Growing on Coco Slabs Guide

[HortiLab]

Hello Farmers,

growing on coco slabs is a fun and rewarding way to cultivate beautiful crops.

If the grower follows a few simple steps, it is as easy as 1,2,3...in our example we will refer to the Canna Coco fertilizer line.

1) Rooting into Cubes:

It is advisable to root your clones into 3" rockwool cubes before planting them on the slabs.

This initial rooting phase may take up to 7-10 days.

During this phase feed with a full dose of Canna Rhizotonic plus 1-1,5ml/l Canna Coco A/B.

2) Vegging on the Slabs:

Once planted on the slabs, veg for +-3 days. Feed with 2ml/l Coco A/B and full dose of Rhizotonic for the first 3 days.
Then continue to use Rhizotonic till week 5 at 0,5ml/l.

3) 12/12:

In the first weeks of 12/12 steadily up the EC to around 2-2,2 and keep the pH at 5.8-5.9.
After 2 weeks start to add Enzymes as well as PK 13/14 and raise the pH to 6,0.

Max use up to 4ml/l Canna Coco A/B during flower.

Irrigation should be around 200-350ml per plant per day and should be divided over 3-4 times per day.

4) Flushing:

Flush for 7-14 days when plants are ready.

Any questions feel free to ask!

 

[leadsled]

Nice setup, Have used rockwool cubes on slabs but never coco. Was debating on it, but went right to containers for the ease of staking the plants.

Got a few questions for you.
How do you support the plants? Do you use a trellis?
Ever try coco blocks rather than rockwool?

Has the coco ever leeched water from the rockwool, meaning dried it out?
(example: if the coco slab is drier than the rockwool it can leech the water from the rockwool like a sponge) Maybe you do not have this issue with your drip schedule.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[HortiLab]

@leadsled: Best way to support the plants in this setup is by using some plant support netting.

Never tried the Coco Cubes, but performance should be similar to RW.

The Coco Slabs normally never dry completely, since the setup gets irrigated multiple times per day.

Therefore leeching water from the RW cubes is no problem one has to worry about once the clones are rooted into the slabs.

 

[motherlode]

you have a source for that green netting? looks like it may have smaller holes then the white stuff.

 

[leadsled]

@leadsled: Best way to support the plants in this setup is by using some plant support netting.

Never tried the Coco Cubes, but performance should be similar to RW.

The Coco Slabs normally never dry completely, since the setup gets irrigated multiple times per day.

Therefore leeching water from the RW cubes is no problem one has to worry about once the clones are rooted into the slabs.

Thanks, kinda figured that may not happen since you water so frequently.

What type of plant numbers and yields per 1000 watt light?

 

[biggs]

awesome. any chance of making this a sticky? would be very usefull to first time growers. i love how nice and simple it is. i really enjoy this type of growing.

how many clones where you running there mate? and what is it? cheers horti.

 

[motherlode]

do you run drip lines to each rockwool cube and in between each cube right into the slab? I really like this setup...

 

[HortiLab]

Thanks, kinda figured that may not happen since you water so frequently.

What type of plant numbers and yields per 1000 watt light?

Yield always also depends on the grower and genetics, but with a well looked after SOG and a nice clone 1g/W is very feasible.

you have a source for that green netting? looks like it may have smaller holes then the white stuff.

@motherlode: Sorry, no source for the green one. Actually, the more common netting over here, is the white one, too.
Works just fine with custom made stands in combination with a slab setup.

awesome. any chance of making this a sticky? would be very usefull to first time growers. i love how nice and simple it is. i really enjoy this type of growing.

how many clones where you running there mate? and what is it? cheers horti.

@biggs: Glad you enjoy the ride so far. This setup was running quite a few clones...mainly testing selections of upcoming varieties. Stay tuned.

do you run drip lines to each rockwool cube and in between each cube right into the slab? I really like this setup...

A single dripper runs to each rockwool cube; no drippers between each cubes right into the slab!

 

[cemchris]

Wow Horti nice post! You are killing it.

 

[motherlode]

thx for the responses - keep on rocking that shit homie!

 

[euforia]

nice set up,

but to work well clones must be from one mother,right???

 

[HortiLab]

but to work well clones must be from one mother,right???

Yes, a mono culture is strongly recommended for this style of growing (per res and/or row of lights/room).

 

[sudo]

Very beautiful setup!

I'm running Coco Slabs on the Trays with TopFeed also, and I'm quite satisfied with the media.

Nevertheless i have some questions, because your setup looks very professional.

On the pictures it looks like you have positioned the slabs normally (not parallel) to the "draining channels" (I can't describe it better, sry). Do you have better experience with that positioning, for example more drain?

And you said you water approx. 200-350ml and divide it up to 4 times a day ... do you have enough drain with this schedule? (As far as i know 20-30%)
(At first I also watered 2 times a day, but without enough drain my drain EC rose up to >3 (basic EC is 0.3)) Now I water ~1L per plant every 2 days and drain EC constantly went down to 1.7 ...
Or do you flush the whole system weekly with cannazym?

Thanks for sharing,
sudo

 

[purpleberry]

I Like how you use the PK13/14 after week 2. How much do you use? I did this last run at 2ml per gallon at week 2-3-4 , at week week 5 I hit them with 5ml and stopped use of pk 13/14. I think it worked out nice.

 

[HortiLab]

Very beautiful setup!

I'm running Coco Slabs on the Trays with TopFeed also, and I'm quite satisfied with the media.

Nevertheless i have some questions, because your setup looks very professional.

On the pictures it looks like you have positioned the slabs normally (not parallel) to the "draining channels" (I can't describe it better, sry). Do you have better experience with that positioning, for example more drain?

And you said you water approx. 200-350ml and divide it up to 4 times a day ... do you have enough drain with this schedule? (As far as i know 20-30%)
(At first I also watered 2 times a day, but without enough drain my drain EC rose up to >3 (basic EC is 0.3)) Now I water ~1L per plant every 2 days and drain EC constantly went down to 1.7 ...
Or do you flush the whole system weekly with cannazym?

Thanks for sharing,
sudo

Thanks for the kind words and glad you are happy with your coco setup, too.
Actually never placed the slabs "parallel to the draining canals". The way the slabs are placed in the pics, ensures an even spread drain from the whole coco slab.

Yes, with aprox 250-350ml / per plant / per day there will be enough drain in most coco slab setups.

Cannazym is only used every other week and during the first days when re-using slabs (double dose).

I Like how you use the PK13/14 after week 2. How much do you use? I did this last run at 2ml per gallon at week 2-3-4 , at week week 5 I hit them with 5ml and stopped use of pk 13/14. I think it worked out nice.

The amount of PK13/14 used, depends on the strain and water quality. In most cases we advise to use PK13/14 very "defensive" and according to the desired EC level.

 

[swisscheese]

WOW. Very helpful post thanks for all the info hortilab.

 

[squarepusher]

Thanks for the kind words and glad you are happy with your coco setup, too.
Actually never placed the slabs "parallel to the draining canals". The way the slabs are placed in the pics, ensures an even spread drain from the whole coco slab.

Yes, with aprox 250-350ml / per plant / per day there will be enough drain in most coco slab setups.

Cannazym is only used every other week and during the first days when re-using slabs (double dose).



The amount of PK13/14 used, depends on the strain and water quality. In most cases we advise to use PK13/14 very "defensive" and according to the desired EC level.

wheres the Starbud seeds?

 

[greenkeeper]

thanks horti, great setup and lots of info´s:hi:
very helpfull thread
i have one question pls
how often do you use those cocos slaps?

 

[HortiLab]

wheres the Starbud seeds?

They will arrive in 2011.

thanks horti, great setup and lots of info´s:hi:
very helpfull thread
i have one question pls
how often do you use those cocos slaps?

Depending on the condition of the slabs (e.g. without pest infections/mold/mildew) they can easily be used at least 2-5 times before replacing them.

 

[Smokey503ski]

I highly recomend this system for new growers.
I have grown this style except with the rockwol slabs. It is very easy to hit the 1g per light in that system.
I have about 50 of those tray's in storage. I think you just motivated me to bust out a few of the trays and do a round for the hell of it.
By the way that is lookng really good!!!