Coco vs FFOF mid-veg conversion:

[DreadedHermie]

The coco is still moist enough I don't want to water yet. To play it safe I'm squirting a little water in at the far ends of each wastebasket to try to coax the roots out looking for water.

I'm using a hair-dye applicator, which was left over from Oldmac's Grecian Formula job. It's like a condiment squeeze bottle, but clear, more leakproof, and impervious to some chemicals, at least stronger ones than ketchup.
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I "chromed" the wastebaskets (metalized duct tape) so they're not transmitting light down to the roots. Mrs. Hermie thinks they look sporty.

Also diluted the salty-ass well water with bottled water (40ppm) down to 370ppm. I'll add some CalMag when I actually dare water. Right now I'm trying not to drown the roots so it's cat-and-mouse with too-dry conditions until we get some roots out there where the action is.

The coco plants look like they're about to bust a move, though. :dance:
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[Weezard]

" I'll add some CalMag when I actually dare water. Right now I'm trying not to drown the roots so it's cat-and-mouse with too-dry conditions until we get some roots out there where the action is. "

Hmmm, unless that well water's very odd, judging from the ppm readings you can probably skip the calmag.

I add it because my tap water is ~120 ppm.
Just keep shakin' yer squirter whilst you water.

Aloha,
Weeze

[DreadedHermie]

judging from the ppm readings

I'm afraid it's all NaCl.

I prolly cut down beneficial minerals from inconsequential to infinitesimal. Halved the salt. If this was chess, that'd be a good move.

The coco was scarin' me. I had expected it to explode immediately. Think the soil ball insulated it.

The soil team plants have had every advantage; at least I can avoid poisoning the coco plants--that's only fair. I'm being rather nonchalant about the pH, if that makes any difference. I know this coco is nicely acidic. Can't water to runoff, so I don't know what the soil conditions are. :smokin:

[Weezard]

I'm afraid it's all NaCl.

I prolly cut down beneficial minerals from inconsequential to infinitesimal. Halved the salt. If this was chess, that'd be a good move.

The coco was scarin' me. I had expected it to explode immediately. Think the soil ball insulated it.

It'll take a week or two for coco's advantage to make a difference and it will not be as dramatic as the early growth is.
My A/B photos were kind of misleading.
FFOF stunted the pepper seedlings because it was too "hot" for kids. And they never fully recovered.
The main advantage of the coco was nute titration with full control.
Started out at 1/4 strength and bumped it a little as the girls grew and asked me for more.

The soil team plants have had every advantage; at least I can avoid poisoning the coco plants--that's only fair. I'm being rather nonchalant about the pH, if that makes any difference. I know this coco is nicely acidic.

Not really.
Peat is acidic, coco is almost neutral.
Brings almost nothing to the party.
So, until you mix in the nutes and run it through the coco, your PH tester will be tellin' lies about acidity.

Can't water to runoff, so I don't know what the soil conditions are. :smokin:

There are plenty drainage holes though, yah?
It'll get "swampy" real fast without them.
Next time you set girls inna tub/shower for a flush, grab a cup of the drippings and test da hell out of it.

Lurkin' and kibbitzing,
Weeze

PS It's your move in stoner chess.:jointsmile:

[DreadedHermie]

It's occurred to me there are prolly differences betwixt coco types.

We're using this Botanicare:
[attachment=o219662]

Wanted to check it against peat for acidity, we had summa this layin' around.
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It's 80% CA sphagnum, 20% perlite. Good stuff, if you need light peat.
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Nuted, lightly Calmag'ed and pH'ed water (bottled / well mix) to 1400ppm, pH 6.3.
[attachment=o219666]
[attachment=o219665]

Ran the water through 1 gal nursery pots filled with:
a) Botanicare coco and
b) Lambert's peat

[DreadedHermie]

The coco dropped the pH to 6.0, and raised the ppm to 1580 (salt?).
[attachment=o219676]
[attachment=o219677]

The peat dropped the pH to 5.7, and raised ppm to 1490.
[attachment=o219678]
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This was like a slow, "deep watering" over 10 minutes or so. I'd expect a straight-through, flooding flush would give less deviation, and that holding the water for awhile (as a plant would) might give wider spread results.

[DreadedHermie]

Coco's taking a slight lead. (The coco plants are in the shiny wastebaskets, if you just got here- indica right, sativa left.) Watered, lightly, with the 6.3 / 1400 experimental water. I didn't water to runoff, I still don't dare. Don't think I've got enough roots out there yet to suck up any excess water.

[attachment=o219689]

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I did start a little LST with the sativas. Under low light like this, you can't let things get outta hand. I am using 24/0 for this experiment, which works better for me when light's "minimally sufficient."

[attachment=o219691]

[DreadedHermie]

Coco has a slight edge. Not worth a pic yet.

Watered once with proper nutes, etc. Found Weezard's pH advice to be accurate:

Me: "I know this coco is nicely acidic."

Weezard: "Not really.
Peat is acidic, coco is almost neutral.
Brings almost nothing to the party.
So, until you mix in the nutes and run it through the coco, your PH tester will be tellin' lies about acidity."

I watered to runoff with water @~6.1 pH, tds~1000ppm.

The runoff measured pH 6.0, tds ~1400, so despite the results of my pot-fulla-peat-runoff experiment, with a plant living in there the pH is solid in the coco.

We're about to water with plain pH'ed H2O. This'll only be the second watering since the transplant, so maybe the coco will start to take off better now that there's some roots in the "zone." All the plants look good, considering the low light.

[DreadedHermie]

Well, this was not nearly as exciting as I'd thought. Shot the last pic from a different angle because the photos have been looking more similar than the plants did.

Here's the sativas at day 10:
[attachment=o221408]

Day 16:
[attachment=o221409]

And day 19:
[attachment=o221411]

So, the coco sativa has been slowly gaining on the soil plant. However, the advantage gained by ther coco plant seems to be growing at a now increasing rate.

Coco's main trunk is probably about 1.3X the avg. diameter of the soil plant's. Looks like an equivalent amount of leaf material increase.

[attachment=o221412][attachment=o221413]

Alas, I have no room for these things as they are trying to be 15' tall. So the sativa comparison ends here, with coco a clear winner in a not-very-well-controlled :weedpoke:. No sense :beatdeadhorse:. Indica update coming. Hermie

[DreadedHermie]

Okay, here's the coco results:

Day 6: [attachment=o224970] Day 10:[attachment=o224971] Day 16: [attachment=o224972]Day 39:[attachment=o224973]

So, by day 39 of the switch the coco indica is at least 30% bushier that the soil control plant. (Jes' eyeballin' it, and that's a conservative estimation.)

This occurred even though the soil plant was given every advantage, and started out as a "better" plant. Further, both plants were started in soil and the coco plant had to make an adjustment to the new grow medium partway into her life.

I'm sold. Lightweight and neat, and no used soil to dispose of with tell-tale perlite added. :hippy: