[edogmb]

I finally got 3 seconds to sit down and reflect, so I thought I'd share to help any that may have reservations about switching from soil to coco coir. DO IT!!!! I used to grow 2-3 plants in my 3x3x6 tent, and in my first coco run had to sacrifice one of my 2 plants. I have a northern lights auto that has spread her legs and just stretched out all over. I had to tie the main cola down and then its branches to the main stalk just to keep it in check.

I'm using the same seeds/lights/tent as my previous soil grows, and 3 gallon fabric pots. The only thing that has changed is the medium, and the fact that I now pay much closer attention to my water (probably helps also lol). Growing in coco forces you to get a cheap ph and ppm meter at the minimum, and then learn how to adjust your water. This should be the first step for ANY grower, but I digress.

Of course as the old saying goes... "different strokes for different folks". You do have to water a bit more often in most coco situations, and pay closer attention to ph levels...but if you can handle those two things, it seems to be exponentially better results in my limited experience. Pic of my first coco grow. Even with the nute burn, this will likely end up being equal to 2 of my previous soil grows with the same seeds. I am sold on coco. Using cana doesn't hurt of course.

 

[BigF]

I started growing in soil. That lasted about 2 or 3 weeks. Once I put a single plant in coco, and saw for the first time the magic of these plants, never looked back. Except for rockwool, really like rockwool too for some strains.
Coco is flat out amazing for growing!

 

[Lockebox]

Right on, I switched to coco back In January and will never go back

 

[edogmb]

Right on, I switched to coco back In January and will never go back

What were you growing in before coco?

I started growing in soil. That lasted about 2 or 3 weeks. Once I put a single plant in coco, and saw for the first time the magic of these plants, never looked back. Except for rockwool, really like rockwool too for some strains.
Coco is flat out amazing for growing!

I've been watering far less than people suggest, and letting a few days pass between waterings in veg and watering basically every other day in flower...just because I am extremely busy with other things lately. The plants seem not to mind at all, but once I get an auto watering system set up, I'm sure to heed the advice of those much wiser than myself. Prob increase yield to some extent. I've only gone through around 1/4 of the canna a&b nutes with 2 plants, so very happy with these results so far. I'm sold on these canna products. Outstanding results compared to just winging it with soil.

Maybe I will post some time lapse comparison footage of soil vs coco on here at some point.

 

[shooter64738]

I'm also trying oil coco for the first time. I'm hoping the plant problems I've been having are due to my tent getting too hot, but if it's not, I think im up a creek.

I hydrated bricks, rinsed them twice, added 50% perlite, watered in a 5 gallon bag and transplanted my mother plant, then 4 clones each in a 5 gallon bag. Mother plant is nearly dead and clones have stopped growing. I water with general hydroponics nutes until i had run off. Soil is still moist, meter says it's soaked. I'm afraid to water them again.
I didn't buffer with cal mag before hand and thought watering with nutrients would be alright.

I guess time will tell... :)

 

[SpiderFarmerLED]

I finally got 3 seconds to sit down and reflect, so I thought I'd share to help any that may have reservations about switching from soil to coco coir. DO IT!!!! I used to grow 2-3 plants in my 3x3x6 tent, and in my first coco run had to sacrifice one of my 2 plants. I have a northern lights auto that has spread her legs and just stretched out all over. I had to tie the main cola down and then its branches to the main stalk just to keep it in check.

I'm using the same seeds/lights/tent as my previous soil grows, and 3 gallon fabric pots. The only thing that has changed is the medium, and the fact that I now pay much closer attention to my water (probably helps also lol). Growing in coco forces you to get a cheap ph and ppm meter at the minimum, and then learn how to adjust your water. This should be the first step for ANY grower, but I digress.

Of course as the old saying goes... "different strokes for different folks". You do have to water a bit more often in most coco situations, and pay closer attention to ph levels...but if you can handle those two things, it seems to be exponentially better results in my limited experience. Pic of my first coco grow. Even with the nute burn, this will likely end up being equal to 2 of my previous soil grows with the same seeds. I am sold on coco. Using cana doesn't hurt of course. View attachment 2315916

Thanks for sharing your experience! It's great to hear how well your first coco run is going. Your insights on paying closer attention to pH and watering frequency are really helpful for those considering the switch. It's impressive that you’ve achieved such growth in your tent! Keep up the great work, and I look forward to seeing how the rest of your grow turns out!

 

[edogmb]

I'm also trying oil coco for the first time. I'm hoping the plant problems I've been having are due to my tent getting too hot, but if it's not, I think im up a creek.

I hydrated bricks, rinsed them twice, added 50% perlite, watered in a 5 gallon bag and transplanted my mother plant, then 4 clones each in a 5 gallon bag. Mother plant is nearly dead and clones have stopped growing. I water with general hydroponics nutes until i had run off. Soil is still moist, meter says it's soaked. I'm afraid to water them again.
I didn't buffer with cal mag before hand and thought watering with nutrients would be alright.

I guess time will tell... :)

I thought my soil issues were due to temps. They weren't.
My temps currently go from mid-high 80s to mid-low 60s. Plants don't seem to mind one bit.

I will make two observations about your setup (granted I am somewhat of a novice still myself, but I research RELENTLESSLY). The first is that I know for a fact is that when buying bricks that aren't pre-buffered...you need to rinse and buffer (seems like you did the prior and NOT the latter). Calmag is essential in that case. Some buffer with light nutes, but some don't and wait until the plants tell them they need it during early veg. The other is the perlite... I've read about adding and not adding it. I opted not to. It seems adding perlite to coco is simply not needed. It affects your water PH, and it forces to water more often.

WATER PH IS PARAMOUNT! THIS is what I've found over the last few years. My tap water was slightly alkaline, and PH fluctuation over the course of my plant's life was causing major issues. I was getting lockout issues at mid-late late flower all the time.
I bought a cheap electronic PH meter and water testing kit for redundancy. I also bought an EC meter, but rarely even use it anymore (once you get your water and nutes dialed in, it's not entirely necessary). I have well water and needed to know where it stood right out of the faucet. If you're using city water, chlorine can be an issue. If you're using RO water or bottled water, PH can be an issue...as well as lack of calmag. My well water is hard (per my EC meter), so I don't need calmag, but I DO need to ph down before watering my plants.

In making the switch to coco, I made sure to use the KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid). This meant going with the Canna coco pre-buffered coco coir, and their A&B nutes to match. Both products are made for each other and are all that's required to grow from seed to harvest. There's no rinsing, buffering, or guessing. Another big win for canna is that their Canna A&B nutes have calmag in it! I am not paid to endorse Canna products. I'm just very impressed at the results this run, when I was really struggling with FF nutes and soil for roughly a dozen plants prior to this.

Do yourself a favor and ditch the moisture meter. I bought one when I started, but they're useless in my opinion.

It sounds to me like your plants are either suffocating (rare with coco...especially with perlite added), shocked (poor water PH, no calmag, transplanting process itself, etc) or simply hate the coco that you put them in. It's hard to say without a ton more info.

 

[shooter64738]

I thought my soil issues were due to temps. They weren't.
My temps currently go from mid-high 80s to mid-low 60s. Plants don't seem to mind one bit.

I will make two observations about your setup (granted I am somewhat of a novice still myself, but I research RELENTLESSLY). The first is that I know for a fact is that when buying bricks that aren't pre-buffered...you need to rinse and buffer (seems like you did the prior and NOT the latter). Calmag is essential in that case. Some buffer with light nutes, but some don't and wait until the plants tell them they need it during early veg. The other is the perlite... I've read about adding and not adding it. I opted not to. It seems adding perlite to coco is simply not needed. It affects your water PH, and it forces to water more often.

WATER PH IS PARAMOUNT! THIS is what I've found over the last few years. My tap water was slightly alkaline, and PH fluctuation over the course of my plant's life was causing major issues. I was getting lockout issues at mid-late late flower all the time.
I bought a cheap electronic PH meter and water testing kit for redundancy. I also bought an EC meter, but rarely even use it anymore (once you get your water and nutes dialed in, it's not entirely necessary). I have well water and needed to know where it stood right out of the faucet. If you're using city water, chlorine can be an issue. If you're using RO water or bottled water, PH can be an issue...as well as lack of calmag. My well water is hard (per my EC meter), so I don't need calmag, but I DO need to ph down before watering my plants.

In making the switch to coco, I made sure to use the KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid). This meant going with the Canna coco pre-buffered coco coir, and their A&B nutes to match. Both products are made for each other and are all that's required to grow from seed to harvest. There's no rinsing, buffering, or guessing. Another big win for canna is that their Canna A&B nutes have calmag in it! I am not paid to endorse Canna products. I'm just very impressed at the results this run, when I was really struggling with FF nutes and soil for roughly a dozen plants prior to this.

Do yourself a favor and ditch the moisture meter. I bought one when I started, but they're useless in my opinion.

It sounds to me like your plants are either suffocating (rare with coco...especially with perlite added), shocked (poor water PH, no calmag, transplanting process itself, etc) or simply hate the coco that you put them in. It's hard to say without a ton more info.

I'm on a well, my tap water ph is 6.8-7.0. We have a lot of lime, iron and calcium. But, I opted to go with distilled water for the moment, especially since lime tends to build up, and I didn't want to ruin the humidifier.

I didn't pre-buffer with added cal mag, as I understood rinsing with well water adds some calcium, but maybe that was a mistake. I added 50% perlite to the coco, which in hind sight, probably not needed.

The first 8 months of the mother plants life was a 5 gallon bucket under a single spider farmer sf1000 light. It got mostly plain water twice a week, growing in organic soil. But since I can't move those buckets anymore I transplanted it into coco and 5gal bag. The mother plant and 6 clones (all in 5gal bags) then went into the 4x4 seedling tent. 72°f, 75%humidity

Every 48 hours I gave the clones 250ml of nute water mixed with 2ml each of flora grow, flora bloom, and flora micro, ph at 5.8 in 1gal of distilled water. I gave the mother about 500ml of the same solution.

All the plants at the end of 7 days were showing new growth and looked healthy. I lowered humidity to 60% over the next 7 days, giving the same nutrient solution. Plants still appeared healthy and all had new growth. 1 clone in particular had phenomenal growth.

During that 2nd week the 4x8 tent had arrived and all it's accessories. I ran the tent empty using the smaller spider farmer lights. Everything seemed to be working well. I moved the plants over on a Monday, the big lights arrived Tuesday. By Thursday the plants didn't look so good.

Mother plant had some slight yellowing on the bottom leaves. That crept back and back until the leaf was dead, then another leaf. The clones started drooping, so I watered the mother until I had runoff. I ph the run off and it's at 6.0. The clones continued getting the 250ml. The clones are droopy, but are basically paused. One is a lighter green shade, which makes me think nitrogen deficiency, but the other are just green plants standing there doing nothing.

As soon as the big light went in temps shot up to 80s/90 range. Today will be the first day the plants have had a steady 75 temp. I'll check the time lapse at noon and see if it's, fading, leaves raising/falling etc.

And that's where I'm at right now.

 

[edogmb]

I'm on a well, my tap water ph is 6.8-7.0. We have a lot of lime, iron and calcium. But, I opted to go with distilled water for the moment, especially since lime tends to build up, and I didn't want to ruin the humidifier.

Have you tested the PH of whatever distilled water you're using? All signs point to new lights to me, taking your timeline to account. If you just took all plants from one light source and moved them to another, more powerful one without trying to acclimate...I wonder if that might cause issues. I've had some negative results when doing that.

 

[PlumberSoCal2]

I've been growing in coco for about 5-6 years now. I use Master Blend, Calcium and Epsom salts. 3 gallon pots will give you 6-8' or taller plants, I've had many this year.

This may help
Thread 'Growing Cannabis in Coconut Coir with Hydroponic Nutrients' https://www.thcfarmer.com/threads/growing-cannabis-in-coconut-coir-with-hydroponic-nutrients.162154/

 

[shooter64738]

Have you tested the PH of whatever distilled water you're using? All signs point to new lights to me, taking your timeline to account. If you just took all plants from one light source and moved them to another, more powerful one without trying to acclimate...I wonder if that might cause issues. I've had some negative results when doing that.

The ph on the distilled gets adjusted to 5.8. It's not always exact, but I try to keep it as close to 5.8 as I can. +/- 0.1.

I set the light intensity to meter the same as the old lights, and i honestly didn't give much thought to them getting THAT much hotter. 50% intensity was about equal to 80% on the smaller light.

12 hour time lapse today shows the leaves are lifting now, and temps have held below 76. Was 73 early this morning, 76 now, I hope it doesn't exceed 77, then drops when lights go out. Mother plant hasn't lost anymore leaves. Might be turning the corner!

Soon as I get the video upload figured out. I'll post a lime lapse.

 

[shooter64738]

Light came on at midnight, and the time lapse ran from 00:00 to 12:00. Near the end the leaves drop a tad, but this is the first time I've even seen the plants do anything at all in the last 5-6 days.

Now that the temp is under control and they are growing again, I can start dialing in on watering

!

 

[edogmb]

The ph on the distilled gets adjusted to 5.8. It's not always exact, but I try to keep it as close to 5.8 as I can. +/- 0.1.

I set the light intensity to meter the same as the old lights, and i honestly didn't give much thought to them getting THAT much hotter. 50% intensity was about equal to 80% on the smaller light.

12 hour time lapse today shows the leaves are lifting now, and temps have held below 76. Was 73 early this morning, 76 now, I hope it doesn't exceed 77, then drops when lights go out. Mother plant hasn't lost anymore leaves. Might be turning the corner!

Soon as I get the video upload figured out. I'll post a lime lapse.

Always love a good comeback story! Best of luck to you!

 

[edogmb]

Fast forward a month, and this NL auto is still fattening up. I've had some nanners, but leaving them. No surprise either...I stressed this girl out quite a bit and don't mind her giving me a few seeds back.
I managed to trellis another plant directly up the wall, and have another blueberry auto in early flower tucked in there too. Hope this NL is ready to harvest in the next week or so to make proper space.
Will surely be my best harvest yet. GO COCO!

 

[PlumberSoCal2]

Fast forward a month, and this NL auto is still fattening up. I've had some nanners, but leaving them. No surprise either...I stressed this girl out quite a bit and don't mind her giving me a few seeds back.
I managed to trellis another plant directly up the wall, and have another blueberry auto in early flower tucked in there too. Hope this NL is ready to harvest in the next week or so to make proper space.
Will surely be my best harvest yet. GO COCO!
View attachment 2335110

Truly a game changer. I grew in the ground for decades then pots of soil but it wasn't until I switched to coco that I started growing more weed then I could smoke (and that's a shit ton).

I've had about a dozen 8 footers this year and still have plants hanging that need to be bagged, mostly seeded plants and why I haven't made it a priority.

I can't imagine going back to soil growing, ever

 

[edogmb]

Truly a game changer. I grew in the ground for decades then pots of soil but it wasn't until I switched to coco that I started growing more weed then I could smoke (and that's a shit ton).

I've had about a dozen 8 footers this year and still have plants hanging that need to be bagged, mostly seeded plants and why I haven't made it a priority.

I can't imagine going back to soil growing, ever

Hahaha.
My drift to coco was more of a sprint I suppose. I went from first year outdoor soil (waaaay too many pest & mold problems), to second and third year indoor soil (mixed results), to indoor coco (holy shit this is great).

I see changes virtually immediately in coco depending on what the plant needs. So much easier to read the room, so-to-speak.

Are you growing autos 8 feet tall? I've seen some huge plants, but no one else I know grows autos.

 

[edogmb]

My first coco grow of NL auto took around 16-17 weeks to mature fully.

It's in my 3x3 dry tent, which is holding pretty steady at 50-55ºF and 50-53% humidity (best and closest recommended drying conditions I could emulate). Been drying for 6 days now, and with a positive airflow setup it's starting to stink up my entire basement (No worries there though. My wife doesn't partake, but she's fine with it). I cut all larf and small branches a few weeks ago and have been vaping that ever since it dried. It's pretty damn strong for larf so that's encouraging.

This is my first attempt at a legit dry, and was timed perfectly for the winter months and setup in my basement. All previous grows were dried in boxes, my grow tent with lights off, etc. They were smokeable, but hardly brag-worthy since all but one small Blueberry plant dried too fast and/or were harvested too early. This harvest is both a first at a significant harvest AND hopefully a decent dry.

I've got more to learn still than I can imagine, but I feel there's been progress...one's life in general if they're lucky I suppose...

...and some more recent pics...

 

[OldOneEye]

I'm also trying oil coco for the first time. I'm hoping the plant problems I've been having are due to my tent getting too hot, but if it's not, I think im up a creek.

I hydrated bricks, rinsed them twice, added 50% perlite, watered in a 5 gallon bag and transplanted my mother plant, then 4 clones each in a 5 gallon bag. Mother plant is nearly dead and clones have stopped growing. I water with general hydroponics nutes until i had run off. Soil is still moist, meter says it's soaked. I'm afraid to water them again.
I didn't buffer with cal mag before hand and thought watering with nutrients would be alright.

I guess time will tell... :)

Using bags with coco is your first mistake buddy. Cloth pots are a superior choice when growing in coco. You also may want to use Hydroguard it will help protect from root rot and other water and heat issues.

 

[closettrapper217]

i just made the change a few weeks ago as well. took about a week to dial in the ph, and now things are operating muuuuuch better. im sold!

 

[edogmb]

i just made the change a few weeks ago as well. took about a week to dial in the ph, and now things are operating muuuuuch better. im sold!

Good stuff!
I had some typical seedling watering issues with coco, but took a single seedling to teach me there. All of my other issues have been self-inflicted, and most were intentional. I like to grow like I like to drive...somewhat ill advised...