Plants look nice there, man. What strain ya got running there? I'm curious as to your research into your favorite coco media and nutes. Can you tell us more about any others you have tried. How about organics and coco? Do you have any experience with that one? Do you use teas or other active cultures in your methods of coco gardening? You say 30% runoff? Is that on all your feedings? How did you arrive at this number? Do you flush with tap or cal mag infused RO water between or in a cycle with feedings? Thanks for sharing with everyone,
-TF
Thank you. In the grow room right now I am running Nirvana Ice and my own homemade strain I call Element Zero; which is BC
Big Bud x Mr. Nice (G13 x Hash plant).
In coco I have grown:
DNA Genetics Kandy Kush x Skunk (an all-time favorite)
DNA Genetics OG#18 x Skunk
DNA Genetics Sour Cream
DNA Genetics Sour Kush
DNA Genetics Sharks Breath
DNA Gentics Cole Train
Nirvana Blue Mystic
Nirvana Ice
Paradise Seeds Sensi Star
Paradise Seeds Wappa
Magus Genetics Warlock
Magus Genetics Motavation
Greenhouse Seeds Lemon Skunk
Serious Seeds Chronic
I started in Coco a little over 2 years ago, the first time I was in
Botanicare CocoGro Compressed bricks. I ran
Canna Coco A+B,
Cal-Mag Plus, PK 13/14, Cannazym, and during flowering I ran
Advanced Nutrients Sensi Bloom.
The only other nutrient system I have had to opportunity to try out is
Botanicare CNS 17 coco/soil grow, bloom, and ripe. With the nutrient calculator I have devised I feel confident that I could make most nutrient systems work so long as I have a phosphorus dominant PK supp and some
Cal-Mag Plus to balance out the ratio.
With organics the furthest I've gone is running the Organicare Supplement line of Huvega (micro), Humega (humic acid), Calplex (calcium), and
Seaplex (kelp extract). This didn't go very well, but it was my first time, and I think I could make some vast improvements in this regard. I come from an organic background (think hippies on the hill near UC Santa Cruz) so I am no stranger to compost tea but I haven't actually put together a brewer for my indoor plants. This is definitely in the workings already and will likely be a reality (if only in experimental phase) after this summer. The
Advanced Nutrients Nirvana is basically a concentrated compost tea and I ran that for a while during flowering, but that's about as close as I can get today.
There are not too many coco growers working with pure organics, running teas, and pre-amending their coco. AskED over at GC has been working on this subject for about a year now without a ton of success either. My grows are a kind of psuedo-hydro-organic conglomeration of systems in an attempt to get the growth rates of hydro and the flavors of organics. The
Roots Organics coco mix has been great for cloning with and ease of watering because I don't need to feed the clones until well after they are rooted. I like their ingredient list a lot and would mix up exactly the same thing for my own.
Interestingly enough, Subcool is a huge supporter of
Roots Organics Coco mix, as he uses it in his own super soil recipe. This would be a 1/2 attempt at coco organics being that it is not nearly just pure coco.
I found some time ago that Coco can retain a HUGE element buffer. I had to find out the hard way also, requiring that I flush upwards of 10 gallons of water through a 3 gallon planter to bring the runoff EC under 2.0. Testing and keeping good records of my runoff's EC is how I came to the conclusion that 30% is the minimum. I always try to keep the runoff EC within 30% of the solution EC. So if I used a 1.0ec solution then I'd want to make sure the runoff didn't exceed 1.3ec. If it does, then I'd use more solution.
I'll never, never, never EVER suggest flushing coco with clean water before the last week of flowering. Coco washes out different elements at different rates. Flushing does little more than skew the CEC of the system and causing further issues.
My suggestion when it comes to "flushing" in coco is to rinse the coco with a very low strength solution. Usually, less than 0.5ec, and it needs to contain Coco specific nutrients. Rinsing with low strength nutrients will still remove the excess elements from the system but it will ensure that the coco retains the proper ratio of elements in its buffer. But, to avoid getting to this point it is better to just error on the side of caution and get a copious amount of runoff.
In the past I have tried feeding at a high strength and then watering for a few days without runoff to let the plants "suck up" the elements. This didn't work out so well.
The way I look at it is if I spend... $200 on nutrients, and I wash out 1/3 of them then that means I flush about $60 worth of nutrients. This is fine with me though, because it ensures big thick nugs and a heavy harvest. If burning my plants cuts the harvest weight by just 10 grams the copious amount of runoff used to keep the plants from burning is a wise investment.
I don't care about what I'm "wasting" so long as the runoff EC is in range. This keeps my harvest weights nice and high. When running CNS 17 Coco/Soil (at $25 per gallon) I don't spend more than $100 on the whole system and I'm not about to start bitching about ~$30 in nutrients down the drain while I puff on 2 gram blunts all day.
I think everyone has to find a method and a style of growing that works best for them. For me, it's calculating the predicted nutrient levels and working with lots of runoff. Keep the media clean and dialed just the way I want it.
And that's the trick, soak up everything around you on the topic and find the way you want it, then own that.
There's a lot of advice I feel there is to give when it comes to coco. Quirks and specifics that need to be addressed for success. Some of this knowledge comes from experience which is irreplaceable. Thank you for stopping by to get things rolling, I'd do a coco tutorial but there are already few out there.
I'm always happy to answer questions and to talk coco and cannabis.
