Pot sizes

[mikeydoughnut]

I’m definitely giving it a go. I’m going to go with 8 x 5.5L first since it’ll be from seed and want to improve me chances of finding summat nice. (Does this seem a bit fanciful? I’ll be adding 150w MH/HPS possibly) I seem to get fair results from these sized pots too, despite my worst efforts! I’ll be getting some bits once Christmas is done and current lot is all cut down n dry. I’ll be back to ask more super basic questions in the new year no doubt. Cheers @Owderb for chipping in. Everyone’s seen your grows and although there’s many ways to skin a cat I’m more than happy to skin cats using your methods.

[Guest]

@mikeydoughnut you'll love coco mate, it's my personal favourite way to grow.  Only reason I don't do it more is dealing with run off as my cilla's fuct.

Do yourself a massive solid and use growers ark.  I don't pH adjust or use an ec stick (except for checking run off now and then) because the nutes are so good. 

If you can set up a good, easy way to drain your pots and collect run off you will never look back.  Amazing stuff. 

[mikeydoughnut]

Cheers @fatboy77 for the heads up. You’re not the first to vouch for GA. I’ll give them a go since I’m nearly out of soil feed so it wouldn’t be an extravagance. Any kind of coco you recommend? The less user input the better. Not because I’m idle but rather less room for me to drop a bollock like.

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, mikeydoughnut said:

Cheers @fatboy77 . Any kind of coco you recommend? 

Canna Pro, ecothive are both decent, you can add charge to either.  I used to but don't bother now.  Tried some Mills cork mix and thought that was garbage, other than that it all pretty much comes from the same place anyway. 

[Potprincess]

@mikeydoughnut We have two plants in coco, one in soil. The two in coco are a lot healthier than the other one. Also look into hempy bucket style of growing. No need to water everyday when they’re bigger! 

[Dan t]

@mikeydoughnut  I always used canna coco natural. But i used to pre treat it with cal mag.  Same as @fatboy77 the run off thing was an issue. I always thought about building a raised tilted floor. Chuck one of those big massive trays in with a tap put in the low corner. All set just above bucket height.  

Thought was as far as it got

Getting rid of all the coco was a problem too. You can reuse it but its a bit of extra work.   It is good stuff though. Loved it. Used it for years with good results.  

12 litre pots were the smallest i used. Iirc feeding once or twice a day most the time, some times 3. Pretty hard to over water once well rooted in. Problems would pretty much only start if the coco  dried out.  

 

 

 

[mikeydoughnut]

Ey up @Dan t I’m hoping that using smaller pots and watering once a day the run off won’t be too substantial. When I use bigger pots I can’t really move I just tilt a garland tray and use a combo of a monster syringe and car sponge. In soil its usually around 1/4 pot volume when I find it’s fully saturated. Wi coco what would I be looking to put through a 5.5L pot ideally before seeing run off? @fatboy77 @Owderb sorry to tag you fellas but rather than cram right before the exam I best find these things out now eh.

[Guest]

2L should give you run off, just up/down the volume as appropriate.  The beauty of coco is even if you fuck up, you can fix it very quickly.  It's like growing by numbers really.  Just a bit more effort.  Everyone raves about the flavour from no-till, organic feeds and all that being better than coco, but bollocks.  When you can meet a plants needs exactly as it wants them, and push them a bit, you get the plant giving a full expression of itself.  I prefer the taste of the weed I grow in coco, and I'm sure it's purely because I'm a better grower in it so I get a fuller expression.  

I'm high, waffle over

[Dan t]

I used to go for about 20% run off from what went in. I found this stopped rapid salt build up. Every once in a while id test the run of ec and ph. I think it only give a rough guide to whats happening in the coco, but if its ec is stupidly high ya know to back off. 

But tbh mate. Its probly not the best method but i used to say "if in doubt leech it out n start fresh if things started to go bad. 

So probly best taking advice from fatboy77 and Owderb rather me

 

 

[zen-ken]

20 hours ago, lennyd79 said:

This is nonsense... Easily get 16-22oz from 6 plants in 6 litre pots if his environment is spot on. (600w light) watering once a day only. 

 

I agree yeah pot up but don't tell the dude he needs an auto set up... absolute nonsense 

 

I will give my opinion on things I understand (more so when I can back it up with facts). 

 

If you do not want it don't take it .....please feel free to ignore it 

[lennyd79]

1 hour ago, zen-ken said:

 

I will give my opinion on things I understand (more so when I can back it up with facts). 

 

If you do not want it don't take it .....please feel free to ignore it 

I don't think you understand 

[MindSoup]

On 14/12/2021 at 1:07 PM, BilgePump said:

@mikeydoughnut you can get high sided trays that'll hold a Res failure in situ , if you can find one to fit in your space that'd be a good safety buffer.

 

Or a paddling pool one for the res and one for the tent in case of run aways.

Edited December 19, 2021 by MindSoup

[GSZZ]

16 hours ago, fatboy77 said:

I prefer the taste of the weed I grow in coco, and I'm sure it's purely because I'm a better grower in it so I get a fuller expression.  

I'm high, waffle over

 

All inputs lead to the same output, a plant can only express what its got, its just dailing the inputs in to producce the same output between methods.

 

That being said, cannabis is a very very greedy plant and will uptake nutrients until it makes itself sick. How reliably can you regulate the inputs in something like a no-till soil? When we feed hydroponically, we're essentially forcing a ratio of minerals into a plant, a regulated amount - when we feed organically its like the plants sat at a buffet picking and chosing what it wants, but as mentioned previously, canna is a greedy cunt and will eat until she makes herself sick.

 

So what a cannabis plant *needs* to eat to be healthy and express fully, and what it *wants* to eat, are two completely seperate things - and then when you bring the whole notion that we're growing a plant to smoke into consideration that changes everything, beause the natural mechanisms a plant has to uptake nutrients is for the ultimate goal of reproduction, where as what we're doing is growing its flowers to smoke its secondary metabolites,  what it wants to do and what we need it to do, to produce a quality smoke, are almost in contrast to one another and we've got to work within those mechanisms to make the plant do what we want, rather than what it wants.

 

The other thing is that plants grown to eat are actually better suited to growing in "natural" conditions, like "no-till", because nutrient density in the foods we eat is very important in determining quality, but the same principle can't be applied to cannabis that we smoke because the plant biomass is a carrier, its not something we're eating for nutritional value, and we all know that higher nutrient densitys in cannabis results in awful smokes.

 

The point I'm getting at is I agree with @fatboy77 that coco is because I feel that you can regulate the input and uptake of nutrients to tailor the final output quality far better and far more precise than you can ever attempt to achieve by growing organially - and I say that with ultimate confidence, fight me  

 

 

[mikeydoughnut]

Ey up folks. Didn’t want to start another thread. So thought I’d Bob another pre-school question up …

 

… I’ve got 6/10 of BPB’s subbies up and tails showing underneath. It’s time to get cracking wi’t coco! So when I pot them up just as in soil. Coco in pot. Jiffy in coco. Water in with a light feed (unlike compo) Obviously early days so just let the roots go searching before starting frequent watering. My water comes in at 0.6EC so I was thinking (after having a nosey online) of watering in @0.8-1.0EC. I’m going to use the GA Grow and extra traces. As well as the roofing stuff. 
 

After today I’ll obviously have a better idea of how the grow feed affects EC. The EC & per/ml relationship is still a mystery to me.

I’ve read plenty about this to prepare but I get exam fright and go blank. Sorry to go all idiots guide folks but the help is really appreciated. I’ll be doing it later this evening when the kids are at a friends so I’m not rushing. I’m kind of excited  

[sweettooth]

@mikeydoughnut exactly right sir. Don't pack your coco in tightly, drop and tap the pot so the coco settles and isn't too compressed. Light watering and leave the pots to become light, repeat until rooted out and then pot up again if you so wish. I find smaller pots work better with coco. my last few grows I've gone for bigger pots and I don't think they rooted out properly so the pots take a while to become light and I think some plants are suffering from waterlogged bottoms. 6 litre airpots works best for me with multiple fertigations. These 12 litres are too big, especially with the limited veg time and head height I have. Next diary's gonna be killer.

 

The EC ml/L foxes me sometimes, Especially when adding additives on top of my base nutes, I always forget to reduce the base so my additives end up pushing my EC too high. Right it down next time so you know. 0.6 tap water, god that's on the high side,  I thought my 0.4 was bad