Hello I am new here and new to growing, I have a question on Bergmans plant food.
The chart shows I should add 1\2 tsp to one gallon of water. Do I use this solution to water with my sprayer twice a day or do I just use it once a week then just water the rest of the week?
I am using all the Bergman plant foods I thought it would be best for a beginner. The directions are not super clear on how often to use the products. I am growing in CocoLoco
I am at 70% humidity and 76 degrees in the tent. I am using this light - HYPHOTONFLUX HPF4000 480W LED Grow Lights 5x5ft with Samsung LM301B & MeanWell Driver.
I’m happy to see this question. I am using the Bergman feed as well and had the exact same question. I hope someone answers soon as I am holding onto my seeds until I have a better understanding of the schedule. This isnt my first grow but it is the first time using fertilizer on seedlings. I’ll be keeping an eye on this thread.
I will try to answer your question as best I can but I am not familiar with the soil/growing medium cocoloco that you are using.
Nutrient feeding schedule, especially in the beginning will depend greatly on what soil/medium you use, most soils designed for cannabis come with nutrients mixed in so there is no need to add anything until the plants get around 4-6 weeks old.
If you need an answer before someone with more experience than me can help you, I would recommend researching your soil and see if it includes nutrients or not.
As far as watering a seedling goes, this will depend on your container, if your plants is in a solo cup vs a 1-5 gallon bag you would handle this differently…
I read somewhere on this site that autos don’t like to be transplanted. But in this forum, I see that a lot of people are. Is it better to start in a smaller container and trans or is it better to just allow for permanent growth in a larger container. And also, is a 3 gallon sufficient for indoor growth of autos.
As far as I can tell, there are no nutrients in coco coir. I use this for mushroom production as well and I add nutients to it.
I have only grown 2 times, first was Fox farms happy frog soil. I am now hydro rdwc.
I believe you are right coco coir is nutrient free, and if I remember correctly doesn’t hold nutrients like normal soil. Someone else with first hand experience can confirm though
Both times I grew auto plants, both times I ended up with 1 plant each grow stunted from transplant issues. While transplanting an auto is possible, I would personally recommend going straight into the 3 gallon pot. This is a personal preference specifically for autos and is debatable.
OG poster needs to know when CocoLoco soil starts needed nuets. If you know please answer
Good call Syn. Most coco’s come completely inert (empty), but Coco Loco seems to have EWC and Guano among a couple of other amendments. Before I get deep into this, im a soil grower myself and no experience hands on with coco…
Now…
Did you rinse or charge your coco with a calmag solution (most do)? As coco is a notorious calcium hog. It can and will suck calcium by the ppm from solutions.
Also do you have a ppm/tds/ec pen? Id want to know the runoff numbers before really getting into any kind of feeding…
All that said, that light looks badass. She will have ur plant eating tons once the photosynthesizing gets started good. And coco plants tend to eat like hogs anyway. So a 1/4 strength solution shouldnt kill your babies. I know plenty who feed in coco from day 1 on.
Do you have pictures?
Also do you practice good pH habits? Because when you start to mix solutions, going in outside of 6.3-6.8 is a nono and will be detrimental
This is my experience as well. Every auto ive grown, i slightly stunted at the beginning. No more transplants, and always been too afraid to top/fim them myself. But there are some WICKED auto growers around.
2 months?!?! Im pretty sure it wouldnt last that long lol. Maybe 3-5 weeks tops. Especially with that light. Again no experience with it myself, but thats gotta be some hot guano haha
I wanted to ask about your process tho. Are you growing in outdoor soil? (I dont have access to good soil so Ive always used bagged soil. Im only now finding a use for coir with mushies and thought the carry over would work.)What I mean is, are you adding all your own nutrients from seed to harvest? I’d be intersted in seeing your schedule on that.
Also, are you growing a cola? And if so, do you find it hinders output by NOT topping? Ive always been afraid to top as well. Is it worth learning ya think?
Trying to learn from the pros. My harvests are lacking. Last years auto prolly only 4 or 5 oz. And that was on an old school seed. My autos were prolly 2 oz. Looking for maximum output of course. Lol Im green on knowing nutrient schedules for sure.
No problem my dude. So no I havent attempted using my outdoor soil yet, saving that experience for an outdoor run one day. Ive been using FF soils (and Black Kow back when I couldnt find FF) amended with perlite for these last 3-4 years.
And when I reuse old soil, yes I tend to have to feed pretty often. The old charge is only good for a couple weeks tops, also I water VERY rarely at the start. Goes like this.
Set up soil cups, water the soil LIBERALLY.
Next day drop seeds in water, day after into papertowel. Day after that they go into soil, ready with taproot or not.
After that, no touching. Usually for about 10 days. This last drop I went a whole month . Plants were still super tiny, but they lived just fine.
By the end of that first month, im usually introducing Alaska Fish Emul (5-1-1 is the veg diet) at a tsp per gallon. Should be under 400 ppms at that tiny amount. So I feed, water, feed. They’ll eat Monday, get water Friday, and get fed again Monday or Tuesday… not set in stone but thats the pattern I go by.
As they get bigger I up the veg feed (to 2 tsp, then 3) and a week or so before flip ill add half a tsp of the 0-15-15 (bloom version) to the 3 of 5-1-1. After 3-4 weeks of 12-12, I slowly ramp up the bloom while decreasing the veg (but not totally eliminating it until 2 weeks til harvest).
Also @Teddy6139 I top once and very aggressively. Let plant grow untouched to 6-8 nodes. Then top 3 or 4 nodes (levels of branches). Cuts it to half the height, and seriously adds time to the veg. But the shape they grow into basically guarantees me 6-8 colas all around the same size.
Last grow. Ignore lanky in the back left. She just wouldnt stay compact
I have topped autos and ended up with bonsai plants and I have also topped them and ended up with huge plants. My personal opinion is that it depends on genetics and plant pheno, again just my opinion
Bonsai
I am not familiar with coco loco. But wouldn’t consider any thing that has nutes that will last to be coco. As it has nothing in it. Coco is pretty forgiving. So you can get away with a lot in it. just my 02. But I would recommend a 5 gallon pot though. Mainly so you don’t have to feed twice a day. I my self top every thing. I also believe in starting in a solo cup or nursery bag. For my self. I tend to over water when I try to start in a final pot. I use nursery bags since I can just drop them into a final pot and no shock or slow down. @repins12 grows some nice stuff
So what I have read about Coco loco in other forms is to treat it like soil. I did feed the plants once last week and plan on doing it again this week. The plants look amazing I will post some picks once I get my new phone. It looks like my feeding schedule is correct for now. I see lots of people doing 2-3 watering then a feed, if you water every other day they would equal about one feed per week. I do PH my water to about 6.2 or so, again I read this in another forum using coco loco. Coco loco is washed 3 times from Foxfarm so I did not wash it again when I got it, someone earlier in the thread asked if I did that. Keeping my humidity at 65-70% and temps around 75-78 seem to be ideal for super skunk and gold leaf from ILGM. All seeds germinated too.
