Boomer's 2400w Sour Grape GrowOp w/ ScrOG & CO2

when you water make sure to water the container evenly, starting slowly on the outside and then moving in somewhat in a spiral motion, slowly. I even take 5-10 second rests to allow for water to saturate and flow downward, and just before its all soaked in I will have started again, pouring it out faster and moving in toward the base of the plants . It is these little treatments that truly determine the outcome of grows. In everything that you do inside, there is little things that can cause big problems .

BooMeR242 said:

well i guess i will be hopin on over to ur grow and follow this since it will be very similar to wat im lookin at. thanks for sharin

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If there's anything that anyone could ever learn from me (and even that's pretty iffy), it'd be to try to cover your bases as much as possible before buying/starting anything.

Planning is beyond important - for instance, after my next grow, I'm going to have to tear my tents and everything else down and hide them in my workout room - for the second time in 10 months!!
The first time was because I didn't make sure that the garage could handle the wattages I needed to run, so I had to have an electrician come out and wire me up for an additional 40 amps.

Now, because the only window in the garage is 12" wide, I'm going to have to have an electrician (and probably an HVAC guy) come out after my next grow is done and install a split-level AC.

I'm also going to have a plumber come out and run a natural gas line to my garage (for my generator, fucking sick of filling up 20# tanks), and also to (hopefully) install a sink in my garage - have a hose, but no sink.

All that was a long-winded way of saying "Plan Out Your Grow Before You Do A Thing".

theloadeddragon said:

when you water make sure to water the container evenly, starting slowly on the outside and then moving in somewhat in a spiral motion, slowly. I even take 5-10 second rests to allow for water to saturate and flow downward, and just before its all soaked in I will have started again, pouring it out faster and moving in toward the base of the plants . It is these little treatments that truly determine the outcome of grows. In everything that you do inside, there is little things that can cause big problems .

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Lol, that's the same way I water.

Boomer - Yeah the watering technique helps a lot. Water slowly and evenly, until 10% leaks out the bottom, then wait 15 - 30 mins or longer for the substrate to soak up whatever you already gave it so that if you give it more it doesn't just run right out again. Then, 15 - 30 mins later, water again to top off all the pots and this extra amount will really seep in and stay in the substrate providing water and nutrients for a longer amount of time.

But also I think the root of your problem is really the Ph and lack of attention to this crucial element of growing. I aim for 6.6 always growing in soil. Since you're in ProMix I'd prob say go for 6.3 or 6.4. Soilless can go a little lower like rockwool can, just not as far. When your Ph gets off, the plant can't uptake all the nutrients that it needs properly, and some elements get 'locked-out' while others that the plant CAN uptake get taken in in higher proportions than usual. This results in a nutrient imbalance and deprivations of certain elements that could be crucial to the plant. Soilless mediums are also less forgiving than soil as they have less of a 'buffering' effect between your nutrients and the plant. So, in coco I've found that problems affect the plant much faster and more severely.

I would mix up a LOT of plain distilled water Ph'd to around 6.5 and I would flush everything really really good to not only try and get the substrate's Ph back to normal but to also flush out any salt accumulations or leftover coco coir acidity. Pour at least 3 times the amount of the pots/containers in water over/through the substrate until 3 times that amount has drained out from the bottom of the pots.

theloadeddragon said:

when you water make sure to water the container evenly, starting slowly on the outside and then moving in somewhat in a spiral motion, slowly. I even take 5-10 second rests to allow for water to saturate and flow downward, and just before its all soaked in I will have started again, pouring it out faster and moving in toward the base of the plants . It is these little treatments that truly determine the outcome of grows. In everything that you do inside, there is little things that can cause big problems .

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Sounds like I am going to have to start showing a little more love......

yea i know the reasons behind PHing ur water and etc. ive just never had any issues starting off clones in my closet setup in regards to PH levels or even PPM. but now that i have the PPM PH meter im ready to go

Boomer, IMHO Bro you should try out some coco. It will dry out faster and doesn't clump even when completely dry. I am actually going to move all my house plants to coco too it is so easy to control. just my 2 cents

#1Raiderfan420 said:

Boomer, IMHO Bro you should try out some coco. It will dry out faster and doesn't clump even when completely dry. I am actually going to move all my house plants to coco too it is so easy to control. just my 2 cents

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I was thinking to try it myself.

I just switched before this run, and coco is killer. Coco feels much cleaner to me, so light and fluffy when you mix with perlite. I will be adding a few extra things next time I transplant before flowering in coco. I also stepped up pot sizes to 5 gallon buckets, which also helped. I have (6) 5 gallon buckets, and (2) 7 gallon smart pots filled with coco, and I water every other day, 10-13 gallons per watering.

I hate coco coir personally. ProMix is very similar to coco.

great advice guys, sorry i didn't get here sooner boomer! we are using the same medium. im not talking sh*t but ive never had any leaf problems. lets get this little problem out of the way, to get some healthy mother's! all i can say is digital meters are pieces or crap, in soil-like mediums like the ones we're using, (every one i've ever bought, which were manual clibration, would always be off. next grow im gonna buy an auto calibration, with a probe). i use the simple dyes, and always ph to 6.5. i use tap water, and don't let it sit. i only wter with ph'd water with superthrive until they get more mature, like 4-6" of new growth. good luck, can't a brother get a break in here?

d.c. beard said:

I hate coco coir personally. ProMix is very similar to coco.

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i too love the pro mix, i swear by it! i heard that sunshine mix messes with the ozone, tearing down swamps to get the peak moss, what have you heard if anything? that is the reason i was considering coco next grow. why do you dislike the coco?

sorry to hijack your thread Boomer, just would like to get vetran DC Beard advice on this topic!

i never said i didnt like coco and im not against still using it. i just never got around to researching it as much as i wanted, ive heard coco needs to be rinsed thru to stablize PH anyways before u use it but it can be reused for more grows?

d.c. beard said:

I hate coco coir personally. ProMix is very similar to coco.

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Do you hate all coco. why? It comes in many grades. have you given it a good try (different types)?

I wanted to go coco but, I found a product that I love so far. It is just like pro-mix but with added coco, silica, worm casting and ? unfortunately it seems hard to find. It is "Down to Earth, Pro Organic Mix" anyone use this? I think it is great for what it's worth.

BooMeR242 said:

i never said i didnt like coco and im not against still using it. i just never got around to researching it as much as i wanted, ive heard coco needs to be rinsed thru to stablize PH anyways before u use it but it can be reused for more grows?

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yeah, me too. i dont see nothing wrong with trying at least a pot or two next round, we'll see!

Drella said:

yeah, me too. i dont see nothing wrong with trying at least a pot or two next round, we'll see!

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Hey Boomer, I use coco on some of my plants and you really have to wash it good because it has salt in it. Even if it says its triple washed wash it. Test the runoff for EC to see if its acceptable. There are no issues that I know about with pH.

BooMeR242 said:

i never said i didnt like coco and im not against still using it. i just never got around to researching it as much as i wanted, ive heard coco needs to be rinsed thru to stablize PH anyways before u use it but it can be reused for more grows?

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You don't need to flush the high quality coco at all. I know some will disagree with this, but I did my research and I just water the pots before transplanting until it startes running out of the bottom of the pot. My plants seem to love the coco. I have even filled a carton with coco out of the bag, wet it, and stuck a fresh clone cut with some clonning gel in the coco just to see how it it rooted and it florished. Do the jist of it is, I think coco is very easy bro and works amazing for me. I use B'Cuzz coco coir with perlite, maybe if you use a low grade coco you may have issues without some major flushing. For me it is way easier than soil. Just my 2 cents and I apologize for the run-on in your journal brother.

I don't know guys, I've had many successful grows in soil over the years and about 3 or 4 crops ago I tried a coco mix one time. It ruined all my plants and I swore I'd never use it again. Now my plants look beautiful again (in FF Happy Frog soil) check the grow journal.

I used Roots Organics medium which is a coco coir mix. I did not know at the time to rinse it, although at the price I paid I would imagine that this stuff would have fallen into the 'premium' category and should have been triple-rinsed anyway...? Once the plants started showing signs of damage I flushed like crazy and still nothing. Anyhow, this is what happened to my crop the one time I used a coco mix:

This:


Did this:

d.c. beard said:

I don't know guys, I've had many successful grows in soil over the years and about 3 or 4 crops ago I tried a coco mix one time. It ruined all my plants and I swore I'd never use it again. Now my plants look beautiful again (in FF Happy Frog soil) check the grow journal.

I used Roots Organics medium which is a coco coir mix. I did not know at the time to rinse it, although at the price I paid I would imagine that this stuff would have fallen into the 'premium' category and should have been triple-rinsed anyway...? Once the plants started showing signs of damage I flushed like crazy and still nothing. Anyhow, this is what happened to my crop the one time I used a coco mix

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Im sure some of the coco is ok but I just err on the conservative side. I wash it all cuz you never know when the quality control is lax and then your crop is no good. Just my $0.02

wow DC thats sum crazy lookin shit u got goin on there.
ive read about rinsing the coco regardless if its premo or not and def will check the run off (thanks GT) but thta was bak when i was researchin doin hydro tables and was gonna do coco slabs. even if u pH ur water before u pour it into coco the runoff can be a diff Ph unless flushed well. idk wat the cost ratio diff is in weight either between coco and sunshine or even promix. i do need to do sum more research and appreciate everyones imput cuz i need the ups and downs.