My First Grow

[SneakyReefer]

Hi all,

After years of growing corals, I thought I'd try my hand at growing some plants... Partly because I have horrible connections and was tired of paying $50 1/8 when my other unreliable source faltered (often). I researched for about a week, but there's a lot to learn and a lot of conflicting info. Details of my first grow that I'm 35 days into...

Using coco coir in 5 gallon cloth pots blended with 1/4-1/3 perlite and general hydroponics nutes, LED lights almost identical to the spider light 2500 in a 48x24 grow tent.

I screwed up a few things early and watered the hell out of them for the first week with small nutrient additions. Leaves yellowed and they grew slow... I didn't think one would make it past two tiny leaves, two looked sad, one looked great despite the overwatering and the nutes mistake. But, the two with yellowed leaves bounced back after some corrections and the future layers of leaves have been green and healthy looking. Growing white widow from ILGM. Some questions...

At this stage should I be watering every day?

Should I start using the bloom nutes? I was not for the first 4 weeks, but added a little in my last water.

Should I always water to the point of runoff now?

Any tips on how much of each of the 3 additives? I've been doing 3ml of each per gallon with 3 ml of calmag, but am about to go heavier.

Any tips on how to dry when odors are a concern? Seems curing and drying is done so many different ways...

Thanks so much, looking forward to being a part of the community and really enjoying the hobby so far! Hopefully I'll have harvest questions in a couple weeks if I don't screw anything up too much!

 

[420Forever]

Hi all,

After years of growing corals, I thought I'd try my hand at growing some plants... Partly because I have horrible connections and was tired of paying $50 1/8 when my other unreliable source faltered (often). I researched for about a week, but there's a lot to learn and a lot of conflicting info. Details of my first grow that I'm 35 days into...

Using coco coir in 5 gallon cloth pots blended with 1/4-1/3 perlite and general hydroponics nutes, LED lights almost identical to the spider light 2500 in a 48x24 grow tent.

I screwed up a few things early and watered the hell out of them for the first week with small nutrient additions. Leaves yellowed and they grew slow... I didn't think one would make it past two tiny leaves, two looked sad, one looked great despite the overwatering and the nutes mistake. But, the two with yellowed leaves bounced back after some corrections and the future layers of leaves have been green and healthy looking. Growing white widow from ILGM. Some questions...

At this stage should I be watering every day?

Should I start using the bloom nutes? I was not for the first 4 weeks, but added a little in my last water.

Should I always water to the point of runoff now?

Any tips on how much of each of the 3 additives? I've been doing 3ml of each per gallon with 3 ml of calmag, but am about to go heavier.

Any tips on how to dry when odors are a concern? Seems curing and drying is done so many different ways...

Thanks so much, looking forward to being a part of the community and really enjoying the hobby so far! Hopefully I'll have harvest questions in a couple weeks if I don't screw anything up too much!

heya @SneakyReefer Happee New Year & and to afn! sorry, me not a coconut, so can't help ya much, but otherz will chime in & anything else u need, jus give a holler

ppp &

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

@SneakyReefer Welcome to AFN So coco is a specialized form of hydroponics. The results can be very good but you need skills to get to harvest. These are basic questions so forgive me if they are redundant. Did you wash and pre-charge the coco? Do you own a good quality EC meter and a PH pen? What do your plants look like. You do not apply nutrients by the calendar but by the maturity of the plant. You do not push a plant with nutrients you simply make available what the plant wants when it wants it.

You never water coco. You always fertigate coco. You do not need to fertigate every day but on days that you do you need to fertigate to ~20% run-off. Not fertigating every day runs contrary to the reason for using coco as a substrate in the first place. That is to present fresh balanced nutrients to the plant many times a day. You must understand "Balanced"nutrients in hydro as it is unforgiving of excess nutrients.

This chart is not in EC it is in weight PPM/liter. It is designed to give you the balance range for the elements in relation to each other. In order for a fertilizer to be in balance ALL of the elements must be present in the ranges displayed. It can be a really big range for many of them. Lets just look at the top 3 for example NPK 100,30,100 - 250,50,300 - 180,40,200 are all combinations that are in balance 50,50,300 is out of balance and can cause lock-outs.

Which nutrient schedule are you following?

All of this presupposes you have the environment in parameters as well. Fresh air, Temps 68°F night 78° day RH >40%<60% lights 18/6.

 

[SneakyReefer]

heya @SneakyReefer Happee New Year & and to afn! sorry, me not a coconut, so can't help ya much, but otherz will chime in & anything else u need, jus give a holler

ppp &

Thanks my friend, much appreciated! Happy new year to you as well!

 

[SneakyReefer]

Here are a couple images from tonight.

I was cramming with research, so I’ve been following a chart I saw for GH nutes while I continued to learn. Basically I’ve been doing 2.5 ml of each additive at the start, then stopped, then started back up after a week and a half. I’ll do some calculations tomorrow and get back to you regarding ppm.

Water is zero TDS RO/DI water. Ph balanced with a little lemon juice if needed to 6.0 of my PH meter. I am not testing runoff, but will start. Lights are on 24/7, though I gave the seedlings 20/4 for the first two weeks. The plants are on the bottom of the true tent, I’m seeing that’s not a good thing, correct? So will take care of that tomorrow.

RH was 70% for the first two weeks, 65% the following week, and now I’m at 50%.

Temp is currently holding steady at 79, though I was around 80-85 for the first 3 weeks dipping to 75 when lights out.

Thanks so much for the guidance! Please let me know that you think regarding health and anything you think I’m screwing up.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[nizmoKush]

 

[SneakyReefer]

@SneakyReefer Welcome to AFN So coco is a specialized form of hydroponics. The results can be very good but you need skills to get to harvest. These are basic questions so forgive me if they are redundant. Did you wash and pre-charge the coco? Do you own a good quality EC meter and a PH pen? What do your plants look like. You do not apply nutrients by the calendar but by the maturity of the plant. You do not push a plant with nutrients you simply make available what the plant wants when it wants it.

You never water coco. You always fertigate coco. You do not need to fertigate every day but on days that you do you need to fertigate to ~20% run-off. Not fertigating every day runs contrary to the reason for using coco as a substrate in the first place. That is to present fresh balanced nutrients to the plant many times a day. You must understand "Balanced"nutrients in hydro as it is unforgiving of excess nutrients.

This chart is not in EC it is in weight PPM/liter. It is designed to give you the balance range for the elements in relation to each other. In order for a fertilizer to be in balance ALL of the elements must be present in the ranges displayed. It can be a really big range for many of them. Lets just look at the top 3 for example NPK 100,30,100 - 250,50,300 - 180,40,200 are all combinations that are in balance 50,50,300 is out of balance and can cause lock-outs.
View attachment 1273785

Which nutrient schedule are you following?

All of this presupposes you have the environment in parameters as well. Fresh air, Temps 68°F night 78° day RH >40%<60% lights 18/6.

One last thing, I did not do anything to my coco coir other than add 0 TDS water and perlite. Hopefully I dodged a bullet.

Thanks again!

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

One last thing, I did not do anything to my coco coir other than add 0 TDS water and perlite. Hopefully I dodged a bullet.

Thanks again!

No, I think you missed the most important point - you never water coco! You must always fertigate coco (fertigating is watering with a balanced nutrient solution).

 

[SneakyReefer]

Thanks brotha! So... if I keep growing this way I’m going to be called a coconut? I assume that’s because it’s the more difficult route? Figures, I tend to do that...

 

[420Forever]

Thanks brotha! So... if I keep growing this way I’m going to be called a coconut? I assume that’s because it’s the more difficult route? Figures, I tend to do that...

lol...quite simply, coconut = slang term for person who growz in coco and in other newz, what'z that pic ppp