Chiller broke.. gonna try Coco

[St3ve]

Been running the UC for a year now and things were going just fine but now I have to buy another chiller and I can't afford it at the moment so I'm just going to throw some smart pots in the UC pots and not have to miss a run.

I want to keep it mass simple. I already have a big bag of pearlite, and I was thinking I could grab enough botanicare coco to roll 50/50 coco/perlite with low PPM Lucas formula.

Would that work out just fine or am I missing something? Thanks for the help!

 

[nebulius]

Coco will be similar to your hydro setup because you have to provide all the nutes to coco since it has none.
Some things you may want to consider; calmag, silica, super thrive.
good luck

 

[justsomeguy]

forget about the perlite and grab some hydroton. mix it 3 to 1 hydroton/coco and you got yourself some chow. i switched to this 3 weeks ago and my plants love it. lots of fuzzy white roots growin through my root pots. i foresee a lot of watering in my future though.

my last coco run was on maxibloom, which i've read is lucas in a powder. i got mixed results but was overall pleased with the product. i ran it at 7 grams a gallon with 2 mls calimagic, 2 mls bloombastic, 5mls protekt, 10 mls floranecter, 1 cup tea and then finished with the hammerhead moab combo. so it wasn't really lucas anymore. quality was some of the best i've ever grown but the yield could have been better. got some bad magnesium problems at the end, and i still havent decided if it was lacking or blocked out by high pk.

then again i think the lucas formula for coco is 3/4 strength with 2 grams epsom. makes sense to me now.

 

[Str8Dank]

you don't want to use lucas you want to use the h3ad formula which is 6ml/gal micro and 9ml/gal bloom this is a better nutrient profile the new ratio was calculated by h3ad specifically for coco. cal mag is not needed by most they say but i still use it until a few weeks in flower. i run 100% coco i like that way personally. the benefit of 100% coco imo is since you cant overwater coco you can water it as often as you want but the retention gives you some buffer on those lazy days where chow wont. i could go 2 days without watering and during vaca i may setup my drip to do just that but i water daily and their happy.

i personally like to rinse any coco that's not canna or similar quality until the runoff reads the same ec as the water going in. i don't charge my coco the first few watering will do that anyways I've never seen no ill effects of not.

 

[St3ve]

Thanks for the good info. I will read up on the h3ad formula. Also.. I use tap water..

forget about the perlite and grab some hydroton. mix it 3 to 1 hydroton/coco and you got yourself some chow...

So are you comparing it to perlite?

 

[hogan400]

Whattup St3ve, ima be in here too with my first coco round since Im still battling the Uc blues'
good to see ya. Im posting pics soon.

 

[St3ve]

Sup hogan... yea I love my UC but the goddamn chiller is dead and I don't have $500 to go blow on a new one at the moment. Good luck with your grow, I'll check it out when its up.

 

[justsomeguy]

Thanks for the good info. I will read up on the h3ad formula. Also.. I use tap water..


So are you comparing it to perlite?

ya i'm using it in place of perlite. i've always used perlite with coco, first at 25%, then up to 50% for a few grows. both worked great but i always gotta push. i put my clones this round in 75% perlite and they just lingered and rooted super slow. with the chow, they root out fast and fuzzy. i've had great results running 75% coco 25% perlite, but the hydroton puts a ton more oxygen in your rootzone which should pay off big in flower.

but ya, less coco means more frequent waterings and makes timed irrigations necessary. i don't think it will need more solution, just smaller feedings throughout the day. so maybe instead of 4 gallons per light once per day or two, i'm thinking 1 gallon 4 times a day. i don't know yet but thats what i'm planning for.

you can't really go wrong whichever mix you choose. one good coco run and you're coco for life. high performance with the least headaches.

 

[GanjaAL]

Hate the hijack... but was wondering since these are smart pot runs... should people worry about running co2 as the roots are exposed??? I know in hydro they get O2 from the water but in coco coir they get it from the surrounding air?

 

[hogan400]

Hows it going St3ve? figure Id check in since I been busy and hadnt seen ya round man?

 

[St3ve]

Hey man thanks for asking.. I got this round going strong in the smart pots. I got 14, 3gallon smart pots about two weeks into veg at the moment. I ended up just setting a piece of plywood down on the UC pots and they are sitting on top of that in little drip trays. They are a little slower than the UC of course but they are very healthy and happy. I will say, I like being able to move my pots around again as they veg.

I ended up doing the 50/50 coco/perlite as I said because I already had a big ass bag of perlite sitting around so I only needed one bag of coco. I was going to try out some different nutes as well but I decided just to get through what I already have.. which is GH so we'll see how it goes.

 

[hogan400]

Cool, glad to hear things are moving along. My Uc is alive again for the moment because of tea and I think my coco is doing pretty well too. Just slooow. How big you gonna get em? Are you gonna move into bigger pots?

 

[St3ve]

Yes mine are slower too.. but they are still growing pretty fast compared to the soil ones. (I have a few in soil).

I'll veg mine until the flower room is ready, which is another 4 weeks or so. I'm guessing they will get to around 26-30" or so. No I'm not going to repot, 3 gal smart pots should be big enough for a 4-5 foot plant. I will just have to water alot... which is what I prefer anyway.

Either way, can't compete with the UC on veg speed. However.. with the fact that the UC adds about a week and a half or more to the flowering time, I'm thinking I may just stick to coco and soil in the end. While I love the fast growth of the UC, it ultimately costs me yield since I veg separately. I'm not saying that because of problems either.. I've never had any with the UC. Never root rot, slow growth, leaks, ph issues, nothing. It always ran like a champ. In the end, both systems produced the same for me.. but the UC cost more time for no real benefit.