New coco grower looking for advice on EC, Water quality, and just getting the most bang for my buck...

[thecannazombie]

Hi everyone! I am new here. Nice to meet you. I have been growing in soil for a little bit, not a long time but enough to harvest 6 plants. So I have a little bit of growing underneath my belt. Since I was just running an organic soil mix, I only watered every other day and added in some microbes. That is about it. I never checked my PH. My tap is at 6.8 on its own. I never checked EC as my nutrients were always available in the soil. So, I decided I was being lazy and could get more out of my grows. I swapped over to coco.

I have two autoflowers going in 3g pots. I have a 70/30 coco/perlite mix. I am feeding MegaCrop, Sweet Candy, and will add Bud Explosion when the time is at hand. I am feeding twice a day. Now you have a bit of info about my grow, on to the questions!

For MC, the recommended EC is 1100 at early veg. The SC should add another 200 at early veg. My water is trash at 550. So all of this added together is 1850. This is a lot higher than the recommended ranges I have seen of 1200-1500. In this scenario, should I follow the advice of the nutrient line or should I lower the amount of nutes I am adding and try to keep it lower around the recommended levels? I have been feeding at 1600 currently, but only for 2 days. Before that I was not really checking the EC, just giving them nutes based on a guide I found. This guide had me way under feeding them at about an EC of 800. With my water being 550 it was not a lot of nutes. In the two days I have been measuring my EC, they are looking beautiful.

As for my water, 550 EC is pretty high. What are my options when it comes to making my water better. I know that I could get an RO, but that costs too much for me at this point. Anyone use a PUR water filter or get water from one of those delivery places? What can I do to get better quality water on the cheap?

Anyone have any recommendations, tips, tricks, advice? Anyone here using MC in coco that can tell me about their grows?

Lastly, I just upgraded to a larger tent. I am going to be adding a new light. I could add another 240 qb to go with what I have or replace the set up completely and put a big light in the 4x4. I was honestly thinking about ordering 1 or 2 320w qb's from china. I know that people have done this, but I do not see a lot of reviews on them. Anyone here own a Chinese light and what is your experience with it?

Thanks for reading! Hope you all are having a great Monday!

TCZ

 

[Terpz719]

First off, welcome to the Farm! In terms of QB and Chinese lights search the forums. There must be about a million pages here on that. The amount of discussion and debate on that is unreal. I'm sure you can find out what you need.

I ran MC a run back, and it did pretty good. I don't care for the NPK ratios, and found their levels of Mg & Ca insufficient running coco & RO. Your water is definitely a problem. Mine is unsuitable as well. I don't think a Pur filter will help you. I bought distilled water my first run, and even with just two plants it got expensive quickly. My experience is you're going to pay one way or the other, so get yourself an RO setup when you can. I think I paid about $100 for mine, and I think I've seen discussion here for one on Amazon for less than that.

I think your EC levels are going to cause you all sorts of problems. It might take a little while for them to manifest, but they will. Especially fertigating coco the EC level doesn't need to be as high as feeding once a day. EC levels are dependent on a number of factors, with the strain being only one. Typically you're not going to have to feed anywhere near as heavy as you see on feed charts unless you have large healthy plants, with tons of light, and are running CO2. I haven't had to feed more than 0.8 EC in 3 gallons of coco feeding 2-3X per day. In some cases that was too much causing damage to the plants. I'm not running CO2 and am running around 60 real watts of light per square foot.

I'm sure you'll get a lot more info for others. Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[savagenovelties]

Nothing at all wrong with your water. That’s the extra calcium and magnesium that people pay for. I also think your feeding is alittle high for veg. And lastly I’d recommend Canna they specialize in coco. It’s not the cheapest but you get what you pay for. Also ph is very important. And feed a plant on how light your pot is not keeping it heavy all the time.

 

[Aqua Man]

550ppm source water IS a problem there is no doubt about it. Can you get away with using it? Maybe but I foresee issues related to it.

Some questions I have.

What version of mega crop are you running? I have experience with veraion1 and a tiny bit with the new 2 part.

Where does the source water come from?

Does it run through a water softener?

How are you mixing the nutrients?

Some thoughts. Salinity at that high of ppm can affect warer uptake and in turn nutrient uptake.

600-800ppm should be about the most you need using those. Maybe 900 tops but read the plants.

RO units are much cheaper in the long run rather than purchasing bottled.

50 GPD 3-Stage RO Buddie Reverse Osmosis System

Description The AQUATICLIFE RO Buddie is a three-stage RO/DI unit designed for residential use to reduce the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in tap water. Each RO Buddie includes a Sediment, Carbon and cartridge. Useful applications include smaller aquariums, fountains, humidifiers and more. With...

aquaticlife.com

 

[Aqua Man]

In terms of watering frequency for 3 gal pots you should be feeding about 500-600ml and getting 50 to 100ml of runoff. If you are getting less runoff than that then you need to feed more often. If getting more than you can slow down a bit. Fertigations should happen during lights on period. If twice a day I would say early in the light cycle and midway. This is because while plants respite at night the dont really transpire much.

Coco is not soil... remember that. Absolutely positively remember that. You do NOT let it dry out. NOT even the top

 

[Vaqueros Verde]

I use Canna products start to finish. I rarely go over 1000ppm and that's in flowering. I never have any problems, no yellowing no burnt leafs nuttn but healthy plants that reward me with the best my girls have to offer.
I am very anal about ph.

 

[thecannazombie]

550ppm source water IS a problem there is no doubt about it. Can you get away with using it? Maybe but I foresee issues related to it.

Some questions I have.

What version of mega crop are you running? I have experience with veraion1 and a tiny bit with the new 2 part.

Where does the source water come from?

Does it run through a water softener?

How are you mixing the nutrients?

Some thoughts. Salinity at that high of ppm can affect warer uptake and in turn nutrient uptake.

600-800ppm should be about the most you need using those. Maybe 900 tops but read the plants.

RO units are much cheaper in the long run rather than purchasing bottled.

50 GPD 3-Stage RO Buddie Reverse Osmosis System

Description The AQUATICLIFE RO Buddie is a three-stage RO/DI unit designed for residential use to reduce the Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) in tap water. Each RO Buddie includes a Sediment, Carbon and cartridge. Useful applications include smaller aquariums, fountains, humidifiers and more. With...

aquaticlife.com

I am using the upgraded one part. The water is coming straight from my tap water. I just moved from having nice well water to this. I do not honestly know if it is going through a softener or not. I do not think so. I test the EC, mix in MC until at the right EC lvl then I add the SC. So 550+900MC+150SC=1600EC. I have been giving them quite a bit at 1600EC and I would push them more if I had a lower EC in my water. They seem to be doing great. They look wonderful so far. I really want to learn more and push these plants as hard as I can. Even harvesting a plant a month my wife and I are going through it all. If I could get these to push out 6oz instead of 3.5 Id be doing great. Now that I upgraded to a 4x4, once I add another light, I shouldnt really have to worry about that, but I would still like to make the most of the girls.

 

[Aqua Man]

I am using the upgraded one part. The water is coming straight from my tap water. I just moved from having nice well water to this. I do not honestly know if it is going through a softener or not. I do not think so. I test the EC, mix in MC until at the right EC lvl then I add the SC. So 550+900MC+150SC=1600EC. I have been giving them quite a bit at 1600EC and I would push them more if I had a lower EC in my water. They seem to be doing great. They look wonderful so far. I really want to learn more and push these plants as hard as I can. Even harvesting a plant a month my wife and I are going through it all. If I could get these to push out 6oz instead of 3.5 Id be doing great. Now that I upgraded to a 4x4, once I add another light, I shouldnt really have to worry about that, but I would still like to make the most of the girls.

I would look to make sure no softener is being used.... can't stress that enough. Thats very high ppm out of a tap.

And would highly consider the RO unit.

If thats version 3 of mega crop then the calcium and magnesium should be ok

 

[Dirtbag]

Starting water is too high, and I'd cut the ppm of feed back too. I top out at 800ppm including 150ppm starting water, and making up the rest with base nutes.
How much light are they under?

 

[thecannazombie]

I would look to make sure no softener is being used.... can't stress that enough. Thats very high ppm out of a tap.

Is there any easy way to check for this? As far as I know there is not a home softener anywhere. No setup that would indicate water softener. Just tap water from the city.

How much light are they under?

cheap 240w qb. Not enough.

 

[Aqua Man]

Is there any easy way to check for this? As far as I know there is not a home softener anywhere. No setup that would indicate water softener. Just tap water from the city.

cheap 240w qb. Not enough.

After the main and before the hot water tank is common placement

 

[Dirtbag]

cheap 240w qb. Not enough.

Not enough for the ppm you're feeding for sure. PPM that high is ok under full sun or maybe intense indoor light. Under 240w I'd be staying around 1ec/500ppm.