Plenty of firsts

[No3odiesShad0w]

Cultivar: Purple Punch Auto (NASC freebie)
Medium: Coco coir
Amendments: Organic
Water: 6.2pH

First off, I wanted to post a time lapse on here. I've been recording for over a week now and it's amazing. Sadly the forum won't let me post a video on here. So instead pictures!!

Another first. I decided to give Coco coir a chance. I just want ahead and bought Canna Brand Coco. (I do have some garbage Coco I was using for mushroom growing and even the mushrooms didn't like it much. I'm going to use that one to practice the rinsing and buffering and give it a test run. Until then I just went with Canna because I heard good things about it.) I did the same thing I do work my soil. I'm adding castings, compost, and 30% perlite. I've been putting .5ml/L of Cal mag when watering. I've top dressed once with some kelp meal/alfalfa meal and innoculated the Coco using NLS Soil Revival. Since I've started taking the time lapse she's maybe tripled in size. I'm just amazed at the rate of growth in this Coco. I've seen plants grow fast in soil before but this is just absurd! If this goes well, I think I'm going to be growing all my cannabis in coco from now on!

On the other hand. I wanted to give synthetic fertilizers a chance. So the cutting I took from my father's plant, I've been feeding with synthetic fertilizer and she's not looking so hot. She's growing and the super dark red from the stems has faded on most of the plant so she's getting better. But overall the growth is really slow. The colors are not great. I've been using the autoflower feeding schedule on the 420FastBuds website. When I compared it to the feeding schedule on GWE, the amounts of fertilizer were higher on the GWE so maybe I'll try bumping up the feed......I mean this was an outdoor plant that was growing in soil and I took a cutting when it wasn't healthy..... Then I put it into Coco with some worm castings under LED with synthetic nutrients. She's been transplanted and topped so she's had a stressful time for sure. That's probably why she's not looking the best but growth has gotten better in the past day and even some color on some tips. There's hope. I'll just do a nice feed with watering to get those salts out and get some fresh nutrients.
Water: 6.2
Nutrients: GH Trio + Cal mag

​​​​​​​So far Coco with organic amendments I'm loving it! The plant is loving it. She looks great! She's huge and she's only on day 23. She hasn't even started to stretch yet..... That's why I decided to put on the trellis. I have a feeling she's going to fill it up! All 2x2

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

[No message]

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

Real bummer I can't share the time lapse. I've never recorded or edited time lapse. It's just amazing watching the plants grow so much in just 18 hours. You see them breathing and pulsing...... Added to the speed of growth in the Coco, it makes for some interesting time lapse.

 

[Bluey]

I was of the firm opinion for 30yrs + that good soil can't be beat but this past year I've changed my mind and believe hydro produces better results all else being equal. I was wrong thinking soil is the best medium.

Soil does have natural buffers built in that hydro does not and things change rapidly in hydro. I've watched my leaves or sometimes just a leaf or two start to show problems but didn't act on it and this has caught me out where as in soil I probably would have gotten away with doing Jack.

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

Yeah my brain is exactly like that too. Even though I see how well the Coco is I'm still thinking like oh what if I front load the Fox Farm soil with a crap ton of dolomite lime maybe I'll get a good grow out of that.... I just don't want to give up on it not because it's not the best medium but because I want to be a better grower and I want to know how to grow in all kinds of mediums not just one kind... I grow my whole garden in soil so you know that was my first natural choice but I honestly never used bagged soil my whole life I've always made my own soil in the garden. But just with every single grow, I keep having really bad soil acidity problems and then it turns into pH fluctuation problems when I try adjusting it and then the plant is stressed and the leaves are falling off and then they look like my gorilla Glue looks like right now. The benefit is I'm going to have to trim very little because it basically manicured itself. But realistically that's not ideal. The Gorilla Glue could have been two to three times bigger than what it is right now and the soil acidity prevented any nutrients from getting taken up So I had to change my game plan a bit. And I'm glad I did because just wow . Normally by now I would see the appearance of red stems all over my plants and with the coco it's absolutely perfect. Everything is green all the stems are the color they're supposed to be the plant is growing on average like 2 to 4 in a day. I absolutely love it.

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

This lady looks AMAZING! Day 26 and she's starting to show signs of maturity. Today I saw the first V shaped flowers pop up all over. That means she's about to start stretching.😱 She's already growing so much every day, I can't imagine how much faster she'll be growing in a few days. I'm expecting she's going to fill in that whole 2x2 trellis. Another thing, NO RED STEMS ANYWHERE!!!! By this point in the grow, I would have the beginning signs of red stems or have red stems all over the place. With the Coco, nothing! No signs of stems getting redder, no sign of any kind of tinting. The stems too all the leaves look fantastic!! Huge and dark green.
Next watering is probably going to be tomorrow. I've been watering her every 3 days. So I'll water until run off. I'll give her a top dressing of some castings, compost, alfalfa meal and neem seed meal. That should feed the growth during the stretch with some low levels of nitrogen left to keep her happy until the end. I also need to probably up my cal mag levels to about 1ml/L or even 1.5ml/L. She's going to need all the calcium and magnesium during the stretch so she can grow healthy and strong. In 2 weeks I'll switch to the high PK compost for that big bud stacking..

I'm really loving this Coco grow. This has been the smoothest and largest growth I've ever gotten in only 26 days of growth. My previous plants in that acidic crap FF soil wouldn't get this big until the stretch. This time I'm at this point before the stretch. It's a good place to be. Just being able to watch the time lapse videos every single day and visually see all the growth that the plant did over the past 18 hours is just amazing. I'm seeing the plant in a whole new light.. I really hope it keeps being this smooth the whole way through. I'm really enjoying this grow so far.

My dad's plant is improving. I got her closer to the light and flushed her the other day. Looks like she's on the upswing. I need her to get better already so I can throw her into bloom. I'm not going to grow her big. I just want to see what she is. The synthetic side is very different from the organic side.. I don't like mixing the fertilizer and testing ppm and EC. When I flushed, I mixed up a gallon according to the GWE feeding schedule for week 4 of veg and it came out 604ppm. 1.3 EC That was clone strength solution. So I doubled the recipe and I got 792ppm and 1.6 EC. I flushed with that. Not sure why the solution was so weak. I did buy these bottles of GH Trio about 3 years ago when I first started growing in soil. I didn't like it and went organic. I'm trying it now with Coco and I still don't like it. Organic is so much easier. Everytime you water just top dress in whatever you want. Some castings, some compost or maybe you want to add some kelp or you need nitrogen from some insect frass or neem seed meal. Sprinkle on top, scratch into the top lightly and water with plain pH'd water. Takes me 5 min to top dress and water in. With the synthetics or takes me 30 min or longer to mix and get it to the proper EC and then pH.
But hey I had to try. I want to give everything a fair chance. Over these past 3 years I've been figuring out my style and method and I think I got it down now. I feel more confident in my grows and the quality of the smoke has been getting better with each grow. Things are all working out! All the hard work has paid off.

 

[MagicMike66]

Coco can be amazing if you look after it properly. But it does take a lot of work from you as a grower in my opinion. My advice is never let it dry out between feeds like you would with soil or you’ll seriously harm your crop. Coco should always be wet, so be prepared to feed every day, sometimes twice but if you do the results can be amazing. Keep up posted with how it goes 👍🏻

 

[Bluey]

Google "high frequency fertigation"

I think it the best approach for coco but you really want to automate it and pump from a decent size tank.

Balancing nutes has been my biggest challenge and needs improvement

 

[golfnrl]

You're right about coco. I grow in coco/perlite blend in the autopot system. Autopot is a wicking, gravity fed watering system. I mix the nutrients and put in the 12 gallon reservoir. The plant takes what it needs. Can't overwater. The coco is always wet down about an inch. The top inch is bone dry as the plant pushes salts to the top of the grow medium. I've read more times than I can count on this forum that wicking systems can promote mold and root rot, the roots shouldn't be sitting in water, etc. Nope, system works like a champ and the plants love it. Just my .02 about coco.

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

I've always grown organically so even in soil, I had to keep it wet to keep the microbes happy and thriving to feed the plant. I've noticed in watering every 2 days work the Coco. Once I see the top dry out, I usually water. I know Coco does weird stuff when dry. I've def been mindful to keep it wet. As far as feeding goes, I've just been doing my same feeding as with soil but I might have to bump up the quantity because of the plants size already. So I'm preparing the correct amendments and quantities I'll need to get me to the next phase.

The only one that's struggling is the Coco with synthetic. It's a learning curve and the nutes don't seem to be cooperating with me but I'll get it down.

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

If you notice on some of the leaves they have some yellow tips. That was the one day it got too dry. So I'm being very mindful about keeping the Coco wet. I'm sure the microbes are happy about the water as well.

 

[SoOrbudgal]

Looking great

 

[Bluey]

With my grows in coco I started out fertigating about once every 2 or 3 days and by the time it hit mid flower which was about day 95 I was fertigating 3 times a day with no runoff 9 out of 10 times.
I had a cal/mag deficiency that followed me through the grow but she still produced a lb of very very nice bud on each plant and the grow was far from perfect. I had reused the coco from a previous grow and didn't buffer it, just gave it a good soaking of a typical veg nute mix after washing it.

I'm not buffering my next grow in the same coco but will suppliment with cal/mag from the get go.

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

Wow she took a whole gallon before I started getting runoff. I have her 6.2 water and got runoff at 6.3.... Never in my 3 years of growing have I had that happen. Normally there's a 1.5 difference or more between my water and runoff. I also gave her a top dressing of some neem seed, alfalfa meal, compost, castings, and upped the call mag to 3.2ml per gallon. She's got flower sites all over so the stretch is about to start any day now. Man this grow is going so smooth. But then I never have any issues during veg. We'll see what happens on flower. I think the only adjustment I might make is using 6.0 water instead of 6.2. With my runoff at 6.3 I rather be safe than sorry. That seems like it's getting to the higher level of Coco. Aside from that minor adjustment, I just keep training her with the trellis net.

The other good news.... The blue dream auto has popped already. The soil is raised in the center of the tangie so she's making her entrance later today!! Both successfully germinated. That means I chopped the gorilla glue. And the cycle continues!!!

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

I totally plan on reusing my Coco. I'm going to wash it, buffer it and then soak it in some innoculant before I amend it with my regular blend. After the washing, I'm sure there will be less Coco so I'll have to add some fresh stuff from the bag to it. I just have to figure out what to do with all this Fox farm soil I have. It's just taking up space. I may just bring it to the basement for long term storage. I definitely plan on using the Coco for the rest of the grows this year and into the future

 

[Bluey]

I wouldn't lower your pH. It probably varies slightly the ideal pH so I'd vary the pH a little.....veg I go with 6.0 flower with 6.2 to 6.3.
Ideal pH at the roots is 6.5 but its fine to bump it around a little. Lowering the pH is reducing the cal/mag available at the roots.

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

The Tangie....I had to stick the blue dream back in the soil. Apparently what you see in the previous picture is the root. The seeds popped and the root shot out in a different direction. Hopefully it's going to be fine. It looked like the seeds that people usually bury when they do the paper towel method. Just had a long tail. I buried it and misted it with water. Hopefully by the time I get back from work, it will pop out again

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

Yeah? Okay I guess I'll leave it. I know it's possible for pH to creep upwards as the Coco decays and let's out the potassium it held on to. That can cause the pH to move upwards. I guess it's still too early for that

 

[Bluey]

Testing on the coco medium has shown this occurs over a 2 to 3 week period. Then it stops doing that. I'm not sure at what point exactly it occurs but I'd guess early on so when you are in early to mid veg. It shouldn't impact your grow much if that is the case. It may slow things down a little for that period. I don't know how best to work with that but you could give it a flush once a week or so just using your regular nute mix.

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

My first time germinating seeds in a Coco substrate!! They both made it!!
The Tangie is so tiny and the blue dream, despite sprouting upside down and replanting, she popped up today in the afternoon. ......I didn't think she was going to make it honestly....... So I ummmmmm started germinating another seed. The next problem, I only have a gallon of Coco.....I have plenty of the same Fox Farm that's been giving me trouble. After reaching out to some ppl, I'm going to use it for this second Blue Dream seed and just do a head to head Coco vs Soil both amended with living and natural amendments. I did 2 tsp per gallon for the Bruce banner and they did much better than the gorilla. I reached out to Jeremy from build a soil and he said to use 5-7 tsp of dolomite lime do in going to try 7 tsp. I want to give the soil a fair chance against the Coco when though I know the Coco will probably win. Only reason I'm even doing this is because I won't throw away the seed. I love blue dream. So I'll make it happen. I got space for 4 plants so I have the space.