Multiple Problems In Coco (first Time Growing)

[Enforcer]

I raised the pots on some wood pieces then used 20 liters of water(i hope the roots are fine and i didn't damage them) aproximatively phed to 6(i accidentaly pressed on cal and i didn't used the pen anymore) for every pot to be sure that everything is ok then water with aproximative 600-700 ml of nuted water (1 ml micro with 1,5 gro for 10 liter of water) i will see in the morning when i'm going to water again,i hope they will be fine
edit: i have ball valve for every pot,the thing is if i restrict the flow i'm afraid to damage the pump,that is why i said that 1 liter is minimum without any restriction

You can use a plastic elbow, spliced into your feed line, but still in your res. On the underside of that elbow you’ll want to drill a small hole. The hole will act as a pressure relief while the pump is runnng. As soon as the pump shuts off, it allows air into the line. Effectively acting as an anti-siphon. Trust me, it really sucks when you check on your new auto water system an hour after it watered the plants and the 28gal res is empty. Fortunately, they were in coco :)

 

[Madmax]

You will still remove the salt. I just don’t think a raised pot would remove more salt than an unraised pot. The water movement is what is removing the salt buildup. With that being said though, I picked up 6 of these at my local grow store for my fabric pots. They should allow air all around the pot leading to more O2 in the root zone.

Been trying to find those without any sucess here in oz...i ended up just getting some mesh screen to sit them on..i will only b hand watering mine first go ,def need to look into an automated setup,would save me leaning over to to do back 2.is there any step by step tutorials i could look at..

Cheers max

 

[Jack og]

It’s too dry.
1. Water, 2 water, 3 water, it should be getting water 3x a day
2. Cal mag everytime, irreverent on water conditions, calmag everyday
3. 400-500ppm max per feed, feed daily , some feed 2-3x just cut nutes down To aspect ratio for daily feed vs multi feed per day.
4. Coco isn’t soil treat it like hydro. . It needs to be wet, if not the salt buildup is fast mate.
5. Lights, up the blue spectrum in the veg stage. 3000k is not ideal, 5-6k is th ideal veg range.
Air flow, is critical, incoming fresh air vs exhausted , need to maintain that co2 in the grow space.
Humidity; though not critical at this stage but later on coco it’s harder to control unless you have that watering down to a science!!
Cheers and happy growing
Ps alternative to coco is high porosity soil media basically fine mulch with coco works like soil, less watering as it holds water but inert so feeding is about half rate and less worrisome. Look into that before trying coco out right. But in coco it’s basically hydro , do a catchment tray that drains to a bucket of sorts and you can recycle that water with a pump to water just change out the water every other day and you can set that pump on a light timer to feed/water every 6-8 hrs , then dump residual and mix fresh, fairly inexpensive to do really if you can source parts and are handy.

 

[Enforcer]

Been trying to find those without any sucess here in oz...i ended up just getting some mesh screen to sit them on..i will only b hand watering mine first go ,def need to look into an automated setup,would save me leaning over to to do back 2.is there any step by step tutorials i could look at..

Cheers max

I found one seller on Amazon. But they wanted $10 each. I got them for $3.

This video explains it pretty well. It’s not exactly the way mine is set up, but it’s
close and you’ll get the concept.

 

[voldekush]

how i could make a system to renew the water automatically,i will be at the grow 1 time per week as i will begin college

 

[Jack og]

how i could make a system to renew the water automatically,i will be at the grow 1 time per week as i will begin college

Well a very good watering system with a large enough reservoir. With ability to water/ feed automatically. Camera to monitor remotely.
Pumps and lights all on remote setup, something like that could cost $10-20k!!
Or go hydro with auto feeder?
Heisenbubble is the guy you want to talk to, he makes some bad ass remote systems.

Coco you need hands on. So if you are going to be unable to do anything for a week I’d suggest you get a buddy to help cause mate, you do not want to burn your grow site down if something went wrong. Weed is hands on.

 

[voldekush]

i thought it like this
web camera to pc to see it live
the watering system like i said,with timers
the problem i think i have is how i keep the water in the reservoir fresh
for the reservoir i could use a 100 liter barrel ,5 liter of water per plant per day in multiple feedings i think is ok

 

[damien50]

i thought it like this
web camera to pc to see it live
the watering system like i said,with timers
the problem i think i have is how i keep the water in the reservoir fresh
for the reservoir i could use a 100 liter barrel ,5 liter of water per plant per day in multiple feedings i think is ok

You would end up needing to employ a doser system, a ec/ph monitor, probably two pumps, and a whole mess of other stuff whereas soil would be easier maybe but only being able to visit once a week isn't enough. I think you would be better of doing micro grows in stealth cabinets with short strains. You could still yield several ounces in a small set up and be able to manage it far easier.

You're talking a lot of money even if you diy a bunch of stuff. Then dialing everything in and I think it's way more effort than it's worth for a small personal grow.

 

[voldekush]

what is frustrating for me is that i bought the equipment in november last year,got the place to run in 25 may and then stunted growth till now...
u think i could transplant them into dirt and have a friend of mine to just put water into the reservoir?

 

[damien50]

what is frustrating for me is that i bought the equipment in november last year,got the place to run in 25 may and then stunted growth till now...

It's frustrating to mess a grow up but it happens when you don't know what you're doing. You have to find a way that works for your situation. Even with a 60 day auto it still takes three months with curing and if you can't give more than one day a week and you're inexperienced with growing problems are going to occur. I really think a stealth cabinet is going to be the best solution for you if you really want too grow while in college.

 

[voldekush]

u think i could transplant them into dirt and have a friend of mine to just put water into the reservoir?using autos

 

[StonedBlue]

Coco is great but unforgiving of some things.
Maker sure you have a spare pump, spare timer and if you ever use hid lighting a spare bulb.
Make sure to add cal. Never let it go dry.
I water once a day in early veg bumping up as it gets bigger to 3x a day. In flower I start with 3 and bump up until around day 21 or so when I begin watering once every hour for one minute during lights on. Start at 1/3 strength nutes (I shoot for 700 ppm)
I use 3 reservoirs. One has nutes and feeds plants. It is 18 gallons. The others are 22 gallons. One has nutes and I use it to top off my reservoir each day. That way it's easy when I change the nutes or ph. the new stuff combines with the old and makes the change more gradual. The last reservoir is filled with plain tap water. It sits for a week after being ph'd. (be sure to ph your water before adding nutes. Keep it between 5.8 and 6.2.
I use a 5 gallon bucket, elevated from the floor about 12". I take 2 14" bolts and run them thru the middle of the bucket. I set a one gallon container on top of the bolts. This is my grow container and the runoff collects in bottom of bucket. I'm in process of connecting each of these to one 20 gallon tote. Then I can just pump out that one container each day. (I got a very small pump for that for $8. It is slow but empties the contain down to about 1/4 inch) Why is it so big? If my pump or timer fails and pump runs non stop my containers will hold more than what's in the reservoir.
Use good quality Coco. To be safe rinse it well before use with 1/4 strength nutes. I use botonicare Coco, it doesn't need to be rinsed. I would advise using the bagged stuff rather than the compressed bricks at last to start. Check your ph daily. I've left my garden unsupervised for a week while on trip and had no issues. Problem is that if anything comes up you can lose entire crop. But sometimes you have to roll the dice.
Lots of stuff you didn't ask about sorry if you didn't need.

 

[damien50]

Coco is great but unforgiving of some things.
Maker sure you have a spare pump, spare timer and if you ever use hid lighting a spare bulb.
Make sure to add cal. Never let it go dry.
I water once a day in early veg bumping up as it gets bigger to 3x a day. In flower I start with 3 and bump up until around day 21 or so when I begin watering once every hour for one minute during lights on. Start at 1/3 strength nutes (I shoot for 700 ppm)
I use 3 reservoirs. One has nutes and feeds plants. It is 18 gallons. The others are 22 gallons. One has nutes and I use it to top off my reservoir each day. That way it's easy when I change the nutes or ph. the new stuff combines with the old and makes the change more gradual. The last reservoir is filled with plain tap water. It sits for a week after being ph'd. (be sure to ph your water before adding nutes. Keep it between 5.8 and 6.2.
I use a 5 gallon bucket, elevated from the floor about 12". I take 2 14" bolts and run them thru the middle of the bucket. I set a one gallon container on top of the bolts. This is my grow container and the runoff collects in bottom of bucket. I'm in process of connecting each of these to one 20 gallon tote. Then I can just pump out that one container each day. (I got a very small pump for that for $8. It is slow but empties the contain down to about 1/4 inch) Why is it so big? If my pump or timer fails and pump runs non stop my containers will hold more than what's in the reservoir.
Use good quality Coco. To be safe rinse it well before use with 1/4 strength nutes. I use botonicare Coco, it doesn't need to be rinsed. I would advise using the bagged stuff rather than the compressed bricks at last to start. Check your ph daily. I've left my garden unsupervised for a week while on trip and had no issues. Problem is that if anything comes up you can lose entire crop. But sometimes you have to roll the dice.
Lots of stuff you didn't ask about sorry if you didn't need.

Why ph the water prior to adding nutes? There are some lines that are supposed to give the perfect ph after adding nutes.

 

[Madmax]

I found one seller on Amazon. But they wanted $10 each. I got them for $3.

This video explains it pretty well. It’s not exactly the way mine is set up, but it’s
close and you’ll get the concept.

Thanks Enforcer ....that given me an indication how to go about it...but like a mini me version

 

[voldekush]

@StonedBlue u think that i could manage it if i change to soil and autos strain with 3 reservoirs like yours?

 

[StonedBlue]

Why ph the water prior to adding nutes? There are some lines that are supposed to give the perfect ph after adding nutes.

They don't fix ph, they are supposed to not affect ph when they claim that as does gh.
I use gh. I was having terrible ph swings and always had. Someone told me to ph before nutes. I no longer have swings. It may drift up once in awhile but only .1 or .2

 

[StonedBlue]

@StonedBlue u think that i could manage it if i change to soil and autos strain with 3 reservoirs like yours?

3 reservoirs is not necessary. 1 well do and with soil you don't need any. I would mix up what you need when you water. Then fill the same 5 gallon bucket with Easter and ph. Let sit until time to water and add nutes. Let sit a little bit and use. If going away and won't be there got watering then a res and pump make sense. Strain makes no difference.

 

[voldekush]

i want to do a soil all organic i have bat guano at home,cattle shit decomposed also at home and i don't think i'mma need anything else,they say weed grows in the soil of corn and the corn is doing quite good here with minimum cattle waste added every spring,not to mention that every year the corn is planted where the potatoes were last year so less nutrients left
what do you think?
also what do you mean by 'easter' i think it is autocorrect

 

[damien50]

They don't fix ph, they are supposed to not affect ph when they claim that as does gh.
I use gh. I was having terrible ph swings and always had. Someone told me to ph before nutes. I no longer have swings. It may drift up once in awhile but only .1 or .2

I think it's in the event that you use RO water as tap water will vary greatly. I've always mixed my nutes first then adjusted the ph otherwise I'd end up too acidic.

 

[CaliRooted]

Soil is alot more forgiving if it's your first time growing