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COCO COIR 1st Grow Journal! 1st Indoor Grow! Rasp Cough/Blue Mystic/White Widow auto

R

rangerjake

New member
Just got my seedlings up and running and we will likely be moving from solo cups to fabric pots in the next 10ish days I figure. Here's the setup:

5'x5'x80" tent

2 x 315 LEC

2 photoperiod plants (Nirvana Rasp Cough and Blue Mystic)
3 autofem (Nirvana White Widow)

Homemade Coco/perlite medium

GH suite (w/ CaliMag)

I have set up 80% full 10 gal fabric pots for the photoperiod plants, and 80% full 5 gal pots for the autos. I feel like I erred on the large size when selecting sizes, and it took a lot of coco bricks and perlite to fill these 5 containers (9 bricks, 35 quarts), more than any tutorial or other grow journal I have read. Is this crazy overkill? Should I downsize now before it's too late? Pros/Cons of being in a small container vs. larger?

Looking forward to adding to the forum with my first journal. The site/forum have been majorly helpful last summer (outdoors) and setting up for the indoor grow.
 

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10 gallon pots are a bit large , 5 or 7 g works fine for photos. If you sprouted all at same time, your autos should be done when your photos are ready for 12/12 light schedule. Long time to veg photos but your yield will be better. Good luck
 
Thanks for the input Moto. The finishing time for the autos coinciding with the switch to 12/12 was the design in how the tent is set up: vegging photos under 1 315, the 3 autos under the other 315, and then at the switch each photo gets its own 315.

Also agreed about the long veg time. I intend to manifold the Raspberry Cough as it is a taller growing strain, may manifold the Blue Mystic too or just top a few times and LST. Hoping to use the long grow, abundant coco, and abundant light (esp during flowering) to really push yields up even if it drags the grow out for a while.

Noting the above, do you still think downsizing to 7 gal fabric pots is worthwhile? Noting that my 10 gals aren't brimming but between 80-90% full.
 
Ive got mine in 3gallon pots, fertigating 2x a day with 1.5 -2 liters per fertigation event now (d44). I assume the larger pot may allow larger intervals, depending on what you're doing. I bought a bag of ready to use coco to save the hassle of making my own. I didnt use perlite either.
 
Here we are at 8 days since seeing the light. Rasp Cough, Blue Mystic, and one of the WW are off to the races. The other two WW are slower to start, with the one on left in the photo experiencing a little nute burn from an early nutrient feeding- prob coulda waited another day or two. But seems no worse for wear and still trucking along. On a 20/4 light schedule rn. Expecting another 7-10 days in Solo cups before transplanting into their final homes.

Couple questions:
-I am using the Coco/GH nutrient schedule from Nebula on the site. Do people recommend the same quantities/frequencies be given to both autoflowers and photos? Obviously the plants will say what they want and don't want, but I have read accounts of autos preferring fewer nutes.

-If you look at the perlite in the cups the surface pieces turn a rust brown between waterings. I don't know if this is related to the coco leaching color, or (what I think is more likely) a higher iron content in the water. My TDS pen shows up in a day or two so I'll be able to get a better sense of how hard the water is (here in VT the well water tends to run hard). There is also some tiny green algae growth on the perlite too- really a minuscule amount. I have read accounts of both the perlite browning and algae in coco grows and that it is not a huge concern/showed no ill effects on plants. Is this experience shared by others here?
 

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i have had my canna coco turn perlite dark, also you said you were using GH, the Micro in GH will stain anything thats white, including roots and give it a brown tint. coco is tricky for new growers and even some vet growers, last night i spent almost 2 hours flushing 3 plants that are week 4 of flower, i have been using advanced and doing light feedings, then straight water, i was not checking my PPM run off, and plants got sick. the coco got salt build up and the run off on the PPM was 3200, and i have been growing in coco for 2 years off and on. i was using larger fabric pots, 7 gallons, so what prob happened was the roots had not used all the nutes in the surrounding coco and it built up, when using coco, 5 gallons are good enough, unless your an expert at watering and PPM monitoring.
 
Thanks for the input. This is really interesting to hear, not something I have come across in the reports of others. Also relevant to my situation since my photos are in 85% full 10 gallon fabric pots and I was concerned about overdoing it on the pot size. In your situation are you doing autos in 5 gal or photos? And if photos what is your veg time? I def erred on the side of more perlite so the mix is very airy and hopefully this can help limit the holding of excess nutes, but maybe I am incorrect in that being a factor.

I am gonna be running about 11 weeks of veg on the photos in order to coincide their switch to 12/12 with the harvest of some autos in the tent with them. I have a touch of concern with plant height- in order to keep my lights 20" off the tops I'll need to keep the plants tight to a max of 36-40", and that veg period with the 10-11 week flower will push that height.
 
Morning rangerjake very nice clean grow area. FYI I use 3-5gal for autos 5-10gal for photos. Sounds like you got the space....and a nice light set up. Good luck happy growing.
 
Day 14. Transplanted. 2nd 315 turned on.

Hot in the garage (86f) during mid afternoon. Initially very hot in the tent (91f) after 2 lights turned on. Hopefully these girls can enjoy a cooler evening and we can devise a more pleasant and temperate residence in the coming weeks.
 

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Long overdue update:

Day 24:

One week into a new tent environment that resolved the high heat/low humidity problem of the garage. The new digs are close to ideal. Hi temps around 80f, lows around 65f. Humidity 45-55% with lights on, 60-65% with lights off, though on really wet humid days here that humidity has spiked very high with lights off.

I decided to quadline my Raspberry Cough and Blue Mystic. Feeling really positive about the Rasp Cough at this moment. The strain seems to be one that should take really well to a manifold and the health (now that heat stress is resolved) seems top notch. Doing my runoff assessment yesterday this is what I got:

Going In:
6.2pH
790ppm (H2O was 90ppm)

Coming out:
6.4pH
897ppm

The Blue Mystic is a bit more of a risk quadlining. I was hesitant to do so, considering just some basic topping/LST as I have heard conflicting reports about it liking to grow tall vs. staying more squat. But it's overall health has looked a lot better since being removed from the hot environment. Most concerning at the moment are less-than-ideal runoff numbers which will need to get rectified via a very low pH/ppm feeding or a flush. Here's what we had at the feeding yesterday:

Going In:
same as above

Coming out:
7.2pH
1775ppm

As can be seen on the Blue Mystic there is also some white staining on the fabric pot at the bottom leading me to believe that is indicative of salt buildup. Happy to hear other's opinions about whether to go full flush at this point or try to do a 5.5pH feeding with minimal nutrients (though keeping the ratios the same as current for veg).

The Autos are doing fine. The one that has been a runt all along seems very stunted and I am considering removing it from the tent to not put time and energy into a plant that looks particularly unhealthy. The other two are looking good and are overcoming their LST daily. Pistils have formed and they look to be about 5-6 days into their flowering period.
 

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Has the runt been in the center the whole time? Looks like it might be getting a little "sun burnt", may do better off in the corner.

I'm following everyone's early adventures with coco and considering it as an option to semi-organic soil or DWC which are my current methods. Keep posting please.
 
Runt has been all over the place, in the center for a week in this configuration. But the lights (2x 315 LEC) are kinda on either side of it. It was the slowest and weakest out of germination and has lagged the whole time. With only so much time to expend on these plants I am figuring that careful nurturing of the healthiest ones to get their maximum potential is more worthwhile than working so hard to get a modest yield out of the runt. Haven't decided to bail on her yet, but not sure I am committed to giving her some exclusive treatment and attention.
 
Sometimes the little ones surprize you...if I planted it and it's got some green parts, I'm gonna try and grow the little phuker and hopefully learn from the effort. I don't donate my life to them, but I only throw them out if they turn brown.
 
Day 25:

Took runoff pH/ppm on Autos today and another reading on Blue Mystic after doing a diluted 1/2 strength feeding at low pH. Here are the results:

Auto:
Going In: 5.9 535ppm
Coming Out: 7.0 1430ppm

Not great. Not horrible. Will be working on low pH feedings and micro flushes to try and take down that root buildup. Would like to be down to 6.5/1100ppm coming out in the next week or so to keep things on a good track for the last 7 weeks of flowering.


Blue Mystic:
1/2 strength feeding.
Going In: 5.6 480ppm
Coming Out: 7.0 1700ppm

Better than yesterday. Dropped the pH by .2 and the PPM by 75. Still work to do. May do another half feed tomorrow, or possibly a straight calmag only flush. Would feel great if I can knock 500ppm off the outflow in the next week. Plenty of veg time left (probably about 8 weeks) so this can be done.
 
I think you're going to be surprised at how fast they start to grow after the training and topping you've done...I'm guessing you're not going to need eight weeks of veg, not even half that. They look great and being proactive about managing that nute buildup, seems perfect. Most people would let it go and wonder why their plants were looking fried three weeks from now.
 
Going long veg. They share a tent with Autos so they won't get flipped until the Autos are done. I have a lot of space to work with (5x5 tent) and plenty of light (2x 315) and am in no rush really. So I am hoping to do one more round of topping/manifolding at least. Thanks for the positive feedback!
 
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