Hey everybody, this is Shane McCormick from the cheap homegirl podcast in on today's show. I have returning guest dr. MJ cocoa from cocoa for cannabis. He condemned the show today to talk about his upcoming spring Auto flour challenge that I will be participating in during this podcast episode. I talked to three smart, but different cannabis Growers that will also be participating in the challenge as well with all things cannabis.They're growing styles are unique, and I feel you'll benefit from listening to them. You can follow dr. MJ Coco on Instagram and Twitter at dr. MJ cocoa. And also cocoa for cannabis.com. Please remember to press subscribe and enjoy the show. Hello and welcome to the cheap home grow podcast a show for individuals that want to learn more about growing cannabis in door. URS, this is a podcast dedicated to helping you with your indoor growing Adventure. You'll learn how to grow your own and not have to rely on others for your medicine. The cheap homegirl podcast will also feature a timely interviews with cannabis industry veterans shaping the culture and politics of cannabis. All right here is your host Shane McCormick and the cheap home grow podcast. Before the show begins. I am reaching out to you to ask you really one question, and I want to know how am I doing as a podcaster? What topics do you want me to cover? Is there anything specific please reach out to me? Please? Get back to me. I can be found online at cheap home grow.com under the contact us page and also you can message me directly on my Twitter and Instagram account at cheap home grow. Or if you want to email me personally you can do so and my email is Shane at cheap home Grow.com Again. Shane at cheap home grow.com. So guys, please get back to me. Please. Let me know how I am doing and enjoy the show. Hello everybody. This is Shea McCormick from the cheap home grow podcast and on today's show. We have returning guest. Dr. MJ cocoa from cocoa for cannabis. And today he comes on the show and he's going to be talking about the spring Auto flour Challenge on Coco for cannabis.com which starts 420 so it starts, you know in a another month or so and doctor if you could you know, as as always just give a very very brief background about yourself and then we can get right into the we get right into the topic of the spring Auto flour challenge. Sure. Thanks Shane. Yeah, my name is Doctor. I'm Jake Coco. I run the website cocoa for cannabis.com. I have graduate-level training in Horticulture. And I grow my own and Coco. I've been writing guides and trying to help other Growers grow and we're starting to do these challenges. This will be our third grow challenge where we try to just get people to grow together at the same time in the spirit of collaboration, you know, we currently have 30 guys grow or 30 Growers guys and girls growing in the New Year's grow challenge. So we're all going to germinate the the same seeds if we can we got a special deal to get the same seeds, but you can grow any any auto flowers. This is going to be an auto flour Challenge. And yeah, it's just a lot of fun to you know, get a bunch of people growing together and in the spirit of collaboration. Okay docked we'll listen, you know, thank you again for coming on the show. I along with my listeners we do appreciate its But I mean really my my first my first question is I mean what what is this challenge all about absolutely, right? Yeah, and whether you've grown Auto flowers or not or whether you've grown any plans or not, you know, this is something really we're open All Growers are welcome to join us. We're going to have some guys that have grown out of flowers for years. We're going to have some people that are brand new to Growing anything. But yeah, you know the current challenge we're doing with photo period plans. Most of us and most of us have grown photo paired plants have grown almost exclusively photoperiod plants myself. So this will be only my second time growing autos and it'll be a little bit different and a little bit new for all of us, but there's definitely good experience going on and that's really what we want. You know, just to be able to have it be a challenge kind of for everybody to learn new things to be kind of engaged in a community where we're getting new ideas from each. Are where people that have grown out of flowers for a long time can help out sort of with some of the specificities of the auto flowers and you know, the rest of us can get get an experience doing that and see what it's all about kind of pushes us to try new things. And you know, when you're trying new things you're not sort of off in the Woods by yourself and one of these challenges your got dozens of other Growers doing the same thing at the same time, and it's an opportunity for you know new Growers to To really have that Community to support them and to be able to ask questions and to be able to sort of show pictures your plants and see if anything is wrong with them and get that, you know compare just look at other peoples pictures and see if your plants are looking the same because we're all you know at the same time the same stage and really be able to you know, help get your first grow going if this is your going to be your first time for experienced Growers, you know, I think a lot of people want to sort of put their skills to the test. They want to see you know, compare their methods to other Growers methods or think about, you know, different Media or different lights or different kind of training possibilities with auto flowers. I think that that's going to be one of the really interesting things to see what we're all capable of doing with training Auto flowers and in a short vegetation period and we've got this deal worked out with the with the London SEED Center and they're going to give us 25% off of Of four strains that we chose all from Dutch Posh and we chose glue Berry OG think different Colorado cookies and night Queen. So we got a couple of sativa dominant a couple of Indica dominant strains. And if you want to order those strains, we got this 25% off deal with free shipping to everybody worldwide to help to support the challenge and sort of make it possible to to grow together. But like I said, you know, you don't have to grow those strings you can Grow other strains if you want to check out all this information, we got it all up on the The Challenge webpage at CoCo for cannabis.com forward slash challenge. That sounds like a lot of fun and I will be like the current challenge that you know you have right now on your site. I will be participating in the spring auto-fire challenge as well. And yeah, and I mean, it's fun to grow in a community of Growers. Wouldn't you say Shang you have you gotten something out of that experience I have ever had. Absolutely, absolutely. And I know it's been in about a week or so since I've updated my journal. I will be updating my general shortly. I just you know, it's like anything else man. I've been really busy with doing a billion things at once. Yeah, you know, no worries. I mean and that's really there's no rules about that. You gotta it's ready to take it for for what you need it for and you know some get me some Growers want to post updates every day, which I love I love sort of see in the the updates other people have busy lives. Try to get an update every two or three days myself, but you know, some people don't don't update for every couple of weeks whatever you're able to do to just sort of be part of the community and to see each other's grows. And you know, even if you're not updating yourself, you can still go and check out everybody else's and sort of see if your plan sir are measuring up or if they're sort of growing Beyond everybody else. Let's get back to talking a little bit more about Auto flowers, right and this Is a question that I asked you know that I asked chef and Angie and you know for you listeners out there Angie when I say Ang, I mean naked Gardener that is his, you know his name in terms of Auto flowers, right? You know and this is a question that I that I asked the the both of them. I mean, you know, I mean y-you know, why do auto flowers, you know, I guess, you know, I why do they have such a bad rap? Amongst guys that have been growing for a very very long time or at least that's my perception know. It's an accurate perception. I mean, I don't flowers have come a long way just in the last few years to so we have to start by acknowledging that for you know, throughout the 90s and the 2000s. There were a few autoflowering strains kicking around and I'll sort of related to low rider which was the first Auto flower and they were low potency. And low yielding and kind of scrawny little plants and yeah, basically since the two thousand teens now with sort of new breeding techniques and really getting those genetics crossed in with other strains. They're doing incredible things with with auto flowers They're getting th see percentages of two rival photoperiod plants. They're getting yields that can exceed photoperiod plants and Oh it's and there's certain advantages to running Auto flowers. One of the advantages is during the flowering period you can provide more light energy because you can run the lights during a longer period of time that allows the plants to grow more and it allows sort of larger yields in a shorter period of time so you can actually exceed the started gram per watt ratios that you can get with. Photoperiod plans if you can get a gram per watt which is pretty much considered like the the amateur Pro divided in indoor growing with photoperiod plants. If you can get a gram per watt, you can potentially get you know, one point one five one point two grams per watt with foot with auto flowers just because you can leave the lights on longer. They don't have the same kind of concerns with light leaks with making sure that Dark period is totally dark so it's easier in some ways for for Growers. And in terms of managing the growing environment. The challenge with auto flowers is right. I mean well, I mean what's so it goes? Yeah, it sounds you know, it sounds like Auto flowers are for new Growers. Well, they can be right, you know, there's challenges for new Growers to and that's sort of important to be aware of one of the challenges is that the plants start flowering? NG to their biological clock and if you you know have issues or if the plant struggles during the seedling or early vegetation stage it's going to start flowering anyways, and you know, you can't sort of give it more time and recover from your mistakes. So with new Growers, sometimes they'll struggle because you know, the plant won't get as big or will have some issues in the early vegetation stage and then it'll just start flowering and You know, you're just gonna end up with a smaller plant. So those are the issues. They're not the end of the world though and you can recover sort of easier from some of the auto flower mistakes. Like if you make a lighting mistake with your photo period plants if you leave the lights on for example, or you know don't have the lights come on or get like contamination or something. He can end up with hermaphrodites you could revegetate your plants. And then sort of ruin all of the buds that they had been forming and those aren't concerns with with photo or with auto flower. So I think that photoperiod plants are easier in the vegetative stage, but Auto flowers are a lot easier during the flowering stage. They just kind of go on their own you don't have to flip them or anything like that. You're right. They just they just go man. I mean I and and I say that because I'm currently growing one right now. Barry Baum from from grey bird seed from from graybeard seeds. Okay, and you know, it's it's it's going along really well. It's going along its progressing along. Well, I mean I should have you know, I should have trained it. I don't know why I didn't train it. I just you know, I mean, I've been super busy and I mean real life gets in the way. Sometimes. Let's talk a little bit about training and Topping with auto flowers. I I mean, you know, there's there's rules for a photo periods, but then there's a whole other set of rules for auto flowers. It's basically because you have limited amount of time with photoperiod plants. You can take as much time as you want to train the plants and you flip them to flowering when you're ready based on you know, you're training with Autos. They're going to flip to flowering when they're ready to and you really don't have any control over that so It's important to get whatever training that you're going to do done in the amount of time that you have to do it and can preclude certain training strategies. I think it's difficult to do a multiple top manifold for example or main line with auto flowers, but I'm gonna try I'm certainly going to talk my plants. You know, you have at least the first three We three and a half weeks to work with and vegetative growth. So you can sort of plot out what you're able to do in your grows in the first three and a three and a half weeks and oftentimes I can top my plants twice. I usually can top plants twice within three weeks. So I'm probably going to be able to still do a modified main line, but a true main line is topped three times, which I don't I don't think there'll be quite enough time for that. That I actually did end up doing a true main line on an auto flower last time but I was training it and I didn't realize it was an auto flower so it can be done and ended up producing really well, too. You just have to be aware that you can't just keep letting the plant grow out of the training. It's going to start flowering and you can certainly end up topping and doing things too late in that cycle. So so you got to get your work done within the amount of time that you have now the strains that we chose the forged strains from Dutch Passion that we chose for to be the official strains here for this challenge are all ten to eleven week strains. So there are a little bit longer than some other Autos which can be eight to nine weeks trains and that gives you a little bit more time. We chose that in on purpose to give new Growers sort of a little bit of a more comfortable experience. In the training stage and make sure that everybody had, you know good size plants before they started flower. Okay, Doc and you know, I mean as as you know, I'm you've been on the show multiple times. I mean, this is a question right that I like to ask everybody including you that comes on the show. And that question is are there any questions that I should be asking and are there any final statements that you would like to make and if you could could you talk about the Growers that? We'll be coming on the show in the next in the next three parts. Yeah, sure. Um, well, you know just to sort of wrap up my thoughts about the the spring out of flour challenged. I'm really excited about this. I love Growing With A large group of Growers. I think it's an awesome opportunity to sort of build community because oftentimes, you know, we're kind of secretive about our Gardens and we can't really talk to a lot of people about them. And this provides you an opportunity where you can talk as much as you want, you can sort of brag about your plans. So you can ask questions about your plans or you know, you don't have to feel embarrassed about anything. So it's great for new Growers who are just getting started. It's also really great for experience Growers. It gives you an opportunity to share what you've learned you'll have a bunch of new Growers that are really eager to learn from your experience and it gives you a chance to put your grown, you know up to the test and see see how you do it, but Against a bunch of other, you know experienced Growers and it'll be really fun to see how these Auto flowers do in different setups with different media with different lights and with different Growers, you know and see how all those variables really impact the final plans. So I'm really excited to see how it's going to go and doctor I should have asked you. What is your growing medium for this challenge? Is it is I'm going to be growing in Cocoa, okay. As per the norm I'll be growing all four of our official strains. So I'm just going to grow one plant of of the glue bury one of think different one Colorado cookies and one Auto night Queen and with for plants. I'm going to I'm going to try to top them twice and do a little modified Mainline and I talked about that and the training episode actually, which was the Last episode that came out before this one. I think I'm of mine. We'll see how that goes. I'm not entirely sure but I'm Gonna Run them in I use number five are pots. I use an auto drip system with Hydro Halos. Everybody can check all that stuff out on my website. I have DIY tutorials and guides that really take people through my purse set up almost exactly and yeah, it's going to be fun. So you're going to be talking to Chef you're going to talking to you naked Gardener and you're going to be talking about California Kid. These are three guys have grown together with for all of them for over a year great Growers. They've all got really different experience really good experience. It's see. I think they've all basically come from a soil background. Yes. Yeah Chef is now growing his first crop and Coco coir and he's enjoying it. I think California kid. I think I mean he's chattering about you're gonna have to ask him when he comes on. He's chattering about going to Coco for this Auto flour challenge. We were talking the other day that you know, one of the advantages of cocoa is you get really good growth rates, especially during veg. And since you have a limited window with vegetating growth for auto flowers, he's really interested in And trying to take advantage of cocoa and getting you know that fast growth rate early on in the grow. So I think he might come over to Coco for this grow and then you know naked gardeners got a lot of different experience. He's been around gardening for a long time and he's you know a British guy with a really great attitude. He does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's a great guy and he brings Just a you know, a wealth of experience in different out areas and an amazing through Z as mm. He's a great a great friend to have in the form. So I think that you know, the listeners here will get a good sense of the the community that they'd be joining or participating in if they if they grew in the spring out of flour challenge with us. Okay. All right. Well, you know doctor I appreciate you coming back on and I will I will talk to you soon. Yeah, let me just toss the website in there one more time. Amateur go go for cannabis.com forward slash Challenge and you know everybody's welcome and we'd love to have you. Thank you and I will I will talk to you again soon. All right. Thank you Shane. Hey Ang. Thanks again for coming on the show. I appreciate it. And I have a question for you. And this is my main question. You know, what are you looking forward to regarding the spring audio file or Challenge on Coco for cannabis? Well, I say hello and good to be back. Thank thank you again for coming on the show. I appreciate it. Welcome good to see you. I don't know who you again. I'm looking forward to the challenge this time around with it being an auto flour challenge. I've not grown out of flowers before Zoe. Yeah. No, I had to get up at the opportunity. They've always grown photos. So I'm looking forward to it. And I've I'm having the opportunity of trying to grow a new strain, which I think is new to many people. From the London SEED Center Dutch Passion, which is called think different and according to the write-ups on that. It's a good plan for beginners who are new to art of flower has a fairly good yield on it and it's a sativa and love to see somebody else going up to you know, so that's a new one two, new ones really also flowers and any strength sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean and I mean, you know, you've I mean I've gotten to come To know you are, you know fairly well and you've been growing for quite some time. But I mean, how come you never decided to grow Auto flowers? You know, why now? Well, I've got the opportunity to do it now and I think it's an awesome idea coming through the seed Center and that what they're offering right now. So that makes it very affordable worthwhile, but I've always liked the idea of photos because I've just like the idea of deciding when I want my plants to flower. And so I'm more prepared light and I think maybe also flowers you might be have to be a bit more prep for that to be ready for it. So and that's I'm probably wrong in that but you know, I can see the value of doing it. I just I don't know maybe I was too old school and just sitting there, you know, it's what I'm used to do in the not try anything else and I was limiting myself. Right? Well, I mean this this upcoming challenge you are you going to do anything differently right? Well, I'm going to be going for plants in 4x4 again. Okay, and I'm going to make sure that this time I get the screen going going early on I think all right and try and then tie them down and open them out fairly early. Hmm. I do have a new light system, which I haven't actually set up yet. But looking forward to trying that. Okay, and yeah, I think it's a fairly new setup for me as well from the last time. Spoke because I was just running the ten in the room, which I wanted to be my grow room originally, but I want didn't have the ability to set it up and now I have and so it's literally a seal white room right now and I actually have like five plants growing in there right now seedlings actually start three or four days ago. Oh, really? Oh, my God lights just came on right now. So I've got them on this 45 watt LED bulbs in humidity Dome and that's kind of a test room for me. So I'll be actually outright those growing at the same. Time they'll be older than the Altos and at that time I can start with the auto flour challenge. I'm hoping that these photos will be going into flower. I'll turn to flower and I'll allow them the odds of flour challenge going as and then my photo ones in flower in a separate, you know space in separate space. Yeah and well with the auto-fire challenge your your your chosen medium if I'm if I'm listening correctly will be soil. Right sure. Yeah. Yeah, mostly because that's what I've been preparing for the last few weeks, but building upper using a base soil and then adding things to and an organic matter and things like that and then that really settle in and then naturally your watering the soil and turning it over and things like that. I'm adding, you know, peels like banana peels and such. So I've been working with that style for a while. Yeah, so I've been working with that soft for a little while and it's cut and what they said cooked, you know, it's not big. It's it's just it's growing organically in there. I've taken some tests and I'm quite happy with that. So I want to use that up instead of Let It waste so and my desperately do want to get into the cocoa and and auto watering and that's that's something I'm looking forward to but for now, it's its soil unfortunately for yeah for now. Yeah, right. Well, I mean, you said something that I find intriguing. I mean you're going to be adding what banana peels through your soil. And what what else are you going to be? I guess what up, there are like thrown in there. Well, when of composted it I find that, you know banana peels up good source of potassium, I think and true think like that. So, you know adding that also kind of bolsters the met the the soil after I win this thing's composted. It's going to bolster this long. I mean, I like somebody had I had somebody say one time you can't make bad style good by putting fertilizer in it, and I think that you know in that saying with and Owing to build that soil up by adding organic matter. It's so it's building that soil up, you know and make it good soil. But and then reusing that Silo the next time you know, so it's great for the environment as well. I get but yeah, I think I answered the question there. Right? Right. Yeah, you know, I mean you've been growing photo periods, right like since well since forever and you know, this is a question that I That I asked chef and I'll ask you as well. I mean, why do you think guys you know, like yourself that have been growing for a long time? You know, why do you why do auto flowers have such a bad rap? I mean like I mean because and and I ask that because you know, I know a lot of Growers and you know, almost every single one of them tells me. Oh you shouldn't grow Auto flowers. You should grow photo periods you Can clone them which is true. You can clone photos a lot easier than Auto flowers and you know, you know that that any I mean, that's a good point. But I mean why you know in your experience in human growing for a long long time a lot longer than me. Why do you think Otto flowers have such a bad rap? I wouldn't even think about it. I'm in the background as such I think people are nervous because this just fine. To try something different. Maybe I'll just because that maybe in a way I don't like saying it may be sometimes you like. I think I've been guilty of this sometimes where I think I know something and I tell somebody something and find themself. I'm not exactly right and some people this negativity that I've had from certain growers in the past, you know, where they've said no, you shouldn't do this or you should do it that way and I think you know trying to get away from that aspect of things really nobody really knows one person's technique works for them and you know, some guy my groin hundred percent pearlite Nobody else is going to say that's ridiculous. You know why I would you do it, but if that guy's making it work and you can show it's working for him some of the guys going to try and it's going to fail he's going to say, oh I've tried this method it doesn't work. I've tried cocoa for cannabis method. It doesn't work. Well exactly. What did you try and do how what was he set up like when you were doing it see what I'm saying? So I'll tell flowers for me. I've got a bad rap because people just don't understand them and I think and I think that just shows probably for them. There may be nervous, or maybe they just maybe I think that they've already attained some level of knowledge that they don't want you know, they've got no, but I think also flowers are great plants. I have no I think it's a great idea and especially for new Growers. I think that would be the way for any new girl to start if you're unfamiliar with growing a photo then go with an auto flower because you're guaranteed to be able to start doing an if you look at the right up to think different. It's targeting people who have beginning Growers. It actually states that they you should What to expect at least 300 grams per plan right the beginning grower. So I mean that I don't know I would like to see if that claims true, you know, right? Sure mmm, but sorry, I mean I don't if they give his getting a bad rap, I don't understand why personally, you know, I mean, I've I say they're coming from my own personal experience, you know, I've only been grown for a short amount of time and you know, I mean like like what I've said in the past I'm not I'm not the I'm not The best grower it right? Right, right. I mean, I mean really it's funny because I mean that you know, that's what my show is about. It's it's it's bringing people on my show on the sheep homegirl podcast that know more about growing the me which you know, and I mean, I think it's more than fair to say it probably about, you know, 99.9 of my guests know more about growing cannabis than me and really essentially that's What the show is about it's about I guess in a sense educating me but also educating you on the on the opposite side of this recording. So yeah sure. It's right. You did a great job I think and you know, obviously the ability to be able to do this now is just always amazing for me to be able to have people share their knowledge life whether it be through like this media. More whether it be through a website, you know, the knowledge base is hundreds of years of experience. You never say it sure. Absolutely. Yeah variants he put it all together. Hmm. So that's why I love it. You know, it's like, how could you not it's like the alexandrian library at your fingertips. So your thing with the podcast is amazing for me because people are coming and listening and they feel more comfortable. Hopefully when they listen to you and your show Henry lives like yeah I can. This I got this right right. It's you know, it's you know, it's not as intimidating as you know, people make it out to be now. It's also not as easy as a lot of people make it out to be it's probably like somewhere in the middle. If you if you know what I'm saying. It's about commitment to me at the end of the day. If you don't feel like you can connect to it a hundred percent right sure if you think that you're going to be around and then you're not going to be around don't do it. It right because it's just, you know, obviously like, you know how long it's gonna take and like having a kid, right, you know, you've got to really take care of them. And then sometimes you can go all day so you don't need to worry hmm. Sure exactly that patients have been a growing it's always like all should I be doing this should it be doing that? You've got sit down and say no you don't need to be fast enough with that right now. Just leave him alone. You know, it's that is hard. But even so for me, it's a setup process to I lied are that part, you know being able to figure out system and make it work and watching other people do it all the different methods and it's amazing. Right? Right. Well, you know and Angie I mean getting back to the challenge. I mean, you know in terms of Auto flowers, is there anything specific that you know that you're hoping to learn I mean anything About topping training, you know, because with with auto flowers, it's a whole different ballgame. So is there anything there that you think that you that might be or that might surprise you I think just want to start flowering. Hmm. I think the thing that happened, you know, because people and I again the strains we've got four different we've got four strains for grad night right in while strange right so, you know, No, coco is going to be like, dr. Coco's gonna be going for of eat one of each so I can imagine that's going to be a big challenge for the end and because of the different growth rates, perhaps so I'm thinking in terms of because I'm going for the same. I'm expecting the growth rate to be fairly equal but that's not guarantee it is it so I think I would you do if once flowering earlier, you know the different I don't know how that's going to work yet. And also with the stretch. I'm really not sure about how that stretch is going to work. Because I'm doing for I'm going to have to stay with fairly small parts, you know, maybe less than five gallons probably. So for the whole grow. Hopefully that'll be enough. You know, I mean, I'm estimating that they're probably going to be medium sized plants and probably could be bigger if I fired the size pots I was going to use you know, but we'll see that's that's the whole thing for need to see what I do with it and what they do and how they behave and learn from that and you know, Watch other people's art flowers and see the hour. We all go with that. You know, that's that's going to be the surprises for me is like I say the flowering I think just see what happens now they do that right? Well, I mean, what what do you mean? What do you think that the flower time is going to happen? Maybe maybe what like 30 days in or four or five thinking? Yeah. I'm thinking yeah. Right. Yeah. Well, I was just talking with chef and he he's he had he's grown Autos in the past. I think I think he said four or five other times and he said that his his yields were in impressive and his THC. You know his THC was you know in the in the in the plan itself was was impressive so, you know, I mean, I mean as of right now I am I'm growing Barry Baum, and I'm looking forward to it. I mean, I'm getting pretty close. I know that wasn't part of the of the nyg see challenge, but you know, I'm looking forward to it. I think I mean I estimate that maybe I'll have another 15 may be at Max 20 days. And you know, I guess we'll see I guess we'll see what my yields Willoughby and well I've seen the pictures of Man, and they're looking really nice, you know, and you know, I mean, I can't wait to see when you've got the money and obviously when you come to harvest and then you know, see what you have but sure the I bet you know, you're obviously looking forward to that absolutely but chefs knows a heck of a lot about stuff that it blows my mind that guy and I'll be honest with you. He's a desire Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, you know, I don't call them something like that for sure and E-easy said that than anything, you know, you can take it as read in my opinion. It's a Surefire fact. So I think that a lot of people are going to get a lot for now this one and I think because of the shot would be to short bed periodically and before flower shop shot. Well, let's say ten weeks file period isn't me? It's like well, yeah, that's what two and a half months. I mean that's not bad but a bit months inside, right? It should be a lot of fun and I think like anybody trying out for the first time like me doing a stirfry. I alongside people who probably never grown before and it's think I'll give this one a go lot of setup going. You know, I'm ready to do it. I think that I'll be nice to see if we can and like yourself. You know, I can't wait. I mean are you going to be obviously are you preparing for this challenge as well? Alright. Oh, yeah. Yes. I will be I will be partaking in this challenge as well. I know with the current challenge. I haven't updated my a journal in a little while. Yeah, I've been I've been a bit busy with the show and you know, I guess booking guests and you know, just doing it, you know just doing a bunch of stuff. But you know, I mean, I don't mind I mean, it's fun. I enjoy I love talking to two people that grow and because I mean, you know quite frankly they make me a better grower and you know, hopefully the the other person that is listening in they will make you a better grow as well. Well, you know, I mean this is how I like to you know end every podcast, you know with this with this question. I like to ask this question to a to everybody, you know, is there any questions that I should be asking and are there any final statements that you would like to make? Yeah any questions that you need to ask? Well, I can't think of right off the top of my head which I should have one really. But I mean you you certainly are knowledgeable gay self and it's obvious to me that you know, the knowledge base you have and what you're learning is the cross reference value. You don't take something and just go. Yeah, that must be correct, you know your brother you and you're helping other people do that. So as far as like like as far as myself really I just done. You know, I'm more curious about the podcasts and how it reaches people. Hmm again. I just want to really kind of reiterate to anybody listening that particularly with your show or if they're looking into starting up with this challenge with the car Coco for cannabis side, then it is a good time to do it because they have a great deal going with the London Scene center as you've probably noticed and if you haven't seen it great time to grab some nice seeds, you know. The side also be a part of the challenge and and again, I think we've said this before it's never really a challenge. It's just personal one, but it's not like we're all in competition with each other were sort of growing together and asking questions, you know sure and so I'm just glad that we were able to come together with you and bring that more, you know to more into the public eye and more into it into the public idiots. So, right Yeah, those questions I think it's I'm just like say I haven't got really that many tact right here right now. No. No, I mean listen. I mean I didn't mean to put your I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that. But no that's you know, I mean, that's just something that I like to I like to ask, you know, everybody that you know, that that comes on the issue, you know, no not this shit that yeah, that's pretty cool. But again, I just like to thank you, you know for your time and for what you're doing and having us on the show there and I know you spoke to Chef earlier. I'm not sure I can't wait to hear that song and who rest of the guys like you're going to be talking to talk to them? All right, you know Angie I appreciate you as well and thank you again for coming on the show. Thank you. Shane. Let's talk to you again. Hey Chef. Thanks again for coming on the cheap homegirl podcast. I do appreciate it. And you know, really my first question for you is why are you looking forward to the spring auto file? lower Challenge on Coco for cannabis Oh, well, thanks. Thanks for having me Shane. Sure pretty excited to just really see other Growers growing alongside. You know, I'm there's some definitely some different methods out there people can achieve a bigger guilds with auto flowers and kind of excited to see everybody else's grow really well. Have you grown Auto flowers in your past? Yeah, this will be probably my fourth run with auto flowers. Okay? Okay, I mean well, I mean, I think it's I think it's fair to say that you have well, you probably have more experience with with a photo periods then Auto flowers. Is that the true to us a wreck? Yeah, totally. All right. All right. I mean, you know, I know you know, I guess I know I guess I know Otto flowers have a bad rap. On the street or at least you know, I guess that's what a lot of people say. But I mean, you know, I mean, I don't know. I mean, what do you I guess I mean really like what are you looking for in terms of Auto flowers? I mean, I mean, what do you what are you hoping to to learn from this from this challenge? Oh, yeah, there's a there's a lot of haters out there still about Auto flowers and I'm not sure they really know, you know how how to improve their yields or you know, get some good nugs. I've grown out of flowers. It's 18 to 20% THC. So, I mean really they've been they've been great for medication purposes. Sure great, but And but I'm really looking forward to doing like a sea of green method with the auto flowers. Well, I mean, what do you mean by see a green? I'm just going to try to cram as many a flowers in there as I can. Okay, pretty much. I mean they grow fast they grow pretty short. So I'm not too concerned about Heights, right? Sure just a little more concerned about my Horizontal space really right? Well, I'm going to use a scrog is that is that in in your plans? No, I don't believe so. I was going to try to get a hold of a atlas plant Turner actually. All right. Okay Rob. Yeah, I know Rob quite well, actually, yeah, I mean if I mean if you I'm not saying he'll give you free shit, dude, but I mean if you are. Reach out to him or if you go on a site in use and use the cheap home Grow coupon code, I believe and I'm not entirely sure about this still because he came on the show, maybe three or four months ago, but I believe if you use that coupon code cheap home grow. I believe you can get 15% off. So oh cool, you know if you want to give that a shot on the not sure what the discount is. Right? Right. I know I'm not entirely sure my Myself, but I do know that dr. Coco uses the atlas plat trainer. I've seen yeah on his. Yeah. I've seen it on a site. Yeah, he just started using it this grow and it's this looks like it's working pretty good. Hmm, right? Exactly. Yeah. I mean, I robbed offered the atlas plant or anything when he first came on and I said no, but you know, I don't know. I wish I had that back. I mean II can I can definitely hit definitely use them now so, you know Rob if you are listening Meaning if that offer still stands dude, I would love to have some free Atlas plan trainer stuff. So yeah, man. Yeah, but but I mean really I mean getting getting back to the challenge. I mean, I mean what I mean, what else are you looking forward to? I mean, you mentioned yields which you know, you mentioned high THC but I mean what else? What else do you want to learn? Well, I'm really looking forward to learning more about training hours saying they things happen very quickly with them. It's just like you can either top them and they'll grow pistols or you could top of them and they'll keep growing but it's just all in timing really there's a lot of lot of experience Growers out there that I follow on Instagram and whatnot. And one of them is actually mentioned in High Times magazine as an expert on auto flour. Green 75 greens. Oh, yeah. That's right. I think I'm pretty sure Jack from Jack from Jack Green stalk on Instagram mentioned this this guy and I'm on my site now, what's what's this handle again? Green 75 green. Is it on the score 75 or is just 75? Yeah, I believe it's underscore. Yeah. Wow, he's got what nearly twenty one twenty one thousand people following her man. Wow, and he's got some big some big stocks their holy holy Christ. That is impressive. He's been in the game a long time. Yeah, right. Yeah exactly. Um, and and really Chef. I mean this this next question that I have for you I plan on asking this question to everybody that comes on the show. Today that is recording this episode. But I mean really, why do you think why do you think Otto flowers have a bad rap compared to photo periods? Well, you can't really grow a not a flower like you can a photo period and you can grow a 20-foot photo period, you know Otto flowers. I'll only get so big can you clone? No, you cannot clown an auto flower. That's another bad bad thing about Auto pliers. You can't really preserve preserve genetics, you know, but so if you have like a fire strain, you can't you just for whatever reason you can't keep it you write can't keep on producing that that same fire. I'm sure you're right initiating a breeding program, but that would take A lot a lot of time right? Exactly. Yeah. I know. I think I was with like people just don't know how to train train them or what to expect. You know, I mean if like with that guy green 75 with all his plants and stuff. I mean you grew like a whole Warehouse full of those. I'm sure you can get a pretty decent yield off of them. All right? Sure. Exactly. Yeah. No, I'm looking at his Instagram. Now. I'm also looking at is a YouTube channel. It's pretty it's pretty impressive. I should you know, I mean maybe I should reach out to a to this guy and you know have them on the show perhaps it'd be awesome if you can join the challenge to right? Yes. Yes, the the a challenge the a spring Auto flour challenge. All right, cool, man. But yeah, I mean, I guess you know, I mean, I don't have any, you know specific questions for Regarding this challenge, but I mean are there any I guess are there any other any final statements or other any questions that I should be asking before we before we part ways here Chef. Oh, just wanted to say that I'm going to be doing more of a kiss method of grow this time. I'm not going to be running cocoa. So well Chef if you could could you please explain what is a kiss method? Acid kiss meaning keep it simple. Okay, right. Okay, it's just water only so loyal. All right. No pH know checking EC run out of that know why why know what so you're not going to check your Phi you are you going to well, I'll check it out and make sure everything's conditioned. I have buffers and stuff added to my soil. So okay pretty common. Are you going to be using distilled or purified water? No, actually, I'm I'm on a aquifer ran. Yeah, it's pretty good well water so it's to neutral pH and it's not very high and PPM. So it's a great great water source. Well, do you do you check your PhD the add any pH uproar? Down or do you just simply throw it in there? It's a neutral pH. So just using that straight. No pH buffers at all. Maybe my soul got all the buffers and it for it to work biodynamically. Like that's okay and your current grow set up for this challenge. You said you are growing you said you are growing organically. Is that is that true? Right? So you're Use a tenth. I'm assuming that's the plan now, I might get a little overwhelmed with this many plants as I plan on growing but I gotta another tent ready to go. So and how many I guess how many plants do you plan on actually growing in your sea of green? Well, I was planning on a growing two of each of the strains that are recommended in the challenge, okay? That's about eight plants. And I'm pretty sure I need some more lighting. So if I have to split up the tents anyway, okay. Well, I mean, what's your current light setup right now? Well, you really shouldn't run more than six plants under one light so might just have to add another light in there and I might not even have enough room for all those plants. So, okay, we'll just kind of see how it goes. Okay a couple of stir in there that are a little stretchy and pretty big. So right. Well, I mean, you know, and and we're all going to be growing. We are all going to be growing Auto flower. So I mean what what is your light cycle going to a be? All right. I'm probably going to run 24 hours or the first couple of weeks and then I'll reduce down a 2020 our lights on for our arrest. Most people around them 24/7. I'm a growing right now. I'm growing Barry Baum by gray bird and my light cycle is Is is 18 on and six off? You know, I mean, and I know I know with auto flowers you can you know, you can you can do you know 24/7 you can do in your case, you know, twenty and four, but you know, from what I understand every living thing needs some arrests. So that's why I'm doing mine 18 and 6. Yep, totally makes sense. I know or light with auto flowers is usually recommended and that's probably to propose to you know to promote more growth. They get bigger, you know, so but I'm not sure 18:6 should be fine. All right, Chef will listen man. I do appreciate you coming on the show again. I appreciate you, you know waking up. Early on the west coast and listen, man. I look forward to communicating with you on Coco for cannabis. Yeah YouTube and can't wait to see your update. Hey, California Kid. Thanks again for coming on the show on the cheap home grow podcast, and we are going to talk about the spring Auto flour Challenge on Coco for cannabis. So if you could could you please tell my audience a little bit about yourself? And also let's get right into the spring Auto challenge after you do that and why you are looking forward to participating in this challenge. Awesome. Thanks for having me shame. My my background is somewhat brief. I've been in trying to grow for a while and I say trying to because we're always trying new things and getting better. But the the part that excites me about The spring Auto flour challenge is I'm going to go out on a limb here and try something new for myself as well. I'm going to jump into cocoa now from my understanding is the auto flowers really reach their full potential growing and Coco you get faster more vigorous growth. And when you have a shorter lifespan of a plant that that Vigor is really essential to getting them. Max maximum Potential from your plant. So being being in the auto flour challenge. I'm going to be able to peek over at my buddies check out any help. I might need it's going to be readily available and hopefully I can get a hang of this cocoa thing and get some explosive plants here going sure. Yeah, I mean and and I know we talked well not off camera, but because we're not being we're not well, we're not on camera. We talked prior to the recording and you told me that you grew Auto flowers in your past. So I mean, I don't know. I mean, is there any I guess you know it in terms of advice for somebody that wants to grow Auto flowers. Can you maybe talk a little bit about stress training about guilds about topping, you know, you know anything along those lines perhaps yes there. The the I don't want to say technology But Otto flowers genetics have come a long way from where they were when I started to hear about them 10 20 years ago yields weren't great. The plants didn't do a whole lot. The potency wasn't there. Well here we are 15 20 years later and there are some really good readers that are really doing some great things with the auto flowers. And so Yield, is there the potential is there you can train them. There's some guys out there that you can catch on the internet and various forums or locations that are just doing amazing things with auto flowers. Now all of them. I've seen that are really doing these fantastic grows or all in Cocoa. So I have good good quality. I have decent yields with my soil, but I want to push the limit and I want to do some Of these big huge plants that some of these guys are getting and they are topping them. I taught my Autos they are training them. There's a couple of guys I'm thinking of in particular that do some really aggressive training and their plants really show it man, when they when they harvest and they're taking pictures and full bloom. They're beautiful and they're big and the potency is there so I don't I always cringe when I hear people knocking Auto flowers because they say that the quality isn't there. But things have come a long ways and they are there. So there's benefits to maybe a novice or somebody with a tight schedule Auto flowers open up some availability because you're not reduced to a 12 12 light schedule there for opening up, you know more availability, you know, I mean, I mean, you know right now I'm currently growing Barry Baum from grey bird seeds and my light schedule is It's a it's my got it's a 18 and 6. Now. I know with Autos it can be 24/7 but you know, it's like anything else I you know, it's it's a living you know thing and I want to and I want to make sure it has some rest. I guess the question that I want to know is what is your light cycle going to be? I mean, you know, is it going to be 24/7? Is it going to be 12 and 12? I mean, there's going to be a you know, 18 and 6. I mean, what's your What's your plan of attack there? So personally, I grow the Auto 5 hours. I've grown and I am currently growing for now. I run my lights 24/7 24/7. I'm although I'm in California. We have a pretty mild climate year, but this winter is is pretty cold. We have occasional bouts of California what we call cold weather where it dips down close to freezing where the rest of the country is giving us the finger because Nice and sunny and warm, right? Everybody else is freezing. So a benefit to that is running my lights 24 hours. I'm able to maintain my temperatures up a little bit more in my ideal range and I don't use the heater. I use my lights to go ahead and keep warm and the summertime I will sometimes take it back to 20 and 4 so that there is a little bit of dark time in the peak heat of the day and that will help help manage some some high temperatures. But the guys that I really am looking up to as far as the quality of their Auto flowers and they only grow Auto flowers a lot of these guys grow them 24 hours of light just because of the genetics of the plant its it can handle it. Right right. Yeah. I mean that's that's true. I mean, you know, like I mean, you know, like what I said, I'm growing I'm growing 18:6, but I can I can very easily switch it to 24, you know hours per day. But I don't know. I mean, that's just my that's just my plan of attack, you know, but you know, I mean that's just the way I look at things but, you know getting back to the to the challenge now. I know you've said you've grown Auto flowers in the past, but you know, is there anything there that you know that I guess might surprise you in terms of this in terms of this challenge. We're doing some we're working with little bit different genetics. As far as a breeder goes. I haven't grown a whole lot of Dutch passions Auto flower seeds. I love their photos. So I'm this is going to be new for me working with a new breeder. But as far as really the auto flowers go. I'm not expecting to see a whole lot of new new information with these other than the Vigor and and the explosive growth I anticipate with the Coco that I see other guys getting and so I'm I'm eager to get into that get some some some of that rapid growth and I'm and then that can open up some of my my training my low-stress training because I don't train my auto flowers a whole lot because they're kind of growing a little bit slower as it is compared to some of the other examples I have so I'm hoping with the Coco it's going to speed things up a bit I can get in there and train some more and then that will get me a little bit better yield may be a little bit better quality if I'm getting some more light deeper into the plant. Sure sure now. Well, I mean in terms of grown with with Coco, I mean, this is a new medium for you. So I mean, you know, I guess my question is I mean, what do you what are you expecting there? I mean, do you have any idea or are you just going to be like, you know Screw? Screw it. I'm going to see what I'm just gonna see. You know, what what happens here. You mean as far as using a new media, right? Exactly. Yeah, I'm pretty much just gonna jump in here and kind of sink or swim. I helped a friend of mine now, he's just started to grow and by helping him a little bit. He's growing and cocoa. It's piqued my interest because I've built my confidence up a little bit. I had to do a little research to help him out. So with what a little bit I've learned I was able to help him we see some positive results. So I've kind of been bitten with a bug a little bit watching. Dr. Coco's grows and and listening to him a little bit that's kind of piqued my interest. So now I'm just looking to get in there and see if I can reproduce what I'm watching other people do and the best way I feel for me to do that is doing it right in there at the same time elbow the elbow with the good Folks at CoCo for cannabis, right? Okay. Well and you know something I mean, what do you I'll tell you what, I mean II didn't ask this question to to Angie and chef but I should have but what do you what do you like about dr. MJ? I like the science behind his information. Okay, he he has dispelled a lot of myths that I have seen circulating for years if not decades for an example A lot of people will praise defoliation really stripping out a lot of leaves and really get it in there. And fish boning these plants. It looks like I mean, it doesn't look like there's much left other than bones. Right and the science says that that is not the best way to manage your plant and there's people that argue but I do it and I see the results and then he just goes through and breaks down and explains in plain English what you're seeing and what's really happening and of an since that information in a way that's real easy for me to digest and understand that was one example, of course off the top of my head under a spotlight. I'm going to draw Blanks on more examples, but he just put some information together in a way that's that's clear and easy to understand and then these dispelling a lot of popular myths that are leading people in the wrong direction. So the guys really personable great to get along. Eager to help people out just a really good salt of the earth guy. Okay. Alright. Alright like California kid. Now, you know, this is a question that like to ask everybody that comes on the show and it's a question that I usually say for last now with that being said, is it are there any questions that I should be asking and are there any final statements that you would like to make? That's a good question about you know, any questions I have because I don't try to put a lot of forethought into coming on to a show or somebody's going to be, you know asking me any questions. I like to keep it spontaneous and honest, you know, I don't try when I think about things I tend to overthink things. So I really don't have any any questions to throw out there. My mind isn't in that mode so to speak but I will add that. I appreciate the time and effort that you put into making these shows because it really does offer a lot for people who are looking for for answers, you know, you come on the show and you can listen to to some guys talking about some stuff and you can tell that your guests really have a full understanding of what they're talking about. They're just not shoot. In from the hip and making it up as they go and that's that's nice. I appreciate somebody going through and collecting this information and compiling it for us. It's a good thing you're doing man. I appreciate it. Well, thank you very much III do appreciate you saying that I you know, I really do and I've I mean, you know, not me not to you know toot my own horn here, but I have gotten quite a bit of positive feedback, you know, whether it be In DM or Twitter or Instagram Facebook, you know people you know again, I mean, I mean, you know not to toot my own horn but Pete, but people seem to be liking the show and you know, hopefully, you know, hopefully that continues fantastic the same here buddy Take Care. Thank you now. Hey everybody. Thanks for listening to my podcast with dr. MJ. You can visit him online at CoCo for cannabis.com and On Instagram and Twitter at dr. MJ Coco. I hope you've enjoyed this episode and please remember to press the Subscribe button. You can visit cheap home grow.com / episode 55 to get show highlights, and please remember to sign up for my email list. Thanks everybody. I'll see you next week. Thank you for listening to the cheap home grow podcast. We do our best to bring you quality content. Let's grow together. Please hit the Subscribe button and take time to share this podcast with a friend visit cheap home grow.com for our database of interviews and information until next time be safe and grow easy.
 I invited Dr. Mj Coco from CocoForCannabis back on the Cheap Home Grow podcast recently to talk about his Spring Auto Flower Challenge. As a grower that's currently growing an autoflower, I feel this challenge is going to benefit anyone that's thinking about growing autos. To this day, autoflowers have a bad reputation because of there low THC count, your inability to clone and they're flower on their schedule, not yours. However, in the past few years, genetics has become a lot more stable. As the cannabis growing community expands I feel autoflowers are getting adopted by newer growers like myself. I feel their a great "starter" for anyone that hasn't grown before or is looking for a challenge. During this podcast episode, I'll introduce you to three different growers that have different growing styles but all are looking forward to the challenge. I look forward to seeing you there. Please visit CocoForCannabis to signup for the challenge. 