Hello everyone sorry to bother I’ve been around a while but I read more than I talk so I’ve been searching and reading everything I can instead of blasting questions.
I just finished my first grow indoors first grow in about 25 years as well. I tried living soil and was enjoying it at first but things got away from me towards the end. I really wanted to like the living soil but I’m not really set up to enjoy all of the benefits.
Now the little voice in the back of my head is telling me coco is the way, so I’ve spent the last 3 weeks reading just about everything I could find on it. I’m feeling fairly confident(usually means I’ve missed something ) and I’m just about ready to transplant but there is a few things I’m not to sure about.
I’ve got 3 little ladies that popped up on 8/1. I started them in solo cups with FFHF. First off will there be any issues going from happy frog to coco and is there anything special I need to do to make that transition.
I’m going to be putting them into 5 gallon air pots. I’m trying to figure out how to mix up the coco and everything I’ve read says something different. Some people use straight coco, others add perlite. Some even go as far as adding worm castings and such.
Is there some kind of general consensus on a proper mix. I have perlite but I know people don’t like the dust. I have vermiculite and worm castings as well. I have a few bricks of canna coco and I wanted to go with Jack’s but grabbed masterblend instead. I wasn’t sure how far the 2.2 bags of jacks would get me and really didn’t want to buy my weight in it the first go.
I’m sure I have more questions but I’m only on my first cup of coffee so the gears aren’t up to full speed yet.
Thanks for your time I appreciate any pointers I can get.
I’ll be hand watering, I enjoy any excuse to poke around in the tent. I understand coco needs more frequent waterings but I can only guarantee 2 watering a day so that’s why I figured I’d stay with the 5 gallon air pots(also what I have on hand)
I’m trying to find my groove again as quickly as possible, so I’m trying to take in everything I can to find what will work for me. Things are a lot different than what I remember. The first round was autos more trying to figure out how to control all the equipment than anything. Now I’m trying to dial in what they are growing in.
So I guess more to the point I’ll probably be treating it more like soil than hydro? Hydroponics is scary to me for some reason
Im also getting ready to start in coco and am new and spend lots of time reading, the great advice that ive got came from @Incognito and @MadamCalamity. Maybe tag them on your next post. I was steered to a site called coco for cannibus that has all kinds of great info prepping and buffering coco before hand.
Ill tag you and follow your thread for the great advice you get from here. Im waiting to finish off my latest growing catastrophy before i start my new thread and coco grow, id say your in good hands here gromie!
Sorry to pick on you @Low you were saying in your journal that the smaller pots worked better than bigger ones. Would I be better off getting some 1 or 2.5 gallon air pots or will that need more than 2 waterings a day to stay above 90% saturation? I’m not ready to go with some kind of auto drip system, your set up is amazing but it makes my head spin lol.
you probably need the 5 gal pots if you are going to hand water. I’ve tried with 3 gals and ended up building an auto irrigation system because I couldn’t keep up with the water. Coco for cannabis is a fantastic resource for new coco growers. If you just follow the directions there you will be pleased with the results. I prefer just coir and perlite or pumice. when you start adding worm castings and such your basically making soil and diluting or even losing a lot of the properties that make coco unique. I think I used to do 40%-50% perlite, but if your going to hand water then you probably want closer to 30%-40%. More perlite means you will have to water more often. Don’t forget to wash your coco if your using bricks. You just want to rinse out most of the smaller particles. Hope that helps.
Thank you I’ve been reading a lot from coco for cannabis. I can see how adding organics changes things that’s why I was asking. I’ve seen everything from straight coco to adding enough stuff to turn it into a living soil lol.
I’ll stick with the 5 gallon for this run while I get my feet wet and maybe start down the auto irrigation rabbit hole while I go. I don’t like to change to many things at once so I’ll see how the coco treats me and go from there.
Thanks again for your time @Gl1tch much appreciated
Stay on the larger end of the pot size for hand watering. I was saying at the other spot I have seen better growth in smaller pots, that’s with a high frequency feed regiment. I’ve gone smaller because it’s easier to control the numbers.
You are running 50 or 60% perlite for better drainage if I remember right. I think I’ll go less than that for the 5 gallon pots to hold a little more water.
Anything I should be aware of going from the happy frog they are in to coco, or just sprinkle some Great White Mycorrhizal and carry on like any other soil.
After all the research I’ve done in thinking coco is the way for me, so I guess my next project is to learn more about the auto irrigation systems. It does sound appealing. Your set up is insane I’ll need something a couple steps down from that to start with
I’m sure I’m overthinking it like everything else. I just have to jump in, the waters fine
Hope for the best. How big is the starter of happy frog? I’ve gone from soil to coco, there is usually some health issues in the beginning, I’ve lost at least 1 going from soil solo cups to coco pots. going to be rough until they spread into the coco. You may have better luck dropping the rootball/soil into a bucket of water and lightly shaking until you shed most of the soil, then plant into coco. I’ve pretty much stopped using any mycos going this route. I used to, ran out never re upped and honestly I didn’t see any changes. The further I simplified the better results have been. Just keeping numbers in check has been the ticket for us.
Whichever way you choose to go will be a learning experience.
Thank you for the compliment it’s relatively cheap to get automated feeds, the hardest part in my opinion is the run off!
Thank you this is exactly the type of info I’m looking for. Knowing that probably just saved the whole grow, I won’t panic when things get a little wonky
Good luck! It’s gonna be weird, and you’re going to have to learn to how it behaves. 2 different mediums with 2 different pH requirements. The part with soil could turn into root rot. So be mindful with feeds.
you can always knock some of the happy frog off the roots if your concerned. As long as your careful it shouldn’t hurt anything. At one point I was starting with soil in 2" nursery bags then transplanting to coco. It worked fine, but IDK about a whole solo cup full.
Part of the reason I wanted to get away from soil is the bugs I was fighting came from the bag of happy frog. They are back already so I’m done with that and moving on.
Going to buffer some coco now while I build up the nerve to get them out of there and into something better.
I’ve removed all the dirt while transplanting many times but never with cannabis. I don’t know why I feel the need to baby them so much. What’s the worst that could happen right
The coco looks a little dry, did you water it to runoff after? They look pretty decent for just being manhandled. They are definitely ready for bigger pots.
Just watered to run off thanks
I had hoped they would be ready but there wasn’t a whole lot of root action going on… I think I’m going to just call it day 1 of veg and go from here
Remember you will water coco to 10%-20% runoff every time and at least once a day. Never let it dry out. Coco doesn’t require a wet dry cycle like soil. As long as it has fresh water it will have plenty of fresh air. What are you using to feed? I would still pot up as soon as you can. Those plants are about to be too big for solo cups if they are not already. In plastic containers I like to transplant sooner rather than later. There may be some out there who disagree with me. I do transplant more than most.
I re-read the coco for cannabis site last night and it made a lot more sense after actually working with the coco.
The high frequency fertigation seemed intimidating after using soil. It’s not so bad watering more often when it’s less water and it drains so much better.
I’m using RO water masterblend and tps silica gold at about 630 ppm 5.9 ph runoff is 760 ppm 5.74 ph.
They are looking so much better now and they’ve grown some since I got them out of the happy frog. I’m going to give them a few more days to take up some room in the cups. I’m no expert but the root ball was probably about half as big as it should have been by now. When I watered this morning each of them have 1 root that reached the cup so we are heading in the right direction.
) and I’m just about ready to transplant but there is a few things I’m not to sure about.
it’s relatively cheap to get automated feeds, the hardest part in my opinion is the run off!
