compression fitting slides in there. I like this because it makes it easy to dismantle for cleaning.
Now you make your layout. No matter what it can never be straight tubing. If you want even waterings to your girls you have to have the 1/2" mainline loop into itself. I've done a rectangle with 9 plants. This works for my current 4. Use your punch to make your holes. Make sure they are equally spaced I think it was 8-12" being ideal.
Put on your choice of emitters or drippers. I liked the flag ones. Home depot had a few different ones, I went with the most open ones. You can run open lines but a lot of water came out pretty quick. Their are many other styles of drippers. Here they are steaked into the pot
Elevate your pot so it's not sitting in dirty water.
Wet/dry vac for the saucers.
Once you set up your system put some cups under each dripper. Turn on your system and make sure each cup is filled the same amount at the same time. Also note you don't need to have two 1/4" lines like I have it but I wasn't going to buy two different sets of barbs. Now put in your plants. Turn on your system and see how long it takes to get run off. Buy a seconds or 1 minutes timer based on that. Not the 15 min cycle timer. I have a seconds timer and run between 1- 2:45min 3-4 times a day. Your going to want a strong air pump or another small fountain pump to stir your nutrients. I use a air pump because the 100gph pump I was using got my water hot. Think about what rez your going to use. I have a brute trash can. It's nice because it's not too wide. I'm able to get down to 3-5 gal of water in that trash can before the pump doesn't work. I also use a 5gal bucket and I can get that down to 1-2 gal before the pump can't pick up anymore water. If you have a long container you may not be able to fully utilize it.
I made a little mod on my pump to suck more water then before. It's still going through trials though. Just a barb that goes onto the ecopump into the mainline and a elbow barb
You need a pump. I use a Eco 633 gph pump. You have to pay attention to the head height. This one says 7.5'.
That means this pump will push water vertically up to 7.5'. This is important if your rez is tall you want to make sure you have good pressure. I've ran this pump from 4 to 9 plants no problem.
These are the types of fittings for your mainline 1/2" tubing. You have compression fitting (I use)
And you have 1/2" barbs. This one has a valve to stop water. They sell ones without the ball valve.
Here is what the 1/2" barb and the 1/2" compression fitting look like on the 1/2" mainline tubing.
Here we have your driper tubing/ spaghetti line. It comes in a roll it's 1/4" tubing that comes out of the 1/2" mainline and goes into your pot
Here is 1/4" barb. I use the T type but the have ones with only two barbs. These go into your mainline to connect to the 1/4" tubing
Dripper. Since I'm not using a big pump like a sump pump I cannot use the normal drip irrigation products. Stuff like Manifolds, pressure compensating drippers or button emitters, and antisiphon valves may not work since there is not much pressure in these little pumps. I use these flag emitters because they are pretty much free flow and you can open them to clean if it gets clogged! You can use anything you like. Halos, steaks, even make a ring with 1/4" tubing.
1/4" punch. This is what your use to punch a hole into your 1/2" mainline so you can put a 1/4" barb and connect the 1/4" spaghetti tube.
Here is what it looks like all connected. 1/2" mainline tubing. Either poly or vinyl. I use poly 1/2" because it's rigid and can stand up on its own. I punched a hole with the blue punch. Push in my barb and push on the 1/4" spaghetti/ feeder tubing.
It ends up being water tight. I have leaks sometimes but I just wiggle the 1/4" barb until it makes a good seal.
Here we have the 1/2" mainline that comes out of my rez. I punched a hole put a barb, some spaghetti tube, and my flag drippers. This allows air to enter the tubes once the pump shuts off. If you don't add an anti siphon hole in your tube once the pump shuts off you will continue to be irrigating your plants or flood your room.
Ok so back to barbs and compression fittings. You can use a barb that comes with the pump. screw it into the pump and push the 1/2" tubing in. For me. This didn't work. My barbs were the exact same size as my 1/2" tube so I ended up with a compression fitting. One side goes on the tube the other slips into a female pvc piece.
I'm using a pvc part. One side is threaded and screws into the pump the other side is female and the compression fitting slides in there. I like this because it makes it easy to dismantle for cleaning.
Now you make your layout. No matter what it can never be straight tubing. If you want even waterings to your girls you have to have the 1/2" mainline loop into itself. I've done a rectangle with 9 plants. This works for my current 4. Use your punch to make your holes. Make sure they are equally spaced I think it was 8-12" being ideal.
Put on your choice of emitters or drippers. I liked the flag ones. Home depot had a few different ones, I went with the most open ones. You can run open lines but a lot of water came out pretty quick. Their are many other styles of drippers. Here they are steaked into the pot
Elevate your pot so it's not sitting in dirty water.
Wet/dry vac for the saucers.
Once you set up your system put some cups under each dripper. Turn on your system and make sure each cup is filled the same amount at the same time. Also note you don't need to have two 1/4" lines like I have it but I wasn't going to buy two different sets of barbs. Now put in your plants. Turn on your system and see how long it takes to get run off. Buy a seconds or 1 minutes timer based on that. Not the 15 min cycle timer. I have a seconds timer and run between 1- 2:45min 3-4 times a day. Your going to want a strong air pump or another small fountain pump to stir your nutrients. I use a air pump because the 100gph pump I was using got my water hot. Think about what rez your going to use. I have a brute trash can. It's nice because it's not too wide. I'm able to get down to 3-5 gal of water in that trash can before the pump doesn't work. I also use a 5gal bucket and I can get that down to 1-2 gal before the pump can't pick up anymore water. If you have a long container you may not be able to fully utilize it.
I made a little mod on my pump to suck more water then before. It's still going through trials though. Just a barb that goes onto the ecopump into the mainline and a elbow barb
