DTW Coco- Learning by doing - 600HPS multi strain SCROG

Discussion in 'Coco Coir' started by greenops, Nov 21, 2013.

  1. #1 greenops, Nov 21, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 21, 2013
    After a couple of good soil runs I felt like trying something new. Prolly the fact that my last grow got hit with powder mildew and had me replace most of my equips except the tent made the decision to go with Coco this time easier.
     
    So I'm going with a Drain to Waste system, feeding 6 plants in a 1m x 1m scrog screen under 600w HPS.
    Final pots will be 6.5l but I'll keep em in them 16oz starter pots for the first 2 weeks.
     
    I'm planning to treat em like hydro, meaning watering them up to 2-3 times a day in flowering. I'm going with the Hesi Coco line up.
    Obviously I'm hoping for a better yield, however quality is more important. Even more important than quality is to avoid another PM infestation. I'll be applying various sprays for prevention and just try to keep the place as clean and ventilated as possible.
     
    This is my last grow, PM spots everywhere, I ended up throwing it all away =(
     
    View attachment 1151723
     
     
     
    I hope this grow will make up the loss of my last grow. This time the strains, all feminized, are:
     
    3 x Headband (Reserva Privada)
    2 x Skywalker OG (Reserva Privada)
    1 x OG 18 (Reserva Privada)
    1 x Lost Coast OG (Humboldt Seeds Org)
    1 x Green Crack (Humboldt Seeds Org)
    1 x Fruity Chronic Juice (Delicious Seeds)
     
     
    I'll be selecting only 6 of those come flowering time for the scrog.

     

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  2. #2 greenops, Nov 21, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 21, 2013
    Day 7 18/6
     
    So my first update starts today, which is already the 7th day in 18/6 for the 3 HeBa, 2 SkyWaKu and 1 OG18. The other 3 seedlings are only1 day old. Currently they're all still under the 110w blue floro veg lights, but ill be switching to a 250 HPS in the next couple days.
     
    Temps in the tent is 17.8 C when light is out and peaks at 26.5 C when lights on, but settles at around 22.5C. rH is usually between 35-45%.
     
    I'm still hand watering as for now. Charged the Coco before planting with an EC of 0.6, tap is 0.4, pH at 5.9. I then re-watered about 4 days later. It's my understanding that Coco has to dry a bit more in the beginning to improve root development.
     
    Before lights on I sprayed them down with 1 part milk to 9 parts water for PM prevention. That's why u may notice some white spots on the leaves.
     
    I'm a bit annoyed by the stretched stems but I'll just bury them to the leaves when repotting.
     

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  3. Nice looking seedlings!

    I have no experince with coco, but soon I'll be growing (DWC) all three of the reserva privada strains you have going now, so I'm here to watch.
     
  4. Day 14

    A lil recap from the last update.
    I switched to 400 HPS on the 10th day. The temperatures with lights on are approx 26C, lights off 18C. Also on the 10th day the Trainwreck from Humboldt Seeds sprouted and joined the others in the tent. All plants are doing good so far.

    Lately I've been watering every other day and I'm starting to notice that the bigger pots get light faster.
    pH 5.8, ec 0.8. I'll be setting up the drippers soon and to give em a feed once a day.

    Now here's where i'm having some problems. One day i fed the plants nutes mixed with 5 liters of water then adjusted the
    pH to 5.8. I let the rest sit for the next feed, but out of curiosity I went to check only 4 hours later. In that time the pH already went up to 6.2, then 24 hours later the pH was already at 7 something. Hope someone can help me out here cuz I have no intention of readjusting the pH every couple hours!

    Regarding my battle with PM, I just sprayed them today with some hydrogen peroxide mixed with water. I'm planning to apply some chemical based pesticide when t
    he plants get stronger.

     

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  5. Day 21

    Please note, day 21 only applies to the HB1, SkyWa1 and SkyWa2... others took longer to germinate. The trainwreck, only about 9 days old is the youngest.

    About midway in the past week i started to give em a daily feed and gradually increased strength to about 1.1 EC. Thats not even the full dose thats recommended by Hesi. I used about 80% of that.

    Just two days ago I transplanted the 6 biggest into their final 6.5l pot. The pots were charged with nutes a day before, ec 0.8.

    Yesterday I sprayed em down with a garlic, sesame oil mix fungicide recipe. Man that shit is gonna make your garden smell like a chinese take out. I sure hope that spray won't affect the taste and smell of the buds!

    I'm actually being hesitant now of using the chemical fungicide that i have. I don't want my buds to be contaminated... but when i find out that it won't pose any risks to my health i'll def use it. I just dont trust the effectiveness of the more harmless alternatives like milk, hydrogen peroxide, garlic, neem oil etc...

    Today, I transplanted the younger Green Crack and Fruity Chronic Juice in their final pots as well...
    And also today is the first time the plants are showing signs of over fertilization. Except the Headband1, all of the 6 oldest plants have claw like new leaves.
    So I gave em a minor flush with only tap water, pH 5.8, ec .4.
     
     
    I'm planning to start topping them within the next days....
    until next time... [​IMG]
     
     
     
     

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  6. what it is man? Are your plants still doing good?
     
  7. #7 greenops, Dec 13, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 14, 2013
    Day 29

    So i'm now realizing, that growing in Coco requires more work than i expected. In soil i was able to water every 5-6 days. Now, I have to mix the feeding solution every three days, plus daily maintenance check and all. Not that i regret anything, i like to be around my plants anyway. Hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.

    I topped all of them couple days ago. The bigger plants got 6 nodes, while I left 4 nodes on the smaller plants.

    Change of plan. I'm not going to
    scrog 6 plants anymore. I'm going with 8 or 9 now. I need to finish this grow at a certain time due to a planned vacation in spring. Obviously i have to veg longer with 6 plants, if I go with 8 or 9, i can fill the screen much sooner.

    2 days ago i started feeding them twice during the light cycle. Once when lights go on, and the second one 6 hours before lights go off. This has increased the rH in the tent, to 40% and peaks at 60%.

    I noticed the growth increased significantly the day after. But, the younger plants that didn't claw before, are starting to show some claws now. So I diluted the solution with more water. I really need to tone down the strength of the feed. I never went more than 80% of what they recommend, but i'll go with 65% next time.

    At this stage, the plants are starting to show their character. The big surprise is the Lost Coast OG. Looking very strong and healthy, spotless, but the upper leaves just started to claw a lil bit, after i started with the 2x feed. So is the Trainwreck, but it's the smallest and youngest in this batch. The Headband 2 is growing like crazy as well, it has lots of roots coming out of the bottom of the pot, something i have never seen before. I'll most likely ditch the HeBa1, which popped first but is the smallest and got all kinds of curling, twists, burns and whatnot, plus the Skywalker 1 who also seems a bit bitchy.

    Alright, in the next couple days i'll build the
    scrog frame and the plants will get their PM vaccination in form of a local fungicide spray product.
     
    @[member="sarscarab"]... not that good. There are some tips curling down, yellowing at the tips and edges... not sure what it is, but looks like nute burn.
     

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  8. Day 36 / Day 2 12/12

    A couple new updates from my lil hidden garden:

    They got thoroughly showered with this local PM fungicide spray we got. It's chemical based but is safe for fruits and can be used 3 weeks before harvest. With cannabis, 1 application during veg should be enough to prevent an outbreak... or so they say. I don't like the idea of chemicals in my plants so I dont wanna use it again, however, i want to avoid PM at all costs.. my grow is looking really packed already, so i'm contemplating of using it one last time before buds are produced.

    The healthy plants adapted well to the transplant and double feed, hence they really took off during this week. I fixed the
    scrog net about 5 days ago to keep em in check.
    OG18 is easily the tallest with wide internode spacing.
    Unfortunately, the Headband 1 (first to pop in this batch) and Skywalker 1 just seemed very weak as they fell behind. The younger plants, Green Crack and Fruity Chronic Juice already had much thicker stems than them. Being the youngest of the group, the Trainwreck is still the smallest. It's supposed to be sativa dom, but this here is clearly indica with its short but stocky stature. Luckily i found a report online about the these phenos and i was told they were killer!

    So I decided to get rid of the Heba1 and Skywa1, and kept 8. I positioned them in 3 colums;

    1st column: Skywalker 2, Lost Coast OG, Headband 2
    2nd column: FrutiyChronicJuice and Trainwreck
    3rd column: Headband 3, OG18, Green Crack

    I placed the two smalles in the middle. Those two havent even reached the screen yet, but i can see this grow will get packed. I'm just hoping that this won't cause another PM infestation. I got 1 large fan and 5 clip fans in there to improve air circulation. I'm still open to get rid of more plants though, if that's what should be done, but I just luv for this to work out cuz it will push the yield and give me more variety.

    I'm not sure if my conclusion is right, but i learned that when feeding more than once, the EC should be reduced. I use to feed them once a day with 0.9, when i started to give em two feeds per day, they started to show signs of nute burn. The OG18 is especially sensitive. I took a picture of the leave as u can see below. Now I'm only giving them an ec of 0.5. The GreenCrack, Trainwreck, Fruity Chronic Juice and the Lost Coast OG can clearly take more but they will have to adjust to smaller feeds. Unfortunately the double feed is also causing the rH to rise up to 60% but usually stays at 45%.

    I switched the lights to 600w for the first time and i'll try to maintain the temps, but if it gets to hot ill go back to 400. I never lollipopped or even heavily trimmed my plants, but there are too many large fan leaves in the way so i think i will give it a go in the next couple days to some plants. Any tips for that?

    Another question, In soil i continued with the grow nutes during the first 10 days or after switching 12/12, as they are in need of N for the stretch. Should I do the same in Coco?

    Any more tips on how to use Calmag, especially for these nute sensitive bishes? =)

     

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  9. subbed. looking fantastic. I am on my first coco grow also...25 nl#5 plants under 1000W HPS   and i'm in the process of rigging up my own DTW system tonight and tomorrow... How much nutrient/water solution is each plant getting at a time?  I would like to do multiple small feedings with little to no runoff. Theres really not much info out there on designing these systems....I'm really hoping mine works as good as it looks like yours does.
     
  10.  
    Thanks ninja... I also planned to build my own dtw system but just like u said, there isn't much info on it. So I said F it, and bought this DTW set at the hydro store. But now that I got this system, I'm sure i can build something like it next time. Let me know if u need some tips.
    I just started yesterday with 3 feeds per light cycle, just have to make sure to water enough to get 10% run off. Otherwise there's a risk of salt build up. Each plant gets about 1.2 l on the first feed, then approx 0.8 l on the 2nd and third. Good luck with yours!
     
  11. Looks pretty tight my man... nice grow space as well. Like the hoop around the plants. That gets everything wet evenly, unlike with my drippers. Good luck with everything!
     
  12. Day 45 / Day 11 12/12

    As I mentioned in my last update, I stopped feeding the veg nutes as I emptied the tank, and started to give em a 0.5 ec dose of the Coco Bloom nute to test how they react. No complaints from the nute sensitive Kushes yet, so I'll start increasing ec gradually.

    The screen is pretty much full now. However, Trainwreck, being the stocky indica pheno that she is, just reached the screen.
    Some branches of the larger plants have almost no place to go, so I'm going to supercrop a bit and LST some to the screen. I don't have much vertical space left that's why i gotta keep em low as possible.

    Pistils are starting to be more visible now throughout the
    scrog, but no bushes yet. Perhaps the supposedly high concentration of N in the Hesi Nutes delayed flowering a bit.

    However, there's one thing that extremely bothers me. The packed screen and rising RH increased my paranoia of getting PM again. As I dont want to throw away another crop, i end up using the chemical fungicide mentioned in my previous posts, in hopes of not having to worry about PM anymore.

    Before I applied it I consulted with an old friend, who happens to work at a grow shop. He told me its fine as long as the plants dont have buds. Since it's being used for food crops up to 3 weeks to harvest, and me using it at least 10 weeks before harvest I should be fine he said. After hearing that i immediately sprayed down the plants, hoping not to worry about PM anymore.

    But now after doing some research on the contents of the pesticide i used, i wished i never used it...

    DITHIANON
    http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/si...rm+@DOCNO+7448

    Difenoconazole http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/si...rm+@DOCNO+7448

    I don't have the slightest idea how these studies have been conducted. They could have tested in high dosages and what not. I'm hoping that by the time I harvest, that shit will be out of my plants' system, or at least have such a low dose of that stuff, that it doesn't affect anyone's health.

    What u guys think, did i screw up or
    everything still good?
     

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  13. looks like some nasty stuff in there...I dont know...I mean...who really knows what kinds of chemicals we are exposed to with food and manufacturing? I would probably try it since you used it so long ago...I would finish the grow if i were you...smoke some and see what happens. My guess is you'll get high :smoking: ...but thats probably about it...Thats what i would do anyways
     
  14. Day 56 / Day 22 12/12 / Day 7 Bloom

    Sorry for the delay. In the past week I've been going back and forth, contemplating if I should take this grow down or finish it, as I was worried a.f. about the toxins I sprayed on the plants and the residue that will remain by harvest time. A guy with
    background in chemistry said that although it's far from ideal to spray that shit, it may just be as safe consuming this than any other commercial buds on the streets. Having smoked countless amount from unknown sources I said fuck it, I'll finish this.

    I actually start the count of the flowering phase once I notice a small bush of pistils, not at the first sign of pistils. So this time i felt it took a lil bit longer after the switch til they started to bloom.

    The stretch in the past week was crazy. I see countless bud sites densely populating the screen. Hope they will all pack some weight soon. I have a feeling that overcrowding will produce smaller buds, or is that just my illusion?

    I broke a top branch of the Lost Cost OG while scrogging. However it seems like the branch will survive although it's only attached by a thin piece of plant material. Being cautious not to break any more, I bought some wires and started to LST the tall branches to the screen. I'm doing this because I can't raise the lights any more, while the temps are rather at the higher side of what is considered optimal.

    I'm currently running the drippers 3 times per light cycle. I may increase it to 4 when the buds start to swell. I think this contribues to the high rH as it peaks at around 70%. The EC is currently at 0.9, in other words, half the dose Hesi recommends. I ain't noticing any signs of over
    fertilization so I'll increase a bit in the next couple days.

    As of now I think I'm more or less done training them. I already clipped a fair amount of lower shoots and leaves, but after the stretch it still looks hella packed. I'm not sure if I should clip any more fan leaves, especially the ones on top.

    Any suggestions? I've read pros and contras about pruning and always used to be more conservative about it.
     

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  15. Finish it, lets see what happens.. otherwise you'll keep asking yourself did u do the right thing taking them down. We all do mistakes, put its part of our path. Nice jungle anyways :)
     
  16. Day 66 / Day 32 12/12 / Day 17 Bloom

    So I did use some Ata Clean at a slightly lower dose than recommended and didn't notice any ill effect. From now on I will add it every watering to avoid algae and salt build up in my drippers.

    The Green Crack and Lost Coast OG, both freebies from Humboldt Seeds, are starting to smell pleasantly of sweet berry. Funny how similar they are makes me wonder if they have the same genetics (aka someone messed up with the packaging). The Headbands and OG18, those I was most excited about, still only have a subtle floral odor. Hope it gets stronger as they mature. Trichomes production is just kicking in and they seem to get bushier everyday, but no swelling yet.

    The leaves directly under the hood are starting to get a lighter color, not sure if that's light bleach. I raised the lights a bit and monitoring temperature. When set to 400w HPS, the hottest part is at 71 F, and when switched to 600w the temps are between 73-77F.

    I'm feeding them an ec of 1.1 and pH of 5.8, still run it 3 times per day. Once a week I leach the top with some additional enzymes. I plan on running the drippers 4 times when they bracets start to swell.

    I'm contemplating to replace the HPS with an MH bulb during the last couple weeks of flowering. I noticed some strains I've grown lost their nice smell the mid flowering phase and I've heard that MH grown buds bring out more terpenes. I'm curious if anyone here has had experience with MH in flowering.
     

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  17. looking great! What day of flowering is this?
     
  18. Thanks ninja. That's 32 days after the switch and 17 days in bloom. I count the start of flowering when the plants actually start to bloom, and not when I switch from 18/6 to 12/12.
     

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