Newbie's First Grow Journal: Auto CoCo Grow

[Old Salt]

I'm using it with drip emitters in a coco/perlite grow. No problems after 72 days yet.

 

[Backlipslide]

I’ve never used it, but a lot of growers here at the Mag. Use it, and the simplicity in it, is starting to win me over!

 

[Crazy Cat Guy]

Hi again folks, been reading over the comments, thanks for the info.

A couple of things I wanted to check up on

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

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 ,

My main source of info for this grow was from an other website, not sure if linking other sites is ok? (which I have found to be quite good in the past), although the woman that writes it suggests alternative watering of plain water /nutrients with coco.

This was a quote from the site

Like nearly all cannabis nutrients, the included schedule is aggressive and can burn your plants if given with every watering. No matter what nutrient system you’re using with your coco coir, I recommend giving plain water every other watering to prevent nutrient buildup.

My thinking was that the plain water was necessary to prevent any nutrient build up/lock ? Does having good run off prevent this on its own without the plain watering?

Cheers

 

[Old Salt]

Hi again folks, been reading over the comments, thanks for the info.

A couple of things I wanted to check up on





My main source of info for this grow was from an other website, not sure if linking other sites is ok? (which I have found to be quite good in the past), although the woman that writes it suggests alternative watering of plain water /nutrients with coco.

This was a quote from the site



My thinking was that the plain water was necessary to prevent any nutrient build up/lock ? Does having good run off prevent this on its own without the plain watering?

Cheers

Yes, I used the GH Flora Trio at 35% of the recommended strength on the bottles throughout my last grow.

When I started three years ago, I found that the feed charts, labels on the bottles, and other recommendations from the company were all different. I started reading journals here, and the information on other websites. Almost universally, the recommendation was 'always feed, and never use water alone.' My first grow was done at 25%, and I worked my way up to 40% during later grows. I found that at 40%, I started getting nutrient burn and dropped back to 30% to finish that one.

The proportions are generally right on the bottles, just the strength is too high. Because I'm using a percentage of the recommended amount, I didn't use TDS(PPM)/EC at all. If you think of it, when you always use the same water source, and a fixed amount of water, then add the proper amount from each bottle you use, the TDS(PPM)/EC will always be the same. I weigh my water to get that fixed amount. I use oral syringes to measure out my liquid nutrients, and a scale for the dry nutrients. The only added step for me was a pH check and adjustment.

Growing in coco/perlite, you'll only get nutrient burn or lockout if your solutions are too strong, or you don't get enough run off. It's a very forgiving method of growing.

One other thing I'll mention, is that there are almost as many ways to grow as there are growers. None that give a successful harvest is wrong, Each of us develops our own way to success. If it works for the lady on the other website, then it's the right way for her to grow.

 

[Crazy Cat Guy]

Hello again everyone Week 5 + 6 update.

Got a little of of sync with updating the grow progress with working unexpectedly the other week so waited and got some week 5 pics and week 6 pics so and now up to date.

I have started giving them a feed every water now for the past couple waters and they seem fine with it like you recommended

I'm giving them about 30% of the label rate which I'm going to up to 50% since the leaves look slightly light green and no signs of nutrient burn on any, so looks like they need a little more.

The strawberry cheesecake has started flowering quite fast with the other five all about the same looking.

These are some week five photo's - some of the photo's are a little of color due to my due photography

 

[Crazy Cat Guy]

And these are end of week 6 photo's after a little more training

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

Just some light low stress - I read its better to top auto's only if they got off to a really good start before they hit flowering

The middle two are the strawberry cheesecake - which is the top right corner in the group photo





Its cool to see the group photo's week by week and seeing how fast they grow.

 

[Crazy Cat Guy]

Good evening everyone, hope everyone's good

Just a little update on end of week 7!

All the ladies are looking OK, nothing major wrong with them this week

Well apart from humidity being up at 90% all the time , been running a dehumidifier to try and keep levels down.

Looks like minor nutrient burn on a couple leaves but nothing to worry about I don't think, the rest of the plants seems healthy this week.

They have gotten away from me a bit in terms of training , but hopefully I've done enough to help improve yield a bit.

The little seedsman Strawberry cheesecake ( third photo) is the furthest along so far and should be ready before the rest, seems to be an easy plant to grow, small and compact, would be nice to grow a few for a small area - shame they are limited edition freebee's.

Its getting a little crowded but hopefully there's enough room for them to finish.

Here they are just after a feed/water.

 

[Old Salt]

The little seedsman Strawberry cheesecake ( third photo) is the furthest along so far and should be ready before the rest, seems to be an easy plant to grow, small and compact, would be nice to grow a few for a small area - shame they are limited edition freebee's.

Re-veg her after the harvest, reverse a branch, and grow your own seed.

 

[Backlipslide]

That’s a great idea salty!

 

[Crazy Cat Guy]

Re-veg her after the harvest, reverse a branch, and grow your own seed.

Its crossed my mind about making my own seeds at some point in the future, maybe after growing some varieties and finding a favorite, or having a mother plant and taking clones might be easier for a newbee like me.

Can you re-veg/ reverse a branch with Auto's? or just Fem's?

Don't think i have come across this technique yet

 

[Old Salt]

Its crossed my mind about making my own seeds at some point in the future, maybe after growing some varieties and finding a favorite, or having a mother plant and taking clones might be easier for a newbee like me.

Can you re-veg/ reverse a branch with Auto's? or just Fem's?

Don't think i have come across this technique yet

I'm using it with feminized plants. I can see no reason it couldn't be used for autoflowering plants. Some here have done so. You start treatment after three weeks, or when the first pistils appear, whichever comes first for autos.

 

[Crazy Cat Guy]

Hello again everyone - Little end of week 8 update

I did some defoliating as I noticed I was getting some condensation build up on some leaves, humidity is still pretty high at the moment 80+ % so having to run the dehumidifier a few times a day to bring it down.

It was getting a little crowded so had to move them about a little - thought I might have to take one out the tent but think they are Ok now.

I got a little mold on my last grow on a couple cola's so trying my best to avoid it this time.

Only thing I have noticed a little strange is one of the plants top branch bud is getting quite orange in color - like they do later on when nearly ready to harvest, the rest of the same plant's pistels are still white just one or two of the top buds seem to have alot more color to them - not sure If its anything to worry about.

The little cheesecake is bulking up and frosting nicely - looks like the bud will be quite dense and heavy hopefully

Hopefully I didnt take too many leaves of the plants when doing some defoliating

Here they are for this week

Cheesecake is the second photo and the last two photo's are the same plant with the one turning slightly orange, hopefully you can see it from the last picture.

 

[Old Salt]

Only thing I have noticed a little strange is one of the plants top branch bud is getting quite orange in color - like they do later on when nearly ready to harvest, the rest of the same plant's pistels are still white just one or two of the top buds seem to have alot more color to them - not sure If its anything to worry about.

It's nothing to worry about. The first buds with pistils will be the first ready for harvest. You can harvest them early, or leave them on the plant to wait for the rest to catch up.

 

[Crazy Cat Guy]

Hello everyone, Hope you all had a nice Christmas / New Year - Its been a little hectic last couple weeks with work/holidays/family emergency so struggled to update the journal with all that happened but I'm back finally, apologies.

We're on week 11 by my reckoning now

Not had any major problems last few weeks - one thing happened a couple weeks ago, I watered all the plants at night just before lights out and when i checked on them in the morning basically every single leave had water droplets on them due to me forgetting to turn the small fan back on + high humidity, panicked a little I put the fan on full blast for a coupe hours + and the dehumidifier until they where all dry again.

One other little thing was I had a couple of the usual garden wood poles/stakes you get for training plants - not sure if they have a protective coating on them that stops them absorbing water but I noticed when having a little check through the plants that it was starting to go all moldy so removed it straight away - not sure if the coating has worn off and has soaked in some water and went moldy. Haven't noticed any signs that it transferred over the plant it was attached to thankfully.

I noticed a couple branches have some purple color to them, not sure it thats something to be worried about hmm.

I'm going to check for any mold every few days - had some at the end of my last grow Its really hard to see sometimes at first when it just starting looks like trichomes don't want to lose any bud at the last hurdle.

They are all almost ready - I had a little check through them last night for mold and how far along them are maybe a couple weeks for them all roughly I think - the little strawberry cheesecake is almost ready, all cloudy trichs just waiting on some turning amber. Hopefully the pictures aren't too bad.

Not sure about yield, first time using coco and a new light having changed from a 250 HPS to a 300 watt LED, had some slight nute issues but nothing disastrous - although I did notice variation in same seeds the three triple x one seemed to like the nutes more than the others.

The Seedsman Strawberry Cheesecake was the easiest to grow, nice dark green leaves no nute problems, nice compact small plant, the bud looks pretty dense so hopefully still get about an once off it. Temperatures have been easier to manage with the LED + being winter (although very mild) i couldn't really turn my old HPS up any further than 250 watts as it got too hot in the tent occasionally up to 400 watts.

Thanks for stopping by

 

[Old Salt]

Looking good.

I had the same problem with condensation forming on the back of my tent. The problem was the location. It was against the exterior wall of my home. Low temperatures with the light off caused this. A sheet of Styrofoam insulation between the tent and the wall corrected this. FYI, the water carrying capacity of air doubles with each 10°C / 18°F increase of temperature.

I use the coated metal stakes from the dollar store for support. Tomato cages are also a good choice. I have them in various sizes, up to 18" (45cm) diameter at the top.