Coco help!!!

Ta-dah

Ta-dah

Well-Known Member
I had similar problems awhile back and I wish someone had explained this to me when I first noticed it.

The algae and or mold forms because light is reaching the top of your moist coco. Coco retains more oxygen than most mediums and can take being wet constantly. (But, don't keep it soggy.) If you do not block light from reaching your moist medium, things will grow.

Someone mentioned putting a couple inches of hydroton on top. I've never had luck with this, or perlite. If you do this, make sure the hydroton stays dry. I have used cut up pieces of that foil/bubble wrap insulation as covers/light blockers. But, that was for hydro tanks. If you're covering soil or coco you should use something breathable. Or, you could even seal up the top with plastic and water from the bottom. Coco is amazing at wicking up water.
 
Ta-dah

Ta-dah

Well-Known Member
BTW I've never had luck with peroxide either. It just causes more trauma. I'd use a spray of Neem oil and Dr. Earth (fungicide). Or even a strong Chamomile tea is supposed to work. I haven't tried that yet though.
 
somebody1701

somebody1701

Well-Known Member
MickFoster said:
If you don't understand then perhaps I can explain. First off - coco is hydroponics just like rockwool, dwc, flood and drain, etc., etc., and like all hydroponics the roots are supposed to stay very moist - whether it be from hand watering or using an automatic dripper which keeps it saturated. Allowing the medium to dry out like soil can cause salt build up and mess with your pH in the root zone. Daily watering does several things - it replenishes the medium with fresh nutrients, it pulls in fresh oxygen for the roots, and with a 10% run off it flushes out any excess salts. I'm not trying to start a pissing match and I'm sure you grow beautiful plants, but you did say that you never understood why people water everyday.

Peace.
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Have you ever tried not watering every day? Also, how big are you pots relative to your plants. I've had this conversation many times. Unless you've actually tried both (which I have), don't tell me about all the supposed benefits. I never have to flush my coco and had used my last batch for 4 years before I moved. When I do water, I water for 20% runoff. And using h202 has never fixed any problem I've ever had.
 
MickFoster

MickFoster

Well-Known Member
somebody1701 said:
Have you ever tried not watering every day? Also, how big are you pots relative to your plants. I've had this conversation many times. Unless you've actually tried both (which I have), don't tell me about all the supposed benefits. I never have to flush my coco and had used my last batch for 4 years before I moved. When I do water, I water for 20% runoff. And using has never fixed any problem I've ever had.
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Don't get mad my friend, . You're the one that stated you did not understand why people water everyday, I was just pointing out what you described as "supposed benefits", that's all. And yes, I have tried not watering everyday - and I get better results watering daily. People that use automatic drippers have a saturated medium all the time. Can you explain how that can be bad? Like I said to you earlier, I'm sure you grow beautiful plants.

Peace to you brother.
 
somebody1701

somebody1701

Well-Known Member
Like I said, I've done side-by-side grows, watering every day versus not watering every day. I'm not going to make up benefits I can't measure myself. Just stating the facts I've experienced. I've heard people say that allowing the medium to dry out a bit increases oxygen (even in coco, I'm running 25% perlite, which I've also tested side-by-side against pure coco). It also supposedly provides mild PH swings that allow the plant to uptake different nutrients more efficiently. Now I can't directly measure those benefits. The benefits I can attest directly to are, faster-growing, healthier plants, using less water, using less nutrients, and reducing the risk of fungus gnats. The only time I've ever had algae is if I'm overwatering young plants. The solution -- water less.

I can absolutely state that application of h202 (at any strength) has at best not harmed the plant, and at worst stunted it's growth for weeks. The cure is worse than the problem.

I mentioned on another thread recently that I killed 6/8 of my young plants in early veg by overwatering them. I hadn't had this happen in 5 years. They were small plants in small (2 cup), cheap plastic containers but they had very large drainage holes on the bottom. I know they died from overwatering because 2 of the plants had light pots and I was lazy and watered all 8 instead of just watering the two. The two did great and the other 6 wilted and fell over and never recovered.

Saying the medium is "saturated all the time" means what? Continuous watering?
 
MickFoster

MickFoster

Well-Known Member
somebody1701 said:
I can absolutely state that application of h202 (at any strength) has at best not harmed the plant, and at worst stunted it's growth for weeks. The cure is worse than the problem.

I mentioned on another thread recently that I killed 6/8 of my young plants in early veg by overwatering them. I hadn't had this happen in 5 years. They were small plants in small (2 cup), cheap plastic containers but they had very large drainage holes on the bottom. I know they died from overwatering because 2 of the plants had light pots and I was lazy and watered all 8 instead of just watering the two. The two did great and the other 6 wilted and fell over and never recovered.

Saying the medium is "saturated all the time" means what? Continuous watering?
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I never made a statement regarding h2o2 and I don't advocate it. I never suggested daily watering to plants in early veg, I was referring to adult plants - sorry if that was your perception. And yes - automatic drippers means continuous dripping and saturated all the time. Just like growing in rockwool.
 
Michael Huntherz

Michael Huntherz

Well-Known Member
Yodaweed said:
No Cool WHip?
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If you aspire to live in a trailer park your whole life, by all means, reach for the Cool W(h)ip. That shit barely qualifies under the caregory of food, much less does it taste good. If you like it then I assert your palate is broken, or you have some childhood-rooted nostalgia fetish for it. Blecch! P'tooey!
 
Yodaweed

Yodaweed

Well-Known Member
Michael Huntherz said:
If you aspire to live in a trailer park your whole life, by all means, reach for the Cool W(h)ip. That shit barely qualifies under the caregory of food, much less does it taste good. If you like it then I assert your palate is broken, or you have some childhood-rooted nostalgia fetish for it. Blecch! P'tooey!
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We go hard in the trailer park one day i plan to make it to europe like these trailer park pioneers did.
 
Dr Magill

Dr Magill

Well-Known Member
When I've had algae issues it's usually been with soil. Scrape the shit off of the top and watch how much water they get. I like the idea of the Coco being hydrated all the time. Might have underwatered my first Coco grow. Like it way more than soil
 
Ta-dah

Ta-dah

Well-Known Member
It's such a relief to finally be done with all the products and systems, timers and schedules. It must be all the people making money off of that nonsense who encourage it.

If you use coco coir just go passive. Hempy buckets are a good intro to the idea. The plants can only drink as fast as they like to drink. Nobody needs to be force feeding them and causing these issues in the first place.

I should write a book and liberate everyone from the hydro industry tyranny. :bigjoint:
 
Psyphish

Psyphish

Well-Known Member
I water my coco to run off every day, just like the instructions on the coir packaging say. If I treat it like soil the buds are shit and the yield suffers. The best results with coco coir come with automated drippers, but I don't feel like setting up a reservoir. Coco coir is a hydro media, which is why I also add H2O2, everytime I add something organic to the grow, everything goes to shit. I tried adding enzymes for a while and it always caused springtails to appear and "decompose dying roots etc." in addition to damaging my plants and yields.
 
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