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This round, we're going for Black Sugar and Peyote Zkittlez from Seedsman, Lava Freeze from SSSC, and Royal Amnesia Gold (Kera Seeds). Technically, it's not going to be a very spectacular round; I don't currently have the means available for that.
Lighting: 4x 240W Aliepaneel (LM301H)
Substrate: Plagron Cocos Premium
Nutrients: Ata Awa Leaves and Ata Awa Max, Ata Calmag, AtaZyme, and Silic Boost from BAC
Extraction: AC Infinity T6
3x Superroot Airpot and 3x Gronest 55L Fabric Pot (well, I still like to compare a bit)
Watering: 6 x Blumat Maxi behind a 208-liter nutrient tank. Nutrient tank equipped with a 12000LPH flow pump, BlueLab Guardian for pH and EC monitoring.
8 seeds per strain laid out for germination with the aim of keeping 6 per strain (Black Sugar & Peyote Zkittlez), 5x Lava Freeze, and 4x Royal Amnesia Gold. That finally exhausts all the seeds. Then 2-4 per pot due to the large surface area of the pots; if not everything germinates, some pots will receive 3.
Schedule: 3 weeks of pre-growth, 8-9 weeks of flowering (possibly 10 if the transition to real flowering takes a long time, as I've experienced before with hydro setups, and the Amnesia will definitely take a bit longer).
Unfortunately, the space is not prepared at all, no reflective walls, no extra insulation, etc. However, there's a very consistent temperature of about 18 degrees Celsius when the lights are out, which is expected to increase slightly. With only 480W per m2, I don't expect to need CO2. Will I use boosters? I hardly think so. I don't really want to do much this round. I will have to install a sort of scrog net due to the limited height, but that's really just to guide the plant in the right direction at the beginning.
The report is for my own records; I tend to forget what I've done when, so it's nice to be able to read back. If all goes well, I'll finish the round just before my current supply runs out.
Next week, once everything is set up, photos will follow. At the moment, it's mostly just waiting for the seeds to sprout.
Any tips for coconut cultivation? What should I watch out for?
My feeding schedule will be as follows.. (pH regulated by ATA nutrients)
Seedling phase: ATA Rootfast (net EC 1.0) watering coconut
Growth phase: ATA ATAZYME & ATA Leaves (EC 1.1 increasing to EC 1.5), with ATA MAX added in the final week
Pre-flowering: ATA ATAZYME and ATA MAX (Water change, then EC 1.7)
Flowering: ATA ATAZYME and ATA MAX (EC 2.1)
Ripening: ATA ATAZYME and ATA MAX (EC 0.5)
Throughout the schedule, I'll probably make some adjustments, and CalMag and Silic Boost are not included in the schedule; I'll add them as needed.
From previous experiences with these nutrients, I've learned that the pH tends to be a bit on the low side. I've also found that it's not a problem as long as I occasionally rinse the pots with fresh tap water.
My biggest concern: Will it work with the Blumats on coconut.. According to All4Plants, it should work perfectly.. but well, they're the ones selling me the equipment.
As you can see not a very even germination. More than a week between first and last. But since the biggest plants are really to start looking like plants I call this week one of vegetation. I will raise the EC this week a bit, color of leaves is great now but I like them a bit darker green. Need to purchase my net now..
21-05: I have doubts.. should I raise the fabric pots or not.. Very much slower grow rate than the airpots. Also room temperature is a bit on the low side. Probably add a heater.
This week ia am planning to let it grow just like this. Hopefully I will receive a plant camera next week to monitor my VPD. Also added an IRheater to keep temperature stable
The infrared heater does its job, but I find it a waste of electricity, 3.6 kWh in one night. So I've decided to install a gas heater instead, which delivers the same result at a much lower cost and also provides additional CO2. The heater can then keep the temperature above 21˚C with the lights off. The natural gas heater will be used with the lights on. I need to quickly find a CO2 sensor because too much CO2 has a counterproductive effect, as I've already noticed. Approximately 1200 PPM at 32˚C is optimal as long as I can maintain a DLI of 35. Great technology is on the way.
Added: Installed CO2 burner, run it for 6 minutes every hour. Temp raises from 22˚C to 27˚C in about 7 minutes. CO2 detector (just colors, no values) doesn't alarm so not above 1500PPM CO monitor also no alarm :)
Running for 4 hours now and a visible change is there. Tomorrow I will know if it is ok or not.
Added a few pictures. Lets see if we can see the difference tomorrow.
26-05: Added Dimlux Maxi controller for CO2 and VPD. Works nice.
28-05: Topped a few
31-05 Added additional 300W to heat the stuff up. RH is stable but high on 72%. Could add a dehumidifier but since CO2 is already there and my VPD is around 0.8 I thought adding light would be cheaper. Can go up to 33˚C before my floor is heating up too much.
Also cleaned the watertank. So from now on they are on Ata Max
This week in my grow room has been full of developments. First, I added additional lights because I couldn't get the relative humidity (RH) under control. I ordered a dehumidifier, but it will take a few weeks to arrive, so I had to find a temporary solution. I also emptied the reservoir and refilled it with fresh water and nutrients. I secured the net to ensure it stays in place under tension. In two days, I plan to switch the light schedule to 12/12, hoping the plants will stretch a bit during the switch to avoid having overly large buds that aren't evenly spread.
Seventeen hours later, I decided to keep the lights on a 16/8 schedule for a few more days. The plants are starting to show signs of something happening, so I want to see how they develop. I will keep you updated on the progress. Then, I received a message from my supplier that the dehumidifier would arrive today. Great news—time to spice things up!
On June 2nd, the dehumidifier arrived, and I managed to get my Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) to 1.17! This is fantastic news, and I'm very curious how this will affect water usage. The dehumidifier seems pretty powerful, with water literally dripping out of the hose, so I'm no longer worried about high humidity levels. It's a shame it doesn't have a range setting, but I couldn't expect more for the price. I'm considering ordering the Dimlux Auxbox to set a working range and separate day/night settings. Thankfully, the dehumidifier has an auto-restart function after a power loss.
On June 3rd, the night is over, and while my values are now more stable, I haven't noticed any significant differences in water absorption. What I do notice is that the pots seem much drier. The difference in leaf temperature compared to the room temperature has increased slightly, now about a 2˚C difference, indicating that evaporation has increased somewhat. Despite the dehumidifier cooling the air, the room temperature has risen. This is explainable since dry air heats up faster than humid air. The CO2 heater is also running significantly longer. So, although there are no immediately visible differences, there are indeed some changes.
Today is the last short night of 8 hours, and tomorrow will be the first night of 12 hours. I am contemplating doing a 10-hour night first and will decide later tonight. After closely reviewing the video footage, I noticed some divergent colors on the leaves. My pH is currently 6.4, which I had adjusted to compensate for the low pH last week—a foolish decision in coco, I know. I plan to make videos of each individual plant for my records to investigate further. The light is too intense to inspect them up close, so the videos will help me get a better look.
Today I have diced it is time to switch to 12/12 scheme. Net is almost covered and I am expecting some stretch during pre-flower phase. Watering volume is increasing day by day, thanks to my dehumidifier I can keep the VPD around 1.2. Temperature is a thing... probably need to cool down some in a few weeks. Thankfully I am already adding CO2 so that should do it.
As you can see I have raised EC a bit. That was easier than bringing the PH down with PH-minus. Some little burned tips on the leaves but I do like the overall colour. So let's see how it goes.
15/06: Sorry... something more important came up than updating my report.... On Monday, I start working for a boss... it's been over 20 years, so it will take some getting used to... I also suddenly had to buy a car because I hate cycling. I usually dislike driving too, but as long as the car has enough power, I can live with it and stay dry.
Regarding the ladies... the problem with the persistent lighting does indeed seem to be an internet issue, as it hasn't occurred again. Furthermore, the amens is just brutally large compared to the others and will soon overgrow the whole net. I don't mind... I always prefer the strongest. In the photo from 3 days ago, this is still fairly visible, but in the photos below, it's getting harder to see...
Harvesting will also be fun... Keeping the stuff separate by type will be a challenge. Water values are currently nice and stable, though I did increase the CO2 slightly to an average of 1350ppm. I've also already hung my blooming lamps (not visible in the photo). These are again Chinese quantum boards, but 400W each. They will run 4 hours a day for the last 3 weeks. This way, the dehumidifier doesn't have to work as hard, and I keep the stuff around 30˚C.
Actually quite satisfied.... the first signs of flowering seem visible, but not convincing enough to take pictures yet...
28-06 (1) This week, I had less time than usual, so I decided to let the ladies grow as they pleased for two days. My goodness, they shot up like rockets! Well, that didn't really help with the light distribution, so today I decided to tie them all back to an even level. That turned out to be quite a challenge. I've now spent 45 minutes twice tying them up, and I think I'm only halfway done. I'll add captions to the photos soon so you can get a good impression of the progress.
28-06(2) We can definitely call this high-stress training. I didn't handle them gently at all. Several stems snapped, and I removed quite a bit of foliage. They should really start to power through now. I've added captions to the photos soon so you can get a good impression of the progress.
01-07 So today I only removed some dead leaves and tied back a few extreme outliers here and there. I also flushed the Blumats, as there was some accumulated nutrients in them. Nevertheless, I am still satisfied with this setup. As mentioned earlier, the next round will be fully on Blumats but using the SOG (Sea of Green) method. I wanted to go for airpots, but on Temu, the fabric pots are so cheap that I can't justify the cost. So I ordered 15 of them, which means I can germinate directly in the coco without having to repot, or maybe germinate in 1-liter pots. I'll set up the Blumats only after the plants are well above ground next round, which will save a lot of doubt.
This time, I took some photos from under the canopy... so you can see how the light penetrates and after removing the dead leaves, I felt confident doing that. Unfortunately, one stem has been right under the outflow of the Blumat and has developed a brown spot because of this. I have no idea how long it's been there, but the branches still look fine otherwise, so it’s something to keep an eye on.
Well.. nice start of a new week. Still stretching so today changing water for fresh water. Going to level up the EC from tapwater 0.3 tot 0.7 with CalMag before adding nutrients. Then raising the EC to 2.2 I hope (depending on the PH not dropping below 5.8). Hopefully they will consume less water and therefore stop stretching.. We will just see what happens. Easy to lower EC afterwards and also easy to raise PH. I just have to add some tapwater.
13/7 some shortages and maybe too much light. Reducing time with half an hour daily. Raised EC to 2.3
Little curling on the top leaves, probably because to close to the lights... cannot raise them further so I just snap them sometimes.. Still need to find a good nutrient with good availability in local shops. Thinking about Plagron OR Hy-Pro bat in anyway a single nutrient for grow and flowering because of my planned 12/12 from seed. Tips are very welcome (Coco peat and drip system so need to be fresh for two/three weeks in vessel) at 27-30˚C. Will be a single strain diary, only doubts is the nutrient.. Don't want to add boosters or anything, should be extremely low maintenance.
Cut some leaves for better light penetration.. Also lowered the EC a bit (I suspect a bit too much because of deforming leaves).
Today some clasps. As you can see the Lava Freeze is extremely fluffy but on the other hand, she is not looking nearly ready.. Should be the fastest flowering of them all but I guess she will take a week or maybe 2 longer then the rest.. Easy to see the plants are suffering from heat... cannot do anything about it, my roof is at just 1.80.
Well I certainly hoped I could harvest by end of this week but they are not ready at all. They are growing for sure so not really anything to complain. Lava Freeze still lokes a bit disappointing but also very immature. Beside the fact that she grows against the fixture she is very fluffy.
Originally planned to harvest end of this week but they are not even nearly ready I think. On the other hand, they are still growing crazy... cannot be sad about that.
Need to remove leaves now, just to check the buds... Some are very dense and suspect to bothritis..
As you can hopefully see, the ladies aren't ready yet. The trichomes are starting to turn milky white, but there's still hardly any amber visible (except on a few stressed ones). The scent is incredibly strong now—spending ten minutes near the plants means a mandatory shower. The Lava Freeze is unexpectedly starting to fill out and become denser. I think a fellow grower was right in suggesting that it might have been a bit too wet.
The rest are taking on the shape of beer bottles and, in some cases, even soda bottles. I'm very pleased with how they look right now, despite some leaves starting to wither here and there. I attribute this to an incorrect pH level, which was slightly too high. I've lowered the EC a bit now, keeping the approaching end in mind. I hope to start harvesting by the end of next week.
Well, none of the options are perfect... everything shows at least 60% milky... so I've made a plan. Today, I'm going to trim the Black Sugar, on Wednesday the Lava Freeze and Amnesia, and on Friday the Peyote Zkittlez. I might swap Wednesday and Friday, but I'll decide that later.
I'm only trimming the top layer. The rest will get a few more days of light. Lastly, on Saturday or Sunday, I'll trim the bottom layer. I won't bother sorting that; I'll just throw it straight into the trimmer. I'll dry the trim this time and sift it, so I'll end up with a hash from a combination of Amnesia, Peyote Zkittlez, Black Sugar, and Lava Freeze. I bet there might still be some usable buds in there; I'll scoop them together into one jar to make my "house mix."
1200 grams wet cut. Need to clean them a bit after drying but at all pretty satisfied :)
Allright... this time I will first take some pictures.. just before cutting them. Nice plant overal.. looking very tasty..
Very curious about the yield for this one. Had her a few years ago and was by far the biggest yielder.. These seeds are from the same batch but yes... a few years old...
Appoldro420
