Coco Growers Unite!

Squidbilly said:

Coco or not, that's preference.

I would suggest LST before trying uncle bens. Without topping the plant or cutting off any branches you could have something like the plant below. That's 5 weeks from seed. All I did was bend her over when she was about 5-6 inches tall. Every branch becomes a top. I'm not sure why uncle ben wouldn't just do this...
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Thanks for the reply. I have done plenty of LST in the past. I wanted to try Uncle bens method to see if having 4 "dominant" tops was more beneficial. Due to things getting way to big in in the past I would prefer to keep my plants under 5'. I already cut their heads off a week ago. I was just trying to decide when to flip the switch.

I'm trying to do coco outdoors this year? any pointers? i live where it gets 110 degrees plus.

FresnoFarmer said:

I'm trying to do coco outdoors this year? any pointers? i live where it gets 110 degrees plus.

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jorge cervantes dvd for outdoor. try to look for that video. good tips

@d0rk2dafullest

I have watched that dvd and multiple other similar dvd's. I just wanted to get some different opinions/experiences from the growers here on RIU. I know that in hot temps plants needed too be watered quite frequently. I was wondering if it would be beneficial or detrimenta to my plantsl to grow in coco in such high temps.

FresnoFarmer said:

@d0rk2dafullest

I have watched that dvd and multiple other similar dvd's. I just wanted to get some different opinions/experiences from the growers here on RIU. I know that in hot temps plants needed too be watered quite frequently. I was wondering if it would be beneficial or detrimenta to my plantsl to grow in coco in such high temps.

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A lot of people in fresno grow. and they do just fine. im pretty sure you'll do just fine as well. i've seen some plants up close and personal as well. i have one guy show me one of his plants about 6 foot tall, and 4-5 ft wide, he yielded about 5-6 lbs per plant. outdoor, in fresno. you should b fine just pay attn to your girls. just remember that when u use coco, you're going to have to use hydro nutes. it's not soil. so you're gonna have to watch her for deficiencies. are you going to dig in the ground? or are you going to use pots? if it were me i'd dig, if you live on a farming property. but if not then brute trash cans if you wanna grow big trees. you need a huge root mass to maintain big trees, 6'x5'. so it depends on what you wanna do. maybe try both!. good luck sir!!!

edit: remember to feel out your coco, if you are using pots, picking up the pot will tell you how often you should water. but if you dig, ur gonna have to feel how wet or dry that coco is, and try to keep it moist at all times. cause once it dries out, your plant will wilt so fast like nobody's business. if anything i would use a layer of perlite on the bottom about an inch or 2, and then fill with 100% coco. i grow indoor, so i use a 60/40 mix. of coco/perlite. and if i let my plants starve for 2 days, my plants will fall over and wilt, so i can skip one day at the MOST. but i feed everyday. again i hoped i helped bro!! GOOD LUCK!

Hey all, its been a while since i've been here but still growing in Coco. Had a question. Does any one here mix perlite with the coco?? i've noticed after the coco has been watered a few times i get no run off. is that normal??

sorry, neglected to read the post above mine. no i havent been smoking! thanks for info

micadesgns said:

Hey all, its been a while since i've been here but still growing in Coco. Had a question. Does any one here mix perlite with the coco?? i've noticed after the coco has been watered a few times i get no run off. is that normal??

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If you are not getting runoff then you are not giving them enough water, as they get bigger they will drink more so you will need to add more or water more frequently

Yh i stand by that 1

Can you tell me your ratios of perlite to coir in your mixes.
I used half and half my last grow using GH CocoTek and large chunk perlite. Pure Perlite in the reservoir and the mix above. I can't figure out what caused of my pH problem. It started in mid flower and when I notice the start of the problem I immediately started flushing with pH'ed rain water, multiple times and I have flushed every second watering since. I water/nute one time then the next flush heavy and use just pH'ed water then back to the water/nutes.
I am using the GH coco block, I flushed it heavily with rain water and then flushed heavily with Ph'ed rain water and still ran into pH problem.
It may have been using the GH Maxi series of dry nute in the Lucas formula and I am thinking that the coco tied up the nutes. I used the same Lucas formula with a pH of 5.6 that I used for my last soil grow, which I now know was a big mistake.



Here is a pic of one of the colas that I plan on harvesting this weekend if I get the % of amber trichomes I want, 10 to 15%, it will be at 9 weeks but if I have too, I will give it more time for the amber to show. The plants only have a small percentage of cloudy trichomes. These plants are 9 to 11 week flower periods. I will harvest the next one when there are 25 to 30% amber, which I hope will be at the end of week 10.

On my new grow I am using 70% Perlite/30% coir. This grow I am using the Grat3fulh3ad modified Lucas formula, 6ml Floramicro and 9ml Florabloom w/1 tsp. epson/gal. pH'ed to 5.9 to 6.1 using rain water.
Seed popped in Hempy cup on 10/26 and transplanted into 2 gal Hempy's on 10/31. I really like the method if I can only get a handle on pH issues. Here she is on 11/11.
So far no problems and when the roots hit the reservoir the Afghan lady really took off.




Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

GR

Yes, I am going for it. I've had loads of it around for years for my orchids. Now it will have an equally pleasing use!

Well, the Afghan I was growing had balls so into the compost pile and start.

Here is a little info on my new attempt.
Mr. Nice Black Widow. (5 regular seeds)
Perlite/Coco 65/35, I will be going back to 60/40 or 50/50 next grow.
Grow is Nugbuckets Mainline (Manifold) style.
Veg under 400W MH
Will Flower under 400W HPS
Nutes, using HEAD'S modified Lucas fromula for Coco. 6ml FloraMicro, 9ml FloraBloom, 3 to 5ml silica, 3ml Cal/Mag.

Had some difficulty in early grow do my error of not charging the coco correctly. That has been resolved.

So I started the seedlings directly into the two gallon Hempy pots that I will use the entire grow on 12/27/14. Here are so

Here are some pics taken when I made the final prune to get the plants to the 8 mains. Also a set of pics to show how fast they responded to the last prune, they have recovered and put on 3 plus inches since Monday, I love Hempy buckets. I posted this on a couple of other Rollitup sites. The Mainline Thread, World of Hempy, and 400W Club.

Ok, they have started to respond after the last and final pruning.
Still hoping for three ladies out of this batch. Should start 12/12 by the end of next week, depending on growth over the next 10 days or so.

The are all pruned to 8 mains.

1/30


1/30



1/28 Date drain hose installed



1/26 Date on final prune to 8 mains


Very please with the growth at this point, they are really beginning to take off.

1/26/15


1/30/15


That's it to date, Happy, Happy, Happy!

GR

I have a few mains that are outgrowing the stem mate, have not done a lot of training other than bending. Where should I look for info on this?
My clones from three of the plants are in the closet on 12/12 have been for a few days. Hope they show something by the time I put the plants in the cabinet on 12/12. It would be nice to make a bit more room in there.

Hey guys I have a question, if my runoff is 7.0 and my nute mix is 6.0, could I add ph down to make my mix5.0 so I get a 6.0 run off?

I personally wouldn't drop that low but its up to you, I would drop it to 5.6/5.7 and then flush it through with that mix 3 or 4 times pot volume until you get your runoff to drop to 6.
Also more info would be good, water ph before nutes added, stage of growth, nutes used, coco brand / perlite mix if using a mix etc, the more info you give the better the chances of getting a good answer.

highland420 said:

Hey guys I have a question, if my runoff is 7.0 and my nute mix is 6.0, could I add ph down to make my mix5.0 so I get a 6.0 run off?

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I would add some silica & Cal Mag to your nute mix. I was having the same problems and spoke with GH, they said the rain water I was using was too pure. My tap water is very high, 7 to 800 ppm and a pH of right around 7.
What I have done and their recommendation was to mix two gallons of rain water with one gallon of tap water and use 3 to 5 ml of Cal Mag and 5 ml of silica. It worked great and now when I make my nute mix the ppm in is 950 to 1050 and a pH of ~5.9, have not checked the runoff since about the third water/nute and they were good. The ppn was 950 to 1100 and the pH was 5.85.
It's possible your coco was not charged properly, I had the same problem but the change in regime solved the problem. Now when I charge my Coco I use only Cal/Mag and silica at 5 ml each. I use 5 gal buckets and run that mix two to three times and things are fine now.

Hope this helped.

GR

Thanks for reply appreciate it, this is my first grow and could use the help. Already almost nute burn my 2 week old HashplantxSkunk seedling in 1 gal pot to death with only .5 ml of dyna gro, but bursted in growth as soon as I flushed.. All I'm using is dyna gro-grow(now at .2ml per gal)with r/o water,50/50 coco-perlite,grandma's molasses at 1tsp per gal and cal-mag plus at .3ml per gal. I'm worried to add to much cal/mag and found it raises my ph so I actually wanted to stop using it at replace it for blackstrap which will lower my ph instead of raising it and would make things alot simpler... I'm not sure what silica is but I think it makes the stem stronger and heat resistant? I don't think i need anything like that cause I'm only using four 26 watt cfls equivalent to 100watts... Thanks for both of your suggestions ima try just flushing with large amounts of my nute mix 5.7/5.8ish and see if that works. Cheers!!

Sunday 2/16/15

Well, they have been reduced to two, there were three males to two females. That should work well in by cabinet, give them both room to grow. Three would have worked also.

Have the two clones of these plants under the T5's and they are doing well.

GR





2/17/18

Just a couple of shots from tonight. Did some moving and tieing of branches to even the canopy's better.



GR

Update: My plants severely died due to lack of advice... I quit growing now

highland420 said:

Update: My plants severely died due to lack of advice... I quit growing now

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Lack of advice? I don't think so. Did you post pictures and ask for help? I have never heard of one not getting the help they need on RIU, unless they are rude or something like that.
Get back on that pony and ride it again until it is bridle broke.

GR

Yeah mybad I was way out of line