Coco Growers Unite!

jberry said:

snowwhite, ask your hydro guy how the water is in your area or have him test a sample of your water for you. it kinda worries me that it is hard to find. I cant imagine you not needing at least a bit, but if your water has a lot of cal/mag already in it, then i dont want to steer you down the wrong path (dont know a thing about uk water).

get a rough idea of how much is already in your water and add until your at 200 ppm.

this is good advise for anyone using canna.

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my tap water will be full of calcium I'm sure, and all sorts of other minerals and crap, but I'm collecting rain water and using that, so like RO this is 0 EC or PPM, and has no calcium, so I will need to supplement for sure I would say. I'll just monitor my plants progress closely and see how it all goes.

Sorry guys bt I'm not reading through 25 pages after a 12 hour night shift..

Can anyone tell me, can i grow with canna in normal flower pots (non-hydroponic)
If so, how often will they need watering...

thx

Jay_normous said:

Sorry guys bt I'm not reading through 25 pages after a 12 hour night shift..

Can anyone tell me, can i grow with canna in normal flower pots (non-hydroponic)
If so, how often will they need watering...

thx

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yeah man, totally.

re: watering, it will depend on the size of plants, pots, lights, room temps and how much water you apply. Manual watering or dripper fed? So it varies.

Does anyone add a layer of hydroton to the top and the bottom of ther pots (3-5 gallon)? I heard that this will keep the top layer moist and keep the coco from draining out of the bottom. Also is 3-5 gallon pot from clone to big of a container in coco to start out with? Does anyone use perfect pot (bags) with coco? last but not least what type of drainage systems (to waste) are the easiest using 3-5 gallon pots and hand watering. Thanks appreciate all the help in anvance.

Thanks man... might just give it a go..

propCA215 said:

Does anyone add a layer of hydroton to the top and the bottom of ther pots (3-5 gallon)? I heard that this will keep the top layer moist and keep the coco from draining out of the bottom. Also is 3-5 gallon pot from clone to big of a container in coco to start out with? Does anyone use perfect pot (bags) with coco? last but not least what type of drainage systems (to waste) are the easiest using 3-5 gallon pots and hand watering. Thanks appreciate all the help in anvance.

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i use 2 gal. pots, no hydroton. but ive heard of this several times. if ur only doing a couple of plants than you could give it a try, but try at least one plant with plain coco... i doubt you will see any difference in the end result.
my coco drains fine just by its self and i reuse the coco, and have alot of plants, so the hydroton seemed like more trouble than its worth, but i would be really interested in hearing the results of a side by side experiment.

drain to waste.
i got 16" raised tables, with the standard trays sitting on top. i built the tables so could fit 3 gallon buckets under the tables/trays, i use tubing tacked to the bottom of tables, so i can put the buckets where they are easy to access. I water and come back a hour later to empty the buckets by hand. when i do my final flush at the end of harvest, i must stay in the room on standby to empty the buckets or they overflow, besides that it is pretty easy.

my friend is luck enough to be able to drain straight into a shower drain, which would be even easier. one down side is that he doesnt ever know what % of run off he has.

dont know anyone using perfect pots, sorry.

propCA215 said:

Does anyone add a layer of hydroton to the top and the bottom of ther pots (3-5 gallon)? I heard that this will keep the top layer moist and keep the coco from draining out of the bottom.

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you don't need/want to put anything on top of coco to keep it moist. you want it to drain/dry freely on it's own. some folks put hydroton on the bottom. i use fine netting that allows water to pass through, and coco to stay inside.

hello coco peeps, I have been recommending 200 ppm cal/mag for us canna coco users and just wanted to throw it out there that Cal/Mag Plus by Botanicare smells really awful and i would use something else like MagiCal by Technaflora. Canna has their own Cal/Mag which ive never had the pleasure of using, so im not sure if it smells bad or not.
a lot of companies make calmag, but if makes you gag when you smell it than thats a bad sign imo... MagiCal is pretty much odorless...

let me know if anyone knows of any others that are good.

i just harvested some dank about 2-3 weeks ago. i use canna coco in slabb form. 3 plants per slab, drip sys RTW always. its the bomb always use all canna specific nutes with canna additives the results speak for them selves. check out the purp mazar-i-sharif.

last pic is my room when i set up. its changed a bit since. anyway just included it to show those who have not seen them before they are the canna coco slabs i use.







Madazz

Hey there, i just started growing in cana coco and had one question i couldn't really find an answer for. I'm using cana coco nutrients and was wondering about the frequency which i need to feed them. Is it like in soil, every 3rd or 4th watering or is it more frequent like every watering. On the bottle they recommend one feed a day for the first 2 weeks i think then on to 2 feeds a day but this seems a little too much. I am hand watering them by the way every 2 days for now.
Thanks

Math

i feed 2x a day. remember coco is hydro. some folks do feed less, but i find the growth rate much better feeding daily.

Thanks for the reply, so i understand you water and feed them twice a day, is that in both stages as in veg and flowering? I'm still at the very beginning, only the first week so i'm just trying to keep the top layer humid for now.
Cheers

Math

Canna recomends watering when 1/2 the crop has lost 1/2 its water weight.

i feed them less at the very beginning.

if you feed them twice a day, than you need to be in smaller pots so that the pot can lose at least some of its water weight. Feeding once a day or once every other day is okay in larger pots, but the largest yields will come from 2 or more feedings a day as silky stated.

what size pots u got silky?

jberry said:

Canna recomends watering when 1/2 the crop has lost 1/2 its water weight.

i feed them less at the very beginning.

if you feed them twice a day, than you need to be in smaller pots so that the pot can lose at least some of its water weight. Feeding once a day or once every other day is okay in larger pots, but the largest yields will come from 2 or more feedings a day as silky stated.
what size pots u got silky?

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i usually grow 6 plants in 5 gallon containers. that's about all you can cram under a 1000 watter. i put one container inside another with a tube for run-off. i always allow 10-15% run-off when feeding. i know i can probably yield better with a sog, but i like big plants for some reason.

anyone tried using "Smart Pots" with their coco grow?? - i keep hearing good things about them.


also has anyone used "GREAT WHITE" by Plant Success with their coco grow?
i'm gunna give it a go. I was told that it was amazing stuff and that the coco will greatly benefit.

jberry said:

anyone tried using "Smart Pots" with their coco grow?? - i keep hearing good things about them.

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some folks like em, i don't....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEO9sv2t_gw

Silky Shagsalot said:

some folks like em, i don't....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEO9sv2t_gw

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why no likey?

my friend got a few 4 free and used them, he said the plants in smart pots got bigger and the root structure was off the hook campared to the others.
a got 10 to try out next run, if the ones in the smart pots do better than i'll probably switch them all out.

but yea, i havent ever used them b4, so does anyone know what the downfalls are??

i water 6 times a day with drippers. on for approx 4 mins each time. this allows min run off wastage.

madazz have you always used the cogr slabs? or did u switch over from canna's traditional coco line and containers?

just curious if you could compare the two?

madazz said:

i water 6 times a day with drippers. on for approx 4 mins each time. this allows min run off wastage.

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i've always heard that multiple small feeds is optimal in coco. i've just never set-up a manifold-LAZY!! as for run-off wastage, you want run-off.