Im on my first Auto-Grow with a mixture of perlite & coco.
This was real helpful , Thanx :High 5:
This was real helpful , Thanx :High 5:
Grow Mediums What Truu knows about Coco
- Thread starter Truu
- Start date
Ok guys I want to share some of my own experiences here. I've been pretty excited about some of the research I've been doing and some theories that I've been testing out. I was always taught that to be the most successful with coco it's all about pot size and feedings. Like I've been stating coco is fully capable of competing with hydro and if setup properly it can be 90% less maintenance then hydro. If you want to get started on the road to success, get your learning cap on and have an open mind to this info.
First I will reinstate some things I've posted in earlier times of the coco forum. Coco is a soil-less growing medium. So, let's delete all ideas we have about coco and it's relation to soil. Coco will hold a considerable amount of oxygen even when fully saturated! So this opens up the ability to feed more often in a day. Being able to feed more times a day has many benefits. Fresh oxygen is given to the roots at every watering, fresh food for the plant, salts being washed out, and it's allowing for the coco to maintain a steady ph level if done right.
Now since we are feeding multiple times a day we need to consider the amount of food the plant will receive. Just like body building (because we are building bulk for plants!) the plants need small meals throughout the day to keep their metabolism going. So, in simple terms, they will enjoy a SMALLER dosage with multiple feeds rather than a large dose. You will see your plants thrive when they get a well developed root system. I've found that feeding multiple times a day for a few days, and then giving them a day of no feedings or water really tends to make them go crazy.
Now we can discuss roots. I strongly suggest using a root stimulator for early development, and also mixing in or watering in something with beneficial bacteria and enzymes (such as great white, I personally use a product called rad roots and it's a quarter the price of great white and works excellent). It's very important to buffer you coco with the first actual feeding you will be giving your seedlings. For the first week I will water everyday once a day to help keep the humidity level up for the new borns. The second week I will water every other day to allow the roots to go in search of water. The third week (depending on strain) I can bump them up to 2 feedings a day and they will explode! after the roots are fully established they can really take whatever you can throw at them. I like to keep my feedings at 3x a day for veg and 5x a day when they are in heavy growth at the beginning of flowering, once stretch stops I'll lower to 3x and late in flower I'll feed 1-2x depending on how fast they dry out. Keep in mind light feedings!
So light feedings hmm truu? Well your gal dern right. As stated above, we are making john cena plants! Big bulky energetic well trained plants. So first thing to start with is diet! We want to keep our feedings generally in the 600-800 ppm range. Rarely ever will I go over, but depending on strain I may need to. However most plants I've grown with this method enjoy the ppm around 750. Don't get to high or they will get burned, you wouldn't want to stuff your face 3-5 times a day and work all day! It's also a good idea to have short but slow as possible feedings. We want to water till we get 10-15% runoff of water that has been watered. Keep it slow so the water has a chance to reach all areas of pots. My feedings start off at 30 seconds early in plant life. By the time the roots are fully established I'm watering 1-2 min every feeding. They drink the water so fast that they dry out the pot and it takes more water to saturate. But this is what we want, fast eating/drinking and plenty of oxygen, the key to success!
Now to one of the most important factors that make all this work is, pot size! Smaller is better! I've grown 10oz plants in 1.5 gallon pots, and never transplanted! Yes I know your thinking no way I'm crazy. But remember, this is not soil! You were supposed to delete those thoughts!! When you harvest your plAnts and look at your roots you will be wondering where did all the coco go!
You must have proper drainage with your pots. I use grow bags with lots of holes poked in the bottom and it works just fine. I advise using no more than 1.5 gal pots for autos and plants not vegged longer than 1 month. If you want to veg for 2-3 months go with a 2.5 gal pot and no more!! Of course if you're growing A tree you need a big pot. If you go with a 2-3 gal pot your feeding times will be much slower and you will not reap the benefits of multiple feedings! It's very important to understand that we are creating a hydro like growing style. Dry out times for coco are very important! That is the true success to coco. And your quality of coco may affect this important factor!
Next thing is to properly maintain your plants. Trim those damn monster fan leaves! If you are going to use my system of growing you will notice your plants growing fans that are way to big. These are used to store water and are NOT beneficial to your plant. Here's why, your plant is being fed and trained like body builder. It gets a 5 star meal perfected to its needs 3-5 times a day. Why would it need to store water? Why would it need to shade the lower future bud producers! We don't want that, we want to grant maximum light to those lower branches and allow them to grow to the same height as the main branch! My weekly routine is to pluck all leaves that are shading lower branches. And to allow light through the top canopy. I do this once a week and by the 3rd day after they already have giant fans blocking light again! So don't worry they will not be stunted by you plucking. Start doing this when they become to shady at a young age. By the time they reach 3 weeks they won't even care you removed 80% of their water storage! Notice the nice even canopy of my plants. This is achieved just by me plucking useless shade leaves. And I plucked them 3 days ago!
By plucking you will also help the plants allow better air flow through them. I used to think that temps were not an important key to success, that as long as I kept it below 90 and above 60 they will be fine. Well this is true, but they need to have perfect temps to really get that huge explosion of growth. Keeping temps between 73-79f works best for me. And try to keep you temps close to the same when lights go off. The closer the better, this will slow stretch during night times and slow perspiration during the day.
Now I want to talk about your setup. You need to build your setup according to your needs and the plants needs. So unless you stay at home all day everyday and are able to water your plants 3-5 times a day at the same time everyday, you need these important things.
Timers
a way to catch waste water
pumps
resevoir
Drip rings/tubing
drip manifold for multiple plants
Those are the important things that go with daily feedings. This is the only way you will achieve the results I speak of. I will go into detail about my setup. I believe that it is the perfect setup for myself and plenty of others out there! My ease of maintenece daily is almost nothing to 10-15 min A day.
First and most important is drainage and waste catching. With 3 feedings a day the waste drainage builds up quickly. So you need a way for the plants to sit in 1 place without ever being moved and catch runoff for multiple plants. My solution to this? A DIY table easily built in a couple hours. It's basically a table frame, with wire mesh with 1/4 holes that the plants sit on. My table is 18" tall (enough to allow 5gAl bucket underneath. On the bottom side of my table I took black polyvinyl plastic and stapled it to the bottom of my table (make sure it's tight on all sides). Next cut a whole in the very center of the plastic, take a Ernie ball jar lid (the screw on ring part) and wedge it between the table and the plastic. What this has done is made the plastic slope towards your center hole in the plastic. When the runoff drops out the bottom of the pots on to the plastic, the slope of the plastic makes the water run down to your hole cut In the plastic. Now place a 5 gal bucket under the hole and viola! You now have an effective way to catch waste water 24/7!! The black plastic also helps to shade under your table. This allows me to keep my res away from my grow room lights to keep things from growing. I also store all my nutrients and spare water under there. It's a cool dark place to keep things out of the light!
In the pics you can see what I'm talking about with my setup.
So my plants are stationary, I can move them anywhere in my room and still have proper drainage, All I have to do is make a fresh batch of nutrients whenever they run out of water. It's thAt simple. I'm getting these amazing hydro results, and I'm doing hardly any of the work hydro requires!
If you want to be a master of coco coir take my advice. I promise you, you will not be disappointed! I now can only veg for 1 month, they are becoming to big even again month! My root mass is just astonishing after 27 days from seed. If you feed lightly you will save nutrients and get better results. Dialing this type of growing in is not hard. And the best thing I love about coco is that I have found in my experience that a huge 2 week flush isn't even necessary. I've had my friends try a flushed plant and a plant that was flushed twice and they couldn't tell the difference!
The plants in the pic are my new experiments. I have a keeper mother in there that is just the most amazing smoke/plant I've ever grown. I truely do love her lol. She is the one next to the tape measure. The plants are 27 days old FROM SEED. The pic of the roots is a male that I pulled at day 25. Any questions/suggestions please feel free to ask!
First I will reinstate some things I've posted in earlier times of the coco forum. Coco is a soil-less growing medium. So, let's delete all ideas we have about coco and it's relation to soil. Coco will hold a considerable amount of oxygen even when fully saturated! So this opens up the ability to feed more often in a day. Being able to feed more times a day has many benefits. Fresh oxygen is given to the roots at every watering, fresh food for the plant, salts being washed out, and it's allowing for the coco to maintain a steady ph level if done right.
Now since we are feeding multiple times a day we need to consider the amount of food the plant will receive. Just like body building (because we are building bulk for plants!) the plants need small meals throughout the day to keep their metabolism going. So, in simple terms, they will enjoy a SMALLER dosage with multiple feeds rather than a large dose. You will see your plants thrive when they get a well developed root system. I've found that feeding multiple times a day for a few days, and then giving them a day of no feedings or water really tends to make them go crazy.
Now we can discuss roots. I strongly suggest using a root stimulator for early development, and also mixing in or watering in something with beneficial bacteria and enzymes (such as great white, I personally use a product called rad roots and it's a quarter the price of great white and works excellent). It's very important to buffer you coco with the first actual feeding you will be giving your seedlings. For the first week I will water everyday once a day to help keep the humidity level up for the new borns. The second week I will water every other day to allow the roots to go in search of water. The third week (depending on strain) I can bump them up to 2 feedings a day and they will explode! after the roots are fully established they can really take whatever you can throw at them. I like to keep my feedings at 3x a day for veg and 5x a day when they are in heavy growth at the beginning of flowering, once stretch stops I'll lower to 3x and late in flower I'll feed 1-2x depending on how fast they dry out. Keep in mind light feedings!
So light feedings hmm truu? Well your gal dern right. As stated above, we are making john cena plants! Big bulky energetic well trained plants. So first thing to start with is diet! We want to keep our feedings generally in the 600-800 ppm range. Rarely ever will I go over, but depending on strain I may need to. However most plants I've grown with this method enjoy the ppm around 750. Don't get to high or they will get burned, you wouldn't want to stuff your face 3-5 times a day and work all day! It's also a good idea to have short but slow as possible feedings. We want to water till we get 10-15% runoff of water that has been watered. Keep it slow so the water has a chance to reach all areas of pots. My feedings start off at 30 seconds early in plant life. By the time the roots are fully established I'm watering 1-2 min every feeding. They drink the water so fast that they dry out the pot and it takes more water to saturate. But this is what we want, fast eating/drinking and plenty of oxygen, the key to success!
Now to one of the most important factors that make all this work is, pot size! Smaller is better! I've grown 10oz plants in 1.5 gallon pots, and never transplanted! Yes I know your thinking no way I'm crazy. But remember, this is not soil! You were supposed to delete those thoughts!! When you harvest your plAnts and look at your roots you will be wondering where did all the coco go!
You must have proper drainage with your pots. I use grow bags with lots of holes poked in the bottom and it works just fine. I advise using no more than 1.5 gal pots for autos and plants not vegged longer than 1 month. If you want to veg for 2-3 months go with a 2.5 gal pot and no more!! Of course if you're growing A tree you need a big pot. If you go with a 2-3 gal pot your feeding times will be much slower and you will not reap the benefits of multiple feedings! It's very important to understand that we are creating a hydro like growing style. Dry out times for coco are very important! That is the true success to coco. And your quality of coco may affect this important factor!
Next thing is to properly maintain your plants. Trim those damn monster fan leaves! If you are going to use my system of growing you will notice your plants growing fans that are way to big. These are used to store water and are NOT beneficial to your plant. Here's why, your plant is being fed and trained like body builder. It gets a 5 star meal perfected to its needs 3-5 times a day. Why would it need to store water? Why would it need to shade the lower future bud producers! We don't want that, we want to grant maximum light to those lower branches and allow them to grow to the same height as the main branch! My weekly routine is to pluck all leaves that are shading lower branches. And to allow light through the top canopy. I do this once a week and by the 3rd day after they already have giant fans blocking light again! So don't worry they will not be stunted by you plucking. Start doing this when they become to shady at a young age. By the time they reach 3 weeks they won't even care you removed 80% of their water storage! Notice the nice even canopy of my plants. This is achieved just by me plucking useless shade leaves. And I plucked them 3 days ago!
By plucking you will also help the plants allow better air flow through them. I used to think that temps were not an important key to success, that as long as I kept it below 90 and above 60 they will be fine. Well this is true, but they need to have perfect temps to really get that huge explosion of growth. Keeping temps between 73-79f works best for me. And try to keep you temps close to the same when lights go off. The closer the better, this will slow stretch during night times and slow perspiration during the day.
Now I want to talk about your setup. You need to build your setup according to your needs and the plants needs. So unless you stay at home all day everyday and are able to water your plants 3-5 times a day at the same time everyday, you need these important things.
Timers
a way to catch waste water
pumps
resevoir
Drip rings/tubing
drip manifold for multiple plants
Those are the important things that go with daily feedings. This is the only way you will achieve the results I speak of. I will go into detail about my setup. I believe that it is the perfect setup for myself and plenty of others out there! My ease of maintenece daily is almost nothing to 10-15 min A day.
First and most important is drainage and waste catching. With 3 feedings a day the waste drainage builds up quickly. So you need a way for the plants to sit in 1 place without ever being moved and catch runoff for multiple plants. My solution to this? A DIY table easily built in a couple hours. It's basically a table frame, with wire mesh with 1/4 holes that the plants sit on. My table is 18" tall (enough to allow 5gAl bucket underneath. On the bottom side of my table I took black polyvinyl plastic and stapled it to the bottom of my table (make sure it's tight on all sides). Next cut a whole in the very center of the plastic, take a Ernie ball jar lid (the screw on ring part) and wedge it between the table and the plastic. What this has done is made the plastic slope towards your center hole in the plastic. When the runoff drops out the bottom of the pots on to the plastic, the slope of the plastic makes the water run down to your hole cut In the plastic. Now place a 5 gal bucket under the hole and viola! You now have an effective way to catch waste water 24/7!! The black plastic also helps to shade under your table. This allows me to keep my res away from my grow room lights to keep things from growing. I also store all my nutrients and spare water under there. It's a cool dark place to keep things out of the light!
In the pics you can see what I'm talking about with my setup.
So my plants are stationary, I can move them anywhere in my room and still have proper drainage, All I have to do is make a fresh batch of nutrients whenever they run out of water. It's thAt simple. I'm getting these amazing hydro results, and I'm doing hardly any of the work hydro requires!
If you want to be a master of coco coir take my advice. I promise you, you will not be disappointed! I now can only veg for 1 month, they are becoming to big even again month! My root mass is just astonishing after 27 days from seed. If you feed lightly you will save nutrients and get better results. Dialing this type of growing in is not hard. And the best thing I love about coco is that I have found in my experience that a huge 2 week flush isn't even necessary. I've had my friends try a flushed plant and a plant that was flushed twice and they couldn't tell the difference!
The plants in the pic are my new experiments. I have a keeper mother in there that is just the most amazing smoke/plant I've ever grown. I truely do love her lol. She is the one next to the tape measure. The plants are 27 days old FROM SEED. The pic of the roots is a male that I pulled at day 25. Any questions/suggestions please feel free to ask!
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MAXfor that! Great read
:Sharing One:
Good call!
max reps truu.
Thats a lot of work but wow fast growth.
with 1.5 gal what do you get off an auto?
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MAX
:Sharing One:
Good call!
max reps truu.
Thats a lot of work but wow fast growth.
with 1.5 gal what do you get off an auto?
Yoda, and Hank thank you for the love.
Hank, it hard to say what the yield of an auto will be, to many varibles for those tricky little bastards. However, the auto in my pic went 10 oz. Now I just grew the same strain the same way and im probably going to yield around 4 oz. Only difference between the two is the flowering time. The 10oz flowered at 6 weeks and the small one flowered at 2 weeks.
I will say that the small one was only 8" tall. So still a quality grow with coco, I love this stuff.
Hank, it hard to say what the yield of an auto will be, to many varibles for those tricky little bastards. However, the auto in my pic went 10 oz. Now I just grew the same strain the same way and im probably going to yield around 4 oz. Only difference between the two is the flowering time. The 10oz flowered at 6 weeks and the small one flowered at 2 weeks.
I will say that the small one was only 8" tall. So still a quality grow with coco, I love this stuff.
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Hey truu...wonderful post and information.
I always said and belived that one shall not threat coco as soil and multiple feedings a day is the way to go.
Its really nice to see you post this info so more people can learn to understand and use coco to its fullest.
I really must get a dripper system for right now i am hand wetering all my plants 2 times a day and that takes a hell of lot of my time every day...lol
for your post mate
Justin
I always said and belived that one shall not threat coco as soil and multiple feedings a day is the way to go.
Its really nice to see you post this info so more people can learn to understand and use coco to its fullest.
I really must get a dripper system for right now i am hand wetering all my plants 2 times a day and that takes a hell of lot of my time every day...lol
for your post mateJustin
Hey truu...wonderful post and information.
I always said and belived that one shall not threat coco as soil and multiple feedings a day is the way to go.
Its really nice to see you post this info so more people can learn to understand and use coco to its fullest.
I really must get a dripper system for right now i am hand wetering all my plants 2 times a day and that takes a hell of lot of my time every day...lol
Justin
Thanks buddy, I'm posting this up to try and get some better coco info out there. There are some good reads out there but they only cover the basics and not the small important things. Glad you liked it.
Good stuff Truu.. you for sure are a coco-nut ;D
Hey thanks rebelroy, you are right I love coco. Thanks for the love and the badge.
Great info! Some "of course" moments thereLeaf tucking will be my definitive hobby next grow.
Thanks man. Dont tuck them, pluck them!
I was only thinking about turning to the coco nutty side that post has made my mind up im in
truu that is the kind of info i been after cheers bud much respect
:stoneslap:i have a ?
do you use a wetting agent at all ive never seen any one mention it
cheers nudd
truu that is the kind of info i been after cheers bud much respect
:stoneslap:i have a ?
do you use a wetting agent at all ive never seen any one mention it
cheers nudd
