So against the advice of others I went ahead and picked up some gorilla glue FEM for a first time grow. I now have the equipment and seeds but I’m on the fence now about which medium to use. I have to say Mr. Canuck makes it seem pretty easy but before I go that route I wanted to see what the opinions of others are on a first time grow and which media would be best for a first timer. I understand the coco method Canuck uses and it seems simple. Problem is getting decent coco anywhere near where I live is ridiculous. I already have some happy frog and ocean forest from the wife so that’s already on site.
My thinking was if I use coco I can make adjustments faster if necessary and amending the soil with dry premix seems no brainer as well. In soil I feel like any changes are much slower and the soil retains a certain amount of nutrients so reusing the soil may not be the best thing to do where it seems with coco I can reuse several times and flush it,
Why would anyone advise against a female plant? What’s the alternative, an auto? TBH it’s a lot easier to grow a regular fem plant. A lot more room and time to make up for your mistakes as a beginner, and won’t effect your yield as much. You don’t have that freedom with an auto. If this is in reference to the strain, it doesn’t really matter too much on growing difficulty.
I don’t know what nutrients you have available or if you are even comfortable using them. An easy, easy way to do this would be to start in fox farm happy frog. run in a small solo or nursery pot, transplant to 3-5 gallon for veg. Transplant to 10 gallon with fox farm ocean forest or strawberry fields. Supplementing cal mag along the way. Just an off the top idea.
Coco can be great if you really want to tackle it. It can provide better results if you do everything right. Prepare to give it constant attention. I’d recommend getting a handle on a standard soil grow… get used to deficiencies and how to remedy them. Again, just my opinion. Of course everything being said here can change based on the set up you intend on using.
The advice was grow an auto rather than a fem for the first run. As for nutes I have the fox farm trio to go with if soil is the suggestion. The coco was my first thought since it should be less likely to have pests in it and it seems the medium itself can be altered either slowly or quickly and from what I’ve read seems to rid itself of nutrient faster than a soil would. I’m not sure how much “soil” is in happy frog, it seems more loamy and peaty that actual “dirt” so that may be of value.
I’ll go with the fox farm this time around I guess. Only other choice is canon coco blocks as bags are ridiculous to ship and there is nowhere around here to get bagged coir.
Are the pH levels the same using FF or OF as you’d keep them with coco?
Sweet choice on seeds. Gg fems from ilgm is the best buds ive grown so far. Mk ultra is in a close second right now for best grows. Then trainwreck for now. Got some hott fire coming up soon i hooe. Im excited. Just won a 300 seed pack last night also yhis is gonna be nice.
You got good advice: I never understood the pressure on new growers to use autoflowers instead of feminized photoperiod plants.
Starting in HF and potting up into OF is a good working strategy. Plan on supplementing once in flower simply because you are container growing. If you want to go the coco route there are a couple of advantages as stated but one not stated is higher growth and yield rates over soil. The downside is coco needs to be watered daily and you the grower have to provide all nutrients to the plant. Daily care is needed.
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard. Autos are awful, in the sense that they do their own thing and you have no control over them. Photos do what you want them to do and are perfect for a first time grower. Take everything you see or hear with a grain of salt. Form your own opinions and build your knowledge.
As far as soil vs coco…coco is much more user friendly as far as issues that arise. Soil belongs outside
I actually picked up the super pack so Bruce banner and gsc extreme are next
Having watched probably all the Canuck vids I felt confident in the method of amending the soil basically twice and then just watering. Making the tea would have been a bit more work but not always necessary from what I saw. I liked the idea of reusing the coco multiple times, not so sure happy frog can be reused much?
Was considering LST 5 in a 4x4. Anyone know if this strain performs better if just topped or should I be going scrog?
Play with topping and supercropping before diving into SCROG’ing. 5 plants in a 4 X 4 will work so long as you don’t let them get out of hand. You will need somewhere between 600 and 800 plug watts of light to properly flower that space. Just an FYI.
I’m gonna try coco next run I think. Eh, with the lights I’m using a SF4000, I think the plug watts is around 450 or so. We’re you thinking led when you mentioned plug watts or something else? I got the SF lights as they were supposed to flower well in a 4x4, or is this still weak for these strains?
I figured the coco lets you react more quickly to issues for immediate corrections. Seems like a good approach to be able to slowly raise or lower nutes as well as make fast corrections if necessary. The impressions I got from reading is coco starts clean and can end clean and be reused repeatedly vs soil possibly taking longer for adjustments and possibly lingering amendment issues. But I’m a newb at this so I’ll try what’s recommended. It’s be nice if I could get the benefit of everyone’s experience before I get my own but I guess it doesn’t work that way. I will be meticulously documenting this grow though.
I bought into the coco deal with reuse in mind. The reality is your root ball will come to occupy the entire pot and turns out it’s a major PITA to separate it out. I just toss it and start fresh.
Coco and Promix soilless media will also produce heavier yields in a shorter time than soil can do. It’s probably the least expensive way to up your game.
Look at using Jack’s 3-2-1 program and you’ve got a solid, economical grow setup.