Coco grow - Super Silver Haze, Blue Cheese and Trainwreck

[SnowWhite]

Hey all,

It's been a while since I've done a journal, but as I now have a new 'BudBox' grow tent (for vegging) and some new seeds, I decided to document this grow so the peeps of RIU can follow along.

Here is my new BudBox. It's just a small one 75cm x 75cm x 100cm, but perfect for my vegging requirements.

I am currently running 2 x 125W blue enviros in the bud box and I have a 600W air cooled HPS in my flowering room, but we're no where near that stage yet, unfortunately! But all that exciting stuff is to come.

Something else that is different this grow is my medium. Having been a dedicated soil grower until now, I am trying my hand at coco for the first time. I'm using canna coco along with the canna nutes...so that's about the basic info on my grow for now......let me know if you have any questions and I hope you enjoy growing along with me! Lets get started.....

Week 1

2/8/2009 - Started germination using wet paper towel method. 9 seeds, 3 of each strain.

4/8/2009 - All seeds cracked with tap roots showing. Planted up into 60/40 coco/perlite medium, watered in with a light dose of canna coco A+B. (PH 5.5 EC 0.9)

6/8/2009 - All seeds have broken the soil ....sorry, I mean coco!!

9/8/2009 - Medium drying out, time to water. Same mix as I started with above.

11/8/2009 (today) - It's been one week since I put the seeds in my growing medium, pic updates start from here...

Inside the bud box.....

Trainwreck (left), SSH (middle), Blue Cheese (right)

So it's all going to plan so far and I'm v pleased with 100% success rate with seeds. They are all fem seeds by the way, lets hope I have the same success with their gender stability!

It's been a longtime since I started from seeds and I kind of forgot how exciting it is, not knowing what you're gonna get!

 

[J R]

Looking good. Are the granules on top mosquito bits for control of gnats?

 

[SnowWhite]

Looking good. Are the granules on top mosquito bits for control of gnats?

Thanks man. No, it's just perlite mixed in with the coco. When I pot up, I don't think I'll bother with the perlite tho, just 100% coco. Just FYI....for prevention/treatment of gnats, I use a product called 'gnat off' which you mix with your water. Plus I hang sticky fly traps. Note to self...put a sticky fly trap in bud box!

 

[J R]

Misquito bits in granular form is available on Amazon.bomb in the 1/2 gallon size for $14 +,-. It contains the bacillus israelius (sp) that will do away with the gnat larvae and is effective for about 14-15 days, then re-apply on top.

Yea, yellow sticky traps, but also a help is Hot Shot No Pest Strips for the flying mofo's

 

[SnowWhite]

My passive intake was not working well enough and the tent was getting too hot. 33 deg C.....Too damn HOT!!! So I've moved the 4" extractor fan onto the intake ducting and got a 5"fan for the exhaust.....both intake and exhaust are hooked up to one of these climate controllers.....

It's great. I set idle speeds (for the intake and exhaust) and a desired temp (25 deg C). When the temp gets above 25, the fans kick in at full speed until the temp is below 25 again, then the fans revert to the the idle speeds settings. I'm v pleased with it and it's working a treat ........will post some pics up later.....

 

[J R]

Thanks man. No, it's just perlite mixed in with the coco. When I pot up, I don't think I'll bother with the perlite tho, just 100% coco. Just FYI....for prevention/treatment of gnats, I use a product called 'gnat off' which you mix with your water. Plus I hang sticky fly traps. Note to self...put a sticky fly trap in bud box!

The "Gnat Off" is an expensive knock off of the same bacteria that is contained in Mosquito Bits....just fo yo info.

 

[SnowWhite]

Cheers JR....interesting. I'll see if I can find them bits you talk of over here when my gnat off is done. They sure do rip you off for it!

 

[SnowWhite]

New ventialation setup.....

Intake

Exhaust

Control

how I like it.....

Inside the tent.....

BC (left), SSH (middle), TW (right)

BC

SSH
Suffering a bit from high temps earlier in the week I think....

TW

This TW is taking off quickest so far....

still v early days but I'm v excited by the prospect of these little babies!

 

[SnowWhite]

BC - Left, SSH - Middle, TW - Right.......

Day 3

Day 5

Day 6

Day 9

Day 10

Day 14 - Today

I'll probably be potting these girls up at the weekend and will be increasing the EC on the feed as well, probably take it up to 1.3 - 1.4 EC and see how they like that.

I'm following this canna feeding shcedule and will adjust as my plants tell me......

When growing in soil I do not normally even think about feeding at this stage. The soils takes care of things for most of vegging time (as long as I pot up), but with the coco it's totally different and I have to give my babies all they desire from the start. So it's a bit of a learning curve, but it's great to be doing something new and learning more all the time.



oh, btw, comments/advice are welcomed from all, especially from coco growers. Thanks.

 

[bigrob6969]

hey whats up man everything looking good man ive been using coco also for a while now and i seem to really like it i did have a lil gnat prob at one time but taken care of quickly and where did you get the tent from i am also growing the blue cheese is yours from big buddha ? ill be taking some more pictures pretty soon send me a pm or something and ill see whats up how long do you plan to veg what size plants you looking for? ne ways looks great man keep it up

 

[SnowWhite]

hey whats up man everything looking good man ive been using coco also for a while now and i seem to really like it i did have a lil gnat prob at one time but taken care of quickly and where did you get the tent from i am also growing the blue cheese is yours from big buddha ? ill be taking some more pictures pretty soon send me a pm or something and ill see whats up how long do you plan to veg what size plants you looking for? ne ways looks great man keep it up

ez mate...welcome to my grow and thanks for stopping by dude.

Yeah man, it's the buddha blue cheese. I smoked some with a mate a month or two ago and fuckin' luved it, so thought I'd give it a try. Got the tent from a local hydro store, they had a whole range of them.

I'll prob veg for 6-8 weeks, but will see how they go. I will be cloning and keeping the best of these genetics to grow out some more.

Good luck with yours man. Upload some pics if you get chance.

 

[J R]

Big rob....what did you use to alleviate the gnat problem in the coco? Gnats love coco, just wondering what was successful.

And the CoCo grow is looking GOOD. I will be trying a 50% perlite/50% coco as soon as I can figure out an auto watering sysytem. Timed drip maybe?

 

[SnowWhite]

cheers man!

When I pot up I'm actually gonna go with 100% coco and ditch the perlite. Don't reckon it adds any benefit. Drippers work well with coco I believe, but I will only use drippers if I'm gonna be away from home for a few days or more. I like to water my plants by hand.

 

[SnowWhite]

Today is 17 days since planting up my seeds in coco and I'm v pleased so far with both the plants and the coco.

I do have temp problems though which are a bit fucked up! My lights are off between 12pm and 6pm, but because my tent is in my loft and my loft is not insulated, the ambient temp soars right up in the afternoon sun and I can't draw enough cool air in to bring it down. So my temps actually rise during lights off!!! How fucked up is that?!! It peaked at 34 deg C the other day....lights off!! WTF!!! But during the cooler evening/night/mornings with my lights on, I can maintain my tent at a nice 25 deg C and 45-50% RH. Nice! I'm not sure how my plants are liking the HOT dark temps, I suspect not very much! So I have to fix it and soon. The solution is pretty simple though, and I just have to insulate my loft so the heat can't build up when the sun is hitting the dark concrete roof tiles all day long. They are like storage heaters and just suck up the heat.

But I've ordered some of this.....

1.5M x 25M of this stuff and a staple gun should sort my temps right out in summer and help keep the loft warmer in winter as well. Plus my house is more energy efficient in general, so it's just got to be done!

Anyway, enough about my temp and insulation problems.....here are the plants on Day 17.....

BC (left), SSH (middle), TW (right)....

BC....

SSH....

TW....

This TW is doing it's own LST.....LOL....It's my fastest grower and was growing straight and tall, but I got back from work last night and found it like this.....

I can only assume the weight of the fast growth on top must of pulled the stem over a bit, but as you can see in the pic, the stem is starting to thicken up now. I'm just gonna let it do it's thing for now.

So my only concern at the moment is my really high lights off temps! But I have a plan and hopefully the high dark temps won't of freaked my plants out too much. Looks like it's going to be another sunny day today though! Damn it!!!! I want cold and wet british weather!

 

[J R]

Do not see any heat stress...just keep watering them and the girls will make it. They are grown in high temps....as long as it is not DWC they should make it.

 

[BlackBuddha]

I am growing 2 Purple Widows in Coco also (they are 17 days from seed). However I did not use any lamps or nutes so far, I give them sunlight for about 12 hours then I put them inside for the night.

Your plants are looking good, just like mine lol.

 

[SnowWhite]

Hey BlackBuddha, thanks for the comments dude. Good to have you on board

It's Day 20 for my girls in the coco and it's all going to plan, except for my environmental problems, but I'll have all that under control real soon and it's cooler out today with cloud cover so my temps are fine on days like today anyway.

So here's my Day 20 pics.....as usual, BC (left), SSH (middle), TW (right).......

time for a repot!

 

[SnowWhite]

I always pot up my plants into 6 litre pots at around the 3 week mark. I will then report one more time before flowering into 11 or 15 litre pots, depening on the number of plants I have.

Before potting up I get my shit sorted and first off I mix up my nutes I will use to water the girls in with........here is my recipe.....

To 10 litres of rain water I added.....

2ml Cal
2ml Mag

EC 0.3

20ml A
20ml B

EC 1.32

20ml Rhizotonic

EC 1.35

25ml Cannazym

EC 1.36

10ml Gnat off (preventitive)

EC 1.37

I want my EC at 1.4 so I add another ml of A and B.

EC to 1.42....that will do!

PH is 6.73 so I bring that down to 5.6

10l of plant juice ready to go!

Smoke a bowl!!!

Then I get my pots ready and fill with coco using a small empty pot to leave the perfect size hole to transplant in to.

This mehtod allows for a very quick transfer between pots with minimal stress to the plants......

So now I'm ready to get my girls from the tent and swap them out into their new pots. I water them all in with 1 litre of my previously mixed feed.

Job done....

Plants are now back up in my tent under the lights again.

Hopefully they will like it!

Plants have also been FIM'd as well as I want at least 3 main branches per plant for flowering.

 

[imburne]

Awesome thread! I love all the pics.. Keep them coming!

 

[(Butters)]

Scribed. I'm here for the ride as well.