New Grower AutoCobs/AutoPots in 4x4 Tent, Unboxing and Setup

[PapaEmeritus]

Welcome, ANTiFa, and thanks for the advice! I used the test kit this weekend for the first time and I feel what you are saying. I'm not color blind, but somewhat color challenged. My wife is regularly gets a laugh when I call something green or grey that she says is blue (or vice versa)... I usually don't see it but other people always agree with her So right off the bat a system that uses color matching is not really in my wheelhouse.

That said, I called my wife in to help with the color matching chart. As an experiment I tested my plain tap water, and what she read did not match up with the lab report from a couple years ago. She read 6.0 dead on and my report says 6.5. I have no idea if it is a difference in the water or a misreading, I actually feel like I know less now! So yeah, I can see one of those digital pH meters, with their fancy unambiguous digital displays in my very near future...

Yep! Had the same exact problem with mine. It can be a tricky bitch to match the color in the vial with the colors on the bottle. And even if you get the colors to match perfectly, as I found out on my first grow there's a *world* of difference between say 5.5ph and 6.0ph, especially in hydro! That much of a swing is plenty to jack things up, but using the color scale you'd have no way to know until you see symptoms, then you're already playing catch-up. Ain't nobody got time for that!

 

[SPZ]

Hi guys, got a few more setup updates for you but first I wanted to share some bad news The first grow that I tried with this setup did not go so well and I ended up having to abort. In case anyone wants to emulate this setup let me point out a few mistakes I made!

• After you expand and rinse the coco, you should dry it out in the sun or something so it is bone dry. There is an unknown amount of moisture in the coco after rinsing and it will throw your shit all out of whack if you are trying to follow a known feeding schedule like I was. Expanding, rinsing and drying the coco is frankly so much of a pain in the ass that if you only need a bag or two I would recommend just buying the pre-expanded stuff.
• Buy a pH pen and skip the test solution. As @ANTiFA and other pointed out, the test drops are not precise enough for hydro. I ended up jacking everything up because my pots were full of too much moisture that was the wrong pH.

The grow wasn't a total loss. I salvaged the best two out of five plants, learned a lot, and I'm resetting for my next attempt with the above variables corrected. Now that I got that off my chest, I have some more unboxing porn for ya'll!

 

[PapaEmeritus]

The grow wasn't a total loss. I salvaged the best two out of five plants, learned a lot, and I'm resetting for my next attempt with the above variables corrected. Now that I got that off my chest, I have some more unboxing porn for ya'll!

Man, that sucks! I know that pain though. I first attempted to grow in super soil topped with peat, and botched *six* seeds trying to get something to grow. Glad you were able to salvage a couple, and that new knowledge is gonna get your next run off to a great start. Small sacrifices now for killer bud later, eh?

 

[SPZ]

Man, that sucks! I know that pain though. I first attempted to grow in super soil topped with peat, and botched *six* seeds trying to get something to grow. Glad you were able to salvage a couple, and that new knowledge is gonna get your next run off to a great start. Small sacrifices now for killer bud later, eh?

Haha, yeah should have heeded your warning! I guess sometimes you just gotta make the mistake yourself to learn the lesson!

Needless to say I am now the proud owner of pH pen! The local hydro shop that opened recently only stocks Bluelab and they gave me a really good price on the growers toolbox (significant discount off the sticker price shown if you can make that out) so I jumped on it. This kit includes a pH and and EC pen, plus everything you need get up and running.

Contents exploded: Box, grow book and ph chart (lol for every plant known to man except cannabis), cleaning, storage and calibration solution, sample jars, and the pens themselves. This is a really well thought out kit and a great product. Little things like instead of using a bunch of styrofoam packaging, they actually use the wall chart to hold everything in place in the box.

Here are the actual pens with their quick start guides:

Once you get the pH pen wet, you have to keep the probe moist forever or it dies! The manual says "if it dries, it dies". The integrated cap that is attached to the pen has a little reservoir that you fill with storage solution before you close it.

Here is the pen measuring my tap water, which I now know has an exact pH of 6.4 and an EC of 0!

 

[SPZ]

Some other quick notes on that coco... it turns out that in the model grow I am using Hans uses premium coco that has been buffered. This is a process that removes/deactivates the salts that are bonded to the coco media (and do not wash away with water). Hans also "pre-charges" the coco with a cal-mag solution that further buffers the soil, makes sure the cal/mag is available and works to stabilizes the pH. The coco brick I used is not buffered and I did not pre-charge the media, so that explains some of the problems I had.

 

[SPZ]

Here's some of the info on coco I was able to dig up, TONS of info on AFN

Blue's thread, thanks @archie gemmill for the reference
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/canna-coco-growing-tips.29173/

Excellent guide from CE2
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/c-es-easy-coco-guide-ver-0-3-2013.22649/

From henco
https://www.autoflower.org/threads/coco-coir-explained.37717/

Some articles from around the net

Maximum Yield, sounds like my kind of site
https://www.maximumyield.com/buffer...xchange-capacity-in-coco-growing-media/2/1318

Grow Guru
https://growguru.co.za/buffering-coco-coir/


I bought some premium buffered coco at the local grow shop yesterday, I'm just going to use the brick stuff for house plants. Here is the literature from the back of the bag

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

nice bit of kit that bluelab stuff.
good luck.

 

[Nosias]

@SPZ Sorry to hear about your wipe out...

If we never fail then we seldom learn.

Aug 1st is the date I am shooting for.

 

[SPZ]

@SPZ Sorry to hear about your wipe out...

If we never fail then we seldom learn.

Aug 1st is the date I am shooting for.

Sweet, Nosias, I'm pulling for you!

Yeah I sure learned about coco, ph and buffering the hard way! I've got my next batch of seeds sitting in a wet paper towel now, should be planting them tonight or tomorrow morning. I'll let you know how it goes!

 

[SPZ]

nice bit of kit that bluelab stuff.
good luck.

Yeah it was heavily recommended by BigSm0 and I can see why. A few of my friends have already asked to borrow it for a few readings, lol.

I'll be putting it to good use this weekend, hopefully that is the solution (sorry for that) to my problems!