Coco - should i give it a constant feed?

00ashoo said:

not that i dont approve you laid it down fine

just the points you made about flushing and these dry cycles
dont know what coco your talking of but usually if you flush it you wash away all the micro activity, should always have a nutrients in the water just less if you need flush it, and you say keeping wet all the time is asking for trouble im saying the oppersite.

dont take it the wrong way its just just a discussion

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sure man, is cool, i myself am not very experienced and still learning. Also been reading a lot of theory. Discussion is cool, but better done when actually discussing and not just saying something is inadvisable

I imagine it does indeed also depend on the coco which one is using and the mix - I use a local brand here that may be different than american ones, also with perlite 50-50, and when I was keeping it wet I had fungus gnats, no idea how to get rid of those bastards. Also had some overwatering symptoms before the roots got a grip of the medium. I've come across people who had that, before rooting, and while some people swear they've never seen overwatering symptoms in coco, many have, so I guess it's a good guideline to dry cycle before rooting, as it is known to promote rooting anyway.

As for flushing, according to theory this is essential no question about it, both flushing and runoff to sustain a proper hydroponic culture when using hydro fertilizers, avoiding buildup - even at the price of sacrificing some of the micro herd. Using organic ferts is different of course, there you depend on the micro herd to process the nutrition.

yes to promote rooting dry cycles would be good also watering around the edge of the pot helps too
but i take it back i go organics, i guess its a different game different rules

asaph - nice grow journal and even nicer buds i am going to have to do the unthinkable and take down my whole set-up as i am a private tenant and the landlord wants access to do some repairs to the building luckily i havent even started floweing anything yet... but... i am gutted - but its going to have to be done - guess im just going to have to wait a while before i can even start to think about doing a coco grow again

thanks, sorry to hear man. sounds like there's no choice. maybe take the opportunity to find a new spot.

Yeah i will give it some serious consideration... but yeah, you are right - i have no choice. Its not the 1st time ive had to take it down, back to the drawing board.

whitewidow2 said:

Anyone.... need assistance - dont want to fuck this up and definitely do NOT want to burn my plants

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Once your plants get over 12 inches or so you really do need to burn them just a little in order to determine the upper limits of the ppm's that you can get away with and not burn your plants. Since every plant is different in that respect then deliberately albeit slowly raising your ppm's untill you see tip burn is really the only way to determine that as far I have been able to determine. A mild nute burn is a minor setback on an otherwise thriving plant and it will recover quickly after you tweek it back down a tad. From then on just keep feeding it that maxed out nute solution constantly and you will grow maxed out buds.

Coco is unique in that it exhibits rapid salts buildup as soon as it it is allowed to dry up. In my coco grow I was able to see visible crystals of salt on the surface several times and I mitigated that by literally soaking the rootball in water and raising and lowering it out of the plain water several times until the salts were suspended and washed away. Worked just fine. Moist is good, wet or dry not so good. Salt crystals on roots are a deff no no

so far so good... im finding that coco takes way longer to start than in soil.... i will try and post some pics up soon - she has been vegging for what seems like ages now and im just going for the constant feed method with a wet/dry cycle and allowing for a little runoff keeping the ppm in check

whitewidow2 said:

asaph - nice grow journal and even nicer buds i am going to have to do the unthinkable and take down my whole set-up as i am a private tenant and the landlord wants access to do some repairs to the building luckily i havent even started floweing anything yet... but... i am gutted - but its going to have to be done - guess im just going to have to wait a while before i can even start to think about doing a coco grow again

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cant you put the plants in locked cabinet/cupboard and lock up the lights? how long is the annoying,nosey prick going to be there?

How is she looking folks?...

This is a downsized set-up as i had to take down my entire op recently so it will do for now...

I gave her an EC of 1.2 then let it dry out for a week or so (5L water for a 20L pot) then i bumped the EC up to 1.4, so im constantly feeding...

The next step up on the Advanced Nutrients Veg guide advises 1200ppm for week 4 of veg - which is an EC of about 1.7

Should i be ok to give her a 3rd feed at this ppm, bearing in mind i have only been feeding once a week and allowing the pot time to dry out?

Thx

Asaph, it ended up getting set up behind my couch while i had people in... wasnt even enough room for it in my cupboard as all the other equipment went in there, ghetto style - but it worked

I just couldnt bring myself to chop her down

Ok so there are 2 schools of thought according to the advanced nutrient bottle and their feeding chart...

The bottle advises that you can go right up to 2000ppm in flower and the chart advises up to a maximum of 1236ppm in flower

What are your experiences... how far can it be pushed without nute burn? and am i ok to keep doing what i am doing, constantly feeding and allowing for a wet/dry cycle - i dont want to mess this up.

The chart would suggest that an EC of about 1.8 is the max that you go in flower... opinions?

Oh yeah and the EC's dont correspond either on the advanced calculator making it a bit hard to follow - i am using the EC x 700 scale as advised on the bluelab truncheon to come up with the 1.8EC which is 1260ppm

Anyone.............................................. ** also if adding bloom enhancers (which i am...) adding about another 200ppm the feed - do i need to lower the amount of base nutrients to compensate or will i be ok with the reccommended guidlines and the bloom enhancers on top ** Thx

i use floranova+gh floraplus +dyna protekt make sure your ph is low man ph is really key growing with coco...always ph the run off (tiny bit) dont go wasting your nutes i been using coco for 3 years this method works pretty good...i keep my ppms around 1200 CF @ .60 and when i start to see my ppms get higher in flower after about a month i'll start backing my feeding down i use R/O water so i during the backing down phase i will use mostly cal-mg and gh floralicious plus and of course i always use dynagro protekt as my ph up i really try to keep my ph at low 5's and i try to keep my ppms at around no more than 1600 (this is the run off of course) in veg i use about 800 ppm of floranova and i'll ph that with protekt again as for drying out not like soil you dont want it bone dry ever the roots start browing out trust me and once that happens their dead and the plant gotta rebuild those ones you killed refeed when its about 2/3's empty get used to picking it up...its not hard coco is by far the easiest way man let it ride in winter you'll need a heat mat for new clones and seedlings first feedings with clones and seedlings should be cal/mg foliar and maybe some gh plus (seaweed) about it when you see it kick in (vigor) than start feeding at about 500 ppm if they green up after a week your good if they look pale add another ml or so depends on your nutes....in veg you have to really watch how much you water though because if you over water you will get deficiencys good day

A big thing with Pure Coco Coir is it ability to hold salts and other nutrients. Since some nutrients bond to the coco I recommend leaching the salts every month or 2 with clearex or any other salt leaching product.... I use TAP water and do NOT use any type of cal mag... The tap water seems to do fine with out cal mag....

Just my experience with coco.... Check Out My current GROW HERE

wow - tons of info, and im baked too note to self: come back and read in the morning thx man

so can i keep feeding her without any need to give just pH'd water in between? phyx - why do you not use any cal mag?... i thought you were supposed to i use tap water too, usually let it sit overnight.