Problems with current coco grow...

[allhailthebud]

hey folks

 

First of all -

 

Indoor/Outdoor: - INDOOR

Growing Medium: - COCO

Growing Style: RUN TO WASTE

Watering/Feeding Frequency: WEEKLY AS NEEDED

Nutrient Strength (PPM/EC): LAST FEED 1.2EC

PH Levels: 5.8

Temperature/Humidity Levels: 24c DURING LIGHTS ON, HUMIDITY AT 60%

Air Flow/Fans etc.: excellent air flow, not sure of LPM.

Lighting Type (CFL/HPS/MH etc.): 600w HPS

Total Wattage:600

Growth Stage: veg

Plants Age: 2 weeks since rooted

Cannabis Strain: blue fruit, Devil

 

 

This is my first grow in coco, my clones in 100% coco with 1.5" of clayballs at bottom of the pots, have some deficiencys/problems, cant seem to work them out....

 

I am using bag coco, not the brick style coco. The brand i am using is called 'cyco' it has the RHP Dutch certification and has been pre-flushed/washed. Although i did flush it again myself. PH of the coco is bwtween 5.5-6.5 stabilised.

 

I am usuing Canna coco A+B nutes, plants are under a 600wHPS and temps are averaging around 24degrees celcius. They have good air flow/circulation. I am hand watering them roughly every 6-7 days as they require it.

 

Ph being fed is spot on 5.8, I originally fed them with 1.2EC (550 ppm) and they did not do alot, i fed them 1 week later with 1.4EC strength (690ppm) and this morning they had slightly burnt tips on the top leaf's. So i flushed them and the run off was 630ppm. I am feeding them with Canna Coco A/B nutes with a touch of superthrive for added vitamins. - All thease clones are 2 weeks in pots since they rooted.

 

These first 2 pictures are of my blue fruit clones. I have 8 of this strain in total and all are showing the same stunted growth. The fan leaf's are very small, and the growth is very stunted, they arent light green or going yellow at the bottom leaf's. Just very stunted growth & the main stem is purple in color

 

 

This next 2 pictures is of my Devil clones, i have 3 in total. All doing the same thing as one another, very droopy, yellowing at the bottom and pale green up top. The main stems and the fan leaf stems are purpleing. My guess would have been nitrogen deficiency, but Canna coco nutes is high in Nitrogen.....

 

 

Thease plants are growing very slow and seem to have a few problems compared to plants ive grown in soil. This is my first time switching from soil to coco and seems coco is alot more problematic

 

Any ideas what i may be doing wrong ? As i originally thought maybe a Mg deficiency, but Canna Coco (or any coco specific nute) is supposed to have added Cal/Mag from what ive read....

 

Any help's greatly appreciated

 

Peace

Edited September 11, 2011 by allhailthebud

[STONEDAJ69]

:thumbsup: To all the people in chat who helped bud with this problem.

[uncle chron]

they look aver watered to me....try let em dry right out inbetween waterings/feeds

cyco coco is shit....as you`re finding out.....i suggest that when ya feed em, give em enough to have about 50% runoff....that way it will kind`of flush the medium at the same time

 

and maybe drop the EC to .7 while you`re in veg

and stop adding super thrive to the mix of nutes

try these methods on one plant and see if it works

 

 

also....is that devil, red devil?

 

 

 

good luck mate

Edited September 11, 2011 by uncle chron

[-RiverRat-]

Agree with Chron. Coco works best when the plants are taking up moisture faster hence drawing in more air. They should come good as they start drawing up faster. You got bog down disease there is my guess..

 

Perlite ftw

[The Hash Nibbler]

Heya AHTB =) , good advice from the last two , mate i am having the same problems at the moment inside. Sluggish growth, I just gave em a big flush (30lt pot with 20lt) , hoping it's a PH problem.

So will let ya know how they come up tomorrow.

Sure ya Ph pen is not on the fritz? Only reason i say that is that is classic looking Nitrogen deficiency caused by ph lockout.

On the watering side, I am having a bit of a problem with my pots drying out ... taking like a week and a half...

After a re-pot they take a bit to get going again, let them pots dry out until you can dig ya finger in about an inch or 2 and it's still dry, then wait another day, then re-water/nute.

They always wetter than they look........ Coming from soil to coco, I feel ya. Overwatering was my main thing, cause ya tend to look at as soil, but it's a whole different beasty.

Be one with the coco and it will tell you whats going on =) . Peace. Hopper

[El Gato]

All the above posts are great. Remember with premium coco nutes like canna or house & garden do not need anything else. No superthrive for minerals ect. They come with lots of stuff like that..... It is specified for inert mediums like coco. No need for calmag.

 

If you have any deficiency it would only come from you underfeeding nutes or from lockout. Both of which can be corrected easily in coco, thats the beauty.

[El Gato]

All the above posts are great. Remember with premium coco nutes like canna or house & garden do not need anything else. No superthrive for minerals ect. They come with lots of stuff like that..... It is specified for inert mediums like coco. No need for calmag.

 

If you have any deficiency it would only come from you underfeeding nutes or from lockout. Both of which can be corrected easily in coco, thats the beauty.

[allhailthebud]

Hey folks, thanks for the replys.

 

Today the plants are looking alot better and standing up quite lot more compared to yesterday after i gave them a good flush. Going to give them a small feed tomorrow.

 

Ive only been feeding/watering once a week, as i thoght the idea was to let the coco dry out... i just read on the bag of coco if hand watering to water daily with hydroponic nutrient so ill start feeding every 2/3 days, only slight feed's till i get about 20% run off...

 

Chron - Everywhere i read on the net folk are saying its 'impossible' to over-water coco... i tipped one of the plants out of the pots with coco and all, roots holding the medium togeather very well, the roots are beautiful and white, and coco is just damp and fluffy... no water clogged in the medium as its draining very well. Ill stop using superthrive, as i just had a small bottle of it so i thought it couldnt hurt, ... And no, it aint Red Devil - its a Mr N Devil handed onto me by a mate

 

Ratty - I didnt add any perlite into thease pots, although i should of... would of helped with airation etc... they got 1.5" of clayballs on the bottom of the pots and are draining very well, as just mentioned i did tip one of the plants out of the pots and they have healthy white beautiful roots, medium is just damp... not 'boggy' and its draining very well... will be mixing perlite into the 30L pots when thease are ready to be transplanted..

 

GH - Nah me PH pen's are spot on, using 2 of them to make sure they are reading correctly as one another and have calibrated my Eutec ph pen and its reading spot on. Isnt a ph problem.. I used a ph soil probe thing to test the medium in the pots are they are all between 6.0-5.5 - the cyco coco claims to be stabilised at 6.5-5.5 and the readings are between that..

 

From what ive been told the problem is obviously a nute deficiency from not being fed oftenly enough. They are only being fed once weekly as from what ive read on the net many growers treat coco as soil, feed/water then let it dry out before next watering... This seems incorrect... Im going to give them a light feed around 0.8EC tomorra and see how they go from there, ill give them light feeds every 2/3 days from then on...

 

Couple days ago i fed them with Ec 1.4 feed, and they got slightly burnt tips of new growth, so i flushed yesterday and they have responded alot better today and are standing up alot more, not so droopy

 

Ill keep the progress posted in here, hoping they spring back to life within a week or so.

 

peace

Edited September 12, 2011 by allhailthebud

[uncle chron]

sounds like ya got it sorted then mate....i say stick to one persons advise/diary and run with it....no point fuckn around with bits n peices from everyone

 

hook in

 

 

Edited September 12, 2011 by uncle chron

[buzzo]

Me thinks you are not telling the full truth or maybe I have missed something.....WTF is in that bottle of BUG SPRAY IN THE PHOTO.

You should only spray your plants if you have something like SPider Mites...So What gives buddy!!!!!!!!!!

 

1. Ditch the superthive & use either Seasol or Rhizotonic.

 

2. Ditch the Clay Balls in the Bottom of the Pots.(Next grow of course) Put them on the top it helps keep the Gnats at Bay.

 

3. If you use Cannazym and Either Rhizo or Seasol you can easialy run 1.5 E.C. in Veg and see significant results. Assuming your water has an E.C. of 0.2 or less. You will find at 1.2 this is only just adequate to maintain enough N. Tip burn with Coco and Canna means you are on the money. (slight tip burn only 1 to 2 mm from the end of the tip) ...If the end of the leaves start to curl under then you know you have overdone the Nutes

 

4. General rule of thumb for feeding is every 4 or 5 days for the first 2 weeks. every 3 days for the next week and then apply the 50% weight rule to the pot from then on. When in full blown flower I feed them twice a day. (Keep in mind my pot size is only 2.4 litres)

 

5. GNATS WILL BE A PROBLEM IF YOU DO NOT TREAT THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

My bet is the fuckers are in there big time and your so called flush is masking the fact you have fed whatever roots you have left left after the Gnat Lavae have chewed the fuck out of them.

Jimbo posted up an Excelllant post on Gnat treatment for Coco some time Back. There are many ways to treat them. They have a life cycle of around 10 days and I treat them with an organic called "Gnat off" once every 2 weeks and I have found that the advice from another Stoner here at OZ,,,,,Sorry mate can't remember who it is...but burning a mozzie coils will in the grow room every week will also help by killing the adults.But you still need to treat the Larvae in the Coco.

Never EVER flush Coco without nutes...you will destroy the Trichaderma natural bacteria and leave the Root system open for attack from pathogens.

Don't believe a lot of the crap people tell you on here....The Chemists that work for Companies like Canna ETC know there stuff.

Despite popular belief you can and should flush with nutes that are suitable for the plants stage of growth.

I run 0.5 ml per litre of Cal/Mag only because I use Distilled water.....They Canna basically design there gear around a water hardness of 0.2 EC and most of that is Calcium in most water sources, not Magnesium. 0.5 ML of Cal mag raises the E.C. only 0.2 or basically to the same level as your average tap water. You won't see any Magnesium deficiency until you are into flower anyway.

 

Jury is still out on my own testing but it looking like the Seasol might even pip the Rhizotonic with my latest grow. Personally I would only use Canna or Nutrifield Coco. Only use Coco if is says on the bag it is Buffered and treated.

 

P.S. there is a technique to watering the coco. You must flood the fuck out of it and let it soak in for 30 seconds od so then flood it again, and so on until it starts to run out the bottom....Don't just feed gently until water comes out the bottom of the pots....This will give hot spots in the pot and cause the look your plants have...IE some dark green leaves and others no so ETC.....Floood like fuck wait and so on...OK.

 

Good luck with the rest of your grow. The plants look fine BTW.

 

Cheers Buzzo

Edited September 12, 2011 by buzzo