Growing Kush in Coco - Tips and Tricks?

[Bud Spleefman]

Are there some secrets to growing Kush in Coco? I've been growing a number of Kush strains lately, and I'd like to get better/bigger buds, seems to be a problem for me, with the Kush strains, anyway. The rest of my strains, like Chemdog, Sour D, and Headband, do great! Not the Kush.....

 

[TrichromeFan]

I have no idea, but I'll be tuned in for this one!

-TF

 

[beezleb878]

maybe describe your setup and environment.

All things competent I will gladly give the first generic answer, longer veg. Top/fim

If you add bene's be sure to apply mycrohizea whatnot when transplanting on the roots and in the hole and water in gently.

Dont let containers dry out like soil and dont flush with plain water, use a weak nutrient solution due to the way the cautions work. I am taking that bit from what I have read and not by experience.

Works well in hempy buckets and airpots.

 

[swisscheese]

What strains of kush? From my experience anything with bubba is code for low yield.

 

[Bud Spleefman]

What strains of kush? From my experience anything with bubba is code for low yield.

pre-98 Bubba
Bruce Banner (Strawberry Cough x OG Kush "Ghost cut")
Alien OG (Alien Kush x Tahoe OG)
Aliendog v2 (Chemdog D x Alien Kush)
White Fire (The White x Fire OG)

I think I need to feed them extra Cal/Mag, I'm starting a new run now.......
Oh, for the person that asked, I am using Coco, drain to waster, on an auto-feed in #5 pots with nice buffered coco / 20% perlite using REZ/Head 6 ml micro 9 ml bloom with top feeds of guano, cal mag, sugar, floralicious, etc.... I have grown 1 lb Chemdog #4 and SourD plants with this method, so it's not the feed......... but I suspect I need to feed the Kush something extra...

Oh, and Roots Excellerator in veg, that shit is the bomb!

 

[beezleb878]

All things basically competent

Ive seen the pre-98 bubba type of Kush do better in a scrog as the even light makes more even flowers.

Even with that, the yields are just going to be lower but the a good kush bud just has that something special.

Make sure the environment is in tune and add c02 perhaps.

I believe just knowing your plants and recognize when to add any boosters and the like and scrogging will do much for what can be done anyways in my opinion. I look forward to other more experienced views.

 

[true grit]

Hey broseph what kinda yields are you getting now with those and what kinda improvement you looking to get? Curious as I find that yes, the chem/diesel yield more, but for average plants my kushes yield about the same. OG's take a lil more training tho.

Probably more so veg time/training, defoliating, etc which im sure ya do already.

 

[Bud Spleefman]

Hey broseph what kinda yields are you getting now with those and what kinda improvement you looking to get? Curious as I find that yes, the chem/diesel yield more, but for average plants my kushes yield about the same. OG's take a lil more training tho.

Probably more so veg time/training, defoliating, etc which im sure ya do already.

I've been getting puny buds, maybe an oz or two per plant........ just freaking small, no bulk, they're tight, but still, they should be a cola, not a golf ball........................... I've seen enough Kush grown right to know I can do better.

Yep, I do they lollipoping, topping, fimming, etc... no scrog, though.....

 

[true grit]

Yeah bro tough call man. Figured you were probably giving em the ringer already. Right now just doing a simple feed reg and under a 1kw, 2-3oz is pretty normal for the kushes but the OG's take a hair more pinching/training. I will say this tho- I put some kushes under a 600w that was not new in the least and the Kushes only (had mcfly, ecsd in there) yielded exactly how you said with the tired light. Just a thought, cuz i did get similar dinky kush results unlike the norm, all with the same reg. And of course ECSD/mcfly still knocked it out the park.

And wish i could say more bout calmag, but I only use calpex with solid results.

 

[Snow Crash]

I have only run crosses of kush and skunk in coco.

OG#18 x Skunk#1 and Kandy Kush (OG Kush x Arcata Trainwreck) x Skunk#1

I did manage some sizable buds though, despite burning the shitte out of my OG#18.

I didn't do much other than run AN Sensi Bloom two-part and some cal-mag plus. I did hit them with a little CannaBoost Accelerator.

I'm starting to see that changing the ratios right at transition to really initiate flowering as early as possible to be an important nutritional factor to consider in coco. In most other media I would suggest continuing the higher nitrogen veg nutes through the stretch but in coco it seems the nitrogen is just so available by this point that you do not need to push it as hard.

What I find to have a hard time with uptake in coco is Phosphorus. By running a fairly balanced system at the transitional phase (like a 2-2-3 or a 3-4-5) the Nitrogen is still available but I begin to see the flowers sooner. I also find the extra Potassium keeps the plant "breathing" healthy, especially in warmer and/or CO2 infused environments.

I know a lot of people hate on AN but I've had the chance to try out a few of their products and every time I find success. Sensi Bloom two-part and Big Bud resulted in the largest buds I've seen in coco. Nirvana and Bud Candy resulted in the stankiest, stickest and highest quality resin.

I'm not going to sit here and say you need to shell out hundreds, or thousands, for Advanced Nutrients... but I think at the very least you could consider Sensi Bloom A+B with some Cal-Mag Plus as a change from what you have been doing. At like $30 for the set you'll find you use really low levels to get the proper EC which allows it to last longer. Pretty much even money compared to other two part systems when it comes to the number of gallons of solution it can make.

Here's some pictures from that grow. Notice... I burned the crap out of the OG 18, so be careful with the runoff (this was before I had an EC meter or a proper understanding of nutrients, but I still got nugs).

 

[bigbudz239]

As for AN I have to fully agree with Everything you've said but I must throw in that if growing kush also use the strain specific bloom enhancer Kushi kush by advanced, I use this in combination with sensi bloom a+b and liquid karma

 

[justsomeguy]

bloombastic works great for kush strains but it's expensive as hell. the $90 bottle comes out to over a buck for a gallon of solution but the 1.25 liter is a little better at 60 cents a gallon. you could run every bottle AN tells you to and just 2 to 4 mls/gal of this green slime will blow it away. i've done two runs with it using aqua flakes and calmag for my base.

 

[Green Mopho]

Keep your calmag high, I've even seen some folks going up to 7mL per gal on the CalMag. truegrit, calplex is good shit, but then you should also use epsom salts and/or molasses for a good source of extra magnesium. Also, keep your K higher than usual for kushes. Add Liquid Kelp (I like Algen Extract or Floralicious) along with a solid source of Silica. I start with silica as soon as they have a root system, and hit em hard with silica in early bloom before cutting it out at week 4. Also, extra vegging and topping and training, but someone said that already! OG's seem to be more finicky with stress, even in veg. Keep them stress-free and happy and they should treat you well. And I'm pretty sure with most straight OG cuts, golf balls are pretty standard, the idea is to top and train enough to get tons of golf balls, cuz you'll never get solid colas. Now your Bruce Banner that yielded like shit? Hmmm...I still think it wasn't close enough to the light or somehow you got a mixed up cut...

 

[Bud Spleefman]

Silica is certainly something I've been missing......

I hope I don't have a mislabeled cut of the Banner 3, I got it from a guy who lives with a girl in Boulder, the are pretty detail oriented growers, you'd think they wouldn't have mislabeled a clone, but you never know! :)

My Banner smells like Bubba Kush.... but it didn't look like the pre-98 when it grew, and I actually got 5 oz, plus, per plant, so there's no way it's Bubba Kush!

 

[true grit]

Keep your calmag high, I've even seen some folks going up to 7mL per gal on the CalMag. truegrit, calplex is good shit, but then you should also use epsom salts and/or molasses for a good source of extra magnesium. .

Nope don't need it. Bases have plenty of mag- needing extra is a myth. Proofs in the pudding...ie yields, quality, no deficiencies etc... what most people read as calmag def is often mag lockout from excess. Have yet to find a base nute lacking in mag and am down to 3-5ml/g of calplex and cutting it early. yields definitely never suffered after the switch to calplex.

 

[Green Mopho]

Nope don't need it. Bases have plenty of mag- needing extra is a myth. Proofs in the pudding...ie yields, quality, no deficiencies etc... what most people read as calmag def is often mag lockout from excess. Have yet to find a base nute lacking in mag and am down to 3-5ml/g of calplex and cutting it early. yields definitely never suffered after the switch to calplex.

I agree with you there, which is why calplex is great. I don't like the ratio of Ca to Mg in Calmag+, but I do like the extra Iron! But almost all calmag deficiencies are caused by too much P. Calplex is actually a better yield "booster" than most high ratio P-K boosters. Most nutes have plenty of Mg, and in reality, you usually see the Ca deficient, hardly ever the Mg, in bloom at least. And extra Mg in bloom won't help yields. However, epsom salts does contain that extra hit of sulfur, and there is no level of toxicity of Magnesium to a plant (so long as you don't lock out K or Ca). Most "sweetener" products contain extra MgSO4, as sulfur is an important element to forming terpens and flavonoid compounds, and MgSO4 has good mobility. Magnesium and sulfur are both found naturally in molasses, so you don't need the epsoms if you are adding molasses, but most if not all hydroponic nutes don't give you enough sulfur, adding it will help with flavor, so long as you do it at the correct time and flush accordingly. Weeks 5-7 on a 10 week strain, IMVHO.

 

[true grit]

Understand what you are saying bro for sure, but still slightly differ in theory based on experience (which I know you have too). But contrarily, I've also dropped all sweeteners besides gatorade.

 

[Green Mopho]

Understand what you are saying bro for sure, but still slightly differ in theory based on experience (which I know you have too). But contrarily, I've also dropped all sweeteners besides gatorade.

Yea, sweeteners aren't needed if you aren't feeding a lot of organics and microbes that can use it. Fulvic acid will help the plant metabolize stored sugars in the fan leaves and use them towards bud production, which is actually better than directly feeding sugars. Gatorade has what plants crave....electrolytes...

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vw2CrY9Igs[/YOUTUBE]

 

[motherlode]

how much gatorade you using TG?

 

[true grit]

Believe Obs recommended a 32oz per 50g res....so accordingly I just mix up batches at around 3oz/5gal and so forth. Tried a bud candy/gatorade combo for a few runs and didn't notice the difference between gatorade alone so thats all Im using now. I see Subcool added bud candy to his feed for his supersoil- I personally had the best terpene complexes out of tinkering with his soil and will be adding gatorade to feed instead of bud candy this run.

And BTW to senor Spleefman- a lot of these determinations were done on continual runs of my White MK cut (a few others but shes a maintstay every run) over the last year or so, so I got to see difference in all the good stuff on a kush.