Justiceman's Root Health Tutorial

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justiceman

justiceman

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Holy Guacamole this thread is amazing! I've been stalking for a while and finally created an account to ask for advice.
I'm running almost the same setup, I didn't know to line the bottom of the pots with anything so I'm all 80/20 coco/perlite to the bottom.
I'm using the head formula with the gh liquids and am 2 weeks into flower.
1. When you up the ppm, aren't you changing the formula then? And what would you suggest upping liquid wise as I don't use the powder?
2. Are you still in favor of the +life and the booster(can't remember the name you used in your journal)?
Many MANY thanks for all this info, people like you make the internet worth it!
I'm glad you like the thread! Thank you greatly for the kind words. :)

1. Because I use a 1-part powder I don't change the formula(ratio) when I increase the feed strength unless I decide to add an an additional PK booster. If you are using the h3ad formula you have the option to either keep the ratio same and increase feed strength, or you can choose to add more Bloom. Depending on which way you go really depends on how the plants are doing and what kind of environment you are working with.

2. I still want to do more runs to be sure or maybe a few side by sides but so far I believe that +life is good stuff. It's pretty affordable too. Is it necessary for success? I don't think so, but I do think it helps with root development and health maintenance to an extent. As for the PK booster called Shine. I'm not particularly sold on it. I've done some runs with and without it and I'm not sure I see a difference. That could be because I'm not running the type of environment that really requires its use.

Thanks for stopping in. I enjoy it! :smoking:
 
yxhwxh

yxhwxh

3
3
So ive been following this tek and i have 3 solo cups going so far. 2 week old seedlings. My dumb self didnt read all the way through the thread before i mixed in 5 grams of veg+bloom with a gallon. Im not sure why i didnt read all the way through this thread, im not very savvy with sites laid out like this. So i thought the thread was alot shorter than it actually was. So i proceded to give my seedlings a couple capfuls of this water when the coir would appear dry. Now that ive actually read this thread in its entirety ive corrected my feeding, and am hoping that i didnt do any damage to my youngins.

Also i have this white mildew or mold ontop the coir in one of my cups, ive removed it once and it came back the next day.
20190804 163547

20190804 163635
Received 2395347590788149


The seedling in this cup is yellowing. The others without this white mildew are not. Should i repot into pasteurized coco? Or just continue with feeding and hope that it doesnt come back this time?

As im typing this i still have a lot of this thread to read. (Since i just found out that it was way longer than i thought at first) So if any questions asked here are answered previously in this thread i apoligize. 😫😫😫
 
dextr0

dextr0

1,650
163
Bruce Banger, Forbidden Clouds, Papaya Cake

Plain coco like thread states using Veg+Bloom @ 3g a gallon. Papaya Cake likes a lighter feeding but the others were fine. I switched to 3.2g to a gallon and that did burn so yea going by feel and the thread and I think looking good.
Thank you justice.
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B0370789 2354 4F59 988B 34386CBB1D53
0151F94E D71F 4760 8DF4 8208554B113F
9D2B0A6A C774 487C B7BA 719CB9A0A3F6
E550ABCB D3C5 47DF B997 5EF77DDB4BFD
BD4C3536 2A52 4DD3 BDE8 A85762CDE469
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Pileit

Pileit

88
33
This is a great thread. Wish I had followed your advice sooner. Very hard to keep coco wet all the time. Finally committed to doing this and my yields have improved 300%. The quality is as good or better. I have only been indoor growing a couple years and what a learning curve. There is a lot of advice out there but not all is good, this thread seems spot on. We are doing multiple fertigations a day in 10 to 25 gal pots. With several rooms running different times, it has taken over my life.lol. I gardened for years, small fruits as a hobby. Coco coir is a different animal all together, a great one for indoor cannabis. The daily growth and yields are unbelievable. A lot of nights I go hiome and knees hurt, backs sore and I think what the heck am I killing myself for? The next morning after a little sleep I find myself excited and chomping at the bit to get there and see whats happened overnight,lol. It a sickness this damn gardening. Thank you so much for this thread and all the great contributors.
 
Trustfall

Trustfall

Supporter
5,467
313
This is a great thread. Wish I had followed your advice sooner. Very hard to keep coco wet all the time. Finally committed to doing this and my yields have improved 300%. The quality is as good or better. I have only been indoor growing a couple years and what a learning curve. There is a lot of advice out there but not all is good, this thread seems spot on. We are doing multiple fertigations a day in 10 to 25 gal pots. With several rooms running different times, it has taken over my life.lol. I gardened for years, small fruits as a hobby. Coco coir is a different animal all together, a great one for indoor cannabis. The daily growth and yields are unbelievable. A lot of nights I go hiome and knees hurt, backs sore and I think what the heck am I killing myself for? The next morning after a little sleep I find myself excited and chomping at the bit to get there and see whats happened overnight,lol. It a sickness this damn gardening. Thank you so much for this thread and all the great contributors.
Top fed drain to waste watering system isthe route you want to go.
 
sharkk004

sharkk004

1
3
Good roots in coco come with sound watering practices period!!!!!!!! I prefer 100% coco. No need to mix anything like perlite into it. I prefer simple hydroponic nutrients that are easy to use. No additives or 15 different bottles to measure. That kind of stuff only invites problems in my experience so far.


Examples of simple easy to use hydroponic nutrients:
  1. General Hydroponics Micro and Bloom(6/9 h3ad recipe)
  2. General Hydroponics Maxibloom(1 part powder)
  3. Hydroponic Research Veg+Bloom(1 part powder and my absolute favorite).

Do's:
  • Feed often(At least once a day)
  • Check pH
  • Use a balanced quality base hydroponic nutrient(no organics this is hydro not soil)
Don'ts:
  • DO NOT LET YOUR COCO DRY OUT
  • Do not feed plain water
  • Do not add a plethora of additives(they are mostly snake oil anyway so save your $)

Never let your coco dry out. Did I say that already? I water at least once a day(except for seedlings at the very beginning). The more I water the better growth and the more roots I get because of the fresh oxygen being pulled into the medium on a regular basis.

Dry coco kills roots, and so does wet coco that has stayed wet for too long without irrigation. This is because it has not been fed again to renew the oxygen levels thus causing the roots to suffocate. You just can't "over water" coco. You can only deprive the roots of oxygen. The longer one waits to water in coco the longer the roots are deprived of oxygen.

In other words. Feed often and you will get thick and healthy roots. This is a very hard concept for previous soil growers to grasp. In soil you need wet dry cycles because soil holds so much water and so little oxygen at max saturation. Coco is an entirely different beast so think of it as such.

I truly believe the KEY is FREQUENT IRRIGATION

If you follow these simple guidelines your roots will look better and your nutrient uptake will improve so stop letting your coco dry out. Keeping your coco wet is also a great way to prevent salt build up and salt concentration which in turn obviously leads to healthy roots as well.


Here are some examples of plants that have gotten 1-2 feeds a day. Nothing but Veg+Bloom and occasionally +Life(microbial innoculant). That's it nothing else.

View attachment 670721 View attachment 670722 View attachment 670723 View attachment 670724 View attachment 670725 View attachment 670726 View attachment 670727
Nice straight forward info thxs
 
PureGardenz

PureGardenz

10
3
Good roots in coco come with sound watering practices period!!!!!!!! I prefer 100% coco. No need to mix anything like perlite into it. I prefer simple hydroponic nutrients that are easy to use. No additives or 15 different bottles to measure. That kind of stuff only invites problems in my experience so far.


Examples of simple easy to use hydroponic nutrients:
  1. General Hydroponics Micro and Bloom(6/9 h3ad recipe)
  2. General Hydroponics Maxibloom(1 part powder)
  3. Hydroponic Research Veg+Bloom(1 part powder and my absolute favorite).

Do's:
  • Feed often(At least once a day)
  • Check pH
  • Use a balanced quality base hydroponic nutrient(no organics this is hydro not soil)
Don'ts:
  • DO NOT LET YOUR COCO DRY OUT
  • Do not feed plain water
  • Do not add a plethora of additives(they are mostly snake oil anyway so save your $)

Never let your coco dry out. Did I say that already? I water at least once a day(except for seedlings at the very beginning). The more I water the better growth and the more roots I get because of the fresh oxygen being pulled into the medium on a regular basis.

Dry coco kills roots, and so does wet coco that has stayed wet for too long without irrigation. This is because it has not been fed again to renew the oxygen levels thus causing the roots to suffocate. You just can't "over water" coco. You can only deprive the roots of oxygen. The longer one waits to water in coco the longer the roots are deprived of oxygen.

In other words. Feed often and you will get thick and healthy roots. This is a very hard concept for previous soil growers to grasp. In soil you need wet dry cycles because soil holds so much water and so little oxygen at max saturation. Coco is an entirely different beast so think of it as such.

I truly believe the KEY is FREQUENT IRRIGATION

If you follow these simple guidelines your roots will look better and your nutrient uptake will improve so stop letting your coco dry out. Keeping your coco wet is also a great way to prevent salt build up and salt concentration which in turn obviously leads to healthy roots as well.


Here are some examples of plants that have gotten 1-2 feeds a day. Nothing but Veg+Bloom and occasionally +Life(microbial innoculant). That's it nothing else.

View attachment 670721 View attachment 670722 View attachment 670723 View attachment 670724 View attachment 670725 View attachment 670726 View attachment 670727
Amazing work man 🤙🏻 I’m starting to have an issue in pure coco right around week 4 of flower when I’m up to 3 waters a day in 1g pots. When you say frequent irrigation would what you recommend for 1gals on a dripper system? I end up getting nute build up and plants don’t take it well
 
Domino

Domino

10
3
Hi Guys! Great thread and great read. I've been growing for about 4 years in coco and now I'm changing things up. I've not followed all of the steps in this post, but some I'm going to be incorporating I think. I'm a licensed medicinal grower .

Currently I grow in mostly the Advanced Nutrient line. I use some products from some other lines as well (CX Hydroponics, some one-offs of some others). I don't like it because I feel that I'm spending a ton of dough on 97% deionized water. I'm getting great results though. I had a fellow grower give me a feed schedule for a combination of Jacks 3-2-1 and supplementing with Organic Teas. We water every other day (which I may change at some point). We grow in hard pots with a 70-30 perlite mix. Some plants we've veg'd for up to 140 days (we have a stem limit we operate under) but ideally we're aiming for 84-98 days in 10/15 gallon pots. Never have I seen the roots that you've shown me and I've grown thousands of plants to harvest.

It's early on, but I'm doing a side by side run with Advanced and the Jacks/Org and everything seems about even. The tea that I make is 5g Alfalfa Meal, ,3g kelp meal, 28.5 Milled Malted Barley, 3g dried Coconut Water, 1ml Orca (Mych.) and 1ml SOS (Mych) per gallon of water. On the Jack's/Org side I'm doing a Nute-Nute-Tea rotation.

I've been trying to research the pH of the tea. It is coming out SUPER low (3.8). Everything that touches a plant root I pH and I'm aiming for about 5.8. Should I pH the water before adding the tea ingredients? Should I pH after the tea is brewed? How concerned should I be for the bacteria in the tea by pH-ing at all?

Jack's is stupid cheap, and they now have a cannabis line (but truthfully I don't think you need it). When I mix up the Jacks, I warm the water in a pitcher, stir in the Jacks until it is dissolved and add it to the de-chlorinated water. Good stuff it appears, and a lot of growers that I know are migrating in that direction.
 
Kgunge

Kgunge

63
18
I’m not sure if it was asked in the comments.
but my question is , how early do you feed daily and do you water until runoff even at that early stage ?
im in 20 gal 70/30 coco perlite and in early veg I’m really afraid I’m going to drown them because of too much water. I’m following the words from dr coco from cocoforcannabis website. I usually give them a small wet/dry cycle to encourage root growth. Our transplant goes from 2gal into 20 gal fabric pots.
 
Dwag126

Dwag126

1
1
Good roots in coco come with sound watering practices period!!!!!!!! I prefer 100% coco. No need to mix anything like perlite into it. I prefer simple hydroponic nutrients that are easy to use. No additives or 15 different bottles to measure. That kind of stuff only invites problems in my experience so far.


Examples of simple easy to use hydroponic nutrients:
  1. General Hydroponics Micro and Bloom(6/9 h3ad recipe)
  2. General Hydroponics Maxibloom(1 part powder)
  3. Hydroponic Research Veg+Bloom(1 part powder and my absolute favorite).

Do's:
  • Feed often(At least once a day)
  • Check pH
  • Use a balanced quality base hydroponic nutrient(no organics this is hydro not soil)
Don'ts:
  • DO NOT LET YOUR COCO DRY OUT
  • Do not feed plain water
  • Do not add a plethora of additives(they are mostly snake oil anyway so save your $)

Never let your coco dry out. Did I say that already? I water at least once a day(except for seedlings at the very beginning). The more I water the better growth and the more roots I get because of the fresh oxygen being pulled into the medium on a regular basis.

Dry coco kills roots, and so does wet coco that has stayed wet for too long without irrigation. This is because it has not been fed again to renew the oxygen levels thus causing the roots to suffocate. You just can't "over water" coco. You can only deprive the roots of oxygen. The longer one waits to water in coco the longer the roots are deprived of oxygen.

In other words. Feed often and you will get thick and healthy roots. This is a very hard concept for previous soil growers to grasp. In soil you need wet dry cycles because soil holds so much water and so little oxygen at max saturation. Coco is an entirely different beast so think of it as such.

I truly believe the KEY is FREQUENT IRRIGATION

If you follow these simple guidelines your roots will look better and your nutrient uptake will improve so stop letting your coco dry out. Keeping your coco wet is also a great way to prevent salt build up and salt concentration which in turn obviously leads to healthy roots as well.


Here are some examples of plants that have gotten 1-2 feeds a day. Nothing but Veg+Bloom and occasionally +Life(microbial innoculant). That's it nothing else.

View attachment 670721 View attachment 670722 View attachment 670723 View attachment 670724 View attachment 670725 View attachment 670726 View attachment 670727
Beautiful!
 
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