Help me save my girls please!

[bot]

Regarding the medium, what would you recommend for a Sydney climate? Will 30%coco, 40%perlite and 30% clay balls be ok? I know perlite holds moisture, and hence nutrients, too so I may end up with the same problems.

[bot]

Double check this one mate. It wouldn't be a surprise if you have nymph sciarid fly larvae sewing pythium in the roots there. Effect shown on the leaves

 

They definitely aren't larvae, at least from what I can see on the coco. They have two antennae, 6 legs and they crawl about and jump, or "spring", around the place. They are some form of mite. I can't see any flying insects at all in the room or on the leaves. Very frustrating. This is why I kept going back to the ph/nute mix as the source of the problem.

 

Is it possible that these problems could have been caused by ph or nutrient problems? What are the symptoms of too little nutes?

[Radic]

http://www.chrysanthemums.info/ailments/images/pest-sciaridfly300.jpg

Small black flies up to 3-4mm long.

Adults are attracted to potting media especially if the organic content is high, like coco.

Females lay 100 eggs each which hatch in 1 week.

Larvae feed for about a month.

http://www.chrysanthemums.info/ailments/images/p-sciarid-larvae300.jpg

White larvae, up to 10mm long with black or brown heads live in potting and rooting media.

They feed on root hairs

They also attack seedlings.

 

What are the symptoms of too little nutes?

1st slow growth

2nd large shade leaves turn yellow then brown and die off first from the bottom up the plant

3rd stunted flowers

 

guidance

[bot]

http://www.chrysanthemums.info/ailments/images/pest-sciaridfly300.jpg

Small black flies up to 3-4mm long.

Adults are attracted to potting media especially if the organic content is high, like coco.

Females lay 100 eggs each which hatch in 1 week.

Larvae feed for about a month.

http://www.chrysanthemums.info/ailments/images/p-sciarid-larvae300.jpg

White larvae, up to 10mm long with black or brown heads live in potting and rooting media.

They feed on root hairs

They also attack seedlings.

 

 

1st slow growth

2nd large shade leaves turn yellow then brown and die off first from the bottom up the plant

3rd stunted flowers

 

guidance

 

Cheers again. I haven't seen any of those flies in my room at all. I had a good look around the top layer of coco and the leaves again, but nothing. In my bathroom I have these drain flys which look different, but I haven't seen them in the grow room and as far as I know, they don't feed on plants.

[bot]

Hey Bot,

 

Radic's advice re: coco in certain climates may very well be a factor. If you reside in a moist/humid climate then coco never drying out may be attributing to your problems. At 1st glance i'd say its a deficiency that is causing the leaves to burn/disintegrate, i cant tell you what type of deficiency and given your constant monitoring of your nutes i am no longer sure its a deficiency - unless as Radic says the root zone is unhealthy therefore preventing uptake of particular elements. Fortunately i have plenty of experience with growing in coco; unfortunately my knowledge of what symptoms indicate which deficiency is virtually non existent. I recall a great article for troubleshooting and identifying element deficiencies in canna - i will do my best to track it down for ya.

 

I doubt these problems are genetic but again this is just my opinion. If your airflow has been addressed, you've found your happy EC level and youre keeping the GR temp down i'd lean towards roots/root zone. Whether its your clay/coco mix or related to microbe levels will be a case of trial and error. Again i'd hope for her sake its microbes considering the problem is relatively recent this may be the case. I use "Microbol" in my ressy to keep the root zone healthy and to convert dead veg matter in to food (this is what the manufacturer claims - i dont have any science to back it up other than to say im yet to run in to similar problems, touch wood).

obviously there's a hell of a lot more to a RTW coco grow than adding microbes, this is just one aspect of keeping root zone healthy. I wont get in to numbers but i will say ive been growing with coco since 1998; always been in a cool winter/hot summer [southern] climate. I swear by allowing new plants to dry out between feeds, i believe this encourages the roots to search harder for nute source resulting in more resilient root systems - once cuttings have developed several roots i'll either pot straight in to 30/50L pots with approx bottom 20% of pot containing expanded clay and feed once every 3 days for 1st 12 days. Alternatively i pot cuttings in small (appx 1L) pot similar to your pic without clay and feed apprx 0.5-1L every 2 days for 1st 12 days. I cant stress enough that this is my proven method i dont claim that it is the only or best method and i cant say it will prevent your issues from reoccurring. You may consider growing a 50/50 coco perlite mix or alternating layers of clay and coco in a layer upon layer fashion to improve drainage.

 

If i were you i'd get hold of a microbe aditive like microbyol or cannazyme and add it to your nutes; i'd reduce your level of lighting and feed them approx 5L one day then nothing the next and 5L the 3rd day. I suggest reducing lighting to keep temp down in case the coco dries too quickly and causes stress; i cant help but think maybe too much moisture may be contributing to your problem - that leads to the question of how much drainage do your pots have? i assume plenty if their giving so much nutes back. so IMO try what i said for about 3-4 days to see if it slows the the disintegration and gradually increse your ligthing and feeding. If this doesnt work then pray she holds out for 2-3 weeks.

 

one last thing - change your brand of coco (purely for trial and error purpose - ive tested several brands and the one i currently use my girls love so i aint changing it - i will post some pics next week and let the experts decide)

 

Good Luck

JC

 

 

Regarding this part of the above post "I recall a great article for troubleshooting and identifying element deficiencies in canna - i will do my best to track it down for ya. " - i'm not sure how I could possibly have deficiencies when i'm using a high quality nutrient, unless there is something wrong with the ph. I've read time and again the charts indicating which element is missing and mine appears to be magnesium, but again, my nutes are A grade, the coco is a-grade and so I have no idea what to do. I have problems from the outset, had a period where they looked healthy but only for a couple of weeks. I always have problems no matter what, and I used different coco and nutes in my first grow, though the problems were different to what I have now.

 

Can you list in detail your steps through the process JC? I.e. what nute levels, ph range, supplements etc from weeks 1-12/13? If you could work it out in mils per liter or 10 liters, would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers

[wilderbud]

Make sure you let the coco dry out and use rhizotonic/cannazym/bloom/pk13-14 as well as a+b for a canna grow. The rhizotonic is for rooting, the cannazym is for better leaf growth and bloom/pk13-14 are for flowering.

 

PS if thats 3 weeks to go theyve ruined your yield already.

Edited April 25, 2010 by wilderbud

[The Hash Nibbler]

Pick a root enzyme that coats the roots and prevents further damage, house and garden do a great one but at $132 it ain't cheap! Use at very low 0.3 ml per litre(NOT MORE), if it's a root problem this is great. coats roots but allows nutrient uptake and prevents disease and pathogens, will fix up wrong ph in past,root rot and pest attack. It also repairs if plants have suffered a scarid fly,fungus gnat infestation. It ain't canna but it works, Fast.