Gritty's Coco Crossover....

[true grit]

Hey folks!! So I figured I'd start up a post to follow my journey into the Coco world.....

A little background info- I've been growing organic for years, full organic for the last couple now and its always been soil. Haven't experimented much beyond that and have learned A GREAT deal about the plants in the process...

Now I would like a medium that I can

a. Use less of, hence less to waste
b. Recycle after use
c. start playing with hydro/coco nutes
d. yield way more

I will be going into rdwc buckets as well, but this coco is the transition.

So far all soil plants in veg but my moms have been transplanted over to coco (yes after a few transplants of shaking out the soil i decided to swap em all)....the moms are getting cloned and repotted in coco as we speak.

In veg- using Canna A/B + Roots Excel and Calplex.
In flower- using Canna A/B + Roots Excel + Calplex+ Bud Candy + Hammerhead

Current i have a few babies in veg (c99) getting ready to be flipped soon. I also have a few alien kush, chem4xc99, and pure kush getting sexed. Popped a few babies in coco and they are coming along ok...think babies take off a bit better in soil...but i am a newb.

I only have 3 coco ladies in flower- berry white, king d, and sour dawg d. They are all in 3g coco pot in wk2...and those 3g pots are too small. They are drinking it up wayyyyy to fast. Goin to be dropping them in 5g tonite...

Thoughts thus far..... I'm finding the Canna nutes very mild. I use RO so I have yet to determine if I'm just not adding enough each time (7-8ml each of A/B in flower, 4ml A/B in veg) or if they really do plan on folks using tap and pullin out some ish. Though mild, they are still very simple to use. Now that I have start adding some boosters hopefully it will start darkening up the situation....

I also have the AN 3pt that I am considering trying in coco as its what I will be using in my buckets on the same strains. Now how closely regimens will convert over from coco to hydro I don't know, but at least I could theoretically get a good base idea of ppm to start with in the buckets.

I'm using some random coco the hydro store hooked up to try out- Gold Label something... i'll check, but its supposedly the same quality/better than the Atami i was using and rinsed better (cheaper too!)....good stuff so far. I have been cutting the lower 3/4 of the pots with perlite and leaving the top 1/4 straight coco to help retain some moisture.

anyways.... sorry no pics yet. I'll go snag some shortly! Overall I am loving the healthiness of the plants that can only come with not dealing with minor soil issues... loving that..... now if I can just figure out pot size and watering intervals I may be ok.....

 

[Seamaiden]

Royal Gold, by any chance, true?

I'm doing my second coco run and despite the learning curve I'm loving it. Just gotta wrap the head around some things, ya know?

 

[true grit]

Yep I know exactly what ya mean.... I have a feeling the veg/mother and test tents will end up all automated on a drip to waste system....thinking thats the biggest obstacle- proper water intervals.

I'm also having issues flowering with smaller pots and being able to tie down/train as usual with such small pots all the way through the process....time to get ingenuitive...ha.

Yea i think it is Royal Gold....black and gold bag? Super dense stuff?

 

[Seamaiden]

I was gonna send this as a reputation, but I have to spread more first. Congratulations on your shiny new redness, too. I haven't used Royal Gold, but I met the fellow who vends it last year, kept some notes and it stuck in my head. The bag has something like a herald for a logo, two old-style lions, if I recall.

I'm sure you'll get the training issues sorted very quickly. :

 

[sfzoo]

any reason you're not going with the rest of the Canna line? rhizo vs. roots excel?

can't wait for pics!!

 

[true grit]

Thanks Sea! Yea i think thats the bag... ill check it later....

sf- IMO the h&g roots excelurator is the best product out there for rooting. And not really sure if I will stick with the Canna AB. I also think the Hammerhead will be a better PK booster as well. Who knows...i'm not really doing any side by sides, so its hard to say if one is superior and as with everyone, my room is always changing. lol.

 

[Dirty White Boy]

Another COCO MOFO! I think coco really shines when you use it with a recirculating system, and treat it like rockwool. Plus you could use canna aqua nutes in both a rdwc, and a recirculating coco drip system. Food for thought maing. Mucho Luck!

 

[true grit]

Killer, are you running a recirc drip? I was thinking if not a drip to waste, then 3g smart pots on recirc drip....

 

[KING_KONG_KOLAS]

Whats cracking super Gritty...lol.. Good luck with the switch bro.. Im sure you will love the coco!!

 

[manicgrower]

Glad to see you finally made the switch! Ive been growing in coco for many years now, so if you need any help let me know bro! I think you are really gonna like it!

 

[ECO]

Coco is my favorite medium, iv tried rockwool, soil, hempy buckets, in coco my plants are feeding damn near hydro speed but with that soil style buffer. I have 60 plants in 2gal roots pots right now of Canacoco/Perlite 75/25, I've never had healthier plants before. around 1 week after transplant from 16oz beer cups they had tripled in size with super thick lateral branching. H&G aqua flakes a/b, Cal mag, hygrozyme, roots excel and a couple nitrogen boosters from auroras ss line.

hope the coco works for you truegrit your grows are unreal bro... I have part of a tray filled with a bomb sourdawg d pheno i found along with diablo ogxsage, Chemdog D bx3 and platinum og. the sourdawg looks alot like yours bro, AJ leaning, her stems wreak in veg very much like the finished product.

 

[cheyenne]

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for sho! Im slowly transferring over to coco myself. Have gone from peat based soils to coco soil....In all my years growing i never bought a PALLET of soil....until today! Im pretty stoked to be at that level. Anyway after i figured out issues with Vita Earth's Manna Mix CoCo based soil, thanks to SM BTW, Im really liking it, waaaaay better then Roots too. Im thinking im going to try a lights worth of plants in straight coir in the next month or so to try it out. Will i need to get another line up of nutes for the coir or can i continue w/ my floranova lineup?

 

[Dirty White Boy]

Killer, are you running a recirc drip? I was thinking if not a drip to waste, then 3g smart pots on recirc drip....

Yes I run both recirc drip tables and waterfarms. Even though growth rates are vastly increased over soil, even when hand watering/feed to waste with coco. Having a constant steady flow of nutrients going through the coco can have pretty stunning results. Example my biggest yeild ever on a ebb n flo table with chocolate trip was just shy of 3oz. dry in a smart pot. My biggest yeild with a slow 1gph recirculating drip table was just shy of 5oz also in a smart pot. My biggest yeild in waterfarm hooked up with a fountain pump with a 1/2gp"minute" flow was around 14oz. dry from one vertical 600w bulb, all grown in straight canna coco, i grew them all out over about a 6 month period off the same mother plant from the same veg room same veg length. Thats why i said i think it works best used like rockwool, a nice slow but steady stream. Im also going to be delving into rdwc, while still keeping my recirc. drip tables going on the side, so the Aqua nutes just seem attractive since technically i can run the same nutrients at the same levels with both systems at the same time. ok rambled way to long there, sorry bro. Again best of luck with your coco adventures!

 

[true grit]

Eco- Yeah this should be fun.... I have that Sour Dawg D in bloom again this time in coco with the new flower regimen...she is lookin great and is gettin her stretch on. Gonna be dank!

Cheyenne- double check but i think floranova works in coco too no? I'm going to try and streamline and find a hydro regimen that works for my coco plants too. Just seems easier to have one for both....

DWB- Sounds killer....did you do rings or drippers? I think that sounds a little bit more consistent and reliable than trying to find a perfect interval timing. I mean some days there is hella growth and dry out way faster than expected. I could imagine in bloom that would leave hella salts and build up if intervals weren't just right, so a constant drip but not soak sounds solid. Yields sound like they are there for sure!!

Yeah I see where you are going with the combo nutes... I figure the buckets will be for my patients and will be larger plants and i can set up a few coco tables to do test runs or low yielders....and theoretically run the same nutes on both with hopes of the coco stable enough to push nutes the same as the buckets. I think this AN 3pt will work fine if folks are using the GH3pt with success. Got a hook on the AN so might just try the Connoissour nutes... who knows but next batch of cuts i will give a few AN 3pt.

Time to load some pics, i mean shit its already page 2 and NO pics? :anim_10:Slackin...lol.

 

[Dirty White Boy]

I use drip rings, Floranova Bloom works wonderfully in coco. Save for a little cal/mag magical whatever tickles your fancy. If you got the hookup on the AN 3part id rock that then for sure. I really really liked using the connoisseur when i had access to it, killer stuff. You can run the Lucas formula with the AN nutes but youll need a little blast of cal/mag and a teeny bit of 0-10-10 booster too hit that perfect "lucas" ratio. I have a friend who uses only the AN 3 part no additives and swears he gets less salt accumulation than with General Hydroponics 3 part.

 

[true grit]

Yeah gettin killer prices on the AN stuff, so already have the 3pt, just haven't used it. Was thinkin of workin that into veg and getting the Connie nutes for flower for both coco and droski.

Yeah the rings sound solid. I'll have to start tinkering once i get a good feed down...

Here are a few pics of the ladies in veg....

C99- two phenos

Here you can see shes quite a bit wider than the pot already, but branching ok with a few tie downs and pinches I guess. Need to figure out a slip on grid for tie downs...oh yeah...

here are a few Alien Kush

And the healthiest of the bunch- Manic's Chemdog #4 x C99

 

[Aligee]

Was good True lovin the looks of your marijuana !!! coco is the biz bro... finishing up the 10G coco pots used the grow 2 part and conni in bloom stellar results AN gots my $$$!!! just started adding organic molasses to me regime!!!diggin' it so far+++Karma homie !!!

 

[Darth Fader]

Good on 'ya Gritty! Seems to me there are two basic approaches to using coco, amended or non-amended. Unamended, like Canna or Botanicare, is just a medium (like rockwool) for hydro. Amended, like Roots Organics, is like a soil-less, more breathable soil, yet still technically hydro. Good results w/ both. Some run it w/ every feeding.

I believe the most essential additive in coco a cleansing solution: FloraKleen/Drip Clean. I run it as a "preventative maintenance watering" once a week now, but it's fixed any salt buildup/lockout issue right away w/ only one or two waterings.

 

[motherlode]

I use drip rings, Floranova Bloom works wonderfully in coco.

I like the coco DTW but hand feeding is for the birds - was pondering making a manifold and making drip rings

do you use the flexible air diffuser hose for your drip rings?

I just got 2 sample bottles of gen hydro FloraDuo Organic 2 part (think its new) - gonna rock that on my coco side tray under a 600 next to the 2x1000 table - ran technaflora pure vida (organic) last time (on the side tray) and it was outstanding!

 

[Aligee]

pump and water wand + black gold coco perfect combo fwiw !!!