- I want to be able to re-use the coco - so I'm inclined to not go w/ the shooting powder. perhaps after 1 cycle I can do some side-by-side experimenting. the store down the road has HydroFarm's Roots Organics Coco mix (
http://www.hydrofarm.com/pb_detail.php?itemid=8192) - it does seem to have a lot of stuff great stuff in it - but it seems if the pure coco from canna combined with their nutes & regular tap water - that it will keep things simple. I've tried a variety of different nutes and soils & honestly I'd just like to approach with the K.I.S.S method. I've had a lot of set-backs with soil & really can't afford anything major to go wrong and to affect my yield.
- using distilled water - well, I do have a "Small Boy", but I usually use about 20 gallons to water/feed, and the Small Boy is sooooo damn slow & my water pressure sucks. It takes a LONG ass time to fill up the rez with that. Hence again going with pure coco + Canna nutes, that way I can just use tap water for right now. I tried to do a PPM reading today and last night, I think my Sunleaves TDS meter is FUBAR - its reading 065 on the PPM readout?! that can't be right.
- speaking of using tap water - I live in SF Bay area - check out this table/chart breakdown on their water analysis, specifically the PH reading -
http://sfwater.org/Files/FactSheets/SFPUC_WQ_Table_thumb2.jpg - 8.8 average? WTF? but when I test my tap water from the faucet I use with a Hanna PH meter, I get an even 7.0
my lights? that brings up another good question I have been wanting to ask, and it deals with the size of my room, # & Wattage of lights, and how many plants to use to best optimize the space & light output
room dimensions:
- 7ft 6" (H)
- 12ft 6" (W)
- 15ft (L)
using (4) 8ft x 2ft tables
lights:
(9) 1000W HPS Hortilux
my question is this: for many cycles I was instructed and led to believe that maxing out the tables with as many pots as I could fit (which is about 18 - 20 per table with a mix of 3 & 5gal pots) was the way to go. I believe this may not be the best approach, as they always seem so crowded. I have been wanting to experiment with bigger pots, less plants, with the hopes that the yield would be better or comparable to what I've seen. I'd much rather just do like say, 60 plants, in 5gal buckets & get 3oz per plant (which seems doable!). That would be huge. BUT.. I just have not ever tried. Last spring I got some bad genetics from a cloner, and the veg time was just ridiculous. The plants just wouldnt effin grow (a friend of a friend got same genetics from the guy and he experienced the same thing). I wound up putting some of them in what I think are 10gal pots, and one of the girls churned out I think 45gs.. Which is not bad, but not great. I guess I've always been too apprehensive to lower my # of plants down to 50 - 60 b/c I'm not confident I was going to get what I needed.
Now with coco - it seems that I'm going to get some good growth, and I've got another week or two to crunch #'s and do math. I also wonder if given the room dimensions and the wattage I'm using, if that is overkill in terms of lights. What's it about 12 plants per 1000w light?
Plus, I'm using CO2 via 20lb tank + regulator valve. I JUST added this to the equation actually during the last 10 days of my previous cycle (I'm effin desperate
) - so I can't say that it helped last round, but I do hope it works for next round.
Thanks
-B415-