Lazy coco growing using only pellets & hard water

[Slippy One]

Just starting a thread for anyone like me who likes the idea of just add water grow style. I might be late to the party, and this particular pheno is an unknown, no stretch sativa hybrid called Skywalker Haze, DP. 
 

Plain coco, beanstalk feed and water. No timers, mixing, ph’ing or EC checks. 
 

my first time flowering this plant. It would’ve been ideal if it was a known pheno to compare but she seems happy enough. 
 

here she is just shy of 3 weeks before chop. 
 

 

Blumats doing their thing. You can see the fine hairs where the drip drips.. 

 

I’ll update in a months time when she’s done and in the vape.  

 

 

[Goodbloke]

I've had a continual single plant Beanstalk grow since the original thread. 

I picked compost over coco as wanted to use Tropf Blumat and it seemed to me that there were more negative comments on their use in coco. 

Obviously working well for you. Any issues? 

[Slippy One]

A few issues but mostly minor ones, there were a few bumps on the watering carrots so there was a run away flood, well I say 'flood', I still kept the Danish trays plumbed in for gravity draining, so the flood was just wasted water. Then I went the other way and they dried out too much. Another thing I forgot to do was manually water until runoff once per week, as @Owderb suggested (I'll do this for future grows). Other than that, it's been the easiest grow ever. I use coco over soil after over watering once too many times in soil..  And I'm getting used to opening the cabinet and not having anything to do. Next round I'll add more coco to make it closer to 12L, add one of those deeper/longer carrots, and maybe have 4 carrots instead of 2, to keep the surface wetter. 

 

The pellets only last 90ish days, have you sprinkled more pellets on the surface? Which compost do you use? 

 

 

 

 

[Slippy One]

30 minutes ago, Goodbloke said:

it seemed to me that there were more negative comments on their use in coco. 

I think that's because most coco growers are trying Blumats with mixed nutrient solutions instead of plain water. Feeding the coir first and using plain water was the  'unlock' for me.

 

 

[Goodbloke]

9 hours ago, Slippy One said:

 

The pellets only last 90ish days, have you sprinkled more pellets on the surface? Which compost do you use? 

 

 

 

 

I start in a root riot, 2 pot ups in Clover MPC. Final container is a washing up bowl, I only have 1m headroom and this keeps it low, this was another factor in choosing compost as dealing with any runoff is a pain. 

Beanstalk into Lightmix in the final bowl, plant generally 4 weeks old at that point, gives me 13 weeks feed for final veg period & flower, so no additional pellets needed. 

Lovely lazy arse method, so simple. 

[Danny killerZ]

I've just started using plain tap with ph perfect coco a n b . Seems to work well and easy .

[Slippy One]

feed once.  
 

[BushDoctoR]

Looking good!

 

Slow release coco growing has been running through my mind a fair bit recently. Not something I'm necessarily thinking of doing anytime soon myself but it's certainly interesting stuff

 

Do you feed directly from the mains or have a tank? I'd imagine temps would be an issue direct from the tap but the simplicity would be a dream!

[Slippy One]

Thanks for looking in. It’s just a regular old 60L tub, manually topped up every few weeks, no circulation pump, no heater, no ph fixing, just regular, nasty ol’ London tap water and gravity while whatever is in those pellets works its magic. You can get a direct from mains valve for Blumats, but that’s probably best for outdoor growing when you’re on summer holiday for a month..  

 

watering with no runoff uses fuck all water, my single plant uses around 10L per week, so I could conceivably get away with 6 weeks without topping up, however I like to keep the level above 50%, which gives me a great buffer in case of emergency. 
 

[BushDoctoR]

That does sound amazing. I really do dislike how much I have to waste to keep my run off EC down

[Slippy One]

1 week from harvest, Blumats still doing their thing without problem. Haven’t seen any runoff and the carrots are basically constantly dripping. I’m mostly checking the AC Infinity app instead of actual gardening, been running the dehumidifier for around 5hrs per day due to the constant humidity. Day humidity is 45%, night 58-62% as the dehumidifier is too loud for sleeping. 
 

So to sum up, an easy system of growing. Would recommend it to anyone who wants an easy life, can be scaled up with ease and the only thing I’ve been doing is checking for mould or bugs (so far none). 
 

definitely the way forward for me, especially as it performs beautifully outdoors too. Unless something goes wrong in the next 7 days.. I’ve noticed they’ve started to look a tad hungry, but I did err on the side of caution with the pellets, which are supposedly good for 90 days. I’d say it’s probably more like 60 days with some reserve, perfect for the plant to use up some reserves before the chop.. 

 

I’ll add 2 more carrots and completely full the fabric pot next time. 

 

reservoir still completely clean on the inside, very little salt buildup, zero algae or anything nasty, I would drink this without hesitation. 
 

and because it’s only dripping, no heater is needed for the res, which is at room temp (16-20°C) so no shock to the roots. you’ll notice there’s some fine roots at the drip point, which is cool. I’ll add a cutaway of the roots once harvested. 
 

I’ll add some shots of the buds once trimmed. 
 

this non stretch Skywalker Haze is heavy with that peppercorn/slight rubber terpenes, so be interesting to vape, as I read these polyterps are good for depression.  

 

lazy growers paradise. 
 

pics: 

 

 

 

[Goodbloke]

Nice. 

[Slippy One]

All done. 9 weeks. No feeding, no watering, no stress. Tiny bloody plant with zero stretch but an amazing smell, like the inside of a pepper grinder mixed with lavender, jasmine and vanilla. Smelled awful halfway through, just goes to show, never judge a book by its cover..

 

So for anyone reading this, the future of home gardening is lazy. Get your life back with technology. It can be done.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Slippy One]

4 Blumat carrots this cycle, and about 25% more food than recommended on the packs. Manually watering once a week to runoff (something I forgot last one)

 

Just nasty London tap water, ph is 7.2. ec. .8 19:1 ratio of cal:mag. Not even adding mono mg this time to see how lazy I can get. 

 

Plant looks ok to me, here she is at week 3 12/12. 

 

 

Last week:

 

Beanstalk forever!! FTW!!

 

[stu914]

Very nice little set-up bud, if I didn't solely grow hydro I'd be picking your brains.

Have you had a sneaky taster yet?