Seedling dying?

[hydrochronic]

I flush mine strait from the tap PH7-7.8 than run one bucket thru it at the end at PH5.8 I use the same coco have for years never a problem

 

Do you measure the pH of your run off? That's what is worrying me. On both my plants I got now it always has very high pH run off no matter what pH goes in.

[Gazza2001au]

I no longer test the PH of my run off its just an added thing to worry about, main thing is to test and adjustwhats going in

 

personally i think your second hand RO system could have been used with contaminated water previously causing all your problems

[hydrochronic]

I no longer test the PH of my run off its just an added thing to worry about, main thing is to test and adjustwhats going in

 

personally i think your second hand RO system could have been used with contaminated water previously causing all your problems

 

The guy said it was barely used, the ppm of the water coming out of it is under 10ppm so surely can't be causing any issues? I am thinking maybe I just didn't flush the coco enough and now I'm trying to overcompensate but not being able to match the run off to the pH going in does concern me.

 

edit: been doing a bit more reading and apparently it's safe to ignore pH of coco run off and just worry about the ppm

Edited April 1, 2017 by hydrochronic

[Sir PsychoHashy]

There's a tute on prepping that coco on the site somewhere, I think it was done by Lou.  It's a good one, so if you want to use it I'd advise a look.

 

I gave up on the shit after one use, and have been using good pre buffered coco ever since.  No problems since.  I know it costs more, but if you look at the extra cost as part of the big picture it works out to fuck all per plant, so I can't see a sensible reason not to use the good stuff.  Cheapest one to buy is the Nutrifield Mega Brick, especially if you're getting it posted.

 

For a seedling to do that at that age, it can't be a deficiency as they are able to support themselves without nutrition at that stage, though I do like to give them a little bit of food.  Over watering, over feeding, fungal attacks, or some sort of problem/toxicity with the medium are the most likely culprits.  So a medium you can be confident of, with a moisture level that's not too high and is allowed to mostly dry between waterings, light nute levels or plain water, and not keeping the seedling in a humid spot like a humidity dome, is your best way forward.

 

That damage on the stem didn't quite look like damping off, but that could just be down to the pic?  Could have been you damaged it when filling the coco level higher, but I've knocked them over at that age and had them bounce back, so maybe that was the prob, maybe not.

 

I'm not up on RO water, but have read something along the lines of the lack of something in the water can cause plants to be more likely to have cal mag issues or something.  Can't see your unit putting out toxic water, but if you have more problems along the same lines it might be worth just using tap water until you can figure it out.  I've always just used tap water which I age for a day or 2 before use to evaporate the chlorine out, no problems.

 

Better luck next time.

[hydrochronic]

There's a tute on prepping that coco on the site somewhere, I think it was done by Lou.  It's a good one, so if you want to use it I'd advise a look.

 

I gave up on the shit after one use, and have been using good pre buffered coco ever since.  No problems since.  I know it costs more, but if you look at the extra cost as part of the big picture it works out to fuck all per plant, so I can't see a sensible reason not to use the good stuff.  Cheapest one to buy is the Nutrifield Mega Brick, especially if you're getting it posted.

 

For a seedling to do that at that age, it can't be a deficiency as they are able to support themselves without nutrition at that stage, though I do like to give them a little bit of food.  Over watering, over feeding, fungal attacks, or some sort of problem/toxicity with the medium are the most likely culprits.  So a medium you can be confident of, with a moisture level that's not too high and is allowed to mostly dry between waterings, light nute levels or plain water, and not keeping the seedling in a humid spot like a humidity dome, is your best way forward.

 

That damage on the stem didn't quite look like damping off, but that could just be down to the pic?  Could have been you damaged it when filling the coco level higher, but I've knocked them over at that age and had them bounce back, so maybe that was the prob, maybe not.

 

I'm not up on RO water, but have read something along the lines of the lack of something in the water can cause plants to be more likely to have cal mag issues or something.  Can't see your unit putting out toxic water, but if you have more problems along the same lines it might be worth just using tap water until you can figure it out.  I've always just used tap water which I age for a day or 2 before use to evaporate the chlorine out, no problems.

 

Better luck next time.

 

Thanks Hashy, really appreciate your analysis. At day 10 the seedling still looked like day 2-3 other than shooting up a few cm and losing all it's green, so feels like it was stunded from the start.

 

I probably read about 10 different coco flushing/prepping tutorials yesterday and tried a whole bunch of stuff on a couple of 100mm/0.5L pots I have. Run off is clear, no problem. PPM going in matches PPM going out, no problem. But the pH no matter what goes in, always comes back out at 7.0-7.2ish. I can only assume there is something in there to help as a soil conditioner and that doesn't sit right with me. If there was nutes involved, or plants in there drinking up the water it could account for a run off variation, but in this case it's plain water going in, plain water coming out. In my other plant Which has probably had 50-60L+ of nutes and water through it over the last few weeks, I still get pH 7.0+ run off from pH 5.5 going in so I don't think any more flushing will help.

 

Taking too much time and wasting too much water fucking around with this so I'm going to get a bag of Canna coco today instead. The shop has a few other brands too like Cyco and Nutrifield but canna is actually the cheapest and it's what most people seem to use, so I'm going to go with that. Trying to start using the same stuff as other people so it's easier to compare notes.

 

I will do some of the same flushing on the Canna coco and report back with my findings just to put the info out there.

 

Cheers

[Sir PsychoHashy]

Shouldn't be any need to flush good coco, unless you mean simply to compare your results to the other stuff.

 

I prep my coco just before use by wetting it with the weak solution for seedlings, and then squeezing out any excess liquid as I fill the pots so it's just the right level, and that should last several days before needing more unless it's really hot.  I prep with a stronger mix when going up in pot size.

[Gazza2001au]

I only buy the Bunnings bricks because i really dislike going to hydroponic shops in person unless its for small stuff, i just don't like being seen walking out with 100 litre bag of perlite or 4-5 bags of coco

 

it's just my preferrance

[Gazza2001au]

The Bunnings coco is PH corrected as its a soil additive, i don't think it was ever sold for the only purpous of using it in hydroponics it was designed as a soil conditioner

[hydrochronic]

Ok well I went to the hydro shop today and ended up getting some nutrifield coco/perlite mix so I didn't have to buy more perlite or clean the perlite I already have.

I also got some pH meter calibration solution. I first tested that and found my pH meter was a bit off, had to crank it up 0.3pH to get it accurate, so lucky I checked that.

 

I mixed up a small pot of ~0.5L coco and ran some pH 6.0 water through it and the highest I measured the run off was around 6.5 which is a lot less than the 7.2-7.3 I was seeing before. PPM barely went up by 100 on the first flush of nutrients through it.

If nothing else the quality of this coco is a bit nicer, less fine dusty bits.

 

Seedling cracked after being in water overnight and had a bit of a tap root sticking out so i've just planted it.. will see how this one goes. Will post updates in my grow diary.

Cheers guys.

[Tunkers]

Ok well I went to the hydro shop today and ended up getting some nutrifield coco/perlite mix so I didn't have to buy more perlite or clean the perlite I already have.

I also got some pH meter calibration solution. I first tested that and found my pH meter was a bit off, had to crank it up 0.3pH to get it accurate, so lucky I checked that.

 

I mixed up a small pot of ~0.5L coco and ran some pH 6.0 water through it and the highest I measured the run off was around 6.5 which is a lot less than the 7.2-7.3 I was seeing before. PPM barely went up by 100 on the first flush of nutrients through it.

If nothing else the quality of this coco is a bit nicer, less fine dusty bits.

 

Seedling cracked after being in water overnight and had a bit of a tap root sticking out so i've just planted it.. will see how this one goes. Will post updates in my grow diary.

Cheers guys.

Good luck dude.