New to Coco and Autos

OK so I started my first 100 percent coco grow with my first auto's. Didn't start out knowing the common issues with coco as I was just treating it like soil at first. So I think this is the first set of problems.

Got all three to pop using RO water in the coco after about 32 hours after planting seed. Everything was going fine as I was spritzing the top of the coco with RO water, again because I was treating this like soil and not coco, so I was not completely saturating the bottom layers of coco. Everything was going OK for the first few days. After doing some reading I saw that coco can suck up cal/mag so I decided to switch to tap water as my tap water has a decent amount of cal/mag in it. Pic attached.

Come day 5 I decided to add microryza for later uptake of nutes after root development. This is when things took a turn. Looking at the microryza I was using it is about 98% clay and it seems that dumping tap water mixed with 2 teaspoons of this around plant base either shocked my plants or clogged them up and did not allow them to drink water. After doing this I noticed that coco under affected area was no longer drying out and probing it looks like its a clay/coco mixture so i think this is holding onto water.

After day 5 growth almost completely stopped and all leaves turned bright neon green. I still have not even seen my first set of true leaves at day 10. At day 6 I didn't know what was going on so I started to give them nute solution with Jacks Orchid Special with 30-10-10 NPK. Starting at day 9 I started to water until I got runoff and will start watering every day until run off as I am now aware coco is not soil and you can't wait for it to completely dry out and need coco to remain moist.

I am leaning towards Cal deficiency now but any advice would be appreciated.

Environmental factors: I have a 5x5 grow tent with plenty of circulation and keep the tent from 68 - 80 degrees with 45-60% humidity. Grow lights are for spyder sf200 at level 6 out of 10 hanging 32 inches above plant. The only thing I can think of that may affect plants is that I do not want to run heater in winter while I am asleep so I move the plants inside during the night time where the humidity drops to around 40 percent and temps are around 72.

Pics will be uploaded in next post. I know this is long but wanted to be as detailed as I could.

Pics of plants on end of day 9
1. Northern Lights
2. White Widow
3. Alaskan Purple

Sorry to post again but lights are sf2000 not sf200 and there are two pics per plant 1 from top view and the other from side. These are autos so I'm extremely worried about timing and if its already time to trash them

EC and PH are important.



My Jacks veg mix.

EC is the only thing I do not know at this point forgot to mention because this is tap water that I am using it starts at around 7.6 PH and I use PH down to get it to 6.5 before adding my mix in... I know run off from coco is not the most accurate way to tell PH of soil but run off is exactly 6.5 after watering. Need to do more research on EC. Any recommendations on good PPM meters that are going to bankrupt me and can still read calcium and mag ppm separately.

I'm sure the mycorrhizae you added didn't hurt them, but in the future, use it when you transplant by dusting the roots. Be careful not to overwater, and start giving them light nutrients. PH and EC are very important!! Be sure you are testing your nutes. Give calmag at each feeding. They just need a very low EC feed at this point. Don't overwater!!!

I honestly didn't add the microryza to the root because I heard that it was best to add the tap for autos directly into their final pots to stop as much transplant shock as possible so I didn't want to add it too early. OK so note taken for that.

As far as overwatering I was trying not to overwater for days after researching it looks like I was not watering enough. So please correct me if I am wrong but for seedlings you want to water until run off is seen and then let them dry out for a day or so just making sure there is no pooling on the coco. I have about 20 percent perlite in my coco mix.

Thank you @TintEastwood giving this a good read, wish I would have found this before I wasted 3 autos. Any advice on if I need to trash the autos from the pics and start over or are they still young enough to recover? I have ordered cal/mag and it should be arriving later today and will start adding this to mix immediately.

You got this.
Do your homework (read up) and try to get some non valuable plants started. Don't quit on the ones you have. Bagseed, clones. It takes some practice.

Solo cups work great.

Beezelbuz said:

EC is the only thing I do not know at this point forgot to mention because this is tap water that I am using it starts at around 7.6 PH and I use PH down to get it to 6.5 before adding my mix in... I know run off from coco is not the most accurate way to tell PH of soil but run off is exactly 6.5 after watering. Need to do more research on EC. Any recommendations on good PPM meters that are going to bankrupt me and can still read calcium and mag ppm separately.

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I'm a soil grower. But I do believe coco pH needs to be lower than 6.0.

And your mix should be pHd after making it.

Now that you've allegedly read how to grow in coco on the cocoforcannabis website suggested by TintEastwood, I won't go into my usual coco spiel.

You obviously fell for the "don't transplant autos" myth.

If you want fast growth, start in small containers. Maintaining the correct amount of moisture for those seedlings in such large pots will be a challenge for you.

And Wizzlebiz is right. pH at around 6.0.

Good luck and welcome.

MickFoster said:

You obviously fell for the "don't transplant autos" myth.

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@MickFoster I've seen and read the same about auto transplants.
Is this indeed a myth?

By accident. Lol
I just grew my first 2 autos. Started them in cups then xplanted to fiber. Drying 1 now.

TintEastwood said:

@MickFoster I've seen and read the same about auto transplants.
Is this indeed a myth?

By accident. Lol
I just grew my first 2 autos. Started them in cups then xplanted to fiber. Drying 1 now.

Click to expand...

Most auto growers transplant.......a lot train and some top.
Even Mephisto, who only sell autos, recommends starting in small containers.

I never have a growth slowdown when transplanting. It's not hard to make an impression of a solo cup in a 3 gal bucket, removing the seeding and placing it in a perfectly sized hole.

I believe more growth time is lost by starting in the final pots than transplanting.

Thank you both i will be for sure starting in smaller containers next time.