SF 2020/2021 Season

After a big failure last year (I killed my plants with excess neem oil), I have started a new grow.

I'm growing in pure Coco coir (a few plants have some perlite mixed in because I ran out of coco).

A lot of tips and tricks came from blisters grow logs.

I've finally found a setup that works for me.

Here are some of the strains I'm growing.

Trinidad X strain variant
Devil's brains
Brain stinger
Peach ghost Jami
Coyote Zan white
Chocolate fatalii
Yellow fatalii
SB7J
Moruglah
Bahamian goat
Purple ufo
Chocolate bhutlah SM
Carolina reaper
7pot brain strain yellow
7pot nebru
Yellow nagabrains
Yellow scotch brains
Chocolate Naga brains X reaper
Trinidad moruga scorpion yellow
Tasmanian habanero
Pink Tiger x Peach Bhut
Big black mama
Purple Carolina reaper
Blue ghost
Purple Naga viper
Lemon drop
Sugar rush peach
Arepaho cayenne
Long thin cayenne
Jalapeno
Texas longhorn


My setup is a bit different this year.
I have upgraded to

a 120 * 120 * 200 cm grow tent
2 100w quantum boards (chinese clones)
a clip on fan

Lights were on for 24 hours but they're now on for 16 hours a day.

Each plant is in pure Coco coir (a little bit of perlite in some) which I sieved to remove all the fines. This provides a media which drains nearly instantly. I don't bottom feed ever but have double cups to catch any run off.

Each plant gets fed everyday with Nutrifield Coco A+B, Nutrifield Veg Ignitor, Nutrifield Root Nectar and Flairform CMX.

EC is 1.2 and pH is between 5.8 and 6.2.

I feed the plants outside the tent until water comes out the bottom of their containers and then I let them drain for a couple of minutes and put them back in their bottom cups and then back into the tent. A few drops of runoff will come out over a few hours which drip into the bottom cups.

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[SuburbanFowl]

I have transplanted all my plants into plastic tubes with a layer of hydroton at the bottom. they drain in about 5 seconds then can go straight back into the tent.

My past failures with Coco have been because of pH lockout, salt built up, overwatering and underwatering all caused by lack of drainage.

With this setup it's not possible for me to over water because they drain so quick and they never sit in run off. I can feed them every day which flushes the coco avoiding salt built up (which inevitably leads to nutrient lock out).

With Coco, these plants can grow huge in small containers. I'll keep most plants in these containers until I plant them outside in 30 or so days time.

The lighting combined with a constant source of nutrients creates plants with short internodal spacing and lots of lateral growth.

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[SuburbanFowl]

Some catnip plants lived short lives.

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[SuburbanFowl]

I start all seeds using the paper towel method then sow them into a single cup with a ziplock bag over the top. I use pure coco for this. After a few days they will sprout.



Then I transplant them into mini solo cups.

Then I will pick the healthiest and transplant those.

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[SuburbanFowl]

For lighting I'm using chinense clones of quantum boards. I've never seen growth as fast as I'm having with these lights.

They're unbelievably bright, a photo can't show how bright they are.

They have Meanwell drivers and are dimmable.

I also have 3 cheap hygrometers.

It's a bit cold in the tent, I opened it to take photos [emoji23]

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[SuburbanFowl]

I've used blisters technique of sieving the coco.

Coarse coco on the left, fine coco pith on the right.

Once you remove the fine pith, the media drains nearly instantly and the roots grow fast.

The coarse coco dries out faster which means you can feed it more often. In my experience, this results in a faster growing plant.

I've started collecting the salts, rocks, crystals and other various objects found while sieving coco.

My favourite is a sea shell.

Even the top Dutch brands have these bits and pieces in their coco.

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[SuburbanFowl]

After killing all my superhots last year before they even had pods, I'm so happy with how my plants are looking.

This will be my first real pepper season.

I'm still learning every day.

I saw other growers with plants that looked like this but I never thought mine would look like this.

Never stop researching, learning and improving.

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[SuburbanFowl]

When my plants are moved outdoors I'll be transplanting them into fabric grow bags in potting mix. I'll be using store bought potting mix for some plants and DIY potting mix for others. I'll be using 15 gallon grow bags mainly.

3 plants will be grown in pure coco.

Many plants are going to be culled but I don't want to cull all the extras yet incase something happens to the plants I'm planning on growing.

This list will probably change a bit. It's hard to choose which plants to grow out. Maybe I'll sell the extras.

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[SuburbanFowl]

My biggest discovery is having containers elevated. Even though Coco drains incredibly quickly, there will always be runoff that drains out over a few hours after watering.

I have elevated my plants using PVC pipes cut into small pieces. I had to use a hand saw and it was a pain in the butt but I found a guy who can cut PVC pipes with a machine. He will cut 11 metres of PVC pipes for me.

The fabric bags in particular tend to drip runoff for a while after feeding. This technique is going to be a game changer for me.

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[SuburbanFowl]

Got Coco, perlite, worm castings, neem granules and humate for my DIY potting mix. Just need some rock dust and osmocote.

I wanted to use biochar but covid must've interrupted the supply chain for the company I was going to buy it from.

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[PaulG]

Great grow underway here, SF.
 
I really like your methods and set-up.
 
I have flirted with the idea of using coir,
but just have never pulled the trigger.
The process always seemed a bit
daunting to me.

 

[SuburbanFowl]

Thanks Paul.

I've had to scale back the grown considerably.

Mixing, ECing, pHing and then feeding 30 odd plants a day was taking easily 2 hours each day when accounting for different nutrient solution strength for different plants.

The only way I could see this method being viable would be to setup an automatic fertigation and drainage system.

I know some cash crop growers have automated systems or will even hand water many plants each day but they have a much bigger incentive to do so, lol.

It's probably 3-4 weeks until plant out. I can't wait to transplant them all into potting mix and let them do their thing.

With that being said, if I was limited to growing only one or two plants, pure coco would be my go to substrate because of how fast the plants grow and how much control you have over the nutrients being delivered to the plants.



Honestly, once you wrap your head around coco it is ridiculously simple. Learning it is the hard part. There is a lot of room for error and I have killed literally hundreds of plants while learning how to grow in coco.



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[SuburbanFowl]

My first plant has forked and is producing buds.

Pink Tiger x Peach Bhut

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[PaulG]

Alright, babies growing up!
 
Awesome pic, SF.