Hello fellow blades and welcome to babycorn's Coco Grow Show! I will try to update as often as I can but seeing as it has taken me the better part of three weeks to even get this journal started, I make no guarantees as to the regularity of my posts! For my first grow I will be focusing on using autoflowering strains for a quick harvest and to apply what i have read about so far and basically to learn how to achieve quality over quantity. I consider this a medical grow as I have Tourette's (documented at a very early age) and I have yet to find any one medicine that can alleviate tics as well as anxiety (does anxiety cause tics to worsen or do the tics worsen and cause anxiety?) as effectively as cannabis without nasty side effects. I will be adding two more strains in the coming weeks to create a staggered harvest. Now for a little background info. Current Strain: Easy ryder (popped 3-24-2011) Medium: Botanicare75% Coir 25% coco chips Lighting: SunSystem 2 250w HPS/MH (wish i had bought one without an internal ballast due to heat and the fact that i will be switching to a tent in a few days, so a bigger hood would have been nice) Nutes: Botanicare Pro Grow and Pro Bloom, Liquid Karma, Sweet, Cal-Mag+, ZHO (not a nute, i know) Grow space: 2'x2'x5'3" GrowLab60 Everything was looking fine until i flushed with water ph'ed to 5.8 today. My thoughts are that the water got on the leaf and I put it under the light before it dried. Any info on whats going on would be great! I tried using the search but apparently i don't know what to type to find posts with similar issues the last pic shows what I am talking about If there is any information I have left out or you believe may be pertinent to a diagnosis and/or the ongoing care for my plant please let me know
Thanks for the reply toki! hmmm ok i will back off with the water and see if that helps. I was wondering if it could also be due to the temperature problems i have been having. The temps in the box are fluctuating from 75-89 F. The pot takes about 3 days to reach half weight after watering and that's when I water her again. Should I wait longer in between watering? or do you think it could be the heat? or both? Please anyone with experience feel free to chime in!
Hi man, Toki is right,they look over watered.If you let the temp. not go higher they should be OK. Are u using a cool tube? http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/716779-stealth-diesel-ryder-autofem-grow.html http://forum.grasscity.com/outdoor-grow-journals/728732-2010-outside-monster-grow.html
Hi stachi, thanks for confirming what toki had said! I am definitely going to back off on the water but I'm not sure how much. I have been watering when the coco is dry two inches below the top (about every 3 days) and this happens to be when the pot is about half of the normal weight. Should I let it go a day or two longer? Those were the only two indicators I read about on how to tell when to water so I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
I always water when the pot is quite light. May be only 25% of the normal weight. Also I must say ,I never used coco plant mediums before!
Keep up the good work, check my coco grow here http://forum.grasscity.com/indoor-grow-journals/789270-grow-journal-snowryders-afghans.html I made the same mistake and didnt add any perlite, so I added 30% perlite to the coco and and should be ok now..
Thanks Stachi and Matlear! I will definitely be adding perlite to my next pot which should be in a day or two hopefully. It appears as though I should only be watering about once a week then. It's funny because before I started my grow I read a lot and everyone said that one of the biggest mistakes new growers make is overwatering and I was determined not to have that issue. Oh well it's a great learning experience. Also did you suspect that it was overwatering due to the leaves being a bit droopy or because the edges of the leaves are curling up (taco)? I searched for images of overwatering but I saw extreme cases that didn't resemble mine Thanks for the help and keep it coming!
Yo dude seedlins look good...it looks like leaves r deformin a lil bit...maybe lighten up on nutes if your goin full strength. Or skip a feeding. But the leaves look like they may be slightly twisting. Also if it gets to hot the plants will let u know by cupping upward. Ive def experienced this. But it looks like your on your way to some dank buds. Also let those pots dry out. Its better to underwater than overwater. Weed likes it dry. If pot is very light & leaves r drooping then its dry. Go ahead and water & plants will perk back up within an hour or so. Then as you go along youll get the hang of things. Ill be lurkin holla.
Great advice! Now that I think of it, it is easier to add water than to take away once in the pot haha. I can't believe how much common sense I have been throwing out of the window. So basically to simplify the over/underwatering signs Light pot w/ droopy green leaves = underwatering Heavy pot w/ droopy green leaves = overwatering Please correct me if I am wrong. Also I just thought that maybe as I make mistakes and learn from them I will post how the mistake can be remedied or spotted but in a way so that a 5 year old can learn it! I firmly believe that if you teach people as though they are 5 (within reason and not belittling but for the sake of education) then it doesn't matter how old they are, they will learn it. I'll update with some pics hopefully tonight. Should I start my diesel ryder or my auto hindu kush next? I'm leaning toward the kush as indica's help with my tics and insomnia and I believe easy ryder is more sativa so I should have a good mix.
Here are some updated pics including a pic of branching. It appears as though the leaf tips are pointing downward a bit more than usual. Could this be because it has grown and the leaf is heavier and the stem hasn't caught up yet? Or is it something else? The temperature is still fluctuating between 78-89 F and the RH is 20-42% I haven't watered for going on 3 days now and I'm going to let it go a little longer. Today marks day 21 from seed sprouting. I'm currently germinating an Auto Hindu Kush in a covered shotglass on top of my xbox 360 (the back right hand corner gets to just the right temp when left on) I took everyone's advice and added perlite to my coco for the auto hindu kush and I soaked it in 5.8 PH'ed water (I read somewhere it's good to do. if not i wasted 5 drops of PH down lol). I hope I didn't add too much but if I did I will learn from my mistake! And now for the pics! Any info/tips or good vibes sent this way are much appreciated!
Update: Everything seems to be OK now. I waited an extra day to water and started with 1/2 the usual dose of each of the following: botanicare pro bloom, cal-mag+, Liquid Karma, Sweet. She seems to have responded well so far! The upward cupping has shown significant improvement. I forgot to mention I am using a Hortilux enhanced spectrum 250w hps bulb. I am curious to get some input on how others think the branching is progressing. Do you think it has potential to stretch and be a slightly taller bush or will it stay this stout? I've read that plants can grow a substantial amount during flowering and considering it is officially week three, I think I'm there. I thought I saw some pre-flowers but I'm going to give it a day or two so they get bigger for pics! And now for the pics!
that looks like a typical plant that was started in coco. i never had anything but problems w/ starting germd seeds in coco. i use botanicares readygro aeration formula for my seedlings and they love it. nothing but plain ph'd water for the first 2 weeks. check out my coco grows in the coco section. any ?'s just ask. im more than happy to help
AWESOME! I happen to have a bag of that that the guy at my hydro store gave me for free. He said he just got it in and asked if I wanted to give it a try so I said hell yeah. Thank you for the advice I will definitely start my 3rd Autoflower (diesel ryder) in that. It will actually be pretty cool considering I have one all coco, one coco perlite, and then I'll have a readygro one too for a side by side comparison! Here is a picture of the bag he gave me. It says to put the plant into the bag but i don't think I'm going to do that. I'll probably get another 3 gal pot and make the bottom part a coco perlite mix and the top gallon will be readygrow because I want a plant with a larger root system and the bag I have is only a little less than a gallon and I have unused coco and perlite here already. Thanks again for the advice!
yeah dont put the plant in the bag. that awesome you got that for free. youll love starting your seedlings in that stuff. i have some that are about 3 weeks veg and they love it. after they get a good root structure i transplant them into coco/perlite mix in 1gal smartpots, let them veg for however long, then they go to 3gal smart pots depending on how big i want them
Ok cool I definitely won't plant directly into the bag. I checked out your thread on blumats and they seem like something I would be interested in later down the line (I'm currently hand feeding to get a feel for the plants) when I look more into automated systems. I don't know why but as of right now I feel much more comfortable germinating the seeds (shot glass method) and then planting them in their final container immediately as opposed to transplanting from a smaller to larger container. Has anyone ever had a seed force its way out of the medium? I have heard of this happening with rockwool cubes but never with anything else. I only ask because my Auto Hindu Kush managed to push it's way out of my coco/perlite mix. My only thought is that I may have planted it on top of a piece of perlite. I will be updating with pics tomorrow. I just checked and I think I saw some pre-flowering going on and some vertical growth so I will try to get some nice pics up for everyone! As always any replies are much appreciated!
that weird about your seeding coming to the top. never had that or even heard of that happening lol. the botanicare stuff i start seeds in has a TON of perlite, glad that hasnt happened to me. the blumats are about as hands free as i think you could get. no pumps, timers or any of that shit. runs purely off gravity. they feed your plants when your plants want to be fed. if you start your plants in smaller containers, then transplant to bigger ones, your roots w/ love you for it. its just hard for them to get a great structure going on when you plant directly into a large container.
Lol my spidey senses were going berserk so I checked on the plants and I just happened to see the seed on top of the coco completely exposed. I will definitely try starting my seeds in a smaller container and transferring later. How do I tell when it is time to transfer? I just don't want my plants to become root bound because of my lack of experience since I am not using bag seed. Also would you suggest a party cup size or maybe something a little bigger?
check out my thread, heads coco mash up. there are pics of some seedlings that i started 4 weeks ago. they will be transplanted this thursday. ya just have to keep your eyes on the bottom holes of the pots from time to time when they start getting bigger. you will see roots starting to try to come out of those holes. usually when i start seeing quite a few, and the sides of my pot feel kind of "hard" or "tighter" i know theres tons of roots in there. when ya transplant them into a bit bigger container, in my case 1gal smartpots, those roots will EXPLODE. i tried party cups before, didnt really care for them. i use little 2''x2'' pots like in my pics. they work great and their free. ask your home and garden place if they have any their throwing in the garbage. they should have a ton of them and shouldnt have any problem sparing a few small ones
UPDATE: WOW! She is really taking off now! I watered with 1/2 strength nutes again as the pot was a 1/4 of the original weight. I read that people usually use a feed-feed-water schedule. Would this be advisable? Should I water with only ph'd water and ZHO since it will be around week 4? I have managed to get the temps down to 78-82 F and the humidity hovers from 40-50%. It turns out that the fan I had in the tent blowing on the plants was somehow raising the temperature. I forgot to turn the fan on yesterday and when I checked on the plants I realized the temperature was much better than before so I have left it off. Is leaving the fan off a good idea? I wanted to have it oscillating to build up the stem of the auto hindu kush but I am afraid of the temperature rising again. I was also thinking I could use a DIY co2 generator if I ditch the fan. I replanted the Auto Hindu Kush that popped out of the medium and it seems to not have skipped a beat! Check out the 5th pic! If you look closely at the 4th pic you can see the pistils.