Massproducer's Coco buckets

[lyfr]

so you been growing ur biggest plant in coco/perlite mix in layers w/o nutes 4 how long? no organics @ all? thats amazing! coco must be the wonder drug!lol:hubba:

9/16...nothing. first couple weeks just water, then I started adding molasses every other time. yep, coco/perlite layers/3" res...but i did add bat guano,alfalfa meal, blood meal, vermi castings w/humus &myco's, a sprinkle of epsom salts and a sprinkle of lime ( the Mg, Calcium thing Mass mentioned ), the ashes that fell in from the doobie i was smokin and a whole lotta love. Allthat in different amounts/layers of course.

 

[docfishwrinkle]

nice thats pretty much more or less what i did. thats awesome you have a side by side comparison. originally i thought u did w/ plain coco & h2o! def keep this thread updated w/ ur experiences & pics! what strain you have? ive bubblelicious & shes touchy.

 

[lyfr]

what strain you have?.

grape ape...and i just got a few more. i do all my update's on new set-up link in my signature, i just wanted to stop in Mass'es thread for a minute

 

[solarz]

MassP, is coconut bark(for reptiles from Petsmart) efficient to use instead of the coco coir that you use? Or what about the coco fiber that they sell at home depot/lowes that are used in hanging baskets? Would either of those work? I can't find the coco coir locally...or i just don't know where to look (any suggestions?). Thanks

 

[docfishwrinkle]

MassP, is coconut bark(for reptiles from Petsmart) efficient to use instead of the coco coir that you use? Or what about the coco fiber that they sell at home depot/lowes that are used in hanging baskets? Would either of those work? I can't find the coco coir locally...or i just don't know where to look (any suggestions?). Thanks

im using reptile coco right now you can get 3 bricks in a pack 4 around $8. each brick makes roughly 2 gal of coco. use ro to expand it. look @ post 64 & 67.

 

[solarz]

ok, thanks Doc.

 

[docfishwrinkle]

2wks today in flower & i need a bigger space. this method is insane i water every day 1qt to top "res" per plant, but will let them go for two days before ferts then give em 1/2 gal per plant & this is what happened. next time around definately useing scrog screen i built almost a year ago.

 

[docfishwrinkle]

I am going to do the same thing you guys are doing starting this wednesday; utility people coming this week to do an install :rant: that my beautiful wife just had to have but I am going to try re-vegetating using this method. I was talking with my local hydroponic dealer and he raves over using cocoa. According to him you should have no problems re-vegetating a plant in 5 gallon buckets for a good year or more. He said the cocoa takes so long to break down and it can support plant life for much longer than a bucket of soil.

whats up GSS are you converted yet? just looking over thread & havent heard...

 

[godspeedsuckah]

yes indeed, planted 4 northern lights and 4 aurora indica lastnight. can't wait to see what happens. your grow looks awesome doc

 

[godspeedsuckah]

hxxp://www.planetganja.com/highsociety/showthread.php?t=63904

This is a link I found which states you can use much smaller containers than with soil and still have very large grows in coco. What do you guys think? I would think you need some kind of automated watering system.

 

[ugmjfarmer]

Hey Massproducer, have you ever thought of converting this into a full system by using 1/4 supply line, a drain for run-off and a big res that could supply 12 or more of these buckets for a week or longer.

It seems like you could set it to fill the buckets every 2 days with 1 gallon or so of water and just make up new solution every week, making it a true automated hydo system with much more redundancy than a normal system given how infrequent you would need to irrigate.

Maybe its possible to even just sub-irrigate as well.

I know it sounds like more work to setup, but really you could do a system like this with 48 plants and only have to work on them once a week when its dialed in. I'd love a system that grows 12 plants of 4 different strains (48 total) with 4 res's that I only change once a week. Since its drain to waste, there is no messing with PH every week. Yet your water usage would be decreased significantly over any other drain to waste, and your nutrient usage would be reduced too.

Think about it, for 48 plants to make it a week, you'd only need close to 100 gallons (or less, im probably over exaggerating) a week to make it work.

 

[lyfr]

Hey Massproducer, have you ever thought of converting this into a full system by using 1/4 supply line, a drain for run-off and a big res that could supply 12 or more of these buckets for a week or longer.

It seems like you could set it to fill the buckets every 2 days with 1 gallon or so of water and just make up new solution every week, making it a true automated hydo system with much more redundancy than a normal system given how infrequent you would need to irrigate.

Maybe its possible to even just sub-irrigate as well.

I know it sounds like more work to setup, but really you could do a system like this with 48 plants and only have to work on them once a week when its dialed in. I'd love a system that grows 12 plants of 4 different strains (48 total) with 4 res's that I only change once a week. Since its drain to waste, there is no messing with PH every week. Yet your water usage would be decreased significantly over any other drain to waste, and your nutrient usage would be reduced too.

Think about it, for 48 plants to make it a week, you'd only need close to 100 gallons (or less, im probably over exaggerating) a week to make it work.

Sorry to but in...but,IMO that would take away 1 of the main reasons i went with this type grow...no pumps,filters,stones or other electrical/mechanical devices to mess with

 

[massproducer]

Yup, while I love the idea and think that it would be great for some, I kind of like the fact of this having no moving parts, so nothing that can break or malfunction.

To run say 48 of these buckets you would need a major amount of space and light. To even run 12 buckets, you need to have a lot of space, because when these take off, they really take off, almost beyond belief, 2-3 plants in say a nice sized closet is going to be very cramped, ask Doc.

I truly do like your idea, and as you said, things would be totally automated, i can bet that a lot of people would love to add your adaption to the system. This is a route that I have gone down in the creation of the buckets, but opted for the simplicity and dependability of no moving parts. I will tell you one thing tho, while it would make feeding easier, it will not increase the systems efficiency, unless you are running as you said 48 buckets, as I am sure feeding 48 buckets would almost become a full time job, and caring for 48 full grown plants in these buckets would definiately become a full time job.

Trust me these plants grow fast and get very big given the veg time. What i mean is that a clone vegged for 1 week in my buckets, will basically equal like a 3 week veg in soil.

 

[ugmjfarmer]

Well in a big system like that, the whole key would be to get the plants to hit the res right as they start to bud. Can you imagine the speed you could get in the stretch and bud production?

But your right, simplicity wins.

So if one was so inclined to setup 12 of these (seeing as that's the minimum number i'll be licensed for come november 2nd), how much light would one want? 2) 1000's? Are we talking about a 4lb system?

 

[docfishwrinkle]

hey mass whats up? was wondering if you thought of this or if its a bad idea? instead of having a weep hole at top of res couldn't you do a sight glass like a dwc bucket? im asking cause i hate watering till overflow especially when its nute time. only obvious draw back is to water lil, wait, then look @ glass. if you don't get carried away w/ water to flood your bucket then should be ok right? also you could see exactly how much shes drinking per day. i like to record as much as possible on an almost daily basis (ocd).

 

[massproducer]

The main reason that it is important to water till you see some overflow is because it re-oxygenates any stale water that may have been sitting in the rez since the last watering.

I agree that this is the biggest pain in the back, but as you said with time you start to understand how much water the plant will take at any given time. I myself don't mind the overflow when it comes to feeding just water, but I try to be as precise as possibile when I water with my nutes, I do this by feeding it very slow and giving all of the water a chance to soak into the coco before adding any more, this way I can control the amount of run off, to my liking... But yes if you just pour in what you think they need you may be in for a nice overflow when the water soaks into the coco

 

[docfishwrinkle]

another question that i previously asked lyfr is, do you think that if i went dwc & fed organics i could still achieve that soil taste? until now w/ buckets i was going deep water, then your thread magically appeared & im convinced w/ the vigorous growth. want to veg no longer than *** appears then flower, but of course have big *** plants too. like to try every option to see what im capable of & what suits my needs. tell you what though im never goin' to let the coco's go. citral seeds, coco, scrog next grow. im convinced i can pull a #! please let me know your thoughts.

doc

oh yeah girls are @ 21 days 2day. can you say christmas green?

 

[docfishwrinkle]

x-mas green

 

[lyfr]

i use regular planter trays to catch overflow, dump them all in a bucket and feed my fushia's with it...but i also only have 6 buckets goin right now. I was thinkin of usin my 2 x 4 tray to hold them and putting a bucket under the drain to catch it all at once.

 

[godspeedsuckah]

They are mighty fine doc, beauties!!! Are those 3 or 5 gallon buckets? I looked on my mop bucket and it doesn't say. All 4 Northern lights and 4 Aurora indicas sprouted in coco I mixed some perlite, worm castings, and steamed bone meal to start them in. They seem to be very happy.