Massproducer's Coco buckets

[massproducer]

more to it than that i think. the coco is really just the medium. its the factory your feeding, but yeah LO should not require much monitoring in PH. microbes take care of the feeding. just keep them buggies happy

online bro of mine sent me something on microbial life of coco...i'll see if i can dig it up.

Great thread mass....sorry if i butted in did not read entire thread...but your on track can't wait to see how this turns out for ya
:farm:

edit: one chem dude converted 200,000,000 to go

Well i have been experiemnting with different mediums for a while, in hempy style buckets, and using coco coir is a totally different game. Coco has the ability to harbour beneficals like no other medium because of its organic composition. It build the strongest root systems, and with the amendments that I used and explained, it really is that simple.

A normal hempy bucket is not the same as my coco layers buckets, they work somewhat differently, all because of the layering and because of the coco's properties. It is practically impossible to overwater and because of the coco and the way that coco regulates nutrients overfeeding is somewhat hard as well because the coco will absorb the nutrients that it needs, while releasing others that it is in excess of.

The largest obsticle to over come is the cation exchange. Once this is balanced it is truly smooth sailing. I always feed my beneficals diverse food sources so that I get all possible microbes and fungi to colonate my medium but with coco it is not even really required because the beneficals can feed directly on the coco itself.

Because of coco coirs ph, which is around 6-7, all nutrients stay availible to the plants, and you should have no ph problems, and that is not to mention that the beneficals will also regulate the PH, but using something like peat moss, which is the main constitue on something like promix, ph becomes important because the ph of peat moss is around 4, so even with the beneficals going to work you still need to monitor the ph. With the ph of peat moss being so low, it is very easy for nutrients to become insoluable and collect as salts, this is greatly reduced by coco because of its cation exchange rates.

 

[massproducer]

I though that I would post a couple pics of the mycorrhizal fungi at work. It is somewhat hard to see, but all of the white fuzzy stuff you see on my medium is the benefical mycorrhizea taking over my medium.

This is what you want to see. It is the fruiting body of the fungi, and contains the spores. At this point it has already created a symbiotic relationship with the plants roots and is providing minerals and protection to my roots. It would be very hard for a pathegenic fungi to invade my root zone or really even my medium

 

[massproducer]

Here are a few updated pics...

These are the Purps, and were flowered at about 6 inches. They now stand almost 3 feet.

You can look back at some of the previous pics to see the progress of this plant

 

[Abso]

I may have to try a few of these.

 

[massproducer]

The first pic is the same purps

The second and third are of the most surprizing plant i have, It is Kush and it has exploded in the past week since it has reached the rez.

You can see this plant as well in the earlier pics I posted, it is the small plant in the back. Well it is surely not small anymore. Both this and the purps has stretched very efficiently, but have stretched about 4 times there original height, and these are very strong indica dominate plants, that you just do not expect this type of growth from. I normally hate stretching but sometimes it is very beneficial, if you have the space, which i do. The internode distance is great, but both this and the purps have transformed into bushy single cola plants.

What I mean by that is that the plants started bushy and are suppose to be bushy, and they still are very bushy with very nice branching, but because they have stretched so efficiently, each branch of the original bushes have stretched into very long single colas, it is more evident with the purps, as I am expecting many colas as long as my arm.

 

[massproducer]

a few bud pics from one of my kush plants getting closer to harvest, but still a couple of week away

While they look a little burned it was actually a magnesium deficiency, as I was still experimenting with different amendments and feeding schedules and medium.

These were grown in a medium closer to original hempy buckets, these are still rather impressive when you cansider I was totally experimenting.

 

[massproducer]

Here is what my purps should look like. These were grown in a medium similar to the first kush but with more coco coir added. These buckets were not layered and contained no amendments, they were also in full 5 gallon buckets that were too big for me because i usually transplant right before flowering into my buckets.

These are wonderful plants, but are kind of small because of the buckets being too big, the roots did not reach the rez during the stretch, it took them longer to explode, so I got smaller plants, with big chuncky buds. It is funny because they kind of resemble God bud, like this.

So the goal is to make sure your buckets are big enough to support the plant during flowering, but small enough as to let the roots reach the rez within the first 2 weeks of flowering.

 

[massproducer]

As always questions are welcomed and encouraged.

Keep it green

 

[lyfr]

first off thanks man...now, if i got pure indo clones in 1 gal pots[], ffof, can i transplant it into one of these? 3 or 5 gal? i want to 5 of them this way and and put them in flower room ( 30 x 50" ) with one 7 gal soil mom thats already in there...400 hps. thank ya Mass

 

[massproducer]

You should have no problems transplanting from ffof, I would go with 3 gallon buckets, depending on the current root ball, if you are going to take them into flowering right away. The goal is to get those roots down into the rez, before the end of the stretch, so they explode during the stretch and create a lot more bud sites then would normally be.

It sounds like you have a nice plan there lyfr

 

[hayzy]

Could you do a sog grow with this...with 1 gallon pots for the whole time, think that would be fast finish with the res kicking in

 

[King Bud]

I'm growing in coco mulch, with a 1/2 inch layer of coco coir (long strands of coco) on the bottom, which was intended for stopping the mulch from being flushed out the bottom when I over water (stupid reason, mulch doesn't flush out too much to be a problem).

I always feed the top of the buckets with nutrient rich water, and since reading this, for a select few, I am also bottom feeding with pure pH adjusted water.

I've bottom fed my buckets before.. but just didn't notice any benefit.

What I've noticed is that the bucket doesn't absorb all the water right away (so long as they're well watered), so in essence I've created a reservoir in the drain pan. It does disappear quickly (it's about an inch high), as I have to refill the bottom almost everyday, depending on how often I feed them.

I yanked some plants out of their pots, and noticed thick long roots growing through the layer of coco coir strands.. while the buckets with no reservoir, there are no such roots. I think I've also noticed a growth spurt on those with the res, but s'too soon to tell.

Great thread MassProducer! You can bet I'll be bottom feeding the others, once I'm thoroughly convinced.

 

[massproducer]

Could you do a sog grow with this...with 1 gallon pots for the whole time, think that would be fast finish with the res kicking in

If you are going to do a sog then yes 1 gallon pots would be alright but keep in mid that coco coir will cause the roots to grow bigger and fuller then peat moss or potting soils, so you really should use something bigger then you would normally use for soil.

I would say a 2 - 2.5 gallon bucket would be best, also you can't use pots because they have holes in the bottom which will just cause all of your nutes to flow through, this would be just growing with coco, which is wonderful, but is a bit different then what I am doing.

Either way good luck and keep us posted.

 

[massproducer]

I'm growing in coco mulch, with a 1/2 inch layer of coco coir (long strands of coco) on the bottom, which was intended for stopping the mulch from being flushed out the bottom when I over water (stupid reason, mulch doesn't flush out too much to be a problem).

I always feed the top of the buckets with nutrient rich water, and since reading this, for a select few, I am also bottom feeding with pure pH adjusted water.

I've bottom fed my buckets before.. but just didn't notice any benefit.

What I've noticed is that the bucket doesn't absorb all the water right away (so long as they're well watered), so in essence I've created a reservoir in the drain pan. It does disappear quickly (it's about an inch high), as I have to refill the bottom almost everyday, depending on how often I feed them.

I yanked some plants out of their pots, and noticed thick long roots growing through the layer of coco coir strands.. while the buckets with no reservoir, there are no such roots. I think I've also noticed a growth spurt on those with the res, but s'too soon to tell.

Great thread MassProducer! You can bet I'll be bottom feeding the others, once I'm thoroughly convinced.

Sounds good, are you feeding your plant chemicals or organics? Let me know if you ever need help with anything.

 

[tn_toker420]

Wow...Very interesting method...If i ever get started indoors i'll really have to consider this if the resources are available for me...The buds are lookin' nice...The kush is really good lookin , keep us updated

 

[King Bud]

Sounds good, are you feeding your plant chemicals or organics?

Right now I am feeding strictly chems. When I transplant them for flowering (right now I am intentionally stunting their height with a very low tds), I will probably add some bat guanos and worm castings to the top layer of coco mulch.

MassProducer, here's a link I think you'll like: hXXp://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/1534.html

 

[massproducer]

I actually came accross that same article a while back and it has always fascinated me. MY method incorporates some of the same elements.

 

[raoulduke2.0]

I have been looking for something well rounded to settle on for my second grow, when the time comes and after this read, I have found it. This thread is tops. Props Mass Producer.

 

[ozzydiodude]

This tea receipe is just what I was looking for. Thank for the great info.

 

[docfishwrinkle]

hey mass! best thread read in while. i have couple questions. 1st of all i was wondering about worm castings, i can't find up here in MI within few minutes of house. my question is out of these existing items laying around in my basement: bone & blood meal, mushroom compost, kelp meal, epsom salt, & terra cycle castings(various castings pelletized/granular), would that be enough to sustain & even better make them thrive? id be useng grounds & eggshells also.do you use any lime in your mix cause i dont recall you mentioning it? just dawned on me you said coco has 6-7 ph. if you feel so kind maybe help me in order of layers if i can get away w/ what i have. noobie here & still learning npk values for different amendments. what could be minimum # of layers, im thinking of going 4-5? love the fact that its somewhat of a set it & forget grow. oh yeah one last thing i promise, ill be putting 16"-20" plants from one gallon pots into 5 gal. is this ok? thanks for everything in advance.