I am a journeyman grower, have been growing in Rock wool, flood & drain in trays for 20+ years with very few issues. I switched to coco cuz I wanted to grow less plants & large plants. Plus every body says how easy & great it is. Anyway I started with healthy sour diesel clones in 7 gal pots, had nothing but trouble. I know now that your suppose to start in small pots & work your way up. I learned that the hard way. I think I was drowning them, cuz I finally stopped watering them & let the coco dry a bit and they started to come back to life and started to do good until I watered again. Now they look bad again. There about 4 weeks old now and I only watered them 3 times. I basically follow the Gh chart for my nutes, but not as strong. Before I add my nutes I put 3ml of calimagic, Then my 3 part Gh, then add 1ml floralicious plus, 1ml superthrive, & I use Gh ArmorSi Silica at half strength recommended. Everything is at 1 gallon. My ph going in is 5.9 and ppm is about 700. After I put the calimagic in the tap water the ppm reads about 300 to 350, so I'm only adding about 350 ppm of nutes. Now the plants are starting to taco a bit, turning yellow, wilting, tips are curling down, and I'm starting to see a little bit of rust I think on the new clones I just put in a week ago. But that's a whole nether story. Can any body shed some light on my situation. Anything would appreciated. I apologize if I didn't post this correctly, as I am new to this site.
Growing in coco - Deficiencies driving me batty
- Thread starter OnT1m3
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verticalgrow
New Member
1. use nutes formulated for coco
2. spray plants with 1/4 strength foliar spray every 3 days
3. try the 3 day watering cycle method= day 1 use nutes, day 2 use water and
day 3 no watering at all then start day 1 again but only use this method for veg
4. always use full strength calmag sollution as coco is inert
2. spray plants with 1/4 strength foliar spray every 3 days
3. try the 3 day watering cycle method= day 1 use nutes, day 2 use water and
day 3 no watering at all then start day 1 again but only use this method for veg
4. always use full strength calmag sollution as coco is inert
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- #3
Yea that sounds good and I'm gunna try that, except for the nutes cuz I know people are doing good with Gh nutes and coco. And I love Gh, So it can't be that. It's funny because when it comes to coco every thread you read is different. One guy swears that you have to water everyday no matter what, you can't drown plants in coco. Then you go to another thread and somebody says you have to let the coco dry out or you'll drown your plants. Or if you use tap water you don't need Calmag. It's very confusing. But I'm determined so I will keep at it.
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- #4
verticalgrow
New Member
No truth
Yes, lots of truth....
I wouldn't use calimagic with coco.. Did you wash and charge your coco before planting? I use nutes every feed. If treating like hydro (1-2 feeds a day) I wouldn't go over 600ppm, if treating like soil grow, 900ppm.. I keep veg nutes for first week of flip with little roid, then flush and start flowering nutrient... I only use tap water, I'm in Australia though, good water, bottle it from the tap, lol. I never use calmag or barely, maybe midflower at worst...my tap water is usually under 100...
I wouldn't use calimagic with coco.. Did you wash and charge your coco before planting? I use nutes every feed. If treating like hydro (1-2 feeds a day) I wouldn't go over 600ppm, if treating like soil grow, 900ppm.. I keep veg nutes for first week of flip with little roid, then flush and start flowering nutrient... I only use tap water, I'm in Australia though, good water, bottle it from the tap, lol. I never use calmag or barely, maybe midflower at worst...my tap water is usually under 100...
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- #7
no calmag? why not, I mean how do you get away with it? what nutes do you use? And I would like to feed every day, that's what I'm use to doing, except my coco takes forever to dry out, like 3 or 4 days. my room temps range from 70 to 77, lights off lights on. I have plenty of osculating fans my air exchange is about every 2 minutes. My tap is usually under 100 also, does that mean you don't need calmag or not as much? Yea I did rinse the my coco with water PH 5.9 and by charging it do you mean wetting it with ph correct water with nutes, yea I did that. my plants are doing a little better I think because their finally rooted in pretty good. still every time I water they look a little wilty the next day, and by the day after that there looking ok again. its really weird and frustrating.
Dr Fish
Well-Known Member
Did you add perlite to lighten the coco so it drains better??.... Straight coco holds too much water...
Coco nutes... A&B rhizo b52 silica is about it... 80-20 coco perlite... found this awhile ago, I pasted it onto another thread....
dont use gh calimagic for coco, its carbonate based. it may not show problems immediately, but eventually it can build up in your root zone. same goes for go calmag.
It's not going to dry out watering every day or twice a day, lol....
dont use gh calimagic for coco, its carbonate based. it may not show problems immediately, but eventually it can build up in your root zone. same goes for go calmag.
It's not going to dry out watering every day or twice a day, lol....
Not a single drop of cal/mag yet...
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- #11
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- #12
10lt pot... This girls just an experiment... 2 year opened nutes, temps under 55 and she still grew, lol... From seed, that's around 65 days old, after first week of stretch...
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- #14
I build up to everyday then twice day feeds..... Coir isn't like wet soil, there's still a lot of air in there...
verticalgrow
New Member
- Thread starter
- #17
Airpots, are those the canvas looking bags? smart pots? Anyway its to late for that I already have them in 7gal nursery pots. So I started feeding every other day they seem to be doing better. I topped them the other day and there starting to get a little bushy and the leaves have went from really pale to nice and green and there standing up reaching for the light now instead of wilting. I'm starting to see a little rust though, on a couple of the leaves. I need to figure out what's causing it so I can knock it out quick. I want to put some pics up as soon as I read how to do that. I'm new to this but I think I can figure it out.
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
let the coco dry out a bit more or your lower roots are going to suffer. also, coco pH does not drift very well, and you can eliminate deficiency problems by manually drifting your pH each time you water. Water one time at 5.5 pH and the next time 5.9 pH... alternate these each time, and I bet your pH deficiencies go away fast.
- Thread starter
- #19
I have been letting it dry out. I finally watered last night after 4 days and the time before that I waited five days. When i watered last night at 5.8 ph my run off was about 6.1 - 6.2 no matter how much i watered it. i must have put 5 gallons in a 7 gallon pot trying to see if the ph would come out at 5.8. well i might be exaggerating a bit but i did put a lot of water thru them, probably about 30% run off every time i water
verticalgrow
New Member
Airpots have dimples with holes around the side, but smart pots and
anti-spiral root pots (Hercules pots) all allow more air to get into the rootzone.
They also air-prune roots which makes the plant shoot out more roots over and over again.
anti-spiral root pots (Hercules pots) all allow more air to get into the rootzone.
They also air-prune roots which makes the plant shoot out more roots over and over again.
