Help needed from you more experienced growers please

[johnboi68]

Hi guys,first time grower & first time on a forum.Started my grow 4weeks ago. Iiv got a 1.2+1.2 loft tent. In & out air flow with 8 plants, growing in coco.400w hid light. Iv run into couple of problems that I think if sorted threw reading forums. I topped my plants about week ago, didn't show any signs of stress. Been feeding every two days or 3 days with canna A,B 1.3ec & cannazym, rhizotonic. PH 5.8. Plants look nice & green. I have had a couple of marks come up on a couple of plant. Just got couple of questions I would like to ask.
1 Should I feed with every water 2 to 3 days.
2 I'm thinking of putting them into flower in a week, if got a 600w HPS & 2 300w cfl bulbs for side lighting, is this enough or to much light?
3 My run of is showing a big rise in pH, I pH at 5.8 runoff 8.4. Ec comes out the same or little lower, Do I need to do anything??
I will try to upload some pic. Any help from you more experience growers would be much appreciated.

 

[Equanimity]

Re: Help needed from you more experienced growers pls.

Hi guys,first time grower & first time on a forum.Started my grow 4weeks ago. Iiv got a 1.2+1.2 loft tent. In & out air flow with 8 plants, growing in coco.400w hid light. Iv run into couple of problems that I think if sorted threw reading forums. I topped my plants about week ago, didn't show any signs of stress. Been feeding every two days or 3 days with canna A,B 1.3ec & cannazym, rhizotonic. PH 5.8. Plants look nice & green. I have had a couple of marks come up on a couple of plant. Just got couple of questions I would like to ask.
1 Should I feed with every water 2 to 3 days.
2 I'm thinking of putting them into flower in a week, if got a 600w HPS & 2 300w cfl bulbs for side lighting, is this enough or to much light?
3 My run of is showing a big rise in pH, I pH at 5.8 runoff 8.4. Ec comes out the same or little lower, Do I need to do anything??
I will try to upload some pic. Any help from you more experience growers would be much appreciated.

Hello..

1: Feed when there's need; poke your finger into the soil to a depth of the first knuckle (the small one closest to your fingernail) and feed when it's dry from that knuckle to the finger tip. Other growers will learn the weight of the pot when full/dry and lift it to determine when to feed.

2: As much light as you can give them is all good so long as:
You can deal with the extra heat.
The plants are not too close to the lights
(HPS; hold hand under, if too hot for hand then too hot for plants, CFL; As close as possible but not touching. LED; variable depending on brand etc (google that one))
And
You're not using standard incandescent bulbs, as these are ballsack for growing.

3: pH-correct the water going in and the run off should eventually match up; however, it really depends upon your soil mix. I grow in coir and so I'm not the authority on soil growing.

 

[GrizzWald]

Re: Help needed from you more experienced growers pls.

Did you rinse your coir before you planted? It sounds like they could do with a flush anyways, as your going to be putting into flower.

 

[Sphnx]

Re: Help needed from you more experienced growers pls.

Hi guys,first time grower & first time on a forum.Started my grow 4weeks ago. Iiv got a 1.2+1.2 loft tent. In & out air flow with 8 plants, growing in coco.400w hid light. Iv run into couple of problems that I think if sorted threw reading forums. I topped my plants about week ago, didn't show any signs of stress. Been feeding every two days or 3 days with canna A,B 1.3ec & cannazym, rhizotonic. PH 5.8. Plants look nice & green. I have had a couple of marks come up on a couple of plant. Just got couple of questions I would like to ask.
1 Should I feed with every water 2 to 3 days.
2 I'm thinking of putting them into flower in a week, if got a 600w HPS & 2 300w cfl bulbs for side lighting, is this enough or to much light?
3 My run of is showing a big rise in pH, I pH at 5.8 runoff 8.4. Ec comes out the same or little lower, Do I need to do anything??
I will try to upload some pic. Any help from you more experience growers would be much appreciated.

Hey bud!

1. Feed every watering. You're growing in coco, there's nothing for the plants to feed on. Deficiencies will show from missing 1 feeding sometimes...
2. That will be enough light for 8 plants for sure. But like Equanimity said as long as you can deal with the extra heat. I've had 1 600w hps and 4 300w cfl bulbs in it before. 4 plants, it was a phenomenal yield for me.
3. As long as the water your putting in is pH balanced the run off shouldn't matter much. I've never had any problems nor do I test the run off... Kind of irrelevant unless you're re using the water.

Check out my logs bud, I only grow in coco (unless it's a mother plant, then I do soil but that's a different story )

Hope this helped you out. Much love!

 

[MN green2]

Re: Help needed from you more experienced growers pls.

Hi guys,first time grower & first time on a forum.Started my grow 4weeks ago. Iiv got a 1.2+1.2 loft tent. In & out air flow with 8 plants, growing in coco.400w hid light. Iv run into couple of problems that I think if sorted threw reading forums. I topped my plants about week ago, didn't show any signs of stress. Been feeding every two days or 3 days with canna A,B 1.3ec & cannazym, rhizotonic. PH 5.8. Plants look nice & green. I have had a couple of marks come up on a couple of plant. Just got couple of questions I would like to ask.
1 Should I feed with every water 2 to 3 days.
2 I'm thinking of putting them into flower in a week, if got a 600w HPS & 2 300w cfl bulbs for side lighting, is this enough or to much light?
3 My run of is showing a big rise in pH, I pH at 5.8 runoff 8.4. Ec comes out the same or little lower, Do I need to do anything??
I will try to upload some pic. Any help from you more experience growers would be much appreciated.

HI johnboi68,
I've grown for 20 plus years in the commercial cut flower and vegetable field. One thing I would suggest is to take notes. More notes than you think you will ever need. Sometime down the track you will ask yourself 'what was...' and unless you have written it down it is lost or only partially remembered. The guy I learned from always said 'in 20 years if you don't take notes you will have 1 year of experience repeated 20 times. If you record your adventures you can have 20 years experience'. You never write enough down.

My two cents worth. Measure the amount of water given, pH of water given, EC of water given, amount of water as run-off, pH of run-off and EC of run-off everyday. You will get tired of it always being the same but one day it will be different and you will be able to track it. Small changes over a week can make a big difference.

I'm with sphnx, feed every watering. A good balanced feed all the time.

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

I water my coco every day. After three years of growing in coco, I learned that this works the best. Watering every other day doesn't work as well. You are more likely to get deficiencies.

The reason is because coco holds 30% oxygen when fully saturated, so keep it saturated. When you water daily, you are replacing the oxygen the roots need, so they grow faster. This is why coco is like hydro, if you water daily.

Watering daily replacing any micro or macro nutrients the plant uses up, thus always having a ready supply of everything the plant needs. You cannot over water coco, in my experience.

If you do not water coco daily, you get dry spots in the coco. This causes roots to die. Root die, they rot. Rotted roots can lead to PH issues, etc.

I also use beneficial bacteria in my coco.

 

[Sphnx]

I water my coco every day. After three years of growing in coco, I learned that this works the best. Watering every other day doesn't work as well. You are more likely to get deficiencies.

The reason is because coco holds 30% oxygen when fully saturated, so keep it saturated. When you water daily, you are replacing the oxygen the roots need, so they grow faster. This is why coco is like hydro, if you water daily.

Watering daily replacing any micro or macro nutrients the plant uses up, thus always having a ready supply of everything the plant needs. You cannot over water coco, in my experience.

If you do not water coco daily, you get dry spots in the coco. This causes roots to die. Root die, they rot. Rotted roots can lead to PH issues, etc.

I also use beneficial bacteria in my coco.

Not to contradict you my friend, I have been growing in coco and perlite for the past 10+ years.....
I water my gallon smart pots every 3 or 4 days... Over watering is over watering... That kills roots more than letting them dry out. Yes drying out too much is bad, but the leaves will droop from under watering before the roots die. The right amount of dry causes the roots to search for more thus giving you a stronger root system.

Much love my friend

 

[GrizzWald]

Well not to contradict anybody, lol lol lol.... I used to feed every 3rd/4th day, then I came across a grower who grows some nice habadashery and he floods his 3times a day. I can't do it yet, don't have a set up to stuff a grow up but I have started feeding twice a day, with the first one only being a drop to two runoff and the next with 10%+ runoff, noticing bigger growth..... I was worried about root rot to, but I think the coir and perlite aeration allows for this without rotting the roots....

 

[Sphnx]

Crazy.... How big are the feedings though? I dunno if I could do that with 2500+ppm feedings.... Probably burn something lol

 

[GrizzWald]

Lol, I've never gone over 1800ppm, even when I used to feed 3/4 days. Mine are around 1300-1500 twice a day, ... I'm hand watered run to waste....I use synth nutes, a&b rhizo b52 and cal/mag...I drop the rhizo and add big bud and silica a few weeks before switching them... I use the a&b all the way through till flush, flowering nutes change depending on what I have left or the speal on the label and how stoned I am when buying them, lol... I've heard of something to use for the last few weeks before flushing that really fattens them up, but I can't remember what it was called...

 

[Sphnx]

Under 600w 1800ppms is perfect. 1000w's are different...

I hand water to waste also

 

[GrizzWald]

I'm under LEDs... Five small units... Around 500w.... In a 4x3.... The manufacturer footprint wold be 7x4, I wish, lol.... Not really lol, they cost me shit loads, lol.

Thanks man

 

[MN green2]

Grizzwald and sphnx, what a good exchange of ideas. There are so many ways of watering and feeding. Everyone does it different, you just have to figure out what works in your particular setup. To many small variables that you don't think of that make each setup different. There are no right answers only ways of thinking about it. The thinking and working it out is where the fun is.

On another track. Coco should not need any added material like perlite unless it is to fine. Dry the coco out and use a 0.5 mm sieve to see how much fines are in the coco. The kind of sieve that Asian countries use to sieve grains for food. You can get them at an Asian grocery store for about $20. Some have up to 40%. Some as little as 10%. A good coco will not hold to much water.

 

[Sphnx]

Grizzwald and sphnx, what a good exchange of ideas. There are so many ways of watering and feeding. Everyone does it different, you just have to figure out what works in your particular setup. To many small variables that you don't think of that make each setup different. There are no right answers only ways of thinking about it. The thinking and working it out is where the fun is.

On another track. Coco should not need any added material like perlite unless it is to fine. Dry the coco out and use a 0.5 mm sieve to see how much fines are in the coco. The kind of sieve that Asian countries use to sieve grains for food. You can get them at an Asian grocery store for about $20. Some have up to 40%. Some as little as 10%. A good coco will not hold to much water.

It does need perlite when you pack the coco down into the pot. Also perlite is necessary when running a lot of molasses. The coco tends to get glued together by the molasses. But without the perlite, it takes 5 or 6 days for the coco to dry and with it, 3 days. I've tried both ways and actually had more plants with problems in the coco without perlite.
Shit I think its 15 bucks for a GIANT bag a big granular perlite. It really isn't bad at all.

 

[MN green2]

It does need perlite when you pack the coco down into the pot. Also perlite is necessary when running a lot of molasses. The coco tends to get glued together by the molasses. But without the perlite, it takes 5 or 6 days for the coco to dry and with it, 3 days. I've tried both ways and actually had more plants with problems in the coco without perlite.
Shit I think its 15 bucks for a GIANT bag a big granular perlite. It really isn't bad at all.

So we have an understanding, I am pretty ignorant on many things. Please forgive if I ask questions on the obvious. Why do you pack the coir? What does the molasses do? The perlite use for me is not a question of price but of need and when you are done with the grow and the coir goes out into the garden as a soil amendment the perlite is an eyesore.

 

[Sphnx]

More coco in a pot, the molasses is sugars for trichome production. Molasses works very well

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

Not to contradict you my friend, I have been growing in coco and perlite for the past 10+ years.....
I water my gallon smart pots every 3 or 4 days... Over watering is over watering... That kills roots more than letting them dry out. Yes drying out too much is bad, but the leaves will droop from under watering before the roots die. The right amount of dry causes the roots to search for more thus giving you a stronger root system.

Much love my friend

Coco can be used like soil, but you get better results if you water daily with nutes daily. This is based on my experience anyway. I haven't been able to over water in 100% coco. I keep my coco totally saturated. My plants stay healthy green, strong, all the way to finish. They reach for the light. They grow fast and big.

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

Sphnx, that is interesting. My present grow of wwxbb and incredible bulk are in 100% coco, from brick. No perlite. I water every day with 100-1200ppm calmag plus and Flora Nova Bloom. That's it. Well, a few times I do give them a PK booster and brown sugar.

I have never had issues. Leaves stay green all the way until I water with just water, and even then they don't want to turn yellow, not for a long while.

After a grow is done, I always check out the roots. Nice and white, healthy, nice smelling.

 

[Sphnx]

So check this out. You can have a root system that doesn't need to stretch out and look for food or you have a root system that is constantly searching for food... Which will be stronger? I understand the want to feed and feed and feed, but the fact of the matter is what's good for the roots? Stay wet? Or dry up a little bit (not completely of course) but enough to be like fuck... I need water start searching.

All results of watering every 3 or 4 days.

 

[STOP]

3 My run of is showing a big rise in pH, I pH at 5.8 runoff 8.4....WOW dude. you need to flush them now before flower.just flush with ph,ed water until you're near enough. then do a fresh feed at the right ph. all good to go then 3 days she will be perky.happydays.