Canna Coco / Germination Problem

Hi, Not sure if this should be in the newbie section (here) or plant problems.

I'm a newbie so i chose the newbie section.

Anyways, I'm growing in canna coco medium in 4 litre pots, planted 6 seeds, all 6 germed, 1 was naturally week and died.

Problem is the sprouters are facing downwards, seems like the seed shell weighed them down, im guessing this will resolve itself now there under the lamp but just thought id check.

Also, how much nutrient should i give each plant. (not how much a & b to add, but rather how much of the already maid mix to give to the plants per day)

Normally i just drizzle a little bit around the plants stem and wait for the medium to appear dry.


Thanks RIU Members

1. the taproot is supposed to face down. It's a root, not a sprout.
2. don't dig into your soil and disturb a germinating seed. not good.
3. None. Don't feed nutes to a plant until it's at least 2 weeks old.

Nah the taproot is facing down.. the stem comes up.. then curves down at the top where the leaves come out. so the leaves are upside down.

(See Image)

Well that's pretty normal when they're really young. If they aren't really young if you're container is extremely shallow, a plant will die because it's main taproot has nowhere else to grow and it will just kind of wilt over like that. If they have leaves on them like you drew then they should be upright. Do you have a strong wind blowing on them by any chance?

I have a fan which blows down from above, its a strong wind but it isnt doing any harm to the plants they dont appear to be swaying in the wind

Like i said, im just thinking its because the seed had weighed the top down and one side of the leaves are now bending upwards so it seems there re-adjusting now that there aiming for the light & like i said, 4 litre containers? so its not too shallow i've grown in smaller.

The leaves we are talking about are the first ever two leaves that are there once the shell falls off, they dont appear like hemp leaves.

everything's normal then, nothing to worry about.

Okay, thanks mate.

One more thing.. you said no nutes for 2weeks, canna's website says start after 1 week and it still doesnt answer my question.

Kn0tty said:

Okay, thanks mate.

One more thing.. you said no nutes for 2weeks, canna's website says start after 1 week and it still doesnt answer my question.

Click to expand...

Ok, I would go with Canna's guide because it's their nutes. It's more dependent on plant size/maturity than it is on age, So I'd let your plant get to it's second set of real leaves before I gave 'em the juice, but that's just me.

As far as how much to use, water until you see about 10% - 15% drip out the bottom, then stop. With each watering make sure to fully saturate the entire medium and then wait for it to get reasonably dry before watering again. Using a drain-to-waste helps eliminate some of the plant's waste from the container everytime you water. I use a cup marked with a piece of tape to make sure each plant at least gets the same minimum amount of water. As you learn your plants you'll get to know how often to water, it depends on temp., container size, plant size, humidity, etc. I use the weight of the container to determine when it's dry, but the more you grow, the easier it is to tell by just looking at the plant.

I just wanted to add one last bit and that's that it is nearly impossible to overwater coco. Watering too frequently could still make problems, but coco won't get condensed and rock-hard like most soils will, nor will it release too much pre-fertilization into the mix. It's the best.

Sweet, cheers mate