Grow Mediums Why organic nutrients do not work in coco

[MesaBoogie]

My Coco experiment with dry amendments is going pretty well on week 3 now. I'm watering with just tap water mixed with molasses with a ph of 6.1 to 6.3. All the do's and don'ts I've read about coco may not really be totally correct at all.

 

[the123321]

Thanks. I have decided to have a grow with plants in soil with organic nutrients instead of dealing with it in the coco on there.

 

[Overboard]

I understand that trying something and having less than stellar results is difficult, but starting this thread presuming that it 'won't work' would not be my tack. It didn't work for you. That's all. I've been growing this way for a year now, and I find it to be very simple with impressive results, especially for a first-time grower.

Not just "oh, it's ok and I'll smoke it", at least half of the time it's been some of the best cannabis I've had the pleasure to experience. Starting with really good genetics is key. Every mistake or shortfall in my short experience has been 100% on me. Are my yields great? No, but it's enough. Do I have a plan to change that? You bet your ass.

I have been using 3 gallon pots, and I'm pulling 50-75g per auto plant in a 4'x4' with a 550W (true) blurple LED with IR. I had higher yield on the one accidental Photoperiod plant. Using Dr Earth dry amendments at the suggested strength for potted plants (every 3-4 weeks), in coco+perlite, adding fungus gnat nematodes at every re-amend, soil acidifier per the label, and that's it. Water with Cal/Mag at 6.5 and wait.

I also got the idea from Mr Canuck, and I think I'm seeing the important parts of his method that I still need to apply to my grow: larger pots, compost teas, and quality light. I'll switch to 5 gal fabric pots for the next round of autoflowers, and stick to a tighter 3 week re-amendment schedule.

 

[Proph]

I understand that trying something and having less than stellar results is difficult, but starting this thread presuming that it 'won't work' would not be my tack. It didn't work for you. That's all. I've been growing this way for a year now, and I find it to be very simple with impressive results, especially for a first-time grower.

Not just "oh, it's ok and I'll smoke it", at least half of the time it's been some of the best cannabis I've had the pleasure to experience. Starting with really good genetics is key. Every mistake or shortfall in my short experience has been 100% on me. Are my yields great? No, but it's enough. Do I have a plan to change that? You bet your ass.

I have been using 3 gallon pots, and I'm pulling 50-75g per auto plant in a 4'x4' with a 550W (true) blurple LED with IR. I had higher yield on the one accidental Photoperiod plant. Using Dr Earth dry amendments at the suggested strength for potted plants (every 3-4 weeks), in coco+perlite, adding fungus gnat nematodes at every re-amend, soil acidifier per the label, and that's it. Water with Cal/Mag at 6.5 and wait.

I also got the idea from Mr Canuck, and I think I'm seeing the important parts of his method that I still need to apply to my grow: larger pots, compost teas, and quality light. I'll switch to 5 gal fabric pots for the next round of autoflowers, and stick to a tighter 3 week re-amendment schedule.

Any pics of your plants in flower?

 

[Overboard]

Last grow. The 5th plant still in veg in that video was a surprise photo, and was around 100g on its own at harvest.

 

[Proph]

Last grow. The 5th plant still in veg in that video was a surprise photo, and was around 100g on its own at harvest.

Ok. That's about the same look of all other plants I've seen in flower grown this way. Very sick plants. But not everyone is trying to grow a healthy plant. I totally get it.. And the definitions of "successful" differ from grower to grower. In my bubble, those plants would not be considered a successful grow because of how sick they are. But others would definitely consider that a successful grow because there are buds on them. It's totally subjective. But image how much better the smoke would be, and how much better the yield, smell and flavor would be, if they were healthy.

You can definitely grow weed with coco and dry amendments, but chances are, it won't be a pretty sight come flower and the end product won't be as good as it could have been.

 

[SirMcHazel]

I just started a 1 gallon auto mazar freebie in coco/perlite with added vermicompost and biobizz pre-mix which is a 3-3-4 organic compost based fertilizer. As others said I do have my doubts but need to try it myself. I guess if manage to start life in coco it could work pretty decent even though starting in a peat base light mix is way easier if you want to grow organic with dry amendments or something like biotabs.

I have used mega crop in coco with good results but am not a huge fan of feeding schedules even though mega crop is piss easy to manage. Usually I use 50% Light Mix, 40% Perlite, 10% Worm Castings, TNC MycorrMax and Biotabs Guerilla Tabs as instructed. Fedding ph'ed tap water through blumat drippers. In flower I apply bat guano dissolved in water as single top watering once or twice. You just need a few grams per gallon of water. Be carefull with that "shit".

It wont give you the same dry mass as other fertilizers and/or mediums but it just works great with very low effort. No feeding schedule, no nutrient mixing, no clogging in my res (damn you mega crop sludge) and the quality of the bud is better then everything I grew with other products.

Average dry yield on my recent Mephisto grows in 2 gallon containers was about 2.5 oz which is plenty for me but I am really eager to try to replace the peat based light mix in my recipe with coco just for shits and giggles.

Hey, I read a little about the topic of organic grows and teaming with critters, also watched "this" YouTuber - and I totally dig your concept how you do it! That's almost the way I figuered it out for me for the next run. I'll use the Pre-Mix, Guanokalong dry amendments and BioBizz CalMag and worm castings. Also thinking of using clover as living mulch and to feed the microbes. Some stuff mixed in (Kelp), some layerd (sugar cane) and some spiked (guano, ash). Maybe in the next weeks I start, maybe we could compare how it worked out. It's an exciting topic for a lot of peepz I think!

 

[MesaBoogie]

I mentioned earlier about doing a test grow with dry amendments and coco/perlite. I used seeds that i didn't care about/trust and it didn't auto for me at around 8 weeks so I had to cut it down. For the most part the plant was generally healthy. At around 3ish weeks I top dressed with a 50/50 veg/bloom mix and around week 4 I noticed a bit of uglies happening, but it seemed to correct itself. By the time I had to chop it down it became a monster, sadly i just dont have the set up for a photo plant. I'm doing another test run now with one of my own seeds Bubba kush x Cherry bomb and I'll update how it works out.

 

[SirMcHazel]

Nice! Also thanks for your feedback!

 

[Hypathetical Gardener]

I mentioned earlier about doing a test grow with dry amendments and coco/perlite. I used seeds that i didn't care about/trust and it didn't auto for me at around 8 weeks so I had to cut it down. For the most part the plant was generally healthy. At around 3ish weeks I top dressed with a 50/50 veg/bloom mix and around week 4 I noticed a bit of uglies happening, but it seemed to correct itself. By the time I had to chop it down it became a monster, sadly i just dont have the set up for a photo plant. I'm doing another test run now with one of my own seeds Bubba kush x Cherry bomb and I'll update how it works out.

#vindicated
I used seabird guano to supplement megacrop and got good results in coco.
Thanks