Little Intro and 1st Coco Coir Grow Plan

Indoor Growing
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Hi(gh) happy people,

I am a forum newbie and I have to say, there are a lot of awesome folks on here sharing their wealth of knowledge in such a humanistic way - I wish the entire world was full of happy smokers and growers and I’m grateful to learn so much.

I have grown autoflower seeds in soil once before and it was ok, nothing spectacular. A year later I had a decision to make - either gift away my tent (Vivosun 36"x20"x63") and light (Mars Hydro TS 600W LED) or start using it again and I have excitedly decided to use it again.

This time around I plan on using coco coir - brick bought from Amazon that I plan on soaking in a gallon of water with GH cal mag in 5 gallon fabric pots. One brick will yield enough for two 5 gallon fabric pot planters and that’s great since I plan on only growing two girls at a time. I ordered Skywalker OG feminized seeds from ILGM and they should arrive Monday, yay! I intend to use GH FloraMicro FloraGrow FloraBloom nutrients at a a reduced strength until the girls get a bit older, perhaps a month?

I have a few questions for the community :slight_smile:

I have GH pH up and down and intend to use it to get water pH’d correctly. I understand that I will probably have to water about every day, but would it be ok to use tap water or must I use bottled distilled? (I live in Chicago where we have hard water btw).

From the posts I have read, it is smart to start feeding right away from seedling at the reduced strength, would most agree with this?

During my first grow I used solo cups for seedlings, but I was very clumsy and ruined a couple babies :frowning: Is planting seedlings in the 5 gallon fabric pots advisable - for coco coir at least? I understand that in soil the consensus is that it is growers preference.

I also got the impression from the posts I’ve read that perhaps I need a second light set up given the size of my tent - any thoughts or suggestions on this?

If it’s helpful, here is the article that convinced me to grow in coco coir - How to Grow Cannabis with Coco Coir | Grow Weed Easy

I intend to use the feeding schedule guide used by the author - https://www.growweedeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/coco-coir-flora-series-schedule.pdf

I also am using the advice in the following YT video to prepare the coco coir for growing -

I am super psyched to get started and have been reading up on tutorials and how tos for the last 3 weeks, but would appreciate any points in the right direction from the community to start this grow off phenomenally. Thank you kindly in advance!

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Hi(gh) and welcome to the wonderful world of coco. I’m gonna take a stab at this with what I do.

First the light is slightly underpowered for flowering 2 plants, You could add a second TS 600 or go alittle better with an HLG light (Horticulture Lighting Group). Heck even spider farmer has been doing a better job making their lights more of a complete spectrum. Just food for thought to be successful.

I use regular tap water that I have put in 5 gal buckets. I got a cheap air pump, tubing and air stone from the aquarium section at walmart. Drop the air stone in the water and let it vent off some of the chemicals. I have hard water as well and have had zero issues doing this method. Buying water for everyday watering is gonna be a challenge.

That’s what I use, but if you use microbials with your feedings (recharge, Tribus, Fishsh!t, etc) just add those after you PH the water. I highly recommend recharge and fishs!t. I assume you have a decent PH meter. If not Apera 20 is a solid choice.

Not too familiar with GH nutrients, but I would mix up a diluted batch like your doing a feeding and rehydrate the coco with that. Just remember coco has zero nutrients in it and does not retain nutrients like soil does. Calmag is a must for coco.

Sure, you can also use 3 gallon pots to save space. I used both and have no issues, 5 gallon uses more coco and typically takes about 1 and a half gallons of water to get runoff on a mature plant. Where 3 gallon pots get me runoff with a gallon of water.

Starting out in coco is super easy. You can still do the solo cup method to start them. Just make sure the coco is moist before trying to transplant or it will just crumble. I cut the solo cup like I’m peeling a banana instead of trying to pull it out whole. There is also no issue with placing the seedling that just sprouted in it’s final home either, your choice.

Any other questions…holler, I’m sure I missed something.

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Hi there Highwayman420 :smile:

Thank you for the advice! I went ahead and bought some recharge today, it’ll arrive in Monday. I do have a pH meter as well as a pH tester kit that came with the up and down solution.

Just to be sure, I should purchase three items from Walmart - air pump, tubing, and air stone? I’m going to look around for videos and tips on this technique to get a visual - I appreciate the tip! This might sound basic, but I have a faucet Brita filter attachment on my kitchen sink… Would this do anything for the quality of feeding water without the pump? Not that I don’t want to buy one, but why not get two birds with one stone if I can.

Thank you again for the advice and support!

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Ya should be fairly cheap and literally fill the bucket with water, put the hose on the stone and pump. Plug in and drop in the water. Puts oxygen in the water and vent a lot of the impurities and chemicals out.

While it would be ideal, once you have bigger plants that require more water. It would take quite awhile to fill containers needed to water. But that is a good option for as long as you can keep it up.

Recharge is really, really good stuff. They say 48 hours and you see a difference. It’s true. You’ll like it. 1/2 tsp per gallon on that, once a week.

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I’ll tag you in my current grow journal if you wanna follow

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Some Updates:
It took a lot longer to get started because I couldn’t get the seeds to germinate via paper towel method. I ended up using little paper shot cups filled with half water and half hydrogen peroxide for 24 hours, then used paper towel method - this is my new method for germination and it works beautifully for me. Also helpful were the rapid rooters and little plastic greenhouses. I’m about a month in with the larger plant and 3 weeks in on the smaller one.

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Drat, photos are out of order, but hopefully some sense about timing can be made from them lol

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Looking good :star_struck:
So i also germinate kinda like you.
I’ll soak in water with some h202 for about 1 day.
Then i place the seed into a peatpod or rockwool cube.
That goes into a propagation dome, (pro tip, chicken containers from the store with black bottom and clear tops, work great and they free if you eat chicken :grin:)

But basically the only thing i do different is my propagation dome setup, sits on top of a digital controlled heat mat.

Keep doing whatever you’re doing cause it’s working :muscle:

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Hi(gh) 1HappyPappy,

I was thinking of buying a heat mat, but then I saw someone suggest in one of the forums that a wi-fi modem gets just warm enough to support germination and it works! I’m moving soon and hope to have a bit more space to work with so a mat is on the to buy list.

Thanks for sharing and happy Sunday!

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Yep the modem trick is definitely a nice hack, and it does work :+1:

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Whatever method of germination that gets results is the correct way IMO. Looking good. Only bit of advice I would have given you is when you transplant from solo cup, always go to there permanent pot. Looks like you went up to a gallon size and that plant will outgrow that very quick. Then you have to transplant again to the forever home. I just don’t like transplanting that much, it stresses the plants out a lot.

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Hey there Highwayman420!

I was so glad to find a method that worked. Paper towel in the past worked just fine, but not this time around :woman_shrugging::joy:

I actually used 3 gallon plastic pots I had from my last grow due to not having a good set up for the 5 gallon fabric ones. Another change I made was going to pre prepared coco coir, using coco loco. I am pregnant atm and since I can’t smoke/consume for another couple months, I’m prioritizing my energy and am growing while taking it easy - prepping brick coco in the tub while on my knees 7 months along would take about an hour to get back up and a week to recover!

It’s great to hear from you Highwayman420, I hope you and your wife are happy and high!

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Awesome, they looked smaller but I like the 3 gallon size personally and grow all mine in 3’s…well I ran out this run and used 1 of the 5 gal ones.

Good choice as well, coco growth is pretty amazing isn’t it? I loved the transition from soil to coco, also love the results coco gives me.

No joke, I remember my wife being that far along and it didn’t look fun at all lol. Best of luck with the remaining time in your pregnancy. Once you’re back on your feet again, check out the canna coco bricks. Super easy and ships more discrete…lol I’m not in a legal state.

Always nice to catch up on here, we always stay medicated lol. We actually converted our storage shed to an insulated, climate controlled smoke shack lol.

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Thank you, I definitely will!

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Updates:
I tried my hand at topping 4 days ago on the larger plant:

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Today I tried fim on the smaller one:

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I noticed the curling of a couple of the leaves and I think they are foxtailing due to the lights being too close to them and the weather being annoyingly back and forth this week I’m Chicago. I also noticed a couple of areas where there is leaf discoloration, would this be from the light and weather? I moved the light 3 inches higher to alleviate the heat exposure, but I’m wondering if maybe I caused it with the topping? If anyone has any ideas, please chime in :relaxed:

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