Coco grown. Hydroponics' poor cousin.

Awseome thread, I love my coco! Been using it for years I started with a 50/50 mix with perlite, but last few grows once I have got my shit sorted I have been able to switch to smaller pots and pure coco. Used quite a few of the different 5kg bricks avail here in Aus, they all do the job well enough., i even use to get the un washed and buffered bricks from bunnings and flush and buffer them, but the amount of time and water I had to put into them it was easier to just buy the brick flushed.

I also use powdered a + b, some cal/mag if needed, ag grade fulvic acid, ag grade silica and some seaweed ECO seaweed powder from bunnings 1 - 2 g per 10L in hydroponics. I previously used a mix of 3 species of trichoderma as a beneficial innoculant, but I have been testing a potential new product that is a mix of bacillus species.

I personally have found trichoderma or any other innoculant + proper watering techniques in coco to lead to 0 gnat infestations. I do hear a lot of people complain about gnats and coco, some people claim it's just a given when growing in coco but thats not true.

Since moving over to pure coco, I make sure my plants get a proper wet/dry cycle after potting up to allow for the roots to spread into the new media, once I get roots out of the bottom I'll generally up the feeds to once per day. In flower I like to keep the media around 90% moisture which i have found allows me to run a higher ec, although I won't really go over 1.8 ec max.

I have to agree there is so much mis imformation about coco but this thread is great.
 
Awseome thread, I love my coco! Been using it for years I started with a 50/50 mix with perlite, but last few grows once I have got my shit sorted I have been able to switch to smaller pots and pure coco. Used quite a few of the different 5kg bricks avail here in Aus, they all do the job well enough., i even use to get the un washed and buffered bricks from bunnings and flush and buffer them, but the amount of time and water I had to put into them it was easier to just buy the brick flushed.

I also use powdered a + b, some cal/mag if needed, ag grade fulvic acid, ag grade silica and some seaweed ECO seaweed powder from bunnings 1 - 2 g per 10L in hydroponics. I previously used a mix of 3 species of trichoderma as a beneficial innoculant, but I have been testing a potential new product that is a mix of bacillus species.

I personally have found trichoderma or any other innoculant + proper watering techniques in coco to lead to 0 gnat infestations. I do hear a lot of people complain about gnats and coco, some people claim it's just a given when growing in coco but thats not true.

Since moving over to pure coco, I make sure my plants get a proper wet/dry cycle after potting up to allow for the roots to spread into the new media, once I get roots out of the bottom I'll generally up the feeds to once per day. In flower I like to keep the media around 90% moisture which i have found allows me to run a higher ec, although I won't really go over 1.8 ec max.

I have to agree there is so much mis imformation about coco but this thread is great.


Thanks for jumping in.
It's cool your coco knows who it works for.
Whats the inoculant you are using now?
 
Great for plants, the bain of mushroom growers everywhere.

Just a note. Just another reason to be diligent with your mushroom techniques.

Looks like a great primer. Keep up the good work.

Yeah, bit concerned about the random spore
I left some coffee grinds in the press a couple of days, and some oat porridge out a bit long and got these beautiful light teal coloured colonies.
images.png
Really quick and vigorous, almost like bokashi culture
Might have to run the shrooms in the shed.

I'm going to start feeding the vat a bit of besan flour, for pre-biotic and saponins, kick the bio-action to the next level.
 
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Bit of an update
The veg was 14 days.
The singie Sally bucket I trimmed to the four lowest laterals and then let them grow up into her cage
Last garden I had to cull her because she outgrew the setup
The AK cut ( Ludmilla ) I grew apical dominant.
I flipped them when they averaged 16".

24 days of stretch later they averaged about 56"
I turned Sally right, and only had to trim one of her 8 tops to keep her under the canopy hieght
Day 36 I noticed Sally was badly infected with PM.
A cyclone came through ( second in a month ) and humidity was up and over 95% for 3 or 4 days.
A lot of my pumpkin vines turned white and I had to pull them.
I had run last garden of Ludmilla above 60% RH almost whole grow, and I had not briought the full fan system on to finish out this garden.
Also, the AK loves strong liquor.
And her feed has a fair but of N. That's why she stretches so well.
Sally had started to bull nose, but as she was only a single bucket, I ran her from Lud's food ( 1900-2200ec depending how hot it was that day )
I think the malnourishment weakened Sally, and she took the PM pretty hard.
Only two buckets of AK got slight PM on tips of the secondary cola crown.
Sally become worms' food, and I pulled out all the fans and brought RH down to 55% for two days ( then back up to 60%.
The PM disappeared within the first 12 hours.
Just shows me how lucky I was to get that AK cut to bootleg with.
Even with Sally covered and a massive vector, the AK was barely effected.
It's 43/63 days in now, and looking a carbon copy of-

I have some petrola headstash X F1 going into bloom now in the sunflower, corn and pumpkin patch.
They just a selection ( stability/terps ) run, so not trying for much.

I added 1:5 or 1/6th total of a red sandy clay flood plain loam to the 60:40 mix.

That's now
1/2 expanded clay
1/3 coco
1/6 loam.

Same mix I used here-

I just take 3 serves of Lud's liquor and add 2 serves of RO water.
I germed the headatash on last year's solstice, when Saturn and Jupiter conjoined. Could see it easily from my house.
The girls I kept are Celeste #1,#2,#3.
A really good male also, cut and the root ball culled..
If he sticks around I'll call him Cosmo.
They don't look much yet, but smell is interesting
The seed was bred around 2007, and refrigerated. 7/7 sprouted was a welcome surprise

images (30).jpeg
 
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It's la Nina this year, so we actually get rain over summer.
But only from the storms.
Other than that it's basically dry from November to March at least
Season breaks here tradionally April, but it's getting later now.
Nights not less than 65° and 4 days out of 5 will stay below 90°.
Constant breeze and about 40-50% RH.
Mediterranean climate gardening is goldilocks for gunja.

I had one that stayed hashplant style, and two that went hazey..
The tallest and the dwarf both have a lime soda ( green solo ) smell.
With a kind of creamy sugeryness that makes it smell like citrus flavour, not citrus fruit.

The plant in between, with probably the best form for yield, is almost twin to the dude
They both have the lime + a deep menthol that goes together really nicely.
The dude actually was strongest smell when they were still in the nursery.
I hacked at least the top half of the two stretchy girls away totally.
I dont have the security to let them rip
Also bent the branch downward, to push the hormone back into the lower bits
Wheh they start to form up I'll take some pics with a better cam.

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Both my kids are back in school this year as adults, so I was looking for some 3:03pm haze style smoke that they can study on. Focus but chilled.
I've been dropping a few cuts of Sally to mates' mum's lately also.
They all seem to want to "grow a plant for their friend who needs a pick me up" haha.
I'll pass these down that line also.
Nice strong but not debilitating or overly narcotic meds hopefully.
Both parent strains are renowned creepers with good flavour profiles.
Going to be easy for occasional smokers to overinduige these, and end up zonked..

signal-2021-03-09-165916.jpg


About 4 days ago
 
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Hey everyone.
Day 62 of my AK garden.
Last time I pulled her in at 63.
This time I'll push it out to 70.

The outdoors test run is doing ok.
They had streched pretty well fully in the nursery.
They had enough hours, but I only ran a single 100w to 1m2 ( 2.1umol/w/s)
They have been outside now for 24 days, and probably about 5 weeks into bloom
I had planned to pot them up, but didn't think it was worth it, so they are still in the 5L smart bags running 2:3 clay coco.
The pawpaw is running the 3/2/1 with soil mix though ( I was a bit zapped when I posted last, so I reported media mix wrong )
Anyway, here they are.
Two leaning sknk/Hz.
One a nice little hashplant

They kind of smell like rotting citrus with lightly used car sump oil.
Not sweet, nor acrid. Definitely sour.
Mid one maybe a bit floral also.
They have a bit to go, so probably the terps will develop more.

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Cheers
Take care
 
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Yeah, I hear you.
Growing outside sometimes isn't viable for the risk/reward if you got an indoor garden

One thing that's an issue here, is the temps drop below dew point almost every night now.
I'll have to bring that dwarf in sooner than I would wish.
Wanted to let her go 50% amber for a nice effect
I don't really grow soporific types, so that one will last me a year, probably.

Funny thing the corn plants keep shedding the little bits, like rice grains that hold the pollen, onto the girls.
I have to go out once a day to remove them, so they don't rot inside the flowers with the dew.
I actually neutered all that block of corn other day, so they will stop doing it.
I can't really bring them back inside, so I'll just suck it and see how long that one lasts.
Other two pretty happy to just run out and pull them when they finish.

Inside I'm running 1300ec, down from 2200 with 8 days to go
I'll drop 100 a day until it gets down to 800ec, and that should finish it.
No irrigation in last 36 hours.
RH is running 50% with a good amount of fans keeping the air moving ( couldn't light a joint in there, without cupping your hands )
Will drop that down to 40% last two days.
 
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Hey everyone.
Day 62 of my AK garden.
Last time I pulled her in at 63.
This time I'll push it out to 70.

The outdoors test run is doing ok.
They had streched pretty well fully in the nursery.
They had enough hours, but I only ran a single 100w to 1m2 ( 2.1umol/w/s)
They have been outside now for 24 days, and probably about 5 weeks into bloom
I had planned to pot them up, but didn't think it was worth it, so they are still in the 5L smart bags running 2:3 clay coco.
The pawpaw is running the 3/2/1 with soil mix though ( I was a bit zapped when I posted last, so I reported media mix wrong )
Anyway, here they are.
Two leaning sknk/Hz.
One a nice little hashplant

They kind of smell like rotting citrus with lightly used car sump oil.
Not sweet, nor acrid. Definitely sour.
Mid one maybe a bit floral also.
They have a bit to go, so probably the terps will develop more.

View attachment 50408

View attachment 50409

View attachment 50410

View attachment 50411

Cheers
Take care
Noice!!!! So amazing, love your thread. Love coco. Wish I could have a outdoor garden.
 
Hope everyone is well.
Coco farming seems to be a bit enigmatic.
It's accepted that canna grown on coco can have good terps and potency, but the media is a bit awkward to use with regular flushing required and minor nutrient imbalance expected.

I'm just about to start another coco garden.
If anyone else is coco growing, has done or is curious, please feel free to jump in.
I'll be following along goodluck
 
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