growing 100% organic with coco

has anyone on here every fucked around with ROOTS COCOFIBER MIX, i was thinking of either using that or mixing up some root 707 with some coco


ANY INPUT??

fattymacgee said:

Hey Woodsmaneh! I've been giving your coco combination you listed here a go and I tried to post you a private message but I just joined and it wouldn't let me, still finding my way around this place.

This is my first grow, wanted to go Organic and after doing my homework I decided to use your 30/30/30 combination of coco/SunshineMix(had to substitute with Promix)/EWCastings and have been feeding with Hydrozyme/Liquid Karma/Calmax/PureBend Pro.

I was just wondering what your detailed feeding/watering schedule was like because I'm having a few issues and my monkeys are not doing very well. I'm six days into 12/12 and my big fan leaves are turning yellow, are papery and have brown spots that are looking necrotic. I've also got some malformed new growth as well.

Really worried that things are going south quickily and was hoping you could help. I'll throw up some pic's and further details if you're cool with helping me out.

Thanks

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With the promix you will need more perlite and POWDERED DOLOMITE LIME.

Might be a little late to add the perlite, but you can still water in the lime. Not as good as mixing in from the git, but it will work.

Sounds like that's what your problem is.

Do 1 or 2 tbl of powdered dolomite lime/gal in warm water and water it in. Keep it agitated, it's crushed rock and really doesn't dissolve. Water to good runoff.

Give it a week or so for results, it's not fast, but effective.

Wet

Wetdog said:

With the promix you will need more perlite and POWDERED DOLOMITE LIME.

Might be a little late to add the perlite, but you can still water in the lime. Not as good as mixing in from the git, but it will work.

Sounds like that's what your problem is.

Do 1 or 2 tbl of powdered dolomite lime/gal in warm water and water it in. Keep it agitated, it's crushed rock and really doesn't dissolve. Water to good runoff.

Give it a week or so for results, it's not fast, but effective.

Wet

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Thanks for the suggestion Wet, greatly appreciated.

I’m just a bit worried about giving them the dolomite lime as my runoffs last feed were pretty high.

Here’s what I’m dealing with to try and give a clearer picture:

3 Big Blue and 1 Northern Lights #5 from HG Seeds all started from seed.

3x4x8 ft closet grow – one 12” osc fan for movement– passive grate vent intake – 4’ vortex exhaust fan with Can Fan Filter

Using 3 Gallon pots with 30/30/30 coco/ProMix/EarthWormCastings

Currently on day 7 of 12/12 with 400 watt HPS after 4.5 weeks of veg with 400 watt MH

Feeding roughly every 4-5 days with ¼ strength Hydrozyme/Liquid Karma/Calmax/Botanicare Pure Blend Pro for soil.

Using tap water pH’d to 6.3 (left out and aerated with pump and airstones for min 48 hrs)

My soil pH is 7.0 across the board but I’ll be honest I’m not sure the two Rapidtest meters that I’m using are that great…they never seem to say anything but 7.0.

I unfortunately don’t have any ppm numbers for you, no meter just yet seeing as I splashed most of my casheesh on setting this up for the first time.

I flushed with straight H20 pH’d to 6.3 7 days ago and my runoff’s were 5.15/5.22/6.58/6.68 (realised I should have used 10% nuts to flush after the fact)

I fed them 2 days ago and my runoff’s were 7.35/7.04/7.50/7.71

That’s a pretty big variation in my runoff after only 4 days and I’m a little confused, hence my hesitation to throw some more alkaline business into the mix given how high they were.

If you stil think it’s a good idea I’ll give it a go as they’re getting worse and I’m open to anything, all suggestions are welcome.

I threw in a few pics so you can see what’s on the go,

Thanks again,

Fatty

PS Appologise if this is too much info and the wrong thread for this stuff but I just wanted to give you as much info as I could
.

Looks to me like phosphorous potassium lockout from the high pH. But I'm not an indoor grower, so I don't know what the stuff is you're feeding it.

madodah said:

Looks to me like phosphorous potassium lockout from the high pH. But I'm not an indoor grower, so I don't know what the stuff is you're feeding it.

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Thanks madodah,

Any suggetions with respects to what I can add to my medium mix to bring the pH down to avoid the lockout?

The pH of dolomite lime is 7.0 and will not go above that.

ProMix is acidic from the peat and the lime usually keeps it in the 6.5-6.8 sweet spot.

I'm running Earth Juice which is also acidic, but I'll use the EJ pH UP to get it to ~6.5 or, if you bubble it long enough (~4 days), the pH will come up on it's own.

I have no idea what you're using that causes your pH to be above 7.0, but it is not the lime. Perhaps it is the calmax on top of the lime? Dolomite lime provides cal/mag in addition to buffering the soil pH and you really don't need anything else.

Wet

rule number one #1 when things start to go wrong, flush, flush 10% solution. That way you start clean with nothing locked up in the soil. You should have a ph of 7 +- after flushing. I take it your still in the veg stage? how much longer? Cut back on the food, 20 to 30% recommended. The worm Castings are the other 70% of your food.

Peace

Plant looks good

Thanks so much Wet and Wood

I'm actually two weeks into Flower now and things have leveled out a bit.

With regards to what might have caused most of my problems I think I've narrowed it down to a couple of things after your guys help and doing a bit more reading.

1) The tap water that I'm using is really hard (loads of calcium buildup on showerheads etc.) and regularly comes out 8.5+ ph. Even though I've been adjusting the pH before every water/feed I was still adding the Calmax which I think was overkill given the contents on the tap water to begin with?? That being said - Wet I purposely didn't add any Calmax when I watered in the DLime last time for exactly the reason you suggested.

2) This was my first time for everything really and one big mistake I made (besides flushing with straight H2O and not 10% nuts) was that when I was prepping my coco I only rinsed it once and now that I think back to the runnoff from that it was still really brown. In retrospect I must have left a tonne of NaCl in there along with whatever else may have been hanging on. Lesson learned.


Now where I go from here:

Looking like I should cut out the Calmax all together considering my tap water situation?

I also read in a number of places that there's very little benefit to continuing with the Liquid Karma past the first week into flower?

I'll hit them with solution pH'd to 6.4 / 25% PBPro - Hydrozyme - Liquid Karma? depending if you guys think it's worth it

Hopefully they'll come back around completely and I'll have some happy monkeys again.

Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated once again.

Fatty

hey guys i was wondering if it would be ok to run the whole bio bizz with 100% coco
i also have bat guano's mexi and jamacian black strap (unsulphered) as this is my first grow
with organics and coco

I use an amended organic soil rescipie made to 2x strength and then use coco to cut it in half when I pot up. My op is micro so this allows me to keep lees mass because I use coco bricks and only hydrate them as I need them and also allows me to tweak the strength of the mix for different plants based on what they like. I am now just starting to reuse my "spent" soil in place of the coco and this is working out good. The coco holds moister really well even when it is only 1/4 of the mix while I use the spent (50/50 soil/coco mix) as my cut. I throw out the rootballs and just shake off the soil into a bucket.

My recipe is 1cu ft each miracle grow organic and promix organic soil with 2 gallons perlite, 1.5 cup dolimite/garden lime, 1/2 cup epsom, 1 cup blood meal, 1.5 cup bone meal. I mix it all on a tarp and then put it into a rubbermade and water it with a solution that is 1 gal declorinated water, 1 drop superthrive, 1/4 tsp 5-1-1 fish emulsion, and 2 tbs black-strap molasses. I just make sure the soil is moist and that is about 1/2 - 3/4 gallon of the mix. the liquid food gets things off on the right foot and string every couple days you can feel the heat in the soil as it cooks. The mix starts working in about a month but is better balanced afer it has been cooking for about 4 months. at that point I only declorinated tap water with 1 drop super thrive per gal and occasionally give it some more molasses to keep the K levels up and to feed the microherd. Otherwise it is basically water only all the way through harvest. Even when I veg for a month it is plenty of nutes but sometimes if I have vegged in the soil a bit I hit it with a dose of fish right when it gets into the flower cabinet and that seems to give them a nice boost, though I have done it without and they are fine. I'm just now experimenting with adding ferts to my water, but the mix solo grows some wonderful MJ. Tis of course isn't straight coco but it allows the use of it's moisture retaining abilities which is nice in small pots like I use.

jed

You can do that but expect to water them a lot. Coco does not hold water as long as when mixed with something. I grew my moms in just coco and was watering them every other day, so mixed the same as the rest of the gang and back to every 4 to 5 days. Not so urgent if I miss a day, can't do that with coco.

Peace

Rep + Great thread

srryan2 said:

does anyone grow with coco using organics? i would like to keep reusing the coco but i have to keep throwing it out after 2 grows becuase of salt buildup.

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woodsmaneh! is right. 100% organic + veganic nutrients won't cause salt build ups. I'd look into Grower's Secret METHOD for growing in hydroponics organically. I recently switched from Botanicare. I'm using the Punch (100% water soluble worm castings) along with base nutes Expand 0-3-2 (Humic & Fulvlic Acid + protein), Accelerate 3-0-1 (kelp), Strengthen 0-0-6 (I forget whats in it), and Professional (fermented mushroom?). I know they have a mycorrhizae product that I want to check out too...it'd be amazing if it is really hydro friendly like my shop says it is. I get mine at my local hydro shop here in Cali. Check out this grow that uses it all hydro: http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-marijuana-growing/1074652-100%-organic-grow-growers-secret-method-professional-mushroom-technology.html