Yes Gnome, 100% Atami B'cuzz CoCo. Been a while since I updated this thread. Holiday season and all. Figure now is a good time. Sadly no pics tonight though.
Oh, I figured out a way to get plants pretty much on the floor and only lost 4 inches! I'll explain further down.
Ok, so this is whats been going on since my last update. Like I was saying I wanted the hell out of the mix I was in before. It was just too hot with ferts for the nutes I am using. So I kept battling back and forth with def's and nute burn. NO GOOD. These poor plants have not had the easiest life so far. Def's were starting to get pretty bad in some plants. Mainly Mag and Nitrogen defs. Kept watching fan leaves and middle growth die off. So I would up the nutes and the plants would burn. Which is exactly why I like 100% CoCo. Virtually no nutes. I find it easier to start with a clean slate ya know? Just give the plants what they want and I know that is ALL they are gonna get!
So, I swapped into the CoCo. (2 gallon bags, not 3. Popping into flower ASAP, once again I will explain more down below.) I should have just gone with my gut instinct and properly flushed the stuff before transplanting into it, but I was in a hurry for obvious reasons. Sometimes those rushed choices come back to bite you in the ass. Atami says they rinse their CoCo, but trust me...FLUSH that shit. It has salt in it for sure. After a few days of being in the new medium I noticed the new growth was growing spindly and kind of retarded/mutated. The tips of new leaves were more like nubs on thin weak looking blades.
Also, I am not entirely impressed with the drainage ability of grow bags. I noticed that some plants were pulling that "my roots need oxygen" drooping sad look that Bob mentioned before. This time it was too much water for sure. I grabbed the saddest one and literally drained over a
cup of water out of the bottom by gently squeezing the bag (poor White Russian)!
I figured out a way to take care of all 4 of my issues at once. Nute def's, drainage, salt, and getting my plants up off the floor just a bit to make watering not such a PITA but NOT lose more than a few inches in height.
I went into 2 gal bags. I wanted to go with 3, but I am hoping to get away with 2. I have seen 3 foot plants in one gallon pots produce a decent yield....so what the hell why not? Pretty much just a grow to get used to the tent anyway.
I took the 2 gal bags and literally stabbed the hell out of them (I was as careful as I could be with roots of course). I think I added around 50 new holes to each bag if you include all four sides and the bottom (mainly the bottoms).
I then mixed up some 1/4 strength nutes with a higher dose of the veg (for N) and CalMag+ (for cal and mag of course). Then flushed a few gallons through each pot. Which should have built up some nutes in the CoCo and washed out the salt.
Now, the plants on the floor thing was killing me. I had thought of taking bricks and some plywood covered with mylar and holes drilled into it. Still not enough air flow IMO. I had ran through so many different ideas I was pretty much done trying.
My wife asks me whats wrong, so I tell her the problem. She looks at me and in about 3 seconds asks, "Would a palate work?"
<--- Me
So the brain kicked back into gear and I thought, a plastic palate would be even better. Some family of mine knew of my dilemma and were driving about when they spotted some plastic palates behind a local store. No, they didn't steal them...thats bad mmmkay?
They told me about them and we drove back to ask where we could get a hold of some ourselves. They told us to ask any store that sells kegs (just a little FYI
). We just so happen to know of one.
Rolled down to the keg store, and there were a large stack of empty 2 liter plastic palates sitting right in front of the door. If you dont know what I am talking about I will up some pics of them soon.
Anyway, they are about 4 inches tall, about a foot or so wide and nearly two feet long. We asked the guy who was running the place about them and he said "Merry Christmas, take as many as you need." Grabbed a good handful of them, took off to the grow pad and got to work.
Floor is AWESOME. Wish I had pics to show you now.
Roots may tangle around the crates (which are upside down btw), but they are so open I should be able to untangle them if I need to move plants around. Lots of air space under the buckets, which will help with drainage for sure as well.
After I did all this the White Russian that was looking really bad has perked up nicely..as well as the rest of the grow.
Have lights and fans on timers now. Only giving 18 hours of light, plants are showing some preflowers now. So some dark should encourage them to show me what sex they are a little quicker, I think. Still in veg, I want the defs to be gone before I kick that switch. If I have to train plants into a net later on so be it. A few plants are pushing 16 inches tall...getting kind of scary...
Ok, pics soon guys. Promise.