Tupur Coco and Worm Castings to Start?

[Zootown68]

Hi, all. First post and never grown pot before. Smart voters in Montana have led me here and I'll begin in January

I have a big bag of Tupur Coco Coir and a bag of worm castings. Planning on trying to grow Dutch Passion's Auto Ultimate for my first grow. Couple of questions: Should I start my seeds in a combo of the Tupur and worm castings, or will the castings be too much food for the little buggers just starting out? I don't want to transplant them, so if it's not recommended that I mix in some of the worm at the beginning, should I just add the worm as a tea later on? I assume that I'll need to be adding CalMag along the way.

Also, do any of the classic grow books have extensive autoflower info. I'd like to have some sort of book to reference if possible.

Great to be here and I'm excited to get this show on the road! Thanks to anybody kind enough to chime in!

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

@Zootown68 Welcome to AFN. I have not seen this approach work well. Royal Gold Tupur, pronounced (two-per), was designed with the idea feeding your plant as much and often as possible. It is a blank slate to create your own high performance feeding regimen. As a coco fiber based soilless medium, it requires high levels of calcium and magnesium to unlock its true potential. Soilless means Hydroponics and worm castings moves it more to soil then soiless. This will cause problems in feeding the correct balance of nutrients. I would keep the Tupur and go with a nutrient line designed to run in coco. Do not mix and match vendor lines or products. Individual lines are designed to work together.It is important that you always fertigate (water with nutrients) with balanced nutrients and never a single element. Look into Liebig's Law of the Minimum. I am not saying that organic cannot be done with coco but you really need to be experienced at getting it right.

There are a couple of tools you will need. PH pen and a PH probe. PH is critical in coco. EC - electrical conductivity meter, this measures the strength of the nutrient solution before you feed your plant. Less is always better because it is easy to add more but very difficult to remove if over done. Do not buy cheap tools. I learned this lesson the hard way. An Accurate 8 Soil probe or Blue Lab probe are the only ones I recommend. I run Blue Lab meters but there are some other good ones out there.

Temperature and Hygrometer in the grow space. Cannabis does best at 68°F night time and 78°F daytime with 40% to 60% Relative Humidity.

There is so much more to getting across the finish line but fear not everything you need to learn is right here on AFN. Study Study Study.

 

[Arthur]

Don't mix coco and soil, pick one or the other. While we have seen a few of these grows finish, honestly the plants are always small and have health issues.

I grow in both, have for years, but not together.
Man-o-green is spot on with his recommendations.

 

[Zootown68]

Thanks to you both for the great info. I've been reading over at Coco for Cannabis most of the day and learned a ton today! I'll be taking the Worm back and exchanging for General Hydroponics prods.

Extremely grateful for the help and it'll be off to the races come January. Excited for this journey and so happy that I didn't start in the 70s or 80s w/o the Internet!