Well, good evening everyone. Its that time again. I left off at soil and nutes. I have decided to go with the Octopots, I have lights, now I need everything else. I called an ad in High Times that happened to be at the hydro grow article. Shout out to Brian at Hydroponics Inc, awesome customer service. Brian hooked me up and gave me some suggestions. I told him I didnt want 15 million different bottles of nutes, was there some that was all in one or two kinda thing. He sells me Canna Coco A & B and some Canna boost. Along with some root boost. Ok, I can deal with 4. I could deal with the 15 million if I had to, I just dont want to. Brian also suggests using Coco Loco for my coco coir.
Being as they are west coast and Im mid south, I wasn't going to ship the soil from them. I find a place 1 state away, better than 1/2 the country. The Octopots suggest using 60% peat and 40% perlite. Now the Coco Loco has perlite already mixed in. Im also trying to figure out what ratios of what will work best. I figure all right, I have 5 different strains lets try 5 different soils and see which does the best. All well and good except for that to work I need 5 of the same strain and really 5 from the same plant. So while I did mix up different mixes of soil the one i like the most is 70% Coco Loco, 20% perlite, 10% calcined clay. Why do i like this formula, I dont know other than it looks rright. Why the calcined clay? I used grow bonsai trees and that was used in the soil to add aeration, moisture holding ability, nutrient holding ability. I surmised if it was good for some bonsai then surly its good for some weed. Is it? I really dont know but my babies aren't complaining.
I do have some confusion over my nutes and maybe someone more knowledgeable than I can chime in with some help. I was under the thought process that the Canna Coco A & B was A for veg and B for flower. This thought was further cemented with the directions saying, do not mix A & B together as insoluble combinations will occur. Then Im watching a Youtube video of a Scott Real (maybe) and he was using the Octopots also. In this video he talks about how he mixes the A & B in the reservoir for the whole life cycle of the plant. When I was feeding a couple weeks ago, I was only feeding A. Can somebody tell me which way is right, please?
As for water, I also come from a background in saltwater fish tanks. Not just fish tanks but reef tanks. Water for them must be clean and filtered. I again surmise that if its good and filtered it is probably good for my babies. Not exactly.
I buy filtered water and use that for the first few weeks, somewhere I read that filtered water can be worse than tap water in some cases. It takes too much out. Seems that was the case, while mine look good they didnt always look that way. They were a very dull green, just not a very vibrant color green. I could be wrong but I think it was a calcium/magnesium defieciency. I have started using tap water and that has helped tremendously. Now that Im thinking about it, I wonder if I should have been doing both nutes and that was part of my problem.
We talked about germination, now that they have sprouted, woo hoo. I start using a 400 watt mh and even with this very close to them, they still turned toward the light. That lasted about a week, I wasn't having that especially when I have a 1000 watt just sitting here. The 1000 went in, I jacked my rope ratchets all the way up, but NOTHING stretched after that. That's a long enough post and my dogs want out.
Talk to you later, The Muffin Man
