Special shout out to Scotty and the rest of the gang at Real Growers. You’ve got a super simple grow system that really works! I’m a happy hydro grower (DWC) in Massachusetts, and my setup works great. I grow tons of delicious, sticky, beautiful, dank weed and am able supply my friends and family with primo bud. While I don’t stress too much over the DWC grow, it does require a fair amount of time and attention…particularly at certain times of the grow cycle (like mid-flower). I usually time the grows so that I know I will be in town during those critical weeks. This summer, however, I had too many vacations planned to make it all work…but I didn’t want to shut down everything for the entire summer. Solution? I decided to try Real Buckets! I had purchased a couple of them earlier and had not tried them yet because my tents were all being used for DWC. I was actually thinking of trying them outdoor when I bought them…but now I had tent space available. Perfect. And, since part of the objective of the Real Bucket system is to make growing as simple as possible, that’s the approach I took. I germinated a couple of freebie autoflower seeds, potted them in the Real Buckets with coco, perlite, and grow dots, topped the plants at 4 nodes, and watered in some recharge about once a week. Once the plants were in the buckets, I only gave them about 5 minutes of time a week…no training, pruning, amending, spraying or anything like that. I basically set them and forget them. Last month I chopped them down and hung them to dry…and today they are cured and ready to smoke. I have to say, those plants grew some very respectable weed! It’s not quite as dank as my hydro stuff, and the plants didn’t look so healthy the second half of flower, but it’s a very good smoke…much better than the typical dispensary fare for sure. And the best part is that they required virtually zero effort. 6 ounces for about an hour of work total! I’m impressed! In fact, I just acquired a 2×2 tent and light so I can always have a couple of Real Buckets going in addition to the DWC garden. Why not?! It’s so easy! This bud is practically free! But…I have a question…are there some simple additional things I could do to bump the quality up a notch? I’m trying some photoperiods this time, but I really want to keep the these very low maintenance. Are there any ammendments or something out there that people have had luck with in a coco/Grow Dots/Recharge set up? Maybe some aspect of the environment that might help? What do you think?
Coco, Grow Dots, Recharge, Real Buckets…Anything Else?
by Half Baked Ben | Sep 12, 2023 | Grower Questions | 5 comments
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I hope you have some soil and not just coco
like a 1/3 soil bottom with a few extra dots for the deep roots then coco mix to the top.
That and a sprinkle of root booster.
that’s my set it and forget it recipe
I use grow dots in coco/perlite and use several add ons to enhance the quality.
But if you are looking to keep things simple I will list off my top 3 additives that probably make the most difference.
Get a source of silica. There are various different products. Monosilicic acid is the best to use with grow dots since it doesn’t contain any other cations therefore it won’t affect your nutrient ratios.
But if your not looking to add a liquid to your res all of the time then there are amendments of Calcium Silicate that may work to pre amend with. Monosilicic is better than silicates, but some silica is better than none. If you use a calcium silicate product and amend too much then you could throw off the ratios of the dots so be reasonable when amending or using any silicate product.
Some type of fulvic acid product to use during the last half of flower once you stop using recharge is a good additional to enhance nutrient delivery down the stretch.
Yucca is another great addition. Although the need for it as a surfactant is less in a bottom wicking system it still carries benefits for the plants immune system and may have limited chelation abilities.
Those are my top 3 to add to grow dots since they are inputs not included in the formula.
If you are growing autoflowers then using some additional amino acids during early-mid flower may be a decent idea if the cultivar tends to require nitrogen later in the cycle than the dots provide.
If you are trying photoperiods then maybe you could train them a bit to get an even canopy, that way there is consistency in all of the tops. I have had great success using plant trainer clips to even out a canopy with minimal time investment.
It’s great that you could have a set up where you didn’t have to put much effort into and still have quality flower, but if you have any extra time to give to canopy management/training I believe it will pay dividends to your final product.
Other than that I add a calcium phosphate, Epsom salt, carbohydrates, and carbon based-fertilizers on an as needed or transition basis. But if you’re wanting to maintain simplicity then I’d say stick to Silica and Fulvic Acids and see where that gets you!
Happy growing!! & #growerslove