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**Tika** · 03-30-2017, 12:45 PM

I strongly suggest anything -ANYTHING you give to your plants be pHd to 6 with Coco.
I have used the
GH nutrients per nebulas guide on GWE for 3 years. I flushed (I guess wrongly with phd water only. Did buy the Flora Kleen but always missed that flush.) SO
I also stopped flushing (with ph plain water) during the grow and only waited til the end to "flush". VERY minor note burn on leaf tips of no concern not flushing.
I assume you are using CaliMagic as well? I also liked to add Terpinator.

**Tika** · 03-30-2017, 03:18 PM

Keep it as close to 6 as you can. I support BlueLab pen 100% . Also test waste. I do not / did not perceive any damage at all from not flushing with water. . Since I drain well with like you say 2 gal feed to 5 gal pot a lot passes by the fibers which I believe collect nutrients. I did not burn or brown or spot. I used Nebulas schedule religiously including bloom. . Then last 2 grows used Terpinator as well but also switched to LEDs so don't know if the lights or addition of Terpinator enhanced the density of my buds top to bottom. I test when to feed by lifting...if the pot s get I feed. I no longer use knuckle method. About - now going into 2nd week of flower feeding every 5 days.
what Coco are you sing and are out doing a 3 coco to nope mix?

**Tika** · 03-30-2017, 04:41 PM

The mix ratio had to do with if you had plain coco coir and then added your perlite. I did not care for the premix Botanicare. Found it stayed to wet/funky too long. rather mix my own and tested many broken up and brick coco coir brands. I currently like Platinum Cyco coco coir-and I add Vigoro perlite-I cup to 3 cups coco. Yes you get a feel for it-that is what is nice with the smart pots. What are you using to test your pH?
hope you dont mind all my questions-you just happen to be in the area I know a little about. I dont mean to pry or be offensive in anyway.
Yea no clue as to what worked but top to bottom nugs got dense.

**ZigZag** · 03-30-2017, 04:44 PM

Sounds similar to what I'm doing except I'm using different nutrients this time. The medium I'm using 50% coco, 25% grow stones and 25% boiled rice hulls and worm castings. The nutrients are from Advanced Nutrients. The flowering is maturing very quickly. With this medium I watered about once every three days with the seedlings. About once every two days in veg and now that the plants are full size every day or two. No signs of deficiencies or root issues. I talked with a commercial grower using the same medium and he said to water every day or at least every second day at this stage. I don't wait for the pot to get much lighter than it was after I watered it the last time because the water runs through it pretty fast and the medium is very porous. I used 5 gallon pots last time and I didn't have to water as often_ about once every three days was fine during flowering but this time I'm using three gallon pots so they get thirsty more often. During seedlings and veg stage I used plain water once a week, and used nutrients at 1/2 to 3/4 strength. Then with flowering I've been using nutrients at 3/4 to full strength. after three weeks I started to get a little nutrient burn on some of the leaf tips but not enough to get concerned about. Last grow I started using black molasses, no nutrients and water ph to 6.0 for the last two weeks. Worked well, gonna start doing that again soon. Am going to post some pics of the three strains going now_ Gold Mine, Ayahuasca Purple and A.S.D. auto. Keeping my PH like Tika__5.8-6.2. Happy growing!
One more thing I'd suggest_ if you haven't transplanted into the big pots yet, then make sure to flush the heck out of your coco before mixing your medium. Doesn't matter if they say its been flushed. Do it anyway. Water/flush the coco until it runs almost clear, then mix it with your perlite and all.

**Insight** · 03-30-2017, 06:31 PM

Tika ...I don't mind the questions at all...all part of the learning process for me. I'm using the Jellas Pocket pH meter, with the calibration solutions and also the Gen. Hydroponics pH kit with Up and Down.
I'm not having any problems with coco staying wet too long, if anything I think I'm allowing it to dry out....maybe too much...but as long as the girls leaves are looking good...I'm staying the course and trying not to over water.

I feel the one mistake I did make was alluded to by ZigZag ....I didn't flush the heck out of the coco before starting. As a result of this..my waste TDS is a useless number for now. The TDS going in is around 850-900 ppm at the current schedule (week 3) but the TDS coming out started at 2200 ppm and slowly working its way down...the last watering it came down to 1200 ppm.

I was considering using Black Strap Molasses during the flowering stage......any suggestions? Is it worth it?

As far as pH...I thought we should try to keep it in a "range" varying between 5.5 and 6.5, to help with nutrient absorption. Do you keep it constant at 6.0? or do you vary it at all?

I appreciate all the comments. Thanks.

**ZigZag** · 03-30-2017, 11:16 PM

drbabe, I had exactly that problem with my coco last time around_ made it impossible to test outflow and get an accurate idea of what was going on there. I've heard some people say you shouldn't test the runout from coco mixes, and I think thats why. But if you wash it really well first it will give you a pretty accurate reading. I didn't realize this last time_ the coco bag said it had been washed twice so I thought that was good. But the outflow was very dark_like a dark tea and the PH and ppm were way off from what was going in. Didn't make sense since the medium was suppose to be neutral. After about a month of watering the runout was a lot lighter colored_ about the same as what was going in and things started to become more predictable.

Wanted to avoid that this time so I dumped the coco and rice hulls into a 20 gallon tub with holes drilled through the bottom, set it on top of two 2x4's so it could drain and washed it until the runout was a lot lighter colored. It wasn't clear but it was like very weak tea. I got a bunch of Advanced nutrients for coco from a friend who moved and used them this time. I didn't really trust that they would automatically adjust the ph so I tested the solutions with my pen after mixing and then the runout and they were always in the 5.7-6.2 range. No signs of calcium or magnesium deficiencies either.
I might use them again next time. My bud used them for an entire grow and his leftovers are going to last me until the end of this grow. Expensive- yes. But they last and seem to be working well.
Oh yeah_ like Nebula said and the charts show_ different nutrients are best absorbed at slightly different ph ranges so if you keep it between 5.7-6.2 for coco then it might be even better than trying to always get a perfect 6.0_ thats the target to aim for but don't sweat it if its a few tenths of a point off. I think thats better than going back and forth with PH up and down to get an exact 6.0.
I'd suspect that's what Tika does as well. She gives some great advise. Happy growing!

**oldjarhead100** · 03-31-2017, 05:57 AM

I use Floro cleen it will lower PH to around5.5 or a little lower. I flush with plain filtered water for this reason.

**Tika** · 03-31-2017, 11:37 AM

Cyco Platinum doesn't have to be rinsed...I've ri send my ass off..it is clean coco.

**ZigZag** · 03-31-2017, 01:20 PM

Tika_ thanks! Flushing "my ass off" is a pain for sure, especially when your seeds are sprouting and you want to get things moving. I'll have to see if I can find some of that Platinum around here. If not, maybe Amazon will ship for free? LOL with that! We aren't considered a real state_ not enough of a political presence I guess. Like Hawaii, our sister state...If you ca't get there by road shipping cost 3X as much and takes 2-3 times longer_ just have to plan ahead.

**OzBud** · 03-31-2017, 04:49 PM

Last grow in 100% coco (nutrifield brick) I watered with 50% strength GH Trio nutes daily until between 10-30% runoff. No plain waterings in between, just plain pH water for last week.

GH only have floraKleen on their feed chart for flushing but some growers use it for one watering between veg/transition & then again for transition/bloom to help get the nutes in balance for the new stage of life sooner.

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