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[MEGA]Community Growing advice, tips, tricks, & experiences Part 5 (2012-2013)

drug_mentor said:
Anyone using coco as a grow medium?

My last couple grows have been with coco as opposed to soil, I have to say I am glad I made the switch. The only pain in the ass is having to mix up nutrients virtually every watering, but I am getting better growth rates, way less issues with insects and my end product is tasting just as good or better than the stuff I have grown in soil. My ash burns white as well which indicates there are no nutrients left in my end product.

I admit the improved taste could easily be from the fact I am running purchased genetics as opposed to the bag seed I have grown in soil, my curing technique has probably improved a little as well.

I notice a lot of the growers in US Medical states seem to grow almost exclusively in soil, I always bought into the idea that soil grown cannabis was a better tasting and healthier product than cannabis grown in coco and hydroponic mediums, but my recent experience seems to indicate this is false, or at least overstated. I am wondering what other Bluelighters experience is with coco versus soil and which they prefer overall.
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I've tried the same plant in soil (grown from seed), cloned it, grown it in coco & perlite, also grown it on an DIY NFT tray hydro system. Hydro was far better, no competition, faster growth, bigger yield, healthier plants, slightly better taste, potency was very similar. You can never really flush soil or coco, grown without any medium in a hydro system seems much cleaner. I used non-organic food in all cases, Canna for my first soil grow & then Vita Link for coco & hydro.

Genetics make the biggest difference, it'll taste similar & have a similar effect no matter how it's grown, as long as you don't really mess it up.

Grow techniques make a difference to how much you'll get & how easily, there's little difference in taste, but hydro gives you more control over giving the plants just the right amount of nutrients for the best growth because you can measure it all easily. I used to run it on plain water for the last few days, up to a week, starve it & harvest when the large leaves are yellowing, can't really do that with soil, even coco will hold some nutrients. I've smoked bud that was unflushed before & it's just fine as long as the plants haven't been overfed, flushing is controversial & I'm not sure which side of the fence I'm on, but it's something I always did.
 
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You need to flush it if the plants are overfed, arguments against are that it stresses the plant, lower yield & no need if you've grown them well. Organic or not doesn't matter to me, 100% organic ammonia will still make it taste bad. I've smoked weed grown by somebody that grows hydro & doesn't flush and there seemed to be no difference, but they're not overfeeding it. If you grow in soil or coco you can't accurately measure how much the plant is taking, so you can't avoid over or under-feeding to some extent, hydro gives you more control.
 
Artificial Emotion said:
Okay thanks, fair enough.

I'm planning my next grow of Ace Seeds Rotten Panda, a cross of UK Cheese (i.e. a skunk pheno) and orient express. I've decided I'm going to grow using the easiest method possible with the least amount of maintenance required this time round, so I bought five autopots and am going to grow using coco and Plant Magic coco nutes and Growers Ark nutes next time. I'll probably do a SCROG but ultimately I'm going to grow vertically since this is the most efficient growing style.

I'm going to make a bonsai mum, not just for clones but to make a proper bonsai, merging two hobbies into one ;) I honestly haven't seen a bonsai with a trunk thick like this Japanese red maple bonsai so it should be interesting:

Japanese-Red-Maple-Bonsai-Starter-Kit.jpg
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Would love to see your UK cheese cross growing in autopots with coco when you get a chance.

Is that Japanese maple yours? Damn impressive looking.
 
Yeah I'll post pics when I start the grow. I'm starting on the 17th Jan because I'm going to Poland annoyingly. That's the thing about going abroad, if you don't plan ahead far enough you have to rearrange your growing plans. Never again!

That bonsai isn't mine but it's similar to the one I'm planning on buying. If you saw the prices you would weep.
 
The one in the picture looks at least 15 years old...how much care do they need once you have one that looks like that?
 
They really don't need any more care than smaller ones for the most part. They just need repotting every couple of years and minor pruning to keep the shape.

Once they're wired into shape and pruned early in life there's not much more maintenance required. That particular variety is an outdoor one but there are plenty of indoor varieties that need very little care.
 
Another update for you guys. Have since added more perlite, and added mollasses to my fert days (with Seagrow - fish emulsion).

But yeah still think they growing fast for outdoors. |

And still haven't repotted the few that are double-potted out of shear laziness.

Any tips that don't involve me spending much more cash are welcome.
 
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Bit of PK boost when they're flowering. Is this a winter grow? Are they starting to flower now? Are they all female? Are you going to put them in bigger pots? Maybe buckets if cash is tight?
 
check out my garage what do you all think?

Its about 25 different strains in soil and fox farm nutrients and about 6,000. Watts but will be up to 15,000 over the next two months
 
lol yeah, just chuck your address up and we'll come round and see ourselves :) that's if we make it there before the law....

OP is a muppet.
 
@Whosa: What's the size of your pots? If you don't have larger buckets to transfer the larger ones, you could be taking advantage of your pot space better. Your pots are cone shaped and larger at the top, and I can see a lot of pot space inside the pot with no soil/perlite. You could have a lot more root space if you re-pot them in the same pot, but lift the plants up by placing more soil in the bottom. Simply adding soil/perlite to the top of what you currently have will do nothing for root space, so you actually would have to re-pot them to do this.

If you do this, you will no longer be able to water/feed from the top, and you must get a tray and water from the bottom for the remainder of it's time there. I only recommend doing this to your pots that are at least 5 gallons (~19 liters). If they don't have at least that much volume, you are probably going to need to buy buckets or something.
 
Hey wolf, if you ever get a chance try substituting perlite with fytocell in your soil. It definitely performs better. If you go 100% fytocell in a hydro grow like a hempy bucket the plants grow like crazy (faster than coco even) so adding that little bit to a soil grow really does give your plants a boost. I don't know if you can get it where you live but if you ever get the chance I would try it.
 
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