Coco vs FFOF mid-veg conversion:
Well, I kinda ran outta space so I had a pair of indica dom clones, and a pair of sativa doms to :weedpoke: It's just mids bagseed, vegging under CFLs, and not much of them. I try to maintain a responsible carbon footprint, (size 10EE). :hippy:
Been rooted for 3-4 weeks now (the plants, not me) in FFOF. Gonna take one of each pair and try a mid-veg conversion to coco. Leave the other as a "control" to compare to the coco results. I tried to give the "Soil Team" every advantage by picking better developed plants, although each pair is from the same mum.
The "indicas:"
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The plant on the left above has a slightly better root system (shown on the RIGHT in the pic below, sorry), so it gets to stay in soil. I'll transplant it and the stronger sativa into 3 gal. nursery pots with FFOF, and put the weaker of each pair in aprx. 2 gal. wastebaskets fulla coco.
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Coco vs FFOF mid-veg conversion:
These things are a pain. The original bud looked jes' like old-time "Redbud Colombian." The plant is a lighter green color and will not let go of any of its dead leaves. Even if they dry to desiccated crispiness (a worthy aspiration) they have to be pulled screaming and kicking from the plant.
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I know the plant on the right looks bigger. It's not. That's stretch, because I had these things out on the floor under a couple CFL's and that plant didn't get enough light. It was turning its fans toward the light, which is why we see the undersides of the leaves.
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The better root system (on the right) belongs to the less stretchy plant (on the left, sorry, first grow log here--I'll try to keep things lined up better) so that plant gets to stay in soil.
Coco vs FFOF mid-veg conversion:
I've got about 1.5" of gravel in the pots, soil and coco to ensure drainage.
My water is terrible, very salty well water (~705ppm). Gonna use it anyway, always worked before. Jes' gotta water right and flush when needed. How it'll do with coco, well, if this works I think anyone can do it.
I moistened the coco with nuted water, 1 tsp. Dyna-gro (7-9-5 for veg) per gallon, as suggested by Weezard. I think the nuted water pH'ed at 6.9, so I left it at that 'cos the coco's pretty acid.
The soil plants got FF Gro-big, as everyone had been getting up until the transplant. (about 1 tsp/gallon there, too.)
So here are our contestants: in the dirty, black trunks weighing in at 20 freakin' pounds or so, soil. In the light trunks, coco. Floats like a butterfly. ;)
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I can tell ya right now I'm not going to be able to provide exactly duplicate conditions for the plants, due to different container sizes, different genetics, etc.
They'll be going under 2 shoplights, 2 x 32W T8's in each, if they'll fit with what's there already. These lights raise up to 37" maximum, so if anybody gets stretchy from this point forward they're getting tied down. Plants growing into the lights ain't gonna learn me nuttin. I'll try to keep conditions as even as practical, though. :rasta:
Coco vs FFOF mid-veg conversion:
I'll be checkin in on this one. I want to see a coco vs. soil grow. things are lookin good, keep it up.:thumbsup:
Coco vs FFOF mid-veg conversion:
Settling in for the ride. :stoned:
Coco vs FFOF mid-veg conversion:
Brilliant!
<hangs up hat puts six pack on table>
Aloha, guys
Weezard
Coco vs FFOF mid-veg conversion:
Sounds interesting.
I'm in !
MP
Coco vs FFOF mid-veg conversion:
Welcome, everyone. I think we need more beer already. :glugglug:
Glad I decided to do this. Got some surprises already.
After the first 24 hours, all the plants are doing very well. I may have kick-started the soil plants a little more than usual in my attempts to keep everything "even."
Normally, when I transplant up a size with FFOF, I just water--no added ferts. The FFOF is pretty hot with worm poo, bat poo, etc. so I generally just water well and let the plants relax in low level light for a day or so; the idea being I want new roots first and more lettuce later.
But, since I was nuting the coco, I added FF Gro-big to the dirt. :stoned: :hippy: And everybody went back under the lights fairly soon, but a pair of shoplights is hardly intense lighting.
And, I'm really hampering those coco plants. The wastebaskets are kinda elliptical and the 1 gal. pots barely fit inside them. So rather that being totally surrounded by coco, these plants have coco underneath and on 2 sides. And, they're still in a big-ol' soil rootball. So they are probably unaware I was expecting a huge growth spurt from them. I still expect it once the roots go exploring.
Here's the sativas:
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Way too early to judge anything. Looks like the coco plant is producing larger leaves. These were not this big 24 hours ago.
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Also getting some nice development in the midsection. Musta had summa Weez' beer.
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Here's the soil sativa. Lots of development of new structures, but not the increase in size of the growing leaves like in coco.
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The soil plant showed me a preflower. No big deal, I just liked the pic.
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Coco vs FFOF mid-veg conversion:
The soil plant (left) is really thickening up into a stout plant.
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Here's the new growth on the soil plant:
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And on the coco plant.
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Right now, nobody's running away with it. Of the indicas, the soil plant is looking better at the moment, at least above ground. Hopefully the differences will become increasingly evident and I can report every few days, or when there's news.
Right now, that the coco didn't kick soil's ass right outta the gate is news to me. Well, let's let that rootball marinate for awhile. Fire in the hole! :D
Coco vs FFOF mid-veg conversion:
After 48 hours, everyone still looking fine. Coco still seems moist so I'm guessing the roots haven't escaped their soil-y plug yet. Still, seems like the coco plants are catching up just a little.
Just so this isn't so tedious for everyone I think I'll concentrate on 5-pic summaries of each pair's growth.
Here's today's shots, just cos I have 'em....
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