StickyTops
In Bloom
What brand of coconut do you use? Do you soak or buffer?
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Chef Dave's Spring and Summer Grow
- Thread starter Chefdave
- Start date
Chefdave
Tree of Life Genetics
I use pre buffered 11 lb blocks, that I soak, drain , add perlite , mix by hand, then precharge in 12 gallons of 3.0 ec nutrient solution . The brand is nutrifield from Amazon. I'm switching to floraflex professional 60 percent vwc , which is pre buffered, premixed with 30 percent coco and in 50 liter bags, I found a source a hours drive away, that sells wholesale for 17 bucks a bag. So will be the same end costs as the other, without the labor and time of mixing coco and perlite and soaking etc
StickyTops
In Bloom
You don't recycle anything? Fresh medium every run?
Chefdave
Tree of Life Genetics
Yeah, I use 1 gal fabric pots now, so nothing to recycle when harvested, just a root mass, so new bags and fresh coco Everytime, bags I buy 200 at a pop, they cost me 50 cents, so very cost effective
Trichitect
Canna-bacchus incarnate
Soil grower here (mostly organic). You're killing it at 2.5oz minimum in 1gal pots. Dang, Great work! What are you're best yielding plants coming in at? Forgive me if you already explained, but I'm guessing you're using some kind of automated top-watering?
Chefdave
Tree of Life Genetics
Yes, I crop steer, multiple fertigations per day, my average now is 3.5 to 4.5 per plant on seed runs, but I cull a lot of plants, only the fastest, healthiest plants make it to flower. I just harvested a table that had one glueberry HP from @HydroRed that will yield 7.5 to 8 zips, but that's not common. I only veg for 4 wks from 1st set of leaves on seeds and 2 weeks from rooted clones, Trying to get away from running seeds, just have a huge amount of great older( 4 plus years ) genetics I'm trying to blow through, already have terrible germination rates so won't be long, I usually do 200 seed plants on older seeds, expecting maybe 20 percent to make it to flower.
Trichitect
Canna-bacchus incarnate
I'm having the same issues with my older seeds. Poor germ rates, and the ones that do pop usually are not vigorous.
StickyTops
In Bloom
Some day pretty flowers bro. Have you noticed performance differences with the different coco brands you have used? How precise do you have to be with the fertigation volumes per event? You use pressure comp drippers or open lines?
StickyTops
In Bloom
I use floral flex bubbles wide open with open end drip lines. I'm in promix thinking about switching to coco.
Chefdave
Tree of Life Genetics
Hey brother, I'm in the middle of a serious build, but the current set up is 0.5 gph netfim pc cnl drip emmiters, 3/4 inch netafim white poly mains. On crop steering schedule between 3 and 8 shots a day of different percentage. The whole reason I'm switching to new system is precision, it will be a closed loop pressurized system with media sensors, computerized data tracking and computer/ software automated fertigations based on vwc. Using pulse hub and open sprinkler and teros 12 and acclimma sensors . As for performance difference in coco brands, no . No difference as long as you wash and then buffer or use pre buffered. Cheers
Chefdave
Tree of Life Genetics
Nothing wrong with promix, but if your going to be doing multiple fertigations per day, promix is definitely not the way to go, coco for the win.
Nefar
In Bloom
Awesome.
Chefdave
Tree of Life Genetics
Thanks brother, been taking my time with the new system, but should be done by next week, has been a lot of work for me, with an existing grow going on. I will of course post everything once completed.
StickyTops
In Bloom
That's what I was getting at with my earlier question. With my setup now I can't know precisely the amount of water per event. As long as I feed to some runoff it's fine right? With crop steering u dont have to give an exact volume per event?
Chefdave
Tree of Life Genetics
Yes with crop steering you do, it is precise shot sizes usually a 6% p1 shots or p2 3% maintainance shots. I had the same setup as you up to this year, unregulated irrigation manifolds, except for ball valves , I had unprecise fertigations, plants would be close to same amount, but not. If you water to run off every fertigation you are keeping plants in a vegetative phase or bulking phase as I like to call it. This phase is for weeks 4 through 7 on a 9 week cultivator. Weeks 1 through 3, and 8 and 9 need to be generative steering, with larger dry backs and higher medium ec.
Chefdave
Tree of Life Genetics
Yes your system is fine I used the same for 3 yrs with great results, just advancing now into full commercial setup. But realize I have 15k in just my big room to accomplish proper crop steering. It's expensive as shit! , and not worth it unless your selling, and profitable with your grow.
Bullfrog
Prince Charming
Does having a perfect setup and environment mean they all grow and turn out great, or do you still get fussy plants and plants that just don't do well? I'd guess there's still problem plants and plants that don't perform well, especially with seed grown. I'd never know I'm as cheap as they come.
Chefdave
Tree of Life Genetics
Yeah , the system is not meant for seed grows, like I'm doing now, clone only is best, I'm just trying to get rid of old seed stock. With any seed run , even culling weaker or slower growth plants in veg, there of course is a huge phenotypical variation!
Bullfrog
Prince Charming
Still bad ass, gotta be fun watching things explode when it's all dialed in.
