Problems problems problems

MickFoster

Well-Known Member
Coco is hydroponics, not soil.
You should be feeding daily to run off......never let it get dry.......ever.
Never plain water.
Daily feeding replenishes the nutes, pulls in fresh oxygen to the roots, and prevents salt build up.
 

MickFoster

Well-Known Member
How old is the plant?
You probably have severe salt build up by now.
I suggest you flush the coco with 1/4 strength nutes.
Good luck.
 

Never Known

Active Member
Ahhhh reallly?! So coco professional should not get dry, I see! The plant is a few months old, I’ve only had it for a week or so however.
When you say flush what do you mean? Drench it? Should I test the run off ppm?
 

MickFoster

Well-Known Member
I would run a couple of gallons through it......and yes test the run off.
Do you plan on transplanting?
If you do, add about 30% perlite to your coco.
 

drsprout

Member
I grew in coco for admittedly too long before I really 'understood' that you are basically growing hydroponically like MickF is kindly suggesting. Totally drenched coco still provides a huge amount of oxygen to the roots so you don't have to worry about overwatering, it's more like every time you totally soak it you are putting your plant at its optimal state and the more often you can do it the better.

When he says flush, he means water it until 20%+ volume of your growing mediums worth of water has come out the bottom of your pot.

It's helpful to then TEST that runoff water on its own for its EC/TDS(ppm) and PH, mostly EC (as far as I know, I don't what useful info the PH might give you at the run-off stage unless it's totally whack, an indicator that something is off). If the EC is higher than what's going in, that means you have too many nutrients in your water, your plant can't handle it and it's building up in the coco. Likewise, if you're only watering every couple of days, that EC will drive up as the water evaporates and all that's left is the salt - also driving the nutrient dose up way too high for your young plant. On the flipside, if you can get things back to normal, you keep testing that runoff EC and if it's coming out lower than what goes in, this is your plant telling you it can handle a little bump up in nutrient intake, so you give it a little more next watering until you're getting roughly the same value on the runoff as you are going in.

At this stage your plant is looking a little rough but still alive. I'd follow Mick's advice and flush quite heavily for a start to bring her back to equilibrium, followed up with a solid daily watering schedule. You can start with no (though people suggest to never go pure water w/o any nutes in coco) so rather maybe very little nutes probably just to test the runoff to see how high the concentration is in there already. Flush until runoff concentration falls within a comfortable range, then start feeding light to normal and maintain the daily watering.

I've learnt that growing pure coco can be a joy with how well the plants respond to constant care, but it's definitely a little more tedious if you don't have a way of irrigating automatically.
 
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SheeshM

Well-Known Member
Good answers above. I start feeding some Rhizo and cal-mag as soon as the seedling has its 1st true leaf set. I use RO water so cal-mag is needed but with tap water you may not need it. After about a week I start normal feeding but still fairly low strength, maybe 400 ppm or so. Then, ramp up to about 700-800 ppm in veg. I never feed straight water and you should keep coco moist at all times. GL, I think you can get back on track.
 

Never Known

Active Member
I grew in coco for admittedly too long before I really 'understood' that you are basically growing hydroponically like MickF is kindly suggesting. Totally drenched coco still provides a huge amount of oxygen to the roots so you don't have to worry about overwatering, it's more like every time you totally soak it you are putting your plant at its optimal state and the more often you can do it the better.

When he says flush, he means water it until 20%+ volume of your growing mediums worth of water has come out the bottom of your pot.

It's helpful to then TEST that runoff water on its own for its EC/TDS(ppm) and PH, mostly EC (as far as I know, I don't what useful info the PH might give you at the run-off stage unless it's totally whack, an indicator that something is off). If the EC is higher than what's going in, that means you have too many nutrients in your water, your plant can't handle it and it's building up in the coco. Likewise, if you're only watering every couple of days, that EC will drive up as the water evaporates and all that's left is the salt - also driving the nutrient dose up way too high for your young plant. On the flipside, if you can get things back to normal, you keep testing that runoff EC and if it's coming out lower than what goes in, this is your plant telling you it can handle a little bump up in nutrient intake, so you give it a little more next watering until you're getting roughly the same value on the runoff as you are going in.

At this stage your plant is looking a little rough but still alive. I'd follow Mick's advice and flush quite heavily for a start to bring her back to equilibrium, followed up with a solid daily watering schedule. You can start with no (though people suggest to never go pure water w/o any nutes in coco) so rather maybe very little nutes probably just to test the runoff to see how high the concentration is in there already. Flush until runoff concentration falls within a comfortable range, then start feeding light to normal and maintain the daily watering.

I've learnt that growing pure coco can be a joy with how well the plants respond to constant care, but it's definitely a little more tedious if you don't have a way of irrigating automatically.
Thank you very much, ok so I will flush my plants with 1/4 strength feed if that’s ok, which I will ph to 5.8

what I will do from now is feed my plants daily, I know it may get boring however if I can get green happy plants then it’s definitely worth it because seeing these plants, especially the bigger ones with dying leaves and spotty leaves is aweful to see!

I’ll also keep track of the Ppms and ph and hopefully things get better and start Lookin better in a week or so!

bring on the daily feeding!
 

Never Known

Active Member
Is there any reason the ppms going in would be higher than the ppms coming out?

wouldn’t that suggest there isn’t much salt in the medium?
 

drsprout

Member
Hmmm really, the different opinions always get me, not sure what to do now, I watered them at 5.8
I think sometimes it's worth moving the ph around to make sure the plants are getting everything they need over time. I'll loosely follow charts like the following as a guide, hovering between ~5.7 - 6.2 every few days seems to make sense as a general approach, not sure how others deal with this.

hydroponics-ph-chart-marijuana (1).jpg
 
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