50/50 coco/soil growing

[Grow Monster]

This is my first journal. Just wanted to post how i grow with the mixed mediums. I've tried it a few runs and I really like it. I feel that once u understand the plants u can grow in any medium. Im not a guru or anything of the sort but just a grower that enjoys the hobby. My reasons for mixing them was trying to get the benefits of both. Soil for microbial life, coco for cheap price and explosive veg growth. Didn't like that soil took (5-7)days to dry out and coco needed watering everyday. So im somewhere in the middle now depending on plant age and size. Any how.....
I started with 8 seeds I put strait into medium on Jan. 2nd. 6 germinated 3-4 days later. 1 needed help but made it, so its about a week behind the rest. on Jan.13th I planted 3 more seeds to replace the 2 fallin soldiers.

 

[Grow Monster]

Currently they all share a 2x3 tent i use for veg/clone. Using a cheap $40 led 250watt eggwell. Best purchase every. Wish I cop'd 8 of em. Was skeptical at first then they were sold out. Temp in the tent is 74-79°f and 50-70%rh when humidifier is on. Got a oscillating fan in there but no intake or exhaust. I leave tent vented all around and partially unzipped to help control humidity and temp. As they grow i will put them in different tents. Not sure yet if I'm going to arrange/group by size, breeder or strain.
I have 3 small tents to work with. 2x2, 2.5x2.5 and a 3x3.
Lights: spider farmer 2000(200watts), viparspectra 250watt and 240watt.
Strains im running:

From Happy Bird Seeds (hbs): Booberry Coco Riff, Twizzlers auto(twenty 20 guys), Sour Apple auto(Humboldt) and Bisbee Sunrise auto.

From Sensi-seeds: Purple kush and Pineapple kush

From Cannibus seeds usa: Georgia pie, Lemon cherry gelato and Mac1

 

[Grow Monster]

Light is on 25% about 2' from plants. Medium was mixed with happy frog, coco coir, 20% perlite, ewc, sucanat (1st time trying this), DE, mykos mychorizea and gaja green 444 and 284.

This is how they looked Jan 17th. About 11days from germination for the older ones.

 

[Grow Monster]

Jan.18th transplanted older ones. Sprayed them with neem oil and didn't dilute to foliar strength so I got some leaf burn on one and discoloration on 2 of em. 1st time using the stuff. Used as a drench on some flowering plants and thought I could just threw some in the spray bottle. I know now to dilute 1st. I usually don't use foliar sprays but saw a couple gnats and said why not. I will be using 3 gallon fabric pots this run.

 

[Grow Monster]

Jan. 21st all going well.

 

[Grow Monster]

Here we got the before and after:
Fimmed Georgia pie, starting training the 2 autos and Mac1 and left pineapple kush alone.

 

[Grow Monster]

All comments welcomed. Lmk if i forgot anything. Im not to internet savvy so this journal is kinda a leap for this old timer. Pics and post still feel weird to me. I will try to post atleast a couple times a week unless something interesting occurs. I also want to see how these seeds compare. Hbs are about $2 and 100% germinated. Sensi cost $8-$12 and lost 1 out of 3. Canibus usa cost $12-$20 per seed and we lost 1 out of 4.

 

[Grow Monster]

I will be using gaia green organic dry amendments thru this entire run. I don’t water to runoff but I will switch up and water from bottom occasionally. If there is any runoff its not much and plant will suck it rt up.

 

[Psyphish]

Interesting to see how the grow medium works for you. I've mixed coco with EWC and other organics before, but always felt straight coco just works better.

 

[Grow Monster]

Interesting to see how the grow medium works for you. I've mixed coco with EWC and other organics before, but always felt straight coco just works better.

It was a lil tricky at first but once I got use to how dry to let it get and best ph for it (6.5) now its no problem. Strait coco was just to much extra work.

 

[Grow Monster]

Room was getn stuffy so time to move em around and spread em out. I put all the Hbs strains in the 2.5x2.5 mars hydro tent under the spider farmer sp2000 at 75% about 2' away. I will see how they react with that big jump. All others are in the 3x3 ipower tent under the viparspectra xs2000 at 75% about 2' above. Did a bit more lst adjustments. Nothing major.
I've been watering each with about 2 cups every 3 days. Haven't fully soaked pots yet. Waiting for the roots to fill it out. I count the transplant as 1st feeding so next feed will be in 3 weeks using Gaia green. I will be giving it a lil Epsom salt in next watering tomorrow. I got the soil the day of transplant so im sure there is a not alot going on in the soil rt now far as microbial life as of yet.
The 2 older auto's started preflowering days after transplant. Main reason i decided to do lst instead of topping them.

 

[michojay]

Can I ask why you wouldn’t just run a heavier perlite mix in soil instead of mixing coco? Seems like you’d get as good or better results with getting oxygen to the roots.

 

[Kerowacked]

All comments welcomed. Lmk if i forgot anything. Im not to internet savvy so this journal is kinda a leap for this old timer. Pics and post still feel weird to me. I will try to post atleast a couple times a week unless something interesting occurs. I also want to see how these seeds compare. Hbs are about $2 and 100% germinated. Sensi cost $8-$12 and lost 1 out of 3. Canibus usa cost $12-$20 per seed and we lost 1 out of 4.

If you presoak seeds overnight in water or 3% peroxide it helps stubborn ones germinate.

 

[Grow Monster]

Can I ask why you wouldn’t just run a heavier perlite mix in soil instead of mixing coco? Seems like you’d get as good or better results with getting oxygen to the roots.

I tried that but roots didn't like 50% perlite. I wanted to water more often then soil would let me. Alot of soils actually have coco peat mixed in. I thought I'd make the mix more to my liking.

 

[Grow Monster]

If you presoak seeds overnight in water or 3% peroxide it helps stubborn ones germinate.

Might try that next go round. When i tested to see if seed was alive, one seed did sink to the bottom so maybe its still usable. I guess i wont toss it just yet. Thanks.

 

[Grow Monster]

All was going well until Georgia pie showed male parts. Won't be ordering from cannibus seeds usa again. It was suppose to be feminized. The Bisbee sunrise is preflowering while still in the solo cup. The lemon cherry gelato has been struggling from day one. Leaves look crazy but I've seen worse do well in the end. I've been watering every 3 days. Dimmed lights to 60% when leaves started a slight fade. Also wanted to see them praying longer thru the day. I will probably flip the photos in about 2 weeks. That's why I like autos, it will a perpetual harvest about a month apart. Then clone photos for next run with new autos.

 

[Grow Monster]

So I still got the (male) Georgia pie in another tent waitn for a friend to come grab it (to collect pollen). So its back to the original number of 8.
I transplanted the lil ones on feb 3rd. Everything going well. Watering on a couple has increased to every other day about 2 ltr's. Those 2 got fed for 1st time since transplant. The other 2 big ones will get nutes tomorrow. Time to do some defoliating on big girls and a bit of training on the rest.
I plan on flipping Mac1 and Pineapple kush next week. Lemon cherry gelato and purple kush will be flipped at the end of the month and moved to their own tent.
Out of the Hbs tent the only photo is Booberry Coco riff which I will flip in a month. The other 3: Sour apple, Twizzlerz and Bisbee Sunrise are all autos and already flowering.
I been adjusting the dimmer on the lights. I want them to pray a bit more but not be exhausted by lights out. So Hbs tent light was raised a couple inches and dimmer set to 70%.

I will be keeping my eye on the Lemon cherry. Sometimes plants that struggle tend to throw nanners or herm up. I think she will be fine with a lil tlc.
Been a couple days since these pics but I will update after defo and training.

 

[Grow Monster]

Been Fighting with the girls trying to turn up the light but they not having it. At 100% then 85% Saw signs to cut it back down. Mac 1 was drooping most of the day and sour apple got light tips so hbs tent is now on 75% (150 watts) and other one is on 60% (144 watts). Everything praying most of the day now.
Went and took some cuttings today. I usually clone tops after topping so I don't waste anything but did not top any this run so I grabbed a couple light deprived cuttings from the bottom. Most are about a half an inch. I noticed on the Bisbee auto there were sites that had no hairs on it yet and thought why not try a clone. That plant is 24 days old today and at one week of flowering. All the autos in the hbs tent had no veg time. Went 2 weeks in seedling to flip. The other autos are 36 days old and 2 weeks of flowering. Also got a cutting from sour apple but it was already showing hairs. Looking closer I noticed either beans or pollen sacs forming on the cutting. Hopefully beans but I will grow it and find out. If its sacs I will give it to a friend but I will keep the beans. That was only seed of that strain so it would be nice to get to grow her again. Ive seen autos cloned on youtube and decided to try. It will be same age as mother so im interested in seeing what it can do in 2 months of growth. Its just for shits and giggles tho. I'd be happy with one big bud (bisbee) or the seeds on the sour. Got the tents packed like I like but I will take out the lil vegging ones and clones once I flip it on Wednesday. I decided not to defoliate yet. Once I have the 2 big girls alone in the tent I will stretch em out and decide what will go or stay. This is how u do a perpetual grow for all those curious. Got some flowering, early and late veg and clones all growing together. Will be harvesting something every month. Don't know why folks hate on autos. They help bring it all together. 8 total clones so far (2 each). I need to clone the other 3 photos once they big enough. I only want one of each but got more then needed incase some don't make it. I will give away the rest. Also we got a lil frost on the sour. Not bad for 36 days from sprout. See u next update.

 

[Grow Monster]

Not much to report. Everything moving along. Clones showing new growth. All the girls are drinking half gallon every other day. Moved a couple girls around to make room. Saw a lil calmag issue starting with flowering hbs autos. I flipped the older 2 girls on Feb 22nd. Ill give the smaller ones 2 more weeks. Still didn't do any defoliating. I spread the older girls out a bit with training.

 

[Grow Monster]

Been a couple weeks since last update. Found another male in the tent. Hope I didn't catch it to late. Super pissed cus that's 2 so far from seeds usa that were male but suppose to be feminized. At least if they were hermies I would feel better.
Moved the girls around a bit to make room. Got Mac1 and Pineapple kush in the 3x3. Boo berry coco riff and purple kush in the 2x3. The 3 autos from hbs (sour apple, Bisbee sunrise, twizzler) and clones in the 2.5x2.5.
Sour apple is still showing signs of calmag issues on leaves. It did better when I gave it calmag so I should've followed up with each watering. The rest have no apparent issues. 100% of clones made it. Got about 3weeks left for the autos then I'll have more space to work with. Plus i still got a tent/light free. The girls are drinking 3 ltrs every other day now. Its probably about time to feed the clones. Thats about all to report.
The blooming autos smell amazing. Wish it was a lil more trichs on them but overall they look gd and I got high hopes for these strains. For starting to flower at 2 weeks from germination I think they will yield decent. About 2 zips per plant is my guess. Im happy with that. Ill get nice yield from my photos to even things out. This run none are topped just lst. Last run I topped all but did no training so i stuffed 4 to a tent. This time i spread em out. Less plants, work, water and nutes but looking to get same yield. Also it took 2weeks before the big girls started showing flower sites after the flip so im expecting them to go 10 weeks total. I start my 8 week count after the bud sites appear.
Til next update happy growing!