The Chow Mix Hempy Experience

[easypleasie]

Hey folks, thought i'd post some pics of my experiment with chow mix (hydroton/coco mix). Gotta thank JK for introducing it to me along with many of his tips. I ran one chow mix girl last run and was blown away with the ease and growth of the plant so I decided to dedicate an entire run to it. A whole lot less stressful than my mpb run! 4k vertical with 6 girls. four 13 Dawgs (3 different phenos), one White Fire, and one Hazy Jones. Tried to stick with plants that are heavy feeders so I can use one nute mix to feed them all.

10 gallon tubs with 1" of nutrient solution at the bottom. 2" of straight hydroton on the bottom to help with drainage and the rest is 50/50 hydroton/coco mix. Top feed, drain to waste 2-3 times a day and flushing once a week. Using the top feed from my mpb setup and draining into 5 gallon buckets. Next time i'm gonna use my lower feed line as a drain line so I don't have to dump the buckets every few days.

Base nutes is AN Sensi A&B along with bud igniter, big bud, overdrive, sensyzyme, calmag, roots excel, liquid karma and the molasses for week 3, 5 and 6. Using up what I have from AN and may try something different for my next run.

1st pic is at day 1 of flower. 2nd pic is day 9 of flower. The rest are day 25 of flower. They have easily filled the room :) It's way crowded so I can't get good shots of individual girls anymore.

 

[Lost]

Yea!! EP great to see you back at it!

I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to run next. I have to move due to health so it will be a month or 2 unfortunately :(

Can'y wait to see how this progresses. I assume everything is automated? Other than the waste buckets?

The 13 dawgs, wow what a smell!

 

[easypleasie]

Hey brutha! Bummer having to move but i'm sure it's all gonna work out for ya, bro. I wanna get some land out in the country to try my hand at outdoor again.

Nothing is automated right now. I manually turn the pump on to water at lights on and lights off. Sometimes if i'm up, i'll water them midway through the day. I'm gonna put the pump on a cycle timer so I'll be able to leave the grow for a few days. I wouldn't dare do that with my mpb grow lol.

You ain't kidding about the 13 dawgs smell. Very potent smell along with potent smoke. I have one pheno that kicks my ass every time I smoke it. Pleasantly surprised :) How far along are your dawgs?

 

[cheech]

what are you're thoughts so far on the pros/cons of running chow mix to hydro?

why were you worried about leaving your mpb for a few days? top offs? ph fluctuations?

 

[antimatter]

Looking good man, I do the same thing turning my pump on manually but im going to add some 2 gph drippers, my timer does 15 min intervals so 1/2 gallon for 15 mins once or twice a day probably will automate things for me.

 

[mrdizzle]

my brother

 

[Lost]

Done and harvested!! Some keeper phenos and some to let die, but mostly some real dank. I harvested 2 weeks early at week 8 so I can't really say my yields were great. I also battled spider mites from the start and with the 110 temps out here the a/c could not keep up.

All of my plants I have now have to go. I dunno if i'll throw them away or what but at least I have the seeds I made to start again when I get up north. The sooner I get up north the sooner I can get stuff going again :)

 

[Lost]

what are you're thoughts so far on the pros/cons of running chow mix to hydro?

why were you worried about leaving your mpb for a few days? top offs? ph fluctuations?

You gotta watch MPB's like a hawk. They go sideways so fast its not even funny. Anything that grows that fast is a PITA to manage..

 

[easypleasie]

Good to see the fellas in the thread!

cheech,

With any new system, experience plays a key role and my lack of it left me a little paranoid. MPBs was my first true hydro run so I really didn't know what to expect. Lots of things could go wrong and my confidence in running new equipment at the time (chillers, air pumps, water pumps, co2, a/c) was low. There's only so much you can go on from what you read. There's a lot of little things that you don't find out about till you've run into some issues. And one problem can easily ruin your entire harvest. Some things can be fixed, some things go bad quick and the chances of a full recovery are slim if you're lacking in experience. I feel more confident that my next attempt at mpbs will be much better, especially as I find the right strains to run with it along with cooler temps in the Winter. It may be a while if the chow mix runs go really well. And the chow mix is technically hydro, right?

As far as the chow mix goes, I like it simply cause i'm more comfortable with coco grows and the chow mix is similar to what I already know. I know I can consistently grow a solid producer with quality bud in coco. The chow mix adds some extra benefits. No more compacted coco and I can water as often as I want. Much better air/water ratio thingy too lol. I do hate having to deal with fungus gnats as they can be a challenge at times. I do miss the explosive growth of my veg setup and the mpbs. Much shorter veg times but more potential troubles.

antimatter, I use a 1200 gph pump on my feed so it's only on less than a minute so I have to use a cycle timer. Good thing is the fast rate of nutes coming out of my drip rings causes the pot to get totally flooded and then run off nice and quick. Nice even soak throughout the tub. My straight coco tubs often got rootbound or compacted and the runoff was really slow. I don't think the flushes in straight coco are as efficient/effective as the flushes in chow mix.

Yo Lost, i'm sure someone could hold your cuts till you get settled in. I'd hate to see you lose any of your moms.

 

[Lost]

Yo Lost, i'm sure someone could hold your cuts till you get settled in. I'd hate to see you lose any of your moms.

I lost my (* bubba cut so I could care less about what I have now honestly. Its not that its not dank, but I have seed backups of all of it, even the 13 dawgs (I actually have about 120 13 dawgs seeds and about 350 Grape Rom X 13 Dawgs, which I think will be even better (Hoping it picks up the Indica bud site formation with the yield and stank of the 13 dawgs).

Long story short, if I can get some 98 bubba some time from cali connection, the rest I can get from my seed bank or other herbsmen up north.

 

[antimatter]

antimatter, I use a 1200 gph pump on my feed so it's only on less than a minute so I have to use a cycle timer. Good thing is the fast rate of nutes coming out of my drip rings causes the pot to get totally flooded and then run off nice and quick. Nice even soak throughout the tub. My straight coco tubs often got rootbound or compacted and the runoff was really slow. I don't think the flushes in coco are as efficient/effective as the flushes in straight coco.

I don't have a cycle timer, I figure using gph drippers will allow me get a dialed in watering schedule knowing exact gph numbers without much runoff/waste, right now my pump requires a cycle timer in order to dial in the watering because obviously 15 min intervals drain my reservoir to quick. Its either cycle timer or gph drippers and im leaning towards gph drippers but cycle timers work to.

 

[easypleasie]

13 dawgs

At least you have some options, bro. I can help ya out if ya need anything I'm running.

Here are some pics of two phenos of 13 dawgs. These are from seed and I took them 9 weeks. Grown in 5 gallon buckets of straight coco with no special attention at all (I was still remorsing from the loss of two mpb girls). My favorite pheno, the thick and chunky girl (first two pics) has a knock out kinda smoke. It's heavy head high with a solid body stone that hits you instantly. Narcotic if you smoke too much. She yielded around 13 ounces. The other pheno had nice large colas but they were leafy and very airy..sativa-like in cola structure. Looks like they could have gone an extra couple weeks. Could be the reason why the smoke wasn't all that. Only yielded about 8 ounces with her. This girl looks to have more potential yield wise if she thickens up. We'll see this run as she's the middle plant surrounded by 4k.

 

[Lost]

I got an LB from my unaffected plants and a little less than a 3/4 for the mite infested, plus I lost and entire plant (big one about a LB) to the mites. I might make bubble hash outta it if you can do that with mite infested buds. Its super dank, just got some webs, lol.. I think 2 lbs for the 13 dawgs ois possible but thats about all I see unless I learn some new tricks. I think outside, it will be a huge yielder...

 

[easypleasie]

I think you're right with the 2 pound cap. I don't see it producing more than that unless you got lucky or grow it out for a couple years to get dialed in. I think my white fire can beat it lol

 

[aleYarok]

DDs can get his bubba katsu 2.75#
dont give up on just 2# for these dawgs!

looking great easy!!! man all these people stopping mpbs are making me a bit nervous for my first.

 

[mrdizzle]

DDs can get his bubba katsu 2.75#
dont give up on just 2# for these dawgs!

looking great easy!!! man all these people stopping mpbs are making me a bit nervous for my first.

could you show that post, I recall him saying 2#

 

[cemchris]

I do hate having to deal with fungus gnats as they can be a challenge at times.

Hey man just wanted to share my experience. Been a coco warrior for a long time. I live in a hot climate and fungus gnats are a big problem. So much so I moved off coco and went back to soil for about a year (which didnt cure my problem). Mosquito Dunks (BTi) will work to an extent. Ground up directly in the coco, soaking in the nutes before watering, or putting directly ontop of the medium. It never killed them totally. Keep coming back and fucking up my moms. I started with azatrol drenching. First 3 weeks once a week and now every other week. I haven't seen one gnat in about a month. It has been the hottest month here in a long while (104+ for weeks). Seem to have finally cured that PITA. Seems to be the only thing that has ever totally worked.

The Hempy's are pretty interesting. I like what you and Dizzle did with your MPB's. My draw back was exactly the maintenance evolved with it along with the amount of nutes I would blow through. Not to mention I have tons of equipment already from the tables and would have to rebuy a whole lot of the same stuff again just bigger. Kudos!

 

[true grit]

Looking very killer bro! Most definitely fillin up the room real quick! I have my vert set-up going again getting ready for a custom UC, but have things in 5g coco smart pots myself...and damn do these girls drink. I need a damn flood table! I shoulda listened to ya and went the coco route long ago...I see huge yields in the future. And im sure you can top 2# with the 13 dawgs! gotta be a beast in there somewhere! Did you go through a whole pack already? Is your white fire a good yielder? Mine didnt yield for shit but was dankest smoke ever. lol. That chunky 13dawgs looks kill fa sho.

Dizzle- yeah DD's got like a lb a plant from the bubba. Said he thought he could get around 2.5 with some work....

 

[Lost]

My biggest way about 1.5 to 1.75. Stlll a great yield tho :)

 

[easypleasie]

Yo gritty! Glad to see ya, buddy. So stoked you're experimenting with coco again. It's so simple once you figure out a few of the quirks. I think we have both come a long way since the earlier days. Still experimenting and seeing what works. Part of the fun! Hopefully this chow mix run works out so I can stick to one method for more than a grow or two lol!

I popped a whole pack of 13 dawgs and got 4 fems. Did you pop any of yours yet? Thanks again for the reminder, bro! I flowered two of the phenos from seed (pics above) while my bro grew the other two phenos. I got one pheno back from him so i'm running 3 this time from cutting. There's gotta be a keeper in there!

My white fire yielded more than I was expecting. I was thinking a pound when I harvested her but she ended up a little over 1.4! Smoke is great but I think it's gonna be better this round since i'm gonna let her go 10+ weeks instead of only 9 last run. How long did you let yours go for?