My first coco grow

[OldManGrower]

The reason I have not used a net in the past is my need to remove the plants from the tent for defoliation, LST, lolly popping etc. I am both quite short and have had two lower back surgeries so it is difficult and somewhat painful to bend over and reach the plants in the back of the tent. This is the same reason I use 3 gallon pots instead of 5 gallon. If I am missing something regarding scrog netting, please enlighten me.

[dirtymike]

I tried the net thing once OldManGrower. I have weight limitations also. DV. It seemed like a hassle in a small tent. I found that starting the same strain at the same time eleviated a lot of moving them around. I only grow 4 to 5 at a time and the canopy even is easier. Does your light (SE3000) make that 2.5x2.5 hot in summer.

[dirtymike]

I have never used silica knowingly. Haven't been inside that long. Do you see a noticeable growth difference or early harvest in the high temps using silica.@OldManGrower.

[Bluey]

Silica may be helpful, it can also cause problems.
I tend to use it in veg, the manufacturer recommends using it up to 2 weeks before harvest.
Breathing in silica dust kills you pretty quickly.

[Rootsruler]

I use mono silicic acid up week 3 of flip.

[OldManGrower]

Silica in suspension is not dangerous like silica dust. It supposedly make the cell walls of the plants tougher and better able to endure heat. I use it on my summer photo grow until the flip. It is not recommended for plants in flower. I have found it useful under this circumstances. I tried it for this winter fall grow for curiosity sake but cannot report any differences.

[OldManGrower]

Sixty days from seed. No more room to spread out. The hole in the middle of the plants is where the heater is. I have created a problem for myself as I am leaving the country on 1/6/24 for a week.

[dirtymike]

I need to get a business and call it "Dial A Hippie". Third person on site that needs a good lazy hippie to hang out water plants and smoke your stash whilst you go around the world and make the big Money. Wouldn't have to pay room and board. Win Win. .........

[OldManGrower]

I am in error. We don't leave until the 11th. That's 3 weeks. Watering isn't my issue so much as harvesting and drying. I have a good reliable neighbor who has and will help me out. However asking him to harvest my crop or show up twice a day to burp the jars is asking a lot.

[Bluey]

OMG I ran into your problem regarding curing and burping. My automation isn't quite at a level to burp jars.

So here's what I did.

I over dried them and I dried them too fast (unintentional on the too fast). I brought them down to 50 to 55% RH as measured in the jars and monitored it for 5 to 7 days to make sure they were not going to rise too high in the jar.

I then sprayed the lids a little or a lot depending on where they were at. The driest buds took a couple of weeks to rehydrate to get them up to 62%.

Once settled and burped to maintain 62% into long term storage. It has taken 6 months of curing to get back to a decent cure instead of 4 to 8 weeks as is usual but my main concern was to avoid mould in the jar.

If you can get your temps right down in your dry room and maintain a 60 to 65% humidity you may be able to dry them over two to three weeks utilising a dry trim and perhaps hanging the entire plant, roots and all.. I couldn't get my temps low enough for a slow dry and it was the first time drying inside my grow room so I learnt a bit.

If you can't slow dry then over drying a bit then jarring may be your only option...or perhaps water immersion method

[OldManGrower]

For those of you following this post, I finally have my "Post Grow" report. This was my first grow using this medium and the results are as follows:
Total Harvest: 420 g. "no kidding"
Grams per Watt: 1.46

This is far better than I have ever done in soil. I am a convert!

[Rootsruler]

Nice haul!!! Well done. 420g is almost a pound.

The last run I did in the 5 x 5 I pulled 34 ozs doing a tester of 3 cultivars I now have in my mother tent. This run looks like I may beat that!

[No3odiesShad0w]

That's amazing!!! I just got 294g off of 3 plants and 1 more still needs to come down. I never went above 80% on my lights. Best grow to date!

[Bluey]

Well done OMG

That's a good size return.

Did you take all 7 to harvest or cull one of them because it got too tight in your tent?

How did the dry go?

[OldManGrower]

I took all seven to term. Never again. For now on it's 4 in five gallon or 5 in three gallon. The dry went well. Two finished early and two were ripe on top and furry now below so I did half of each plant at a time. Then I did all the rest at once. Lot of trimming involved and it took two days for the last four and a half. Drying was easy, took about four days.

[Bluey]

Oh nice one.

Lots of trimming means lots of bud.

[Going2fast]

C'mon man don't leave me hanging. Bud shots please. Stellar grow. Congratulations!!🙃🙃🙃

[Mollisol]

I'm impressed!