phxazcraig
- 542
- 93
I'm a first-time Coco Coir grower, using a 4x4 tent with a 600w HLG light and a DIY fertigation system as shown in cocoforcannabis.com. I grew two crops last year, the first being some autoflowers and the second 5 fabric pots of Ghost OG. Both these crops were in a soil mix I made. I did pretty much everything wrong with the autos and got 4 stunted plants off them for a total of 3 oz's. Basically I found the upper limits of too much light, too much water, too much nutes, etc. I did much better with photos, although I let them grow an extra month in the beginning as I underdid everything to avoid the mistakes of the first grow. The second crop started May 1st and was harvested Oct 10 with a dried yield of 18 ounces.
Now I'm trying fertigation and hydro for the first time, and figuring out what should be (and not be) in the water has me confused. So some specific questions:
1. What can/must I do with cal/mag? I cannot use my tap water as it comes out of the tap with a PPM of 400, which I'm led to believe is too high for young plants. (2 weeks at this time, started in Jiffy pots in red solo cups, and transplanted into Air Pots after a week.) I'm using RO or distilled water (I have both) which start out at about 20ppm.
When I mix in anywhere near the recommended amount of cal/mag, 2.5ml/gal, my PPM skyrockets out of range. This is basically my dilemma. I don't see how I can achieve a PPM goal by adding the 'right' amount of cal/mag. The first batch of water I put through the system was diluted about 5 to 1 after I mixed everything up. I figured better safe than sorry.
The second week of water I just went ahead and mixed things at the recommended dilution and left it at 500ppm or so - higher than desired. My question here is what sort of approach to take? Use cal/mag and let the PPM go where it goes (too high)? Mix all at the recommended ratios, then dilute with distilled water to hit a PPM goal? Or add cal/mag only up to desired PPM and stop, then mix nutes as directed?
2. I'm nearing the end of week three with the system, and I'm going to need to clean out the reservoir this weekend. I have concentrated peroxide, but no good instructions as to what to do here, Do I fill the reservoir, add some h2o2 and let it soak? Or just mix up a gallon and hit it with a scrub brush?
3. I have leftover Fox Farms nutes from the soil grow, though I did replace the Grow Big bottle with a hydroponics version of it. Do I use the other nutes (Big Bloom, later Tiger Bloom) or should I be looking for hydro versions of all three nutes?
4. Runoff - I'm unable to tell if I'm getting 10-20% runoff, because I haven't measured what's actually going into each pot through the halos. But I'm certainly able to check the PPM/EC and pH of the input and output water. I'm getting PPM rises of 50-200 points, depending on how much water I put through. I'd rather actually test the runoff to achieve some target than guess it's ok based on input/output volumes. Currently my halos drip water twice a day for 30 seconds each time, and I get about a gallon of runoff from all four plants. The DIY irrigation works very well, though you can't easily move things around once set up.
My four plants are looking very healthy at the moment. I just topped the most mature of the four plants at the 5th node. The other three should get to that point tomorrow. These plants looked bad in the solo cups, probably from overwatering. They were sickly and yellow, but since I've put them in the air pots and given a week of fertigation, they have greened up nicely and are growing well.
I don't think I've ever had healthier looking plants in terms of the leaf tips - no burnt tips (yet) or other discolorations. I feel like I must at least have things in the right ballpark for now. I'm using a Bluelabs pH controller set to 6.0 and adding ph Down in 1 second amounts every 10 minutes as needed. Air pump running full time. Basically the exact system described in the DIY instructions in the cocoforcannabis site. But all the stuff I have to mix? And the order I have to mix in? It's very complicated compared to my soil grows. I'm putting in Silicone (then 1 hour delay), cal/mag, fox farm nutes (just Grow Big and Big Bloom for now), then some humic acid and yucca wetting agent. I mix up 8-10 gallons and pour it into the (empty) reservoir 10 hours before next feeding and let the Bluelabs controller manage the pH.
Now I'm trying fertigation and hydro for the first time, and figuring out what should be (and not be) in the water has me confused. So some specific questions:
1. What can/must I do with cal/mag? I cannot use my tap water as it comes out of the tap with a PPM of 400, which I'm led to believe is too high for young plants. (2 weeks at this time, started in Jiffy pots in red solo cups, and transplanted into Air Pots after a week.) I'm using RO or distilled water (I have both) which start out at about 20ppm.
When I mix in anywhere near the recommended amount of cal/mag, 2.5ml/gal, my PPM skyrockets out of range. This is basically my dilemma. I don't see how I can achieve a PPM goal by adding the 'right' amount of cal/mag. The first batch of water I put through the system was diluted about 5 to 1 after I mixed everything up. I figured better safe than sorry.
The second week of water I just went ahead and mixed things at the recommended dilution and left it at 500ppm or so - higher than desired. My question here is what sort of approach to take? Use cal/mag and let the PPM go where it goes (too high)? Mix all at the recommended ratios, then dilute with distilled water to hit a PPM goal? Or add cal/mag only up to desired PPM and stop, then mix nutes as directed?
2. I'm nearing the end of week three with the system, and I'm going to need to clean out the reservoir this weekend. I have concentrated peroxide, but no good instructions as to what to do here, Do I fill the reservoir, add some h2o2 and let it soak? Or just mix up a gallon and hit it with a scrub brush?
3. I have leftover Fox Farms nutes from the soil grow, though I did replace the Grow Big bottle with a hydroponics version of it. Do I use the other nutes (Big Bloom, later Tiger Bloom) or should I be looking for hydro versions of all three nutes?
4. Runoff - I'm unable to tell if I'm getting 10-20% runoff, because I haven't measured what's actually going into each pot through the halos. But I'm certainly able to check the PPM/EC and pH of the input and output water. I'm getting PPM rises of 50-200 points, depending on how much water I put through. I'd rather actually test the runoff to achieve some target than guess it's ok based on input/output volumes. Currently my halos drip water twice a day for 30 seconds each time, and I get about a gallon of runoff from all four plants. The DIY irrigation works very well, though you can't easily move things around once set up.
My four plants are looking very healthy at the moment. I just topped the most mature of the four plants at the 5th node. The other three should get to that point tomorrow. These plants looked bad in the solo cups, probably from overwatering. They were sickly and yellow, but since I've put them in the air pots and given a week of fertigation, they have greened up nicely and are growing well.
I don't think I've ever had healthier looking plants in terms of the leaf tips - no burnt tips (yet) or other discolorations. I feel like I must at least have things in the right ballpark for now. I'm using a Bluelabs pH controller set to 6.0 and adding ph Down in 1 second amounts every 10 minutes as needed. Air pump running full time. Basically the exact system described in the DIY instructions in the cocoforcannabis site. But all the stuff I have to mix? And the order I have to mix in? It's very complicated compared to my soil grows. I'm putting in Silicone (then 1 hour delay), cal/mag, fox farm nutes (just Grow Big and Big Bloom for now), then some humic acid and yucca wetting agent. I mix up 8-10 gallons and pour it into the (empty) reservoir 10 hours before next feeding and let the Bluelabs controller manage the pH.