Hey guys,
Its been a minute. Ive been growing indoors in Happy Frog. Happy Frog has been ok for me. With a half dozen or so harvests under my belt, I want More !! Ive been using Happy Frog/perlite in 3 gal fab pots. 4x4 tent - 2 / 250 watt Viparspectre. Everything is going good with decent yields, but I have encountered issues which I know are holding me back.
From day 1 my PH has always been an issue with Happy Frog, and struggle to get the plants to 6.0 ph. I use Jacks 321 and PH all feed/water to 6.5.
Ive watched quite a few youtoobs, and read a bunch of stuff here and elsewhere. I have a few blocks of “washed” coco. Ive seen 70/30 coco/perlite mix online. I want to use worm castings, minus the worms…
Not looking to be a worm farmer. and would like to keep the tent critter free.
Hoping some coco guys here can give me some pointers on the “Mix” of ingredients, especially for the worm castings. Im a worm castings virgin, and will be buying online most likely.
Watering: Im used to watering every other day, 1 gallon water/feed per 3 gallon fabric pot. Is this really going to require daily watering ?
If so , am I watering to runoff every day ?? seems like a lot.
i will be growing Bear Dance Auto’s from Pacific Seed Bank.
Thanks guys and chica’s
Coco works best watered every day. I personally dont water to run off. I also use Jacks.
Starting with RO water Jacks will land at 5.7 or 5.8 for me every time. I dont even check it anymore. If the plant seems to be showing some issue then I water until I get a good runoff and test its PPMs and pH. I have not had to do this for the last two cycles.
The 4-2 mix works without Epsom. Part A already has Epsom and by upping the A part a little it gets enough Magnesium.
Growth in coco and Jacks is really great. You will be impressed.
I grow in straight coco with Jacks and have switched to the 4-2 ratio as well. Just those with a little armor si and a weekly dose of recharge has helped me grow some really nice plants with yields that I will never complain about.
I’m not sure about what Norm uses but I personally prefer the bricks from Canna Coco. I wash and buffer again on my own but some say it’s not needed with the Canna line. I’m 4-2 mix from day 1 and I rehydrate with 100% jacks pH’d to 5.8.
I water to 10% ish runoff at the start then bump up to about 15% once I’m into the veg stage. I still check my runoff pH and ppm at minimum weekly but very very rarely have any issues with it.
I use Grow!t bricks. I can get them locally and its nearly half the price of ordering online.
Hydrate with plain water with CalMag. Let it sit for a day or two and I dont have calcium issues.
As far as your question on wormcastings, i would not add that to the coco. It changes the meaning from soiless imo and your better off only adding perlite if desired. I only use canna coco, i feel its of good quality and has always rewarded me. If you add perlite you may need to water twice a day in flower so you know. Unless you like your tds in the high zone…i do not! As far as the jacks mix, there is alot of opinions and different bandwagons. I feel the traditional amount is best but they are all similar. What most people dont realize is at the 4/2 mix, there is less sulphur, magnesium, calcium. Now it is still there just in a less ppm. Any way you use jacks will work tho, it is a very forgiving nute line. I would also water to runoff every time to keep tds stable. No runoff is nice but getting the runoff has to be better right? Since you cannot overwater in coco, well its really hard to anyway. Here is my current behemoth
I will second the thought of omitting worm castings.
Coco and Jacks works great without any other additions.
At least for your first grow in coco you should keep it simple.
It will out produce anything you have already done.
I started in coco and now I’m in hydro, RDWC. i used mother earth coco 70/30. I also canna line nutrients.
Recently i switched to general hydroponics trio nutrients. I include silica and Calmag and that’s it.
In coco i watered daily. I only watered until water just started coming out the bottom of the 5 gallon fabric pots. I never worried about the run off. When the plants would get nutrient burn, usually mid to late flower, i just switched to plain water every other day and then nothing but plain water the last week.
I averaged about 6 ounces per plant of great quality bud.
Also think about getting your lights up to 40 watts per square foot of grow space. So you want about 640 watts total in your 4x4.
I’ve learned that keeping it simple is the best way to go.
the plant takes up more water than nutrients so the EC in the root zone rises between waterings. In order to keep the root zone stable you can push out the old high EC water by watering with fresh nutrient solution until about 20 percent runoff. Many small watering events are needed to keep the root zone EC stable. Once a day is the minimum. It would be easier If you have an automated top watering system set up. A Self draining system to manage runoff would be helpful also.
Ok. Im definitely leaning towards top watering now that im going to be mixing nootz daily. Also, im used to pulling plants out to water/ trim. How often do you take plants out of tent with self watering ?? I also use bamboo sticks to support the colas when fat. Is scrog “the” way to go with self watering ??
That’s what I use. Make sure to order the baseplates too. Called the airbases.
I do 50/50 coco to perlite and don’t use the air stone things in the pots.
I have a small water pump in the reservoir that comes on 15 minutes every 2 hours to keep the nutrients mixed.
