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Basically a completely new grower, i failed before by just throwing s**t to the wall and seeing what sticks (no equipment, just trying it out) as expected, NOTHING got past germination, can't even call them seedlings as they never even go to to forming any leaves, jus stretched until i realised its not going anywhere so is scrapped that, then i built makeshift grow tent from a cheap greenhouse and reflective insulation foam, tent itself could've worked pretty good, but i had no proper lighting so the secound round it all ended pretty much the same, stretch with no real leaf grow, scrapped that and got myself a 50eu tent and a 50eu grow lamp from amazon with a fan, going to buy ventilation and more equipment as i go along the way, i use coco coir but it has fertilizer in it to start off, i'll probably go with 90%clean coco (no fertilizer 10% perlite mix my next grow, but for now i just want to see some progress going so my interest stays peaked.
So before for all my germination attempts i did the same thing each time, water and hydrogen peroxide in a shot glass, next to a radiator for 24-48h until i see a root sprout and show some growth, then i pat dry my seeds and plant them like 1-1.5cm deep in my pre-fertilized coco coir that came as a block and has been rehydrated following the instructions provided. I'm using 25L fabric bags BUT im curling them down and actually using about 15-17L of soil in each bag, i'm doing that because i started with less soil on hand and now i keep it at the same level with assumption that a bigger volume of soil will lead to a bigger plant that i may not have the space for in the tent, but that's also why im writing a journal here to get advice and learn from this community, i may be assuming completly wrong.
I have a time-lapse recording set up on my spare phone in the tent so i get to see progress, quick one is doing great and showing steady growth as of day 4 now since planting, was planted together with easy bud on 17/02, now on day 21/02, easy bud is showing to be more stubborn, after popping out of the ground with the shell still on it doesn't seem to be showing any movement on the timelapse while the quick one showed steady growth so im a lil concerned, but time will show.
One of my main mistakes was overwatering in the past, even now my soil seems too wet due to me using rehydrated coco blocks so i haven't really watered much besides slight occasional spray while i'm tending to my other gardening projects and i'll stick to that until i feel that soil is dry after i stick half of my pointing finger into the soil.
I'll share some photos and keep updating along the way, very excited to see where this goes!
Oh i also started apple fritter auto yesterday and decided to try it out in case one or even both of the plants fail along the way as it's my first growth to increase the chance of success, i mainly want to stick to 2 plants at a time.
Grow light actually seems to be pretty decent for the price and all, i've seen spiderfarmer grow lights of similair size looking almost identical just with a spiderfarmer logo on it and it seems to be working really good so far, hella bright and im using my phone for LUX readings and converting the to ppfd, everything seems to be checking out. I'm very eager to hear your suggestions and tips !
TL:DR
Planted :
Easy one - 17/02
Quick bud - 17/02
Apple fritter - 21/02
Medium : Rehydrated pre-fertilized coco
Condition : 23 C 75-85% humidity
So Week I of vegetation hit and i instantly made mistakes!
Quick one : Was my fastest student, but because i was too excited and wrong information at the wrong time came along and i made a bunch of mistakes in terms of nutrition, watering and so on, i believe i fed nutrients way too early, i even sprayed some directly on the plant not knowing how damaging it can be! Coming 2 weeks i didin't give the plants anything else but water. I'm not sure the EXACT issue, but the yellowing and death on tips probably occured due to nutrient burn and overwatering, please let me know if you have an idea of what was the issue!
Easy bud : This lil stubborn plant was scaring me at first with very slow progress but once i helped with the shell removal it sprung to life and actually is doing MUCH better and healthier than the Quick One and quick one was the one i was betting on at first. The yellowing/drying/dying of the tips is scary and i'm not sure exactly what was wrong it was either overwatering or feeding too early and causing stunted growth. Lesson learned, not feeding my plants nutrients until week 3 starts from now on! Also, only about 100-150ml of water per day in this stage
Apple Fritter : Doing as expected, attempted it a few times before (with total failure ofcourse cause it was done without a tent or a lamp) and it usually grows really fast. For this one im adding clay pebbles as perlite alternative to see how it will go, not expecting great results, just a test plant in this case.
So this week was interesting for me, i learned that coco works like an in-between option of hydroponics and soil grow and it doesnt have/hold nutrient's well in the substrate itself so i have to really pay attention to nutrients myself, thats okay because i want this to be like my lil science project, i'm enjoying it so far. For this week i did NOT use any nutrients and i also realised that PH is CRUCIAL in coco, but i don't have any PH tester with me so for this week i used calculations and dropped my tap PH by using white wine vinegar (which is reported yearly and this year it was at a stable 7 neutral) by adding about 3-4ml of vinegar to 1L, i'll try to get a PH tester as soon as i can, but for next week i'll get PH testing strips to have as a guideline until i order a digital ph tester.
Quick one : Issue continued from last week, i kept trying to "flush" the medium a bit, but i was also scared of overwatering so i only applied clean water directly around the stem of the plant and that seemed to actually work, plant is still at a scary stage but as you'll see next week it managed to recover!
Easy bud : This baby is doing beautifully so far!
Apple fritter : This week i noticed problems with it, irregular growth, sudden stretching, and it seems like the first leaves that sprouted are curling and scrunching up close to the stem, next week as you'll see that was an early sign of some bigger issue, apple fritter seeds were promotionals so i got them for free, that may have something to do with it too, maybe genetics are not the best in the promo ones.
So week 3 starts and thats where the real growth spurt started, at the start of the week i thought i smelled something coming from the tent, but by the end of this week i was SURE that the plants have a weak smell already, strongest to weakest Easy bud Quick one Apple fritter (barely any smell).
Had some personal things happen in my life (broken up relationship) so i couldn't be as attentive as i wanted to, but these babies are bringing more purpose in my daily life so now im back and very ready to love them!
Week 3 so i started feeding Easy Bud and the Quick one with a low dose of top auto and top candy, feeding them according to the schedule/instructions/etc provided by top crop, so appropriate concentration in a liter of water once per week.
Oh i also got Ph testing strips and now im also adjusting water + nutrients to a ph close to 6!
Easy Bud : This baby is doing lovely, beautiful color, fast new leaves, has a faint smell that manages to fill the tent up and is responding to everything im doing very well so far.
Quick one : While we had a few hiccups it seems like the baby finally recovered and picked up some speed, also has a faint smell, weaker than easy bud, but definitely noticeable!
Apple fritter : And this bad boy definitely got sick either due to me testing clay pebbles, using pre-fertilized coco substrate that may have been too wet to begin with or simple due to bad genetics cause it was a free seed, but where the curling/crunching was appearing now there are brown spots that are scrunching the leaf (pulling it inwards/crumpling it) i'm not sure what the actual problem is but from what i've seen online it looks like a PH fluctuation issue, but i'm not sure, i really need help on this one!
P.S I mentioned before that i was not able to find perlite in my local stores and i could only order online thats why i started in 100% coco, obviously that's not ideal and i will make a 70/30 blend for my next grow!, but for now im doing what i can with what i have :)
I noticed Quick One had issues with burnt tips and discoloration by the end of week 1 and 2, what could've been the issue?
Apple Fritter is looking sick, brown spots, what is that?
Easy Bud and Quick on have slight yellow/paled spots on their leaves, only 1-2, is that normal?
Most likely over feeding or the soil is to hot/salty.
Give it less feed and ensure your getting runoff with each feed.
I tend to like a good amount of perlite in the mix when growing with soilless substrates like coir or perlite. I see in your diary you are using rehydrated prefertilized coir. I think is the main cause of your issues. Coir I tend to rinse first use as it can hold onto a lot of salt from its processing. Out of the bag/block it can sometimes have a charge of around 1EC or 500PPM on the 500 scale. 500=1ec in shot. Also if you using a lesser brand of coir, it will not be buffered and will leach all the Ca and Mg out of the feeds and release excess Na and K. Need to add in Ca Mg on every watering and get runoff to prevent buildup.
Give it some more water and it should be ok and recover just fine. Look at what you are feeding the and use a EC/PPM pen to judge how strong the feed is.
I really like coir but it can take a bit to get used to its pitfalls. no medium is 100% perfect. and definitely look into mixing in about 20-30% perlite in the future.
Hey Growers, quick question! did research on the soil that i have/use and it's a mix of coco PEAT and coco COIR. What's the difference between the two when it comes to cannabis, didint hear anyone use peat, is it bad to use this soil?
Bigger brick is pre fert, is the fert bad?
So "coco peat" is loosely tossed around. Its either coco "coconut" Coir or Peatmoss and peatmoss has a lot of versions of its self based on when its harvested from young to old and they both have different grades or qualities of products.
Coco or Coir is derived from the other shell of coconuts, their husks. Its a great medium IMO derived from the tropics, some don't like it.
Peatmoss or Peat is derived from fresh water bogs, most of witch are in Canada I think. It has a high water holding capacity then Coir and needs more perlite mixed into the substrate to help off set this and ensure their is a good gas exchnage in the root zone. Coir is also sometimes call "green peat" as its said to be less destructive to the environment, but I think this was just clever marketing to sell a product and has no real truth to it and they piggybacked off of the huge peatmoss market that previously existed and its why there are so many similarities in its naming.
Basics are
Peat = 30-50% perlite mixed in, lower PH over time, high water holding capacity.
coir = 20-30% perlite mixed in. neutral PH over time, good water holding capacity.
Their are higher and lower quality grade of each product. The one main down side to Coir is that it need to be pretreated or it can cause issues.
This pretreatment is called washing and buffering, some also age their product. The purpose to washing is to remove excess salts from the product as the area they grow in. by the sea is salty, legit table salt NaCl, the buffering process is to offset the cation exchange sites in the coir fiber its self. It holds onto a lot of Sodium Na and Potassium K, it release these when exposed to Calcium Ca and Magnesium Mg. Good brands of coir presoak their products in a CaMg solution to prevent this called buffering, but as the coir ages it will have more and more sites exposed that need re buffering. When growing at home just adding a bit of CaMg into the mix is fine with some runoff. with out this step the medium takes in a lot of the Ca and Mg you feed your plants and releases a bunch of K and Na it does not need thus causing issues.
The products you have posted look to be all Coconut Coir I don't see peat moss as an ingredient. they use the wording "Coco Peat" as some people call coir "coconut peat" or "coco peat" but it is not Peatmoss it is Coir.
I don't know the brands your personally using. and if they have been washed and or buffered. You can add in fertilizers to anything so unless they say they are washing and buffering it. assume it is not and go from there. Or email the company and ask them if they do that.
Last bit is PH, Coir tends to have a neural PH or around 7, and Peatmoss tends to be a bit more acidic around 4-5, companies will normally buffer their peat moss to offset this but like coir as it ages more it will become more acidic over time. I find any time I grow with peatmoss in my style of growing I run into low PH issues and its why I like coir more. But some Peatmoss mixed into the medium is ok, just can't be the main ingredient for me. Others has great success with it though using it exclusively, especially in hydroponic style setups.
Week 4 seemed a bit slow at first, but i also realised that I wasn't treating coco appropriately, I should feed nutrients every time I water and control the ph and ppm better.
By the end of week 4 I got a water quality tester and am now able to properly take my ph down and monitor ppm so my plants don't get nutrient burned, but still gets enough nutrients in time.
I also allowed good amount of the top layer of my coco to dry because I mixed up advice that received about soil and coco together. Apparently coco has no issues with overwatering unless your pots have no drainage so in the last 2 days I started treating coco the way it's supposed to be treated, I also finally got calmag and my plants are showing good signs of health past 3 days, they look revitalised and happy again 😊
Unfortunately, apple fritter was way too sick for me to continue with it so I restarted it in a proper coco and perlite mix that's non fertilised, that's a separate diary because its a whole month later.
I decided not to train the first 2 plants just to see how the natural process is supposed to go.
FunkyNutz
