What better way to celebrate one year at GC than with a new journal?! In the past year I've tried a variety of methods for growing with coco - nutes, no nutes, organics, indoors, outdoors - you get the idea, and usually for months at a time. In the Coco Guide I laid out a basic starting point to build on, and like most growers I've developed my own routine and style and I'd love to share it with you. I enjoy watching how others use coco because no two grows are the same, and I hope to provide enough folly to keep others as entertained as they have me ================================================= GROW INDEX *Note: All updates have pics 10/5/10 - Cut from original seed plant and placed in aerocloner for 2 weeks 10/21/10 - Planted to 5 gal bucket 10/31/10 - [Day 10] Update - On our way... ================================================= GROW DETAILS Lights: T5 (24" 110w) @ 18/6 for veg .:. HPS 600w or 1000w 12/12 for flower Medium: Coco (fiber coir) & some ammendments Nutes: Fox Farms Marine Cuisine, FF Grow Big, FF Tiger Bloom, Maxicrop Water: Tap (7.2ph, 225ppm) STOCK Strain: Sharksbreath Breeder: DNA Genetics Type: Indica / Sativa Genetics: GWS x Jamaican Lambsbread Sex: F Flower Time (breeder): 9 weeks Height: Short THC: Medium Characteristics: Outstanding buzz Breeder Notes: DNA Genetics Sharksbreath feminizedoffers an incredible flavour, distinctive aroma and an outstanding buzz. The guys at DNA Genetics have done a fantastic job in creating this very special plant. The Sharksbreath is a conneseurs delight with the highly potent crop that it yields. Short stout plants pack on frosty and very dense colas. This strain has been referred to as the “cash crop” plant yielding well above average but it is a heavy feeder and to avoid bud rot setting in, a consistent air flow needs to be maintained. Indoor Flowering time for these Cannabis Seeds is 9 weeks. Grower Notes (that's me!): This is a clone that should rock & roll. Her name is Casey Parker, like the surfing hottie that puts on a show for us all --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's Get Started! Well Casey hit the coco about 2 days ago. She had a rough time cloning and doesn't look so hot, but once she gets going I think she'll look purty and these punk leaves can go She has lots of room for now, but she'll have a cellie before too long. I don't expect to veg her for more than 2 or 3 weeks.
COCO MIX I like to amend my coco just a tad. It really likes to have an active nutrient buffer 24/7, when the plant is hungry there should be food there in the coco for it to draw from. It is our job to make it happen, and since coco has a high CEC ratio it releases the nutrients really fast if needed which results in faster growth and a healthier plant. The downside is that coco doesn't really hold that much and can be depleted quickly. This can cause a grower to panic slightly and really up the dosage to burn-easy levels. Problems can result from this, take my word on it My mix is kinda geared towards rapid growth, I like to push my girls The idea is a steady stream of nutrients from both fertilizer mixed in the coco and nutes delivered by hand. Here's the recipe: 4 gal - coco 1 qt - perlite 4 oz - Marine Cuisine 2 oz - gypsum 2 oz - sul po mag 2 oz - azomite First off, here's are the products I'm using for this grow: Botanicare Cocogro - I like this coco, it has worked great for me and is fairly priced IMO I pay $17USD for the 2.5 cu ft bricks that expand into 16 gallons, enough for 4 5-gallon pots. Perlite (not pictured) - I'm currently using some cheap dusty crap I bought pretty cheap. It works great and is kinda small to medium, not coarse at all. I prefer coarse but it all works fine. Fox Farms Marine Cuisine (2 tbsp/gal coco) - This is a great fertilizer, with lots of organic goodies such as bat guano, seabird guano, earthworm castings, kelp meal, crab meal, alfalfa meal, rock phosphate, humate, man the list is long and just like my own mix I spent so much time and money formulating. This will help keep the plant happy, but needs a few days or weeks to start feeding since the organic material needs a little time and moisture to start breaking down and becoming available to the plant. Gypsum (1 tbsp/gal coco) - Source of calcium to battle that never ending war... Sul Po Mag (1 tbsp/gal coco) - Also known as K-Mag Natural. This is my magnesium supplement to go along with the calcium. In addition, this supplies a huge amount of potassium and sulfur. Spliting the cal-mag supplements let's me tailor the two how I see fit. More reading on sul po mag here. Azomite (1 tbsp/gal coco) - This stuff rocks! It's packed full of micro nutrients and really gets youngsters off to a good start. I buy this stuff online, usually about $5 for a 2 lb bag. We start with straight coco, 4 gallons Here are the amendments, the little 2 oz jello shot cups work awesome for measuring. I try to spread them out evenly over the top. Then add 1 quart of perlite even on top of all the amendments. About 2 minutes of mixing gets everything spread out nicely, the perlite helps you see the progress. And we are done! It's ready to use or can be stored for a bit. This fills up a 4 gal bucket perfectly.
WATER AND NUTES I've always said you can make your coco grow as simple or as complicated as you like. By introducing organics into this system I'm added a few complications. In order to take advantage of the organic materials breaking down into raw food, I need to provide a friendly environment for the microbes to do their thing. This mix is geared to help make that happen. After seeing MrsEd use this with her Jenna Boo grow, I was blown away at how healthy her plant was and she was using this every time she watered. So now that's what I do Base Water Recipe 3 gal - tap water 3 oz - Maxicrop 3 tsp - Pro-Tekt Silicon 3 tsp - H2 (humic acid) 9 tsp - Earth Juice Catalyst 3 tbsp - Molasses * 3-6 tsp Grow Big/Tiger Bloom optionally * 3-6 drops superthrive optionally Normally I make 3 gallons at a time, and start by aerating some tap water for at least an hour. This is the line up of everything I'll be using. Maxicrop - I don't know where to even begin on the benefits of using this stuff. This is not food, it's a food delivery aid, and it works wonderfully in coco. It helps with root growth, vigor, resistance to heat-disease-pests, nutrient uptake, etc. This stuff worked wonders with my vegetable garden in coco and I use this as a replacement for FF Big Bloom. Humic Acid - This is another nutrient uptake aid, and the plants really seem to come alive when I use this. Pro-Tekt Silicon - This does a number of things, it helps strengthen cell walls which results in thicker stalks/stems, makes the plant more resistant, and makes the plant unpalatable to pests that like to eat the plant (mites for example). Catalyst - Another nutrient uptake aid (see a pattern here? ). The main thing I use this for is ph down. About 3 tsp per gallon brings it down just right, and recommended dosage is 1-5 tsp per gallon. Molasses - Such a great additive, provides potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, and more importantly serves as food for beneficial bacteria. Superthrive - I mostly use this during early plant stages or when expanding coco. The catalyst does pretty much the same thing. Old root beer bottles make life a lot easier in using this messy organic stuff. Keeping light away from the contents is important. I have a set order that I use to add everything, Maxicrop goes first. It's some nasty looking stuff but there's no smell really. It makes the water look like oil or grape coolaid and normally stains the roots a little bit, but they love it! After the silicon, H-2, & catalyst, I pour in some molasses. I never measure it exactly, just eyeball what looks like 1 tbsp per gallon. After it's all mixed and stirred well, I check the ph. This is just about perfect, I normally hit 5.80 on the money but coco is very forgiving with ph, I can go as high as 6.5 before I see any problems. The ppm's come in around 500-600ppm. I usually bottle up whatever I don't use or if I need some nutes I'll add in 1-2 tsp which drops the ph to 5.6 normally. This is perfectly fine to use, in fact the plants seem to prefer this lower range. And that's it! The plants get this every time, with or without nutes.
Hey Ed, I am very interested to see how your sharksbreath turns out because I have been growing Bob Marley Lambsbread for the past year and your post says that sharksbreath is crossed with Lambsbread. Heres the story: I found the seed in a sack from the dispensary just about a year ago and mothered her. There have been multiple lambsbread harvests, I simply love the strain. I really don't believe that I have the original lamsbread strain from Jamaica, but it smells like trainwreck crossed with a haze or something. And the aroma of the burned buds smells almost like incense from morocco or something haha. Idk thats just what I think of when I smell it. Do you know anything about the origins of Lambsbread? Heres a pic of the first harvest.
thanks for all the detail. ill be following. where'd you find the measuring cup that hangs on the side of your bucket?
Hello MrEd. I just have a few clarifying questions. Are you pHing your water? I'm a little confused by what you sad about catalyst and stuff. And does the Humic Acid lower the pH a lot? What do you use for pH up and pH down? pH up and pH down? And are those things unhealthy for organics? Like I accidentally put too much pH down in my water. So I added pH up to compensate. Should I just throw that water out because I'll hurt my plant more than help? I'd watch your runoff pH since you took the lime out. Organic grows have a tendency to go acidic and lime makes it more basic. Is the gypsum working out for you? I had troubles finding high praise about it.
Funny how plants like that stuff. The molasses makes it smell really nice though LOL Hey there boss, man what a beautiful bud I don't know anything about the lambsbread but I've seen many praise it and it's been on my list, I hope to get some buddage like yourself If it's good enough for Bob, it's good enough for me LOL Hey Naughty! Good to see you here man, kinda slow to start but she'll be groovin in no time. Hi heavy! I found those measuring cups near the register at my grow shop - I'm a sucker for impulse items (lighters especially) LOL These have turned into very handy cups indeed, I have a bigger size that's handy for watering. With this purple mix I hate to set a wet cup anywhere so the hangers are perfect. Hey there nerli, yeah I'm ph'ing everything to 5.8 (or close to it LOL) going in, always. Instead of ph down I use the catalyst. It's a dual purpose thing, I can add a little or a lot, and it lowers the ph so I add enough to get the ph where I want it, and as a benefit I'm giving the plants good stuff. The humic acid (H-2) actually raises the ph, so it can double as a ph up (I never need it) since it too can use a little or a lot. Whenever I would screw up my nutes by adding too much ph down, I would toss it out before adding ph up in the same mix. I don't really know if it's OK or not, I had read somewhere it's a no-no but I don't know why. As far as I know it's fine for organics, but true organic people rarely ph their water it seems. This was a problem for me in coco, but soil I never ph shit when using organics. Thanks for the tip on the lime, the gypsum seems to be working fine, I haven't seen a calcium issue yet but my initial plants are only 3 weeks into flowering. Since this is a soiless mix, run off ph reading can really steer a grower wrong With coco there are very few ph problems, I've only had trouble when using water over 6.5, growth crawls to a halt basically. Most organic people I've talked to here trash lime all day and recommend gypsum, I've been a defender of dolomitic limestone for some time because it works so well. I like gypsum because I can split up the calcium and magnesium levels I'm supplementing, and it won't play around with my ph too much (not that it really matter here, but still...). I'm still kinda testing it out but all seems to be going smoothly there. Honestly the best thing I've done to address the calcium and magnesium issues in coco is to switch to tap! It makes any other supplements a lot more effective.
Oh wow dude. Thanks for the great answers. Yeah, the one person I saw who had more problems with lime was because he didn't use pellets. He used the powder. I def. went with it though because I'm more confident after seeing you using it in coco. It seems to have no negative effects in coco. I want to use tap water but the town water here is real nasty. The town is run by exploitative industries such as coal and oil here in SW Pennsylvania. Kinda crazy. haha. But the water here is notoriously bad and its chlorinated real hard. I don't trust the river water here and I don't trust the tap water to my plants. haha. I'll probably throw that water out. Thanks for the heads up. I'm popping some seeds now so I hope to get a journal going here real soon. Freebie CaliHash!
Just heard it through the grapevine (Mrs.Ed) that you had a birth yesterday, as did I. Seems our SourCream ladies are born on the same day Id like to be the first to congratulate you. I'll have to pay close attention to your methods, simply because they produce such good results. Hope ours ends up as good as Russys SC that was just harvested, check it out sometime, it looks delicious. Real stinky one too
Well Ed, I could hardly wait to start a grow in coco, but I finally got it set up. The mix is something I swiped from your original Marine Cuisine Coco Experiment, except I used 2 tbs of MC/gal instead of 3. Right now I have 2 Violator Kush, 1 Sour Diesel, and 1 Blueberry clones, along with 2 White Widow seedlings under a 400w MH. Of course the seedlings are way out of direct light, and it's not too close for the clones. I'm still trying to decide what all to use for flowering, I want to do everything to ensure this grow is better than the last, which wasn't bad for a first. Being brand new to the scene I've never heard of some of the stuff you come up with, but I'm really interested in the organic thing now after my first harvest (that was a lot of work!), so I'll be doing what I do best. Lurking around, reading, learning, and asking simple questions people don't understand because I ramble on about irrelevant details instead of getting to the point. You are one of several here at GC that has inspired me to
Yeah there is some tap water that should not be used. I feel pretty lucky to have decent tap here so I'm taking advantage. Good luck wit hthe germing, let me know how it goes! Hey Dusty! Yeah I have a Sour Cream above ground, I'm afraid it's another Ed Experiment LOL I'm trying to grow it in pure coco, no amendments at all - not even perlite. Congrats on yours too! We can let them play together at BBQ's and so forth, good times Hey Fuwii! Hey I'm glad to see ya giving coco a try man, means a lot to an evangelist. Sounds like a great lineup, especially the sour diesel - that's one of my favs and I've had a hard time getting my hands on some. I have a few diesels in there though LOL Hey hopefully it's just a typo, but did you use 2 tsp instead of 2 tbsp? Tablespoons are what you want, but being on the short side won't hurt anything. With the MH you should be rocking it, best of luck!
DAY 10 - On our way Lights {18/6}: 110w T5 ~~ Temps: 74-85 ~~ rh: 34% Status: Veg Week 1 ------------------------------------------------------------- Well not a whole lot going on, she's off to a slow start by coconut grove standards, and I believe I know why. I normally use mycorrhizal fungi when transplanting, but I ran out just prior to this grow. I now realize what a difference it makes! It's not needed, but sure help gets the party started strong. As expected her first set of leaves or two are a bit fugly, this is common for clones getting off to a less than perfect start. I left this one in the cloner a little too long I'm afraid, but no worries - I was going to cut those leaves anyway LOL New growth is what we want to be good and it is, we are off and running! I been giving her more water than she needs in order to keep the top layer pretty moist, a quart every few days does the trick. She started looking a little pale this weekend so I gave her a little taste of nutes. The Marine Cuisine may not have broken down enough to feed enough so we are going to supplement for now and see how she looks next water cycle. WEEK ONE Mon - 1 qt Base water Thur - 1 qt Base water Sun - 1 qt Base water + Grow Big (1 tsp/gal) ph=5.5 Day 7 - Still looking rough and just barely starting to feed Day 10 - The large round spots on the yellow leaf are stains from the base water
Got a ? for you Ed. I germinated my RockLock and SourCream on Oct. 16th, I also germinated the OG KandyKush Oct. 27th. The SourCream popped on Oct 28th. I took the RL and SC out of papertowel after 5 days and stuck them into FFOF. Same amount of days in papertowel for the OGKK prior to FFOF. What are the chances of these (RL,OGKK) popping, Ive kept the soil moist, but not overwatered, last night I placed a plastic baggieover the cups their in hoping the extra humidity will pop them girls. Im bummed, a guy pays top dollar for these femmed beans and then this Any advice. I know the Attitude sys its for souvenir purposes only, due to it being illegal in most countries, does a guy have a recourse or ability to complain to the Attitude about faulty merchandise?
If you phone and then post the beans back, then attitude will replace them. If you phone and don't get help. which would be unusual, then you can go to the breeder direct via there own website, I know sweet seeds and UGORG are happy to help via some forums, dNA also have a direct contact number or email addy. Hope this is of any help
I'll look into that, thanks. I harvest the second batch of Bubbledust tomorrow and just put up some nice shots. Stop by and see all my babies.
Don't mention germination, it puts attitude in a tricky situation. Like the US, the cultivation and germination of cannabis seeds is illegal in the UK. So by acknowledging that you are growing automatically puts them in a legal situation to not assist you, as it is recognizing that their products are for more than souvenirs. SO, one recourse is to say the seeds were damaged in the shipping process, they will offer to resend the seeds. They may ask for you to return the damaged seed(s), get creative Many blades have had success and recommend this course of action. Another suggestion that I saw int he seeds forum, and I would personally would like to try (as I prefer dealing with breeders, they are much more straight forward and concerned of the quality of their products, and perception of quality in our community), Take some of the breeder packaging and send them a letter describing your situation, (picture of packaging & email, etc) and go from there. GL BD And ed, always tuned in to the amazing grow power that is coco.