First time grower using coco

[mared juwan]

As far as my plants, holy crap!, they love their nutes. It's been 36 hours since my first pics a couple pages back and the leaves have doubled in size. I gave them .5 mL/L of the Monkey Juice Grow A & B. The plants directly under the light were a little more lime green than the others so I pulled the light up one inch and moved them to the outside. I found that containers this size (2 gallon) won't dry out completely if given 1 liter of water per day. I think the advice I have seen many places to not let the medium dry out at all costs is a little misleading for a newbie. I mean coco is a lot like mulch in that it is never really wet, just damp. When you are sticking your finger down in there you are looking for a humid feeling instead of wet feeling. Does that make sense? Plus, it's reasonable that the roots are in fact encouraged to grow in search of moisture when things are on the drier side. Anyway, I'm sticking to the schedule of water once a day, come back half an hour later to make sure my watering didn't kill them, then leaving them the hell alone. Enjoy pics. I'm using a camera phone so the leaves aren't as yellow as they appear.

Oh yeah, the plant I named Slowpoke has finally begun to unfurl its leaves! It looks like I'll have ten plants after all

 

[mared juwan]

I forgot to mention, I was home during the period the lights were supposed to be off yesterday and realized that my light timer doesn't work. Garbage! I guess I've been on 24/0 schedule all along.

 

[bkstylz]

I am going to throw the whole block in a bucket once I go to my grow bags but I only needed to peel some off for the 4 solo cups I was using.

I am seriously thinking of going to a 75 / 25 mix with perlite when I do my transplant to the grow bags.

 

[bkstylz]

are the plants in the pic the ones you are giving Monkey juice to??

 

[mared juwan]

yeah, I'm giving the Juice to all of them. I've heard so many things good and bad I figure I'll just find out for myself. If I get to the end of this grow and people are telling me things could be better, then I'll get different nutes next time. How your plants doin', bk?

 

[TetraHyC]

I always use at LEAST 25% perlite. 75% is about the most I go, I've never used it straight, can't give you a watering schedule.

Get-on mared

Common sense is powerful.

You'll do fine.

 

[mared juwan]

Really? It is hard to find people that use 100% coco but I saw this comparison on icmag between foxfarm soil and perlite (not sure the ratio) and pure coco. The coco plant was twice the size. hold on, i'll get a link.

 

[mared juwan]

International Cannagraphic Magazine Forums - Coco vs Soil pic

 

[TetraHyC]

The perlite is inert it speeds drainage, increases airation.I can feed more often.Keeps it from getting soggy.Never tried soil,Used a lot of wool and hydrotron.

 

[TetraHyC]

You sound like you have enough sense, to be able to trust you judgement.
Some people are clueless (I was at first)

 

[mared juwan]

Well I am an engineering student... seriously. This whole grow is because I was budgeting my money, being a broke ass student and all, and realized I could live like a king if I didn't spend so much on weed. So while this is just an experiment, there is some importance to the outcome due to the initial investment needed to do it right.

 

[UserFriendly]

Yo Bk, Coco doesn't need any added perlite. The stuff drains so well that when you pour water into the pot, it will drain out before it can wick to the dry coco. It's crazy how well it retains moisture at the same time. The more perlite you add, the less space your roots will have.

 

[mared juwan]

I noticed that too. With the bags I'm using, some parts of the coco surfaces are always in the shade so you would think they would stay wetter but I guess the surrounding coco sucks out that extra moisture so there's no wet pockets. I turn them anyway, though

 

[bkstylz]

Yo Bk, Coco doesn't need any added perlite. The stuff drains so well that when you pour water into the pot, it will drain out before it can wick to the dry coco. It's crazy how well it retains moisture at the same time. The more perlite you add, the less space your roots will have.

See this is what I need. Someone to talk some sense into me....lol, I sit here getting stoned worrying about this grow medium. I guess I am a little nervous about doing 100% coco. It seems like you need to have a little growing skills to tend to plants using this medium.

 

[bkstylz]

As far as my plants, holy crap!, they love their nutes. It's been 36 hours since my first pics a couple pages back and the leaves have doubled in size. I gave them .5 mL/L of the Monkey Juice Grow A & B. The plants directly under the light were a little more lime green than the others so I pulled the light up one inch and moved them to the outside. I found that containers this size (2 gallon) won't dry out completely if given 1 liter of water per day. I think the advice I have seen many places to not let the medium dry out at all costs is a little misleading for a newbie. I mean coco is a lot like mulch in that it is never really wet, just damp. When you are sticking your finger down in there you are looking for a humid feeling instead of wet feeling. Does that make sense? Plus, it's reasonable that the roots are in fact encouraged to grow in search of moisture when things are on the drier side. Anyway, I'm sticking to the schedule of water once a day, come back half an hour later to make sure my watering didn't kill them, then leaving them the hell alone. Enjoy pics. I'm using a camera phone so the leaves aren't as yellow as they appear.

Oh yeah, the plant I named Slowpoke has finally begun to unfurl its leaves! It looks like I'll have ten plants after all

Man that is great news. So you are watering once a day?? I've been doing every 3 days.....from many posts that I've read it, people have been pretty adamant about not overwatering the seedlings and to wait until my cup is dry before watering again....well with the coco, it seems to only get dry on the surface and it takes a while to get the rest of the medium dry.

 

[UserFriendly]

Disease is the same in any medium; you have to learn sometime.

 

[mared juwan]

yeah, when I wrote that it had only been two waterings since the transplant. I think I'm definitely gonna back off for a while.

 

[UserFriendly]

yeah, yeah. You can treat it like a soil grow until the plants fill out.

 

[bkstylz]

My plants are doing pretty good right now. Still having difficulty getting to the Hydro store for my new hood as I've been staying late at work the past couple of nights. I am going to get it for sure Tomorrow because my plants need to be under an MH for sure.

UserFriendly you growing anything right now??

 

[UserFriendly]

My plants are doing pretty good right now. Still having difficulty getting to the Hydro store for my new hood as I've been staying late at work the past couple of nights. I am going to get it for sure Tomorrow because my plants need to be under an MH for sure.

UserFriendly you growing anything right now??