Should i be nuting what the chart says?

Discussion in 'Coco Coir' started by masterlights, Aug 2, 2011.

  1. Im using coco and was wondering if you guys apply nutes full strenght or whatever their feeding chart says to use or do you do half strength throughout the flower cycle??

    im using the Technaflora lineup and the bloom and boost call for 3 tsp a gal and i just think thats a little much and usually just use 1.5 to 2 tsp of each.but i just wanted to know what you guys do in terms of watering via the feeding chart??

    i also add a tbsp of flowering bat guano for each gal of coco in the 3 gal flower pots so they have some organic nutes to work with and shouldnt really have deficiencies since the guano kinda of releases over time.
     
  2. Start small (1/4 strength) and work your way up is the general rule.

    You can always add more if they don't show any stress, but you can't take it out once it's in there. Some plants like it strong, some are picky.

    Good luck!
     
  3. It just depends on how much you water/feed, and how you do it (reservoir filled once a week, hand water every day, etc). Most feeding charts are not designed for coco specifically. It seems like a lot of them are designed for soil, and also designed to feed about twice a week, in general. So if you feed and water everyday at full strength, that is over 3 times full strength since you are doing it much more than intended.

    I feed/water once a day, hand mixed and hand watered, with a very low ppm/ec to adjust for the once a day feeding. Even half strength is too much imo to use every day. 1/4 strength every day equals out to about the same as full strength twice a week. So when I look at most feeding charts, I just take what they call "full strength" and divide that by 4 to get MY full strength equivalent. I've never read or heard of people doing this, but it seems to make sense to me, and the results are great. You can probably go higher if you have a good amount of run off, but I like to keep run off to a minimum because I'm lazy and don't want to empty my saucers every single time I water.
     
  4. thanks guys.exactly the posts i was looking for.ive been feeding about half strength every day either hand watering or turning on my drip system(sometimes im just too lazy to fill the resivior.i notice that around weekd 3 or 4 my fan leaf tips are getting burnt and by week 4 burning has continiued to a handful of leafes working from the outside of the leaf in.

    so ive been just wondering what other coco guys do and i think the 1/4 every day is a great idea.when i notice burning i like to just do plain water with maybe some cal mag,sugar,and a b1 so they can uptake the extra nutes in the medium.

    i also add some flowering bat guano in the mix before i put my ladies in the 3 gal pots and i think thats def not helping my burning issue.

    anybody else chime in to how they nute?
     
  5. im currently running the H3ad formula in my coco. all i use in veg is 6ml micro/ 9ml bloom and 5ml bio-root. flower i use:

    week 1: 6ml micro/9ml bloom/8ml bud candy/5ml bioroot
    week 2: 6ml micro/9ml bloom/8ml bud candy/8ml big bud/5ml bioroot
    week 3: 6ml micro/9ml bloom/8ml bud candy/8ml big bud/5ml bioroot/8ml nirvana
    week 4: 6ml micro/9ml bloom/8ml bud candy/8ml big bud/5ml bioroot/8ml nirvana
    week 5: 12ml bloom/8ml bud candy/8ml nirvana/8ml hydroplex
    week 6: 12ml bloom/8ml bud candy/8ml nirvana/8ml overdrive
    week 7: 12ml bloom/8ml nirvana/8ml overdrive
    week 8: FLUSH
    week 9: FLUSH

    now that all depends upon plant health of course. like a poster above said, "some feed heavy, some feed light".

    the H3ad formula is a great "starting point" for the basic nutrition of plants. again, like a poster above said "you can always put more in, but its hard to take it out"
     
  6. yea ive been doing coco for a while and i am definitly overfeeding throughout flower.i havent been doing full strength of what the chart says which says 3 tsp of bloom and boost but ive been doing 2 tsp every watering with some plain water and a flush now and then but i think im gona step down to 1 tsp for the firs 4 wks or so.thanks for the input guys.
     
  7. i wouldnt even be flushing until the end. if you get enough run off at each watering you should be good til you flush before harvest. i dont get all scientific about it but they say it messes up the cation exchange capacity of the coco.
     
  8. i dont do a crazy flush like ppl on here talk about(flushing 10 gallons for a 3 gal pot LOL)

    i just do a small flush after veg to flush out veg nutes so their good to go into flower and by flushing i just do a half gal or so per 1 gal pots.then in flower i flush around week 4 just using 1 gallon per 3 gal pots and then a last flush around week 7.

    i never really water until runoff and never have problems besides this overfeeding problem.to each its own i guess.

    when i "flush" btw i still put in majical,sugardaddy,clearex,and sometimes superthrive.they seem to love it
     
  9. isn't that why we flush coco?
     
  10. when i flush i ph and just use a few drops of superthrive... and i have to say, i'm on my 3rd coco grow, and i think the botanicare line worked better, (csn-17 etc.) for me. i'm saying that because i use the foxfarm nutes right now. (as a bonus, the bat gauno is in the liquid for me) i've yet to try technaflora... how is that?
     
  11. Flushing is meant to flush out the salt built up the medium left over by nutrients, or to remove any excess nutrients toward the end flowering. I water with about 20% run-off each time (just a guess) and never really "flush" until the end.

    Master, I agree with your last statement. I don't do a huge flush either and my buds have tasted great. Just a double watering with water and molasses.

    By too many, I meant the nutrients. If you go overboard it can be really bad and you won't know to flush it until they show a negative effect. Plus, that stresses the plant and you'll have to wait for it to recover. By starting with a small dose of nutes, you won't run that risk and you'll see if the plant can take more next time (they usually can, but better safe than dead).

    I've always been told to start at 1/4 of what the chart says and work up depending on the plants reaction. I'd never go full on what the chart says until I try it at lesser strength first.
     
  12. right, i wasn't trying to say anything other than even if it does fuck up it isn't the end of the world. your post just seemed a little foreboding for something that ultimately would cause 1 week of issue (and aren't early grows about learning anyway?) frankly i'd rather know what nute shock looks like than see it and not know what it is
     
  13. True. That's one way of looking at it. After all, if it fucks up you just throw it away and start again. Not the end of the world.

    I've always had a time limit on my grows (due to how hot it gets here) so I have to be safe in order to make every run count. If I fuck it up, I have to buy weed once I can smoke again (only about 2 months a year). Plus, I've always bought seeds and I am cheap as hell, so I don't want to waste them.

    Some lines are more forgiving too. I've used Canna when I did soil grows (pretty expensive) and fox farms with coco so far. Canna seemed more forgiving. What I mean is that you could start higher feedings early and plants took it no problem. I've heard horror stories with people feeding what the fox farms chart says early on. Some plants can take it, some burn and don't ever recover.

    How was the botanicare? Did you just follow the schedule the whole way, or did you modify it? I've heard some good things about it around the city.
     
  14. #14 derilicteman, Aug 4, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 4, 2011
    the hydro line for fox farm is okay in coco, i'm currently using at half strength and i may even add an additional ml or two... im in san francisco, so the weather is always cold air, i can grow all year basically, i'm doing this medical, and i can get clones from clubs and stuff nearby so yea, i guess it's all much more relaxed for me... i almost killed my plants by having my mom water them for a week for me, which she did nicely with the exception of ph'ing any of it.... but they all are coming back nicely and healthy as shit. just stunted growth for like a week and a day (not including the week that she watered lol)

    --the botanicare was really simple, if i recall properly my buddy and i were using it at slightly over a quarter strength and it did the trick. we used some superthrive too, but mostly just csn-17 grow bloom and ripe or whatever and sweet and calmag... i think the csn-17 line has calcium and magnesium a tiny bit in there somewhere, so calmag was just to make sure that everything had enough magnesium
     
  15. That's exactly what I used as well. I don't think I ever got up to full strength (except for the BB, which won't really hurt anything). Their Grow Big is pretty stout stuff and I hardly used much of it in veg. I used Ed's marine cuisine idea to mix in with the coco so that pretty much covered the nutes for veg period

    I wish I lived somewhere that had that sort of freedom to grow. It would make it so much easier to experiment and find which way I like best. My grows are winter/early spring only so I'm really pressed to fit in two complete grows. Today it was 110 here. :) Booooooooo! Summer is out of the question.
     
  16. yea, my buddy swears by marine cuisine...
    when i was in sacramento i got away in summer months such as these by doing my flower at night time while the sun was down for 12/12... do you get cold air when the sun goes down? does it go down for at least 8 hours? lol that's a shame dude... you ever try tp setup a good way of refrigeration?? or even a cheap cfl setup that you could use for at least /something/ during months where you couldn't use an hps... i mean i know it wouldnt be near as potent or effective, but it'd be worth it so you didnt have to pay lol
     
  17. It's always hot here in the summer. At 1 AM last night it was 91 degrees. Yikes. I could set up my cab inside the house, but I have family close by and it is risky. Therefore, my cab is in the hottest possible place in my house. :(

    I grow only so I don't have to buy anything from anyone. I got really tired of the run-around weed game a couple of years ago. I'm getting too old to BS with people over a bag of buds.

    I can only smoke a couple months a year and my wife smokes less than a bowl a day (if that sometimes), so it is easy to grow a few ounces a year satisfy our needs. Plus, since my window is usually short, I want to smoke great stuff. The stuff I've grown so far has been worth it exponentially. Nothing more rewarding for me than sitting back and relaxing with your own home grown. Ahhh. :)
     
  18. nice, i'm glad i have the extra space because i've been working with some people as far as crossing some strains goes... and extra mother space is always nice
     
  19. I use 50/50 coco/perlite for my seedlings/mothers. I use straight tap water until they have about 5 nodes, or the cotyledons are dried up. Then I start using full strength nutrients (Lucas Formula - 1300 PPM FloraNova Bloom) once per week, and filtered/PHd water as needed for the rest of the week. Note that my does of nutes are for high intensity lights. If you're under fluorescent (including CFL) you'll only use about 800-900 PPM. Before taking my word for the fluorescent light formula, you may wish to verify that first.

    Hope that's helpful to you, in some way.

    Cheers,
    Past
     
  20. The technaflora line for me has been great.ive used it for years now with coco and it always turns out great.the only thing like i said before was their chart is a little high strenghth but someone said that if you divide their full strength over the week it should be good.so i gota try that and see how it goes.

    and when you add organics like marine cuisine or guano its gona take a couple runs to dial in how many nutes to use so you dont burn them.its very easy to burn so like said above using 1/4 strength at first is an ideal method.
     

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