Newbie's First Grow Journal: Auto CoCo Grow

[Crazy Cat Guy]

Heya Folks,

Thought I would start a grow journal for my new grow I'm starting at the moment.

I'm a fairly new grower, I have a two small grows under my belt using soil with a 600w HPS for personal use.

Recently I have been reading up on growing with coco and decided to try a grow using it rather than soil to see how things go.

I also just got a Telos 300 watt LED to replace the 250 to 660 watt HPS which I never really got to use to its full effect due to struggling with high temperatures in my grow area - it tended to be at 250 or 400 watts, so It will be interesting to see how this LED compares.

I'm using a BudBox Mylar grow tent at 1.2m x1.2m x2m along with six 20 liter air pots (thinks that's about 4x4x6 and 5 gallons US ?)

I have mixed up the CoCo and Perlite at about 70 /30 mix rate and will be using nutrients from a range called Shogun :

Shogun Coco A+B ~~ Katana Roots ~~ Silicon ~~ Active Sumo boost ~~ CalMag.

For this grow I have decided to try out some Auto strains ~ I have chosen to go for a little mixture x3 Lineage Seeds Auto Triple XL , x2 Dutch Passion Auto Blue Mazar and x1 Seedsman Auto Strawberry Cheesecake. Lights will be on for 18 and off 6.

I germinated them by soaking them for about half a day in water then into root cubes and my DIY ice cream tub with cling film propagator to keep them snug. I started 9 off ( 3 off each strain) in-case a couple didn't pop or look healthy but they all worked out fine - sadly I can only keep six.

I'm not sure how long people tend to keep the sprouted seedlings in the little grow cubes for, before putting them into a large pot, Ive seen pictures with loads of roots sticking out the little cubes but I tend to pot them into their containers soon as I see any roots sticking out in-case they get damaged or dry out etc - but I'm not sure if its better to wait a week or so until more roots are visible before potting them up.

Hopefully I will achieve about 10oz from the six Auto's. I haven't grown these strains before or used the LED light so not sure about the end results .

Here they are at the end of the first week - sprouted and placed in coco after the first serrated leaves appeared and given a half strength first feed. Two of the roots sticking out the little starter cubes seemed discolored and thin like they had dried out a little although the cube was moist and humidity was high in the little propagator tub - hopefully nothing to worry about.

 

[Old Salt]

I'm not sure how long people tend to keep the sprouted seedlings in the little grow cubes for, before putting them into a large pot, Ive seen pictures with loads of roots sticking out the little cubes but I tend to pot them into their containers soon as I see any roots sticking out in-case they get damaged or dry out etc - but I'm not sure if its better to wait a week or so until more roots are visible before potting them up.

I drop the seeds in a shot glass until they sink. They they go between wet paper towels until the tap root emerges between an eigth or quater inch (3-6mm). The short tap roots are not damaged as easily when you plant them. They are planted in 4" (10cm) nursery pots with coco/perlite. They are lightly watered for three weeks, The first week I water in the center, and after that at the edges of the pots. I'd cut that to two weeks for autos. They are then transplanted into their final containers.

It appears as of your coco/perlite is too dry. It can be difficult to rehydrate if it gets really dry.

 

[Backlipslide]

 

[Backlipslide]

Welcome to

it’s a great place to be to learn, and meet great people! Even enough to call them friends!

I’ve got some links in my sig to maybe help you, you’ve got a great start to your journal, so you can ignore those links.

Old salt pretty much summed it up, so I will sit back and jump in when and if I feel necessary

edited: @Old Salt sorry for mis spelling your name! And making it look like I was calling you moody!

 

[Crazy Cat Guy]

Thanks for the info everyone - I have given them all a water around the pots to keep them from drying out too much before the seeds take root and will again tomorrow, didn't need to water near the plants as they had a feed around the center of the pot last night.

Going to keep my two buckets of water / feed topped up and prepared for this grow sitting ready as I need It, I was just filling up as much water/feed as I needed for my last grow each time.

I have a small bucket of coco mix left over ( the orange bucket) which I was toying of putting another plant in but think It would be too cramp.

So after reading another forum post here, I have decided to try two solo cups with the two freebee auto seeds I had left over for a bit of fun. I have been wanting to try some lowryders / dwarfs at some point so this will have to do for the moment.

 

[Backlipslide]

Yeah man, I always start in something small similar to a solo cup, transplant to another, then into the final pots. Not everybody does that, but thats what I like to do anyways.

 

[Old Salt]

@Old Salt sorry for mis spelling your name! And making it look like I was calling you moody!

My real name is constantly misspelled, and mispronounced. I don't worry about it.

Moody? I get that way when I'm trying to solve problems such as getting enough water for personal and growing needs. It's been a tough summer due to a lack of water. Having to get water from the dehumidifier for the plants has been a PITA. So yes, I've been a bit on the moody side. Hopefully I'll have it solved later today, and will revert to my usual sunny disposition.

 

[Crazy Cat Guy]

End of week two update:

Hey folks

Everything's looking fine from what i can see, I have been giving them half strength of the nutrients every second watering at the moment with no issues.

Going to start some LST soon

I have a dehumidifier i used for my last grow (as it was up in the high 80% all the time) which was really handy and a small fan for air movement but I have been thinking off adding an exhaust fan I've managed to get away without using one so far but it might be helpful.

I have used a HPS for last two grows and was a bit lazy with adjusting its height, I have looked up the height recommendations for the new light and going to follow those for the seedling/veg/bloom stages and see how things go.

 

[Sunnyskies]

Aloha CCG! I got those strawberry cheesecake auto’s as a freebie with my last order from seedsman so hope you don’t mind me following along. Sending positive thoughts and vibes on the new grow!!

 

[Backlipslide]

Lookin good CCG!!

 

[Crazy Cat Guy]

End of Week 3 update

Hello everyone - Got called into work over last few days unexpectedly and work 12 hours + traveling so the wee lassies have been neglected a little bit. I noticed a little browning on the edges of some leaves I think is slight nutrient burn? So far its only very minor, I have still been using half strength of the nutrients I'm using but think I'll reduce it a little for a couple feeds.

I'm just about to water them now as they look more dried out than last night when i checked - they seemed a little droopy like they were over watered but better this morning.

I'm going to buy some plastic trays tomorrow so i can monitor the run off so there's no build up of nutrients and need to get some plant tie for starting LST which i probably should have been by now

The strawberry cheesecake is quite a squat thing at the moment might be hard to bend much.

 

[Old Salt]

Watering to at least 10% run off is critical in coco/perlite. If this is not done salts and unused nutrients build up in the root zone and will lock up your plant.

I can't advise you on the nutrients, as I've not used them. I used the General Hydroponics' Flora trio at 35% of the label recommended strength.

 

[mkono87]

Looking good so far. Im a new grower looking to use coco/perlite so im tagging along on this one

 

[Crazy Cat Guy]

End of week 4 update:

Hello again, I'm a few days late with this weeks update so better crack on!

I gave them two plain watering's this week to try make up for the suspected nutrient burn /flush out any build up and now have two large drip trays under the pots to catch/measure run off. They are still on half the recommended dosage of nutrients but think they can handle a bit more now so will up them next feed i think.

I don't think this has caused too much issues for them - there's a little discoloring on some of the leaves but hopefully now run off is all sorted they will bounce back.

I managed to start some LST with them all - couldn't find any plant ties so used hemp string and clothes pegs which i found laying around.

They sprout up really fast when you start LST'ing, still improving my training skills so anything roughly resembling a flat canopy will do me

Watering to at least 10% run off is critical in coco/perlite. If this is not done salts and unused nutrients build up in the root zone and will lock up your plant.

Cheers for the info, I have been checking the amount of run off last couple waters, I read up a little on it and I'm in the 10-30% range like it suggests so hopefully no issues later on with that now.

Looking good so far. Im a new grower looking to use coco/perlite so im tagging along on this one

Welcome to the grow

Here's some photo's - I had to remove a few lower leaves that were touching the soil but thinking of doing a little defoliating on one or two if they get too bushy this week.

Might be hard to see some of the names - After the group photo its Triple xl, Strawberry Cheesecake, Triple xl, Triple xl, Blue Mazar, Blue Mazar.

 

[mkono87]

Did you top then lst or just straight up lst? Looking great and healthy.

 

[Old Salt]

The color of the lower leaves seems to be yellowing. It could be this lighting. Check under natural light, and if this is so, you'll need to up the nitrogen. It could be just increasing the overall strength of you nutrients solutions will fix this.

Coco should be always be fed with a nutrient solution. Alternating feedings with plain water could also be causing your problem.

 

[NOOOBIENOT]

i always feed my plants daily never just water around 400 ppm at 5.9-6.1 ph and a heavy run off soak the whole pot , i use cloth pots though 60/40 coco/perlite , and g.h. nutes 3 part and always add calmag to my water as i run r.o.water , making a total of 500 ppm , 7 gallon pots and the plants have always loved this routine , if the plants are really small i just up the amount of run off i have , yellowing is always a sign of needing more nutes unless your ph is wrong then its a nute lock and you need to flush your coco out but still add a small(150 ppm )to your flushing water/feed never just water .stick with these numbers and you cant go wrong .i have had many coco grows with this formula and it gives great returns

 

[NOOOBIENOT]

i start my seedling in 1 gallon cloth pots ,then at the first signs of roots popping out from the cloth pots i transfer to their final pots of 7 gallon , besure to presoak the large pots with nutes before you move the small plants in to the larger pots .

 

[Old Salt]

i always feed my plants daily never just water around 400 ppm at 5.9-6.1 ph and a heavy run off soak the whole pot , i use cloth pots though 60/40 coco/perlite , and g.h. nutes 3 part and always add calmag to my water as i run r.o.water , making a total of 500 ppm , 7 gallon pots and the plants have always loved this routine , if the plants are really small i just up the amount of run off i have , yellowing is always a sign of needing more nutes unless your ph is wrong then its a nute lock and you need to flush your coco out but still add a small(150 ppm )to your flushing water/feed never just water .stick with these numbers and you cant go wrong .i have had many coco grows with this formula and it gives great returns

You might want to check out Mega Crop. I just switched. The entire grow will cost less than the just Flora Bloom in my previous grows.

 

[NOOOBIENOT]

just looked at mega but it is a powder , how is this work with a rez and coco ,and I suspect you cant use with drip emmiters ?