Nutrient Help for Noobs First Indoor Grow!

[rupert]

Pure water is ideal, but may not be worth the cost for some people. As an example of what you can learn by consulting the local water authority, here's my tap water:

nitrogen 3 ppm
phosphorous 2.4 ppm
potassium 3 ppm

Other notables:

sulfate 44 ppm
chloride 42 ppm
calcium 38 ppm
sodium 27 ppm
magnesium 8 ppm
iron .07 ppm

Other things in much smaller portions.

Some people have much worse water than this coming out of their tap.

 

[arellanobrian]

Awesome thread guys I just read through and got some good info on coco growing. And just my input on the water thing I agree that you should use the best water you can get your hands on and sometimes that's tap water haha some of us just can't afford ro or distilled water. And I actually have a cyco feed chart that says how much to adjust your nutrients based off of the ppm of your water.

But either way I have a question, I plan on doing a drain to waist drip system in a 75% coco 25% perlite mix and wanted to know if anyone had any good experience with how long I should keep the water pump going to get minimal runoff in 5 gallon post? Honestly just some build ideas would be good.

I plan on using a 5 gallons bucket as a res for 2 plants with a small 75 gph pump and feed twice a day for 5-10 min?

 

[thebudking]

Hard to say how long you can run the pump. You will have to play with the emitters, get the adjustable kind and you can fine tune it. I have been noticing the Blumat carrots alot lately. You set up a rez and gravity feed them and it will self water based on the coco moisture. I have always hand watered to waste but I am going to try the Blumat on my next coco run. As for water, we spend all this money on seeds, lights, pumps, coco and so on, so I feal a little more for water is a good investment. At least cut tap water with ro to get the ppm down.

 

[thebudking]

In my area 5 gallons of ro water at the vending machine is $1.25. In coco per plant I use about 4 gallons a week so round it to 50 gallons a run so....under 15 bucks per plant for a full run I think is affordable for me. Cut it with tap and you could get it to 10 bucks. I bought an ro system for the convenience, I have water all the time now, no more running to the store.

 

[arellanobrian]

In my area 5 gallons of ro water at the vending machine is $1.25. In coco per plant I use about 4 gallons a week so round it to 50 gallons a run so....under 15 bucks per plant for a full run I think is affordable for me. Cut it with tap and you could get it to 10 bucks. I bought an ro system for the convenience, I have water all the time now, no more running to the store.

ill have to check my ppm and see what they are at right now and see if i could cut it down to under 100 ppm.... i am moving over to the cyco line of nutes and on there website they day that you should only use less of there nutes if the ppm of the water is higher than 200 so i may try to cut below that mark instead but going to try to be in as much control as possible soon thanks for the reply and i looked at the blumats and they look interesting, i may buy one to test out how they work for me

 

[rupert]

the best water you can get your hands on and sometimes that's tap water haha some of us just can't afford ro or distilled water.

Hey, don't assume that RO is better than tap water, even if you can afford RO. There's very little in my tap water that isn't sometimes an ingredient in plant fertilizers. There's no scientific reason to think it's better or worse than RO. Like I said earlier, some people do have really bad tap water, so I understand the thinking behind RO. Also, it is possible that some strains might somehow be more finicky, but I had 5 different strains growing at one point and none seemed displeased. I've narrowed all the way down to one strain, Pure Power Plant, only due to space constraints.

Honestly just some build ideas would be good.

It's not at all a drain-to-waste, but I'm doing a variation on the approach you'll read about if you google "coco+wick+gh fnb=never dump run-off".

Only in my case I have dumped my water 2 times during my first eight weeks from seed, and will dump perhaps one more time before harvest. Two more times at the very most. Looking at my plants, I really don't believe they could possibly be healthier or more productive if I were dumping more often. Water isn't terribly scarce where I am, but I still don't waste it for no reason.

Though I use wicks as a fallback, I top water, by hand.

 

[rupert]

ill have to check my ppm

Do check your PPM, but also consult your local water utility and you may be surprised at the useful information you receive regarding the contents of your water.

 

[MickFoster]

There is a thread on this forum titled - "How I grow in coco" it's simple and effective. Follow it and that is all you need to grow good weed.

 

[FiveToMidnight]

Just wondering if anyone could give a little advice on the pots I should get.
I have some Peat Propagating Pots for the seedlings but once they are ready for the new home should I putting them straight in to a large pot or going up in steps?

 

[rupert]

Straight into a large pot. If you add more steps you are more likely to stress the plants.

 

[FiveToMidnight]

Straight into a large pot. If you add more steps you are more likely to stress the plants.

Ok cool. How big would you advise the pot to be?

 

[arellanobrian]

i actually do small steps but i have my transplanting down pretty good so straight into a large pot would cause less stress. and the pot size will depend on your grow area. bigger roots = bigger fruits so the biggest size you can fit in your area

 

[rupert]

Ok cool. How big would you advise the pot to be?

3-4 gallons per pot is a safe bet. I have 4-gallon trash pales inside of 5-gallon buckets. The pales are my inner reservoir, for the coco, and the buckets are the outer rez to contain the run-off and provide a back-up water supply. My two plants have sent a lot of roots down into the outer rez through the drain holes I cut in the trash pales.

3-gallon containers would also work in my case, provided the lip were wide enough to rest on the lip of the outer bucket.

You need room for the roots to roam, but that room doesn't necessarily have to be in the inner rez. Provide ample drain holes, and, depending on your set-up, your roots will grow right out of your container. I wad up some unused garbage bags to stuff in the gaps between my inner & outer, so light doesn't hit the water and encourage algae. I also run air stones in the buckets with a 3-watt pump.

 

[FiveToMidnight]

i actually do small steps but i have my transplanting down pretty good so straight into a large pot would cause less stress. and the pot size will depend on your grow area. bigger roots = bigger fruits so the biggest size you can fit in your area

I thought what you are saying to be the case. However, the bigger the pots means less growing room doesn't it?

3-4 gallons per pot is a safe bet. I have 4-gallon trash pales inside of 5-gallon buckets. The pales are my inner reservoir, for the coco, and the buckets are the outer rez to contain the run-off and provide a back-up water supply. G My two plants have sent a lot of roots down into the outer rez through the drain holes I cut in the trash pales.

3-gallon containers would also work in my case, provided the lip were wide enough to rest on the lip of the outer bucket.

You need room for the roots to roam, but that room doesn't necessarily have to be in the inner rez. Provide ample drain holes, and, depending on your set-up, your roots will grow right out of your container. I wad up some unused garbage bags to stuff in the gaps between my inner & outer, so light doesn't hit the water and encourage algae. I also run air stones in the buckets with a 3-watt pump.

Any chance you have any pictures?

 

[arellanobrian]

I thought what you are saying to be the case. However, the bigger the pots means less growing room doesn't it?

very true everything is up to circumstance and it the pots take up more room then the plants can grow then you will want a happy medium, sorry i had not read back and didnt know what size room you are working with but as big as you can go while still providing the plants room to go and always remember LST, Topping and super cropping are all good ways of keeping your plants growing the way you want them

 

[FiveToMidnight]

very true everything is up to circumstance and it the pots take up more room then the plants can grow then you will want a happy medium, sorry i had not read back and didnt know what size room you are working with but as big as you can go while still providing the plants room to go and always remember LST, Topping and super cropping are all good ways of keeping your plants growing the way you want them

Thanks heaps for your advice, I will take it in to consideration when making my purchase

 

[Azcowboy1975]

I use Botanicare products but learned the hard way to wait until the second set of true leaves pop to start using nutes also don't go by the Botanicare chart for feeding go 2/3 less than what they recommend.

 

[Stoney Roads]

I water my girls everyday in coco from the day they break ground I try and water twice a day because it seems better. I think you are giving bad advice he is using coco and perlite it can not be treated like soil other wise you will have horrible results coco is a form of Hydroponics. water everyday at least 1 time but go for 2. Expecially when mixing cocoa with perlite. It is impossible to overwater Coco Coco soaking wet as wet as you could get it still holds 30% oxygen for the roots which is plenty for them babies to grow.

 

[Azcowboy1975]

I water every second day with my cocoa and cocoa loco mix and up until about week 4 of True veg I go two thirds of the recommended dosage for Botanicare after that point the ladies seemed to get greedy and hungry and it's almost impossible at least I've found to burn them with a full dose of nutes I go full strength according to the Botanicare dosing chart after week 4, the truth is I don't think these ladies have ever seen a dose of CalMag they didn't like lol as for pot size I usually finish up in 13 gallon pots and I have a 4 by 4 by 6 tent. Everyone has formulad and so on the hard truth is that some have a green thumb and some don't, maybe I have been under the LED's for too long but there are times I swear my ladies are telling me more nutes! Or less!!

 

[Azcowboy1975]

Also as a side note when I switched to LED lighting they seem to suck up more nutrients as well also. I veg under LED lighting as well