Thinking of trying coco for my next run of autos. Does anyone run autos in coco? Any tips, mix recipes and what to amend with would be awesome!
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I use 50/50 blend of promix HP and Fox Farms HF with worm castings and compost added. See my Lemon haze Autoflower grow. 6 plants 22oz 13weeks.
I’m mixing soil today, I’ll post some pics of my process and ingredients here in a few. Besides the ones mentioned I’ll add bat guano, rock phosphate, and a source of calcium.
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That would be awesome! Some pics or ratios of amounts would be super helpful!
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What is your watering system and what nutrients do you have? Describe your grow area. That can help determine medium.
I used to run coco (in hydro system and drip but could not get ph consistency with product. I also got tired of throwing away my water/nutrients from feeding as hydro always wastes alot. Some batches were good, some were way way off and I spent much time adjusting ph to acceptable level. I now use peat and add perlite and vermiculite. I can forgo CalMag (as it is expensive). I add some epson salts (mag) and lime (dolomite) and gypsum. That takes care of the calcium / magnesium issue with coco. I make a spray with the gypsum and mag. Plants absorb them very well through the leaves
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50 50 all the way and heavy on perlite or lava rock. Seem to helop
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These will be in a 2x4 grow tent with led, figure I can fit about 3 autos per run, I was thinking of trying a soil / coco mix with dry amendments
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So here’s the pics, it does not look like much but my recipe is FFHF (3cf), promix hp (about 2cf) to this is add around 5lbs of worm castings (white square bucket) and about 20lbs of compost. I make both myself.
The rest of the ingredients are. 2 cups of dry bat guano, 2 cups rock phosphate, and something for calcium/magnesium. Usually its called tomatoes maker or such. And some fast iron, about 1 cup.
I mix all this
and water it well in the bags/pots, let them sit and drain before putting plants in them.
I find it will feed the plants easily for a month, has good moisture retention but still drains very well. Its not to hot to start seeds directly in it.
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Are these 5 gal bags? If you are growing auto, in a tent, indoor or out, you can go to 4 x 3gal. Keep the plants trimmed and trained. More root = more fruit so 4 bags is better than 3 large. Crop size can be within 90% so I would rather have 4 bags than 3 in case I loose one. I also would not WATER well after filling the bag/s. Water when your plants go in unless you are flushing for ph or ec/ppm levels. You got all that goodness in there, do not wash it out (In my opinion - but beware, I am just a pothead, what the heck do I Know.
Maybe others in the forum will have a different take on it. And again, this is an opinion based on auto flower. If I am growing pheno, 5 gal or 7 all the way
And lastly - what are you watering with?
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Yes 5 gallon. As I said in my first post to see more details look at the lemon haze autoflower grow journal. It has a week by week post of the entire grow and its results, they speak for themselves.
I always water in new medium (coco etc) before I plant it. I use RO/DI water or rain water depending on what I plan to put in the soil.
Every grower has their own way, and there us no wrong way to do it. What works for 1 does not for the other.
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Use fox farms ocean forest, it is a light spongy mix that autos luv, use a light food i use botanacare pro grow, for flower Atami Bloombastic, 99% of my autos go in 3gal smartpots unless it’s winter when i use 3 gal nursery pots bc they hold water longer
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update for everyone, I planted my 3 autos (white widow, GG#4 and Blueberry X Big Devil) I ended up using 3 gallon pots this time in a new basement grow tent I setup. Ended up going with Fox Farm ocean mixed with about 30% coco for my meduim, I scooped out about a solo cup worth of middle soil and filled with pro-mix HP for the seeding since I was worried the ocean farm would be to hot for the seedings, on day 6 and they are doing great!
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Looks nice . I’m going to experiment with foxfarms on 1 and my mix on another and compare. I just dont have kelp in my mix but alot more micro nutes. Lots of good things I’ve seen about the fox.
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I will keep updating with my results and progress on this grow, this is my 2nd run of autos and first time in this new little 2x4 tent setup!
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Love the babies. I’m talking to mine all the time.
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Last night I toked on some WonderWoman I just started curing about 2 weeks ago. I knew it was really good when my plants started talking back. I laid myself down in bed and sank. Only my head was above the bed, the rest of me got absorbed. No pain, no anxiety, just a little hard breathing. Guess I did something right!
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Yeah enjoy the tent.
There a fun learning curve
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You should not mix coco with ffof you add pearlite it may throw off the ph of the mix, you should allso only grow 1 strain at a time bc the tallest auto will force you to raise your light and the other plants will suffer, allso different strains grow at different rates and flower at different times, yes you can put something under your plants to make them higher but it is a serious pain in the ass, im not knocking you just trying to give you friendly advice but hey what the hell do i know? Good luck.
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Good tips! I do plan on training these to keep the canopy even, we will see what happens! Ill keep this posted updated over the grow.
Timothy - spot on. Been there, seen that, done that. It is why I have 3 lights in 1 tent…plus 2 other boxes and a seed starter separate area. Seeds go to box 1 from peat pods to 3" peat cups, grow to 3/4 nodes, begin training, move to box 2, tie down. Then transplant to 3/5 gal bags (depend on auto / pheno) and this is where the chiropractics and more tie downs take place
