Grow Mediums [Canna] Coco Growing Tips

[Mr greenhorn]

Hi blue, awesome thread, Just what I've been looking for!

This is my first post after doing a fair bit of research on here for the last few days. I'm still learning tho so go easy on me haha

I'm still in the process of getting everything I need for my first grow, should be ready by next week fingers crossed. I decided to go with canna nutrients after a lot of searching around. thought I'd get the cal mag as well as I live in a soft water area.

Tap water ec is 0146 ppm is 0076.

For better or worse I decided to go for ecothrive coco from growell, its pre charged with mealworm shit. Meant to be good for establishing healthy roots and better growth. Hope it's ok, after reading your thread I kinda wish I'd gone for the canna pro but too late now lol!

Here's the link:
https://www.growell.co.uk/growing-media/ecothrive-charged-coco.html

see what you think if you get a chance

still a bit unsure on the feeding schedule, I've looked at the canna chart so I got a rough idea with the a+b but unsure if I should use the cannazym and rhizotonic every time I feed them...don't want to cook them.

I'll be getting the boost and pk13/14 at some point but holding out until I need it as the boost is crazy expensive! Also when it comes to using the pk13/14 do you feed it the whole week or just once?

Going to start a journal once I've got everything together as I'm sure I'll need all the help I can get!

Any advice is greatly appreciated

 

[blue]

View attachment 828864 Hi blue, awesome thread, Just what I've been looking for!

This is my first post after doing a fair bit of research on here for the last few days. I'm still learning tho so go easy on me haha

I'm still in the process of getting everything I need for my first grow, should be ready by next week fingers crossed. I decided to go with canna nutrients after a lot of searching around. thought I'd get the cal mag as well as I live in a soft water area.

Tap water ec is 0146 ppm is 0076.

For better or worse I decided to go for ecothrive coco from growell, its pre charged with mealworm shit. Meant to be good for establishing healthy roots and better growth. Hope it's ok, after reading your thread I kinda wish I'd gone for the canna pro but too late now lol!

Here's the link:
https://www.growell.co.uk/growing-media/ecothrive-charged-coco.html

see what you think if you get a chance

still a bit unsure on the feeding schedule, I've looked at the canna chart so I got a rough idea with the a+b but unsure if I should use the cannazym and rhizotonic every time I feed them...don't want to cook them.

I'll be getting the boost and pk13/14 at some point but holding out until I need it as the boost is crazy expensive! Also when it comes to using the pk13/14 do you feed it the whole week or just once?

Going to start a journal once I've got everything together as I'm sure I'll need all the help I can get!

Any advice is greatly appreciated

Hi There! - First post in my old thread! Woop!! ^_^

It's a good lineup.

Don't worry about the Rhizotonic - it's good to use and wont burn your plants. Fishy goodness for the roots!

PK13/14 .... Meh! I'd get Dutch Pro Explode personally (you can buy a little bottle, but it's still super pricey!)
Boost - Definately, it's expensive but worth the money in my opinion. In my experience it reduces the chances of fluffy buds.

The coco ... personally from that shop with the canna lineup, i'd have gone for Canna Coco Pro Plus as a medium, it just makes sense to me, but i'm sure the ecothrive will be fine!

Tips:

• Make sure to add an equal amount of A&B every time.
  
• Check EC after adding nutes (before adding PH down)
  
• PH to 5.8 (after adding nutes and checking EC)
  
• If you go too far (not that it really matters because there's a range of 5.6-6.2ph you can happily grow in) you can add a bit of Rhizotonic to bring the PH back up.
• Use boost from the onset of flowers and build up the dosage as the buds get bigger - starting at something like 10ml per litre.
  
• Use PK addition at half the amount of the boost for good bud formation.
  
• Drip systems are nice, but hand watering to 10% run off should help rid your coco of any salt buildups.

Good Luck!

 

[Mr greenhorn]

Hi There! - First post in my old thread! Woop!! ^_^

It's a good lineup.

Don't worry about the Rhizotonic - it's good to use and wont burn your plants. Fishy goodness for the roots!

PK13/14 .... Meh! I'd get Dutch Pro Explode personally (you can buy a little bottle, but it's still super pricey!)
Boost - Definately, it's expensive but worth the money in my opinion. In my experience it reduces the chances of fluffy buds.

The coco ... personally from that shop with the canna lineup, i'd have gone for Canna Coco Pro Plus as a medium, it just makes sense to me, but i'm sure the ecothrive will be fine!

Tips:

• Make sure to add an equal amount of A&B every time.
  
• Check EC after adding nutes (before adding PH down)
  
• PH to 5.8 (after adding nutes and checking EC)
  
• If you go too far (not that it really matters because there's a range of 5.6-6.2ph you can happily grow in) you can add a bit of Rhizotonic to bring the PH back up.
• Use boost from the onset of flowers and build up the dosage as the buds get bigger - starting at something like 10ml per litre.
  
• Use PK addition at half the amount of the boost for good bud formation.
  
• Drip systems are nice, but hand watering to 10% run off should help rid your coco of any salt buildups.

Good Luck!

Hey thanks for the tips blue, really appreciate your help!

I wish I'd have chose the canna pro + just to eliminate any problems I might get with that ecothrive, can't seem to find any other grower using it to compare results but hey I'll try my best with it.

Just a few more questions for you, sorry to be a pain in the arse....

I went onto the canna website and think I'm going to go with the light feeding schedule, it's says for starting/rooting to use 7.4 ml of each a+b per 5L, do think that would be too much a+b? A lot of people say start at 1/2 or even 1/4 of their recommended amount.

Also, how much canna boost do you think I'll need for the whole grow? I'll be growing 4 autos in total. I was going to get just a 250ml bottle but guessing I'll need a 1L bottle to see me through.

I got a good deal with the pk13/14, 1L for the same price as 250ml I'll see how the pk goes and try the Dutch pro next time to compare.

Can't think of anything else to pick your brains about lol

Thanks again for your help blue, your experience is invaluable to me as a newbie to growing!

 

[Dr. Babnik]

Is it important to discard the run-off?
I starting my first coco grow today and feel like I did when I got my first plants 2 yrs ago.

 

[blue]

Is it important to discard the run-off?
I starting my first coco grow today and feel like I did when I got my first plants 2 yrs ago.

Its not good to let the plant sit in run off ... it'll wick it back up. If space is tight, you can put your pot on little stilts (feet) to raise it from the ground and just leave the run off in the tray to evaporate.
It leaves the tray nasty/dirty at the end of a grow... but caused no ill effect for me.

 

[blue]

Hey thanks for the tips blue, really appreciate your help!

I wish I'd have chose the canna pro + just to eliminate any problems I might get with that ecothrive, can't seem to find any other grower using it to compare results but hey I'll try my best with it.

Just a few more questions for you, sorry to be a pain in the arse....

I went onto the canna website and think I'm going to go with the light feeding schedule, it's says for starting/rooting to use 7.4 ml of each a+b per 5L, do think that would be too much a+b? A lot of people say start at 1/2 or even 1/4 of their recommended amount.

Also, how much canna boost do you think I'll need for the whole grow? I'll be growing 4 autos in total. I was going to get just a 250ml bottle but guessing I'll need a 1L bottle to see me through.

I got a good deal with the pk13/14, 1L for the same price as 250ml I'll see how the pk goes and try the Dutch pro next time to compare.

Can't think of anything else to pick your brains about lol

Thanks again for your help blue, your experience is invaluable to me as a newbie to growing!

Sorry i missed this one Mr Greenhorn! I've just seen your thread and you seem to be rocking it just fine!!

When i used to grow seriously in coco, i'd be feeding by EC rather than ml per litre. So i'd be starting a 1.0EC and then building up from there. It's a bit of a pain at first .. but you soon get used to roughly how much nutes in however much water will get roughly to where you want to be.

I'd be checking my final EC BEFORE adding PH down to get to 5.8.
If you go a little too far ... adding a small amount of Rhizo will bring it back up (but not loads) ... if you accidentally go crazy with PH down and ec is at like 5.2 .. i'd bin it off and start again. So be careful lol or you can waste an aweful lot of time with this.

I now grow organically with autopots so don't have to do anything. (a consequence of life getting busy)

Looks like you got around 4 weeks left on yours - so you're on the home straight now

 

[Dr. Babnik]

Its not good to let the plant sit in run off ... it'll wick it back up. If space is tight, you can put your pot on little stilts (feet) to raise it from the ground and just leave the run off in the tray to evaporate.
It leaves the tray nasty/dirty at the end of a grow... but caused no ill effect for me.

Thank you, @blue!

 

[Slater]

Been a bit since I posted so I thought I would add this thread as its been one of my go to threads for coco this past year...
every thing @blue has said is bang on and gold mine in info. Thank you blue for getting me stared on coco.

What I would like to add and this is just my method of things I could be wrong but its working for me at the moment...

if you wish to save on nutes you don't have to feed to run off with every water. I drip feed just enough over 4 watering through out the day. To combat any slat build up, when my tank gets down to the last few liters (I run a 40ltr tank for 6 plants) I top up with RO water (enough to make sure of good run off) to make a weak nute solution as Blue has suggested and then run that through to leach any salt build up in the pots. Fill the tank up let them dry out for a day then start the feeding schedule again... its around the 4-6th day depending on how thirsty the plants when I change the tank (I do a full tank clean and rez change every 2 weeks)

How I work out a drip feed schedule to get run off... ( I do this every 2 weeks)
I let my pots dry our for a day.
Water until run off and time it to the sec... with my pump (time depends on your pump and dippers) and my 12ltr pots it takes about 2mins (1.52sec to be precises on the zombie kush I got going at the moment) until I get run off... strain, plant, medium and pot dependent
I divide that time by how many feeds I wish to do... my first feed is always longer by 5-10secs and I time the last feed for 2 hrs before lights out. If you have the time dialed in the last 2 watering should give you your run off.

If you wish to have no run off take about 15 - 30sec of the time but be careful and make sure you test the pot weight every other day because you are just guessing on how much they are drinking (to be super precise and work out what they are drinking get the scales out and weight the pot). Then adjust your time accordingly to what you think the plants want. You can't be lazy with method, you need to be on top of it all the way... Lazy growers stick to the run off method, you can't go wrong.

When to time those feeds... well that's up to you really and the plants, I like to feed and hour after lights on then ever 2 - 3 hrs depending on how many feeds I wish to do. You got to work out your own system for this, I stick to a regular timing every 2nd to 3rd hour so the plants get into a feeding routine.

Since I have been watering with no run off, I have found to be having the same results in not a little better as with run off and no joke I have saved over half the amount of nutes for the one grow, that's some really good savings... I would normally go through 2 - 3 tanks a week sometimes 4 but now I'm down to 1 -2 tanks a week depending on which week they are on in flower.

 

[blue]

Thanks for the great post @Slater



I completely agree that watering to run off should not be necessary if your watering regime is optimal.

I'm no scientist - but believe the salt buid ups occur as the medium dries - so keeping the medium at the optimal moisture and nutirent level throughout the grow should relieve the need for run off!

Thanks again, - glad this thread has been useful for some!!

 

[Blackanwhite1]

Hi There! - First post in my old thread! Woop!! ^_^

It's a good lineup.

Don't worry about the Rhizotonic - it's good to use and wont burn your plants. Fishy goodness for the roots!

PK13/14 .... Meh! I'd get Dutch Pro Explode personally (you can buy a little bottle, but it's still super pricey!)
Boost - Definately, it's expensive but worth the money in my opinion. In my experience it reduces the chances of fluffy buds.

The coco ... personally from that shop with the canna lineup, i'd have gone for Canna Coco Pro Plus as a medium, it just makes sense to me, but i'm sure the ecothrive will be fine!

Tips:

• Make sure to add an equal amount of A&B every time.
  
• Check EC after adding nutes (before adding PH down)
  
• PH to 5.8 (after adding nutes and checking EC)
  
• If you go too far (not that it really matters because there's a range of 5.6-6.2ph you can happily grow in) you can add a bit of Rhizotonic to bring the PH back up.
• Use boost from the onset of flowers and build up the dosage as the buds get bigger - starting at something like 10ml per litre.
  
• Use PK addition at half the amount of the boost for good bud formation.
  
• Drip systems are nice, but hand watering to 10% run off should help rid your coco of any salt buildups.

Good Luck!

Hi @blue fantastic information. Thank you. I have been growing in Coco off and on for about 10 years and here we are still learning!!

Now I have only started introducing the measurement of EC into my grows on this grow I’m on now. You mentioned to check EC before adding ph down. I think that has what’s been throwing me off! Does the ph down alter the EC measurement?

Thanks in advance.