4x4 Cubes On Small Pot Of Coco?

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michman

michman

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I'm looking to maximize my vegging (space and time). Looking for a more commercial application of speed and ease. Here is the plan;

Aero cloner> Split rockwool plugs and into 4x4 cubes top fed DTW> Veg one more week or so after transplant cube into small pot of coco> Out to flower.

Everything would be drain to waste (except cloner of course). Looking to top/train just enough to bush/scrog and fit 4 girls under one fluence LED.

Any feedback on my proof of concept?
Potential problems?
How long should I allow vegging with cubes to bush a 2x2 canopy?
I would love to eliminate the coco use of course, but everything I have read tells me i would need to stack cubes or introduce more medium to flower?I plan on recycling the coco. I'm also sticking to 4 girls per light to keep to my legal numbers. Can anyone talk me out of this or show me a more efficient way?

Currently running 15 gal pots and its eating up my sq ftg especially in veg. Thanks people
 
Rockwool cube coco
michman

michman

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The picture above was taken from this forum on a post dating back to 2013? This is the concept I want to try.

1. Also, would the coco base keep the cubes hydrated a bit more, therefore water less?
2. Or would the coco suck the water from the cubes, and need more frequent watering?

3. Finally, should I top feed with a floraflex cap or bottom feed by putting a couple drip stakes into the coco base? (MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION).

Thanks cube pros...
 
cemchris

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You can stack cubes on top of coco pots. Size of your pot all depends on veg time. 15 gals is way overkill unless you are vegging for 3-4 months plus. They do just fine. Did a lot of 4in to 3 and 5 gal coco pots at the commercial spot. Just have to be strait on your watering for the first 2 weeks while the roots go from the cube to the coco pot. Just like fresh transplants in 6 or 8 in cubes. Pots will be heavy but dry around the root zone. Prob water twice in the first 10-15 days after the transplant.

If you want to ditch coco just ditch it. I run 6in hugos from clone transplant to the end of flower. 1 cube. Veg for about 4-7 weeks or so from rooted clone. I have no problems what so ever. I will never switch off wool now that Im on it. Was a coco grower for years. Fuck washing pots.
 
michman

michman

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You can stack cubes on top of coco pots. Size of your pot all depends on veg time. 15 gals is way overkill unless you are vegging for 3-4 months plus. They do just fine. Did a lot of 4in to 3 and 5 gal coco pots at the commercial spot. Just have to be strait on your watering for the first 2 weeks while the roots go from the cube to the coco pot. Just like fresh transplants in 6 or 8 in cubes. Pots will be heavy but dry around the root zone. Prob water twice in the first 10-15 days after the transplant.

If you want to ditch coco just ditch it. I run 6in hugos from clone transplant to the end of flower. 1 cube. Veg for about 4-7 weeks or so from rooted clone. I have no problems what so ever. I will never switch off wool now that Im on it. Was a coco grower for years. Fuck washing pots.

Thanks C, I'm guessing Ill try the cube solo eventually once I get going...

But to get started, can you enlighten this cube novice with quick answers to these?'s?

1.How often will I water/feed a rooted clone in a 4x4 block 1-8 weeks in veg not on coco yet? (I plan on running this veg DTW with floaflex caps.) I never want to maintain a recirc rez again.

2.I'm thinking I should top feed all through flower too? even if I do go coco pot route? You mentioned the 4x4 cube would dry out first, would the coco base provide enough hydration for the cube?

growers say this method delivers all the vegging benefits that cubes can provide with the stability of coco. Would you agree with this? Thanks so much for your insight.
 
cemchris

cemchris

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Thanks C, I'm guessing Ill try the cube solo eventually once I get going...

But to get started, can you enlighten this cube novice with quick answers to these?'s?

1.How often will I water/feed a rooted clone in a 4x4 block 1-8 weeks in veg not on coco yet? (I plan on running this veg DTW with floaflex caps.) I never want to maintain a recirc rez again.

Usually with cubes you wont water after transplant for 4-7 days. From there its another 4 days or so. Not really till about 4 weeks in plus will they get to the point where you need to hit them once a day or more. Now granted this is from me hand watering veg so if going drip with 15-25 sec feeds not 100% sure on the timings but pretty easy to dial in. This is also dependent on the room temps/humd/ and lights they are under.

2.I'm thinking I should top feed all through flower too? even if I do go coco pot route? You mentioned the 4x4 cube would dry out first, would the coco base provide enough hydration for the cube?

Yeah after about the first 2 weeks of watering the cube and right around where you transplant you will just be watering the coco and not even worrying about the cube. All the roots will shoot down into the pot and be a basic coco plant like you are used to. just that first 2 weeks you have to kind of get it dialed in on watering and to not over water so the roots don't get lazy and try to stay in the cube. More on the dry side. By the time you are in flower just dripper strait into the coco and you are good. Same for strait cubes. EZ and simple.


growers say this method delivers all the vegging benefits that cubes can provide with the stability of coco. Would you agree with this? Thanks so much for your insight.

Yeah I could agree with this but from my experience I dont really like 4in cubes unless you plan to stack them on coco pots, slabs, or other cubes unless you plan to veg for like 3-4 weeks tops. They just start getting too big for the cube to support (fall over) and want to go more vertical on you instead of bushing out compared to 6in cubes. I will say yeah it works fine but I ditched the coco for just strait 6in's start to finish. Better yields, easier cleanup, less problems. This is IMO of course. Rockwool slays it compared to coco. After you veg for a while in them you will see the light lol. What you are planning will work just fine and you shouldn't have any worries. Just get the first 2 week transplant from cube to pot down and you are golden. What makes this work so well is you are pretty much feeding the same ph for coco and wool so the transition is strait up with no funky stuff on feeds.
 
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michman

michman

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Usually with cubes you wont water after transplant for 4-7 days. From there its another 4 days or so. Not really till about 4 weeks in plus will they get to the point where you need to hit them once a day or more. Now granted this is from me hand watering veg so if going drip with 15-25 sec feeds not 100% sure on the timings but pretty easy to dial in. This is also dependent on the room temps/humd/ and lights they are under.



Yeah after about the first 2 weeks of watering the cube and right around where you transplant you will just be watering the coco and not even worrying about the cube. All the roots will shoot down into the pot and be a basic coco plant like you are used to. just that first 2 weeks you have to kind of get it dialed in on watering and to not over water so the roots don't get lazy and try to stay in the cube. More on the dry side. By the time you are in flower just dripper strait into the coco and you are good. Same for strait cubes. EZ and simple.




Yeah I could agree with this but from my experience I dont really like 4in cubes unless you plan to stack them on coco pots, slabs, or other cubes unless you plan to veg for like 3-4 weeks tops. They just start getting too big for the cube to support (fall over) and want to go more vertical on you instead of bushing out compared to 6in cubes. I will say yeah it works fine but I ditched the coco for just strait 6in's start to finish. Better yields, easier cleanup, less problems. This is IMO of course. Rockwool slays it compared to coco. After you veg for a while in them you will see the light lol. What you are planning will work just fine and you shouldn't have any worries. Just get the first 2 week transplant from cube to pot down and you are golden. What makes this work so well is you are pretty much feeding the same ph for coco and wool so the transition is strait up with no funky stuff on feeds.

Solid advice for sure. Thanks C
 
michman

michman

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Hey C, about to get started on the cubes.... Do you use cube caps? I've been looking at the FloraFlex setup and like the caps and drip clips. Is a cube pot necessary (like the PotPro?) And if you do use a pot, do you strip the plastic wrapping?How many cubes per light do you run? Just wondering how you run start to finish with your 6x6's? Thanks again
 
cemchris

cemchris

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Hey C, about to get started on the cubes.... Do you use cube caps? I've been looking at the FloraFlex setup and like the caps and drip clips. Is a cube pot necessary (like the PotPro?) And if you do use a pot, do you strip the plastic wrapping?How many cubes per light do you run? Just wondering how you run start to finish with your 6x6's? Thanks again

I will say this about the caps (floraflex). They are nice for hand feeding. I run them on my mom table. I won't kit a whole grow out with them. They aren't need and are expensive. They don't increase you yield or cut your nute bill down. Also that is one more thing to wash at the end of a grow. If you do decide to use them (smaller plant count is ok) you will learn to ditch the clips and drill a hole on the side of the cap for the drip lines. The clips break and will pop off when the line is springy and after you kill 1 or 2 plants from them popping off and break a shit ton of them/lose them and have to buy more you will see the light. I don't run any thing on top of my cubes. 1 - 1/4 line to a stake to hold the line. That' it. Think of wool as a giant sponge.

12-18 6in per 4 x 8 under 2K is what i run strain and size dependent. Smaller plants 18. Bigger ones and certain strains usually 14-16. 2 rows of 6 on the outside. Thin the middle row out based on size.

To give you an idea on what I mean by smaller. This got loaded yesterday:
IMG 1470


They turn into this buy the end (from another thread):
img_1460-jpg.855470
 
michman

michman

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We didn't really touch on whats possible with my canopy goals. I see from your pics that you fill in a good canopy, but I'm looking to do 4 girls (6x6 hugos) per 1k light. So how long would it take to veg/train/bush a 2'x2' canopy per 6in block? Oddly, I cannot find too much net evidence of cube training. I know traditionally cube grows are sog single spears.

So, how long of a veg? How tall would they roughly be at a 2x2' canopy? and what kind of watering frequency would I be looking at near the end of my vegging goal(2x2 canopy)? I also realize that maybe the cubes observe all the same laws of nature that my promix girls currently adhere to. Just want to eliminate any surprises. Thanks C
 
michman

michman

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I want to bump this....

I'm venturing into cubes for a more commercial approach with regards to cleaning, labor, and ease. However, after researching more, it looks like I'm going to become a slave to watching the "dry-back" of the cubes. Once in flower, will I be constantly changing/tweaking the drip feedings on the auto-timer at a weekly frequency? Does anyone just have a set frequency (times per day and time/amount of drip) they adhere to from lights out to harvest? Or are my dreams of taking a 2 week vacation bunk? Thanks
 
cemchris

cemchris

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I want to bump this....

I'm venturing into cubes for a more commercial approach with regards to cleaning, labor, and ease. However, after researching more, it looks like I'm going to become a slave to watching the "dry-back" of the cubes. Once in flower, will I be constantly changing/tweaking the drip feedings on the auto-timer at a weekly frequency? Does anyone just have a set frequency (times per day and time/amount of drip) they adhere to from lights out to harvest? Or are my dreams of taking a 2 week vacation bunk? Thanks


That all depends. I don't micro feed my flower plants ( 10-30 sec feeds). I 1 minute feed them ( 4 x 8 w/ 15-18 1/4 lines being pushed buy a 730 gph pump). First week 2 feedings - lights on and then again at 7 hrs. week 2 I bump to 3 feeds. after that it 4-5 feeds depending on the plant and size till they are done. After the I move to 4-5 feeds i dont adjust after that.

Learning the curve for the specific plant/size takes a little. Once you get it dialed it doesnt change. So just a little bit of work. 2 week vacation is fine I would say after the first 3 weeks and getting it dialed and your rez is big enough and you are using nutes that will stay stable ( no organic additives).

To answer your post before this one:

I only top once in veg at the 4th node for the style im doing. 4 plants per 1k you would need to top a lot more and prob need a good 2 months of veg to get them to yield right. Unless you wanted to veg them in the flower room and scrog them. My suggestion is if you go that route make sure to veg them long enough after you screen them for all the tops to pop pack up and grow about 1-2 inches above the screen or you will have next to no stretch (strain dependent) which will hurt your yield (usually from my experience). Im on quick flip aka they get flipped and screened the day after I chop and they get loaded so why i run more plants with less veg time for the schedule.
 
michman

michman

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Great info!

Finally, I'm ready to build my plumbing. I run 24' infinity trays. I see these commercial grows which looks like they just run a hose along the infinity trays and have a drip tap every 2-4"'s? Am I seeing this correctly? no octo riser/manifolds... just tap straight off the hose? This system seems prone to leaks? Do you hard pipe or go hose on the main trunks?

Thanks
 
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