Noob 1st time set up advice.

[The Ginga Ninja]

This is a no brainer - RoyalGoldCoco.com - The Mendo Mix (start nutes around week 4). The growers in Sierra foothills on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley buy this by the semi-truck load. It is made in Mendocino. I have not used it but they swear by it. A lot of hydro shops in SoCal carry it in stock. The other products by them are equally good but for a new grower I would stick to the Mendo Mix and MegaCrop.

Man O'Green you are truly the man. I ended up branching out a little further and found a spectacular hydro shop. The one close to me was pretty terrible. The shop owner pointed me directly to Royal gold after hearing my woes. I went with the Turpur which they had for $10 a bag.

I also got some cloneX 1-0.6-1
Advanced nutrients connoisseur bloom A and B which were half off and some BT because apparently my area has an insane caterpillar problem.

Thanks for the solid advice. I definitely feel like I have a better shot this go around.

Lesson learned: know what's in your medium

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Man O'Green you are truly the man. I ended up branching out a little further and found a spectacular hydro shop. The one close to me was pretty terrible. The shop owner pointed me directly to Royal gold after hearing my woes. I went with the Turpur which they had for $10 a bag.

I also got some cloneX 1-0.6-1
Advanced nutrients connoisseur bloom A and B which were half off and some BT because apparently my area has an insane caterpillar problem.

Thanks for the solid advice. I definitely feel like I have a better shot this go around.

Lesson learned: know what's in your medium

Ok I would suggest going to the coco thread and read all you can about growing in coco. It is a pure hydro style so Your PH and EC meters are of paramount importance. Most peeps mix in some perlite to help with water retention. I personally recommend some Yucca Powder for your surfactant.

Your suction pumps will come in handy because you want to fertigate to ~15% run-off every day. If you can raise the plants and put a catch basin it will make it easier than a plant tray and will prevent wicking.

 

[The Ginga Ninja]

Ok I would suggest going to the coco thread and read all you can about growing in coco. It is a pure hydro style so Your PH and EC meters are of paramount importance. Most peeps mix in some perlite to help with water retention. I personally recommend some Yucca Powder for your surfactant.

Your suction pumps will come in handy because you want to fertigate to ~15% run-off every day. If you can raise the plants and put a catch basin it will make it easier than a plant tray and will prevent wicking.

Thanks again @Mañ'O'Green I'll head to that thread and begin some knowledge osmosis. I started germing my next run a couple hours ago. Going to try 1 at a time until I get the hang of the first couple weeks. Going paper towel method this time for germ. Also added in some Black Sabbath on vinyl playing in the background. Figured it couldn't hurt.

 

[AutoWonders]

Distilled water

Just want to double check that you know not to feed your plants "only distilled water". An additive of some kind is needed to ph correctly. Same for RO and filtered.

 

[The Ginga Ninja]

Just want to double check that you know not to feed your plants "only distilled water". An additive of some kind is needed to ph correctly. Same for RO and filtered.

Yes I'm aware. I'm using RO water, pH up and down as needed and fortifying with Cal-mag. I use the distilled to clean my instruments and dilute whatever need diluting. Also comes in handy as a control when I'm experimenting...it's a nice blank pallette.

Thanks for checking though.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Yes I'm aware. I'm using RO water, pH up and down as needed and fortifying with Cal-mag. I use the distilled to clean my instruments and dilute whatever need diluting. Also comes in handy as a control when I'm experimenting...it's a nice blank pallette.

Thanks for checking though.

Never use distilled or RO water to clean and/or store your PH/EC meters, just use tap water to rinse and storage solution for storage.

 

[St. Tom]

@The Ginga Ninja nice to meet you my friend i see my friend @Mañ'O'Green has helped you with your equipment and i will tag along but a word of warning this hobby gets proper addictive also i see your using a 4x4 tent that's my size setup and i can get 4 decent sized plants in there

 

[The Ginga Ninja]

Never use distilled or RO water to clean and/or store your PH/EC meters, just use tap water to rinse and storage solution for storage.

Hmmmm. The instructions in the package said to rinse with distilled water after each use, then store in storage solution.

I just did some general research on pH pens and you are definitely correct. It seems the manual I got with the pen is different than the manual that Milwaukee has online. The manual with the pen says to never store it in 7 buffer solution, but the online manual says to do exactly that. Odd.

Pen is calibrated and reading correctly in 7.0 and 4.0 so hopefully no harm done. Thanks for the insight.

 

[The Ginga Ninja]

@The Ginga Ninja nice to meet you my friend i see my friend @Mañ'O'Green has helped you with your equipment and i will tag along but a word of warning this hobby gets proper addictive also i see your using a 4x4 tent that's my size setup and i can get 4 decent sized plants in there

Well met St. Tom. I know what you mean...I'm already off the deep end. Started out as something to keep me busy during quarantine...just throw some seeds in the dirt outside and see what happens. 3 weeks later I'm setting up an indoor Coco grow. Wild.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Well met St. Tom. I know what you mean...I'm already off the deep end. Started out as something to keep me busy during quarantine...just throw some seeds in the dirt outside and see what happens. 3 weeks later I'm setting up an indoor Coco grow. Wild.

Just wait until your seed collection time to grow out exceeds your potential remaining lifetime x 2

Hmmmm. The instructions in the package said to rinse with distilled water after each use, then store in storage solution.

I just did some general research on pH pens and you are definitely correct. It seems the manual I got with the pen is different than the manual that Milwaukee has online. The manual with the pen says to never store it in 7 buffer solution, but the online manual says to do exactly that. Odd.

Pen is calibrated and reading correctly in 7.0 and 4.0 so hopefully no harm done. Thanks for the insight.

I suppose you think I learned that the easy way I lost six Photo plants a month before harvest because I believed my PH pen until it was too late.

I have a back-up for my back-up now.