KanaGirl's Living Coco & GeoFlora Grow

[KanaGirl]

I've been watching all of the amazing and fun 420 comparative grow journal's using GeoFlora. I've decided to try my hand and experiment with the GeoFlora line this grow, and will be using coco/perlite as my substrate, amended with earth worm castings, build-a-soil mineral kit for coco, and just hand watering when dry. This will be a fully organic grow!

I am trying to develop a streamlined process of growing where I have a good balance of yield and quality, while still enjoying the grow and not having it become a full-time job.

A little backstory... this is my 5th grow, and each time I've experimented with different styles:
1st grow (15 years ago): DWC, no training
Recent grows
2nd grow: coco/perlite, Dr. Earth slow release amendments, automated watering, low stress training
3rd grow: coco/perlite, Botanicare liquid nutes, automated watering, mainline training
4th grow: coco/perlite, GH liquid nutes, hydro style, high frequency fertigation, manifold training

All of my previous grows have been successful in different ways, yielding almost 1 pound dry weight from 4-5 plants.

My favorite grow, by far, was the one that was living coco style, water when dry. I prefer this style grow, as it's the most pleasurable for me not having to constantly clean reservoirs and mix up nutes.

SO... here we go friends.

I've already started this grow, and we are in full swing. I am going to be posting several posts here today to get everyone up to speed.

WISH ME LUCK

 

[KanaGirl]

I started the seeds by soaking in water for 24 hours on Thursday September 2nd. I was going out of town for a couple days over the labor day weekend, so I needed to get them into pots before I left.

Planted in solo cups on Friday, September 3rd:
Solo cups were a mix of 70/30 coco/perlite - this was leftover from my last grow. I added substrate to approx 1/3 of the solo cup, then a thin layer of EWC, a sprinkling of DynoMyco, filled the rest of the cup with substrate and then popped in the seeds about 1/2" down with a sprinkle of Great White at the bottom and sides of the hole.

Seeds were then germinated under my Click & Grow led lamps. I didn't have time to set up my light and I had a new Gorilla tent on order. Grow with what you got, that's my motto

We have the following strains (all feminised):

Barney's Purple Punch x 1
Phoenix Seeds Blueberry x 2
Seedsman Wedding Cake x 1
Alien Rock Candy x 1

When I came home on Monday night, all 5 seeds had germinated and were a little stretched, so I set them closer to the lights and on Tuesday I hung my ChilLed bar to get them thru the seedling stage until my tent arrived.

Here's a few pics to what I came home to. I'm calling this Seedling - day 2

 

[KanaGirl]

Seedling - day 5

Woke up to one seedling having fallen over, I decided to give them all a bit of support and turn on a tower fan just to give them a gentle breeze and strengthen their stems.

I started seedlings at about 5k lux, went up to 7k today and brought down light to about 12", trying to get a handle on this stretching and will bury the stem when I transplant, so not too worried!

 

[Paul Squiggle]

Seedling - day 5

Woke up to one seedling having fallen over, I decided to give them all a bit of support and turn on a tower fan just to give them a gentle breeze and strengthen their stems.

I started seedlings at about 5k lux, went up to 7k today and brought down light to about 12", trying to get a handle on this stretching and will bury the stem when I transplant, so not too worried!

Howdy do.
Sounds like you have it all under control.. you are correcting the stretch issues properly. That's something I totally mucked up on this grow
Anyway. I will be following along.
Wishing you luck

Squiggle

 

[KanaGirl]

YAYYY, my new Gorilla 4x4 tent + extension is HERE! Every single one of my previous grows I had issues with height and always having to train to keep them short in my 70" tent. NO MORE!

I can now grow without worrying about my ladies getting too tall. This thing is a whopping 90" with the extension - WHOOP, WHOOP!!

Put this thing together - BY MYSELF - yesterday! Not fun, but it's done and super excited!!

 

[Paul Squiggle]

Looking good. They are tricky to assemble on your own; So nice work Looking forward to seeing it in action..

 

[KanaGirl]

Girls were pretty dry yesterday, but I really wanted to push them to use all available water in the cup. Instead I gave them a little misting to get them thru until they could get their first dose of Geoflora and a nice watering.

Here they are in their new home, under the ChilLED light, 12" from canopy and 12k lux

 

[KanaGirl]

OK, we're finally up to speed!

Last night these girls had a nice little growth spurt. I'm attributing that to letting them dry out fully (a la @Emilya)

Today they get their first feeding with 1 tsp @GeoFlora Nutrients, lightly scratched into the top, and a full watering with distilled water.

Moved up light to 16", as I'm getting a little leaf twisting. Upped to 13k lux

I'm calling today Veg - day 1

 

[KanaGirl]

Girls continue to show nice progress each day, and roots are now poking out the bottom. It's only been 2 days since their last watering to saturation, and cups are nearly dry. I am thinking they will need a watering tomorrow.

 

[KanaGirl]

Veg - Day 5

Ladies are really growing fast now - I think they are LOVING the geoflora!
They needed a watering yesterday, the coco was completely dried out on the top of the cup and very light, so they are feeding well at this point. Here is some pics of their growth since a couple days ago.

 

[KritikalHitz]

They’re all looking gorgeous!

 

[KanaGirl]

Veg - Day 9

The girls continue to show nice growth each day - they are all working on their 4th node. The wet/dry cycle currently stands at about 2 1/2 days. They will be getting a nice deep watering on Friday, and then I will be transplanting in 5 gallon (final) pots on Monday. Here are the lovely ladies!

 

[KanaGirl]

Veg - Day 11

Happy FRI-YAY!! The girls are doing well, and were on a one-day wet/dry cycle, so I decided to transplant today and get them into their final 5 gallon homes so they could spread out and get some fresh nutrients.

• Mix is approximates 60/30/10 coco/perlite/EWC
• Amended with build-a-soil coco mineral kit, and Geoflora veg
• Great White in the hole and sprinkled directly on roots
• Light was switched to Electric Sky 300, 30" from top of canopy; 17k lux in center approximately 15k lux on outer plants, I will be rotating the plants on a regular basis.

A few pics from today

 

[KanaGirl]

Veg - day 15

The girls are now working on their 6th node, and they need to be topped soon, BUT... they are starting to get some yellowing of the top/new growth as well as significant yellowing of the lower growth; some tip yellowing; and cotyledons are almost fully cannibalized. They are definitely not able to access the nutrition of the newly amended substrate. The fresh substrate was amended with GeoFlora Nutrients at the recommended application rate, and I'm not sure if it's just taking too long to break down and be readily accessible, or if they are suffering from some other deficiency

I was going out of town for a wedding on Sunday, so they got a watering with Grower's Recharge (double strength for transplants) on Saturday. Today, they needed to be watered again, so I gave them compost tea with microbes and added cal/mag, and watered just around the rootball. I'm hoping this will give them some readily available nutrition until they can better access the Geoflora nutrition in the amended substrate.

The PH of my tap is 6.5, I was using distilled water in the solo cups, but now that I am watering larger pots, I'm using straight tap water. I did not adjust the PH of the last watering; however, I did adjust the PH the compost tea, as it started around 6.8, so I brought it down to 5.9 for the fertigation today.

Here are some pics - anyone got any other ideas on what is happening? @GeoFlora Nutrients ??

 

[KanaGirl]

Veg - day 17

Girls continue to grow rapidly, and are looking a little greener each day. I topped today, as a couple of these ladies were already working on their 7th node.

I wanted to make sure that if they were still under stress they had some readily available nutrition, so they got another small watering just around the rootball with compost tea, cal/mag, recharge, PH'd to 6.0.

There is enough moisture in the pots now for at least the next 2-3 days. Hopefully, the microbes will begin to proliferate in the medium and help make the nutrition that is built-in become available to the plants going forward.

Here they are today:

 

[GeoFlora Nutrients]

Hey there @KanaGirl , based on your journal so far, it looks like you've been applying Geoflora properly and should have plenty of nutes available. Our first guess is transplant shock since this started a couple days after they were up-potted and the plants are starting to look better now.

Keep it up with the pH adjusted water, make sure the media isn't too wet or dry, and wait a few days to make sure they recover fully, but it looks like you're on the right track! Definitely tag us in any updates if these babies don't seem to be getting better!

 

[DeeBoy]

Seedling - day 5

Woke up to one seedling having fallen over, I decided to give them all a bit of support and turn on a tower fan just to give them a gentle breeze and strengthen their stems.

I started seedlings at about 5k lux, went up to 7k today and brought down light to about 12", trying to get a handle on this stretching and will bury the stem when I transplant, so not too worried!

I’m also growing in coco w/ 30% perlite using Geoflora. Sounds like you have a great plan. I’m keeping this (my second) grow as simple as I can. Just Geoflora, calmag (early on) & and ph well water at 5.8. It’s working nicely.

 

[KanaGirl]

I’m also growing in coco w/ 30% perlite using Geoflora. Sounds like you have a great plan. I’m keeping this (my second) grow as simple as I can. Just Geoflora, calmag (early on) & and ph well water at 5.8. It’s working nicely.

Hi DeeBoy,
Glad to have you along for the ride! Isn't coco so fun to grow with? I just love it's oxygen holding properties, and I've never encountered any issues with pests.

I think possibly my issue was that I was not PHing my water, so possibly getting some lockout. I was hoping I could simplify my watering, and just water straight from tap with my indoor hose (that would have been the BEST). Unfortunately, it looks like my tap is just too alkaline. It's possible that as the substrate becomes more "living" it will better buffer PH and I will be able to water straight from the hose. That would be ideal for me. I'm definitely going to try again as we get further into the grow

 

[Krissi Carbone]

May have to try @GeoFlora Nutrients next time around...I'm a FF girl but I like to watch all of you GF folks and your grows. Congrats on your new adventure and good luck! Be sure to ask questions here, many wonderful growers and advice

 

[KanaGirl]

Veg - day 19

I'm happy to report the girls continue to thrive and are growing very fast. They have regained much of their beautiful green color and I believe they are now able to access at least some of the nutes that are in the amended coco.

They are currently on a 3-ish day wet/dry cycle, they will get a full watering tomorrow.

I am going to continue watering with the compost teas and cal/mag until next Friday, when they will get their first topdress with Geoflora. I am confident by then, they will be fully accessing the nutrients without help from compost tea.
I've also made a note in my journal that I think it would be better to cook my substrate for at least a couple weeks prior to transplant, so that the nutrients are readily available. The plants were doing really well in the solo cups and right after transplant, they seemed to not be able to access any food (however, that may have also been due to a PH lockout). Either way, I don't think it would hurt to get the substrate going a couple weeks early.

Anyhoo, here are the girls today: