Coco Catastrophe / please no Newbies!! Advanced Growers only!!

Hey guy’s so as the title sugests ive got some problems with my coco , the Hydroshop i bought it from is a new shop , they made the mistake of never charging the coco with calmag when the hydrated it (I called they apologized, its water under the bridge) . So now ive got 80 plants already planted in there pots with coco that was never charged , they have been in the pots for about 2 weeks and the first signs of calmag problems has showed up. Pale leaves brown spots , nutes arent getting thrue to them. Im in week 6 of veg they were planted up to bigger pots 2 weeks ago.

My Question , is there any way i could charge the coco in the pots with plants in them?

Mabe feed calmag at buffering / charge rate leave them for the night and do a proper flush the next morning alowing the coco to charge and the plants to survive that high dose of calmag? I have more than enough time to veg intil recovery.

Or should i feed calmag at a higher ppm?

I have actualy had this problem a couple of years ago and went with the second option feeding calmag at a higher rate , the crop suffered the coco was properly charged for the second run!

Any of you Master Growers have any advice for me?

Either cal/mag at rates on the label, or a cup of Epsom Salts per 50 gal. They'll be ok ... just don't over react.
If the stems aren't turning red, or streaking red .... you're still in the non-critical stage.

Thanks for the reply HashBucket , been giving them cal/mag at maintenance rate with my regular feeding for the past 6 weeks , im using RO water so i have to. Problem is the coco wont charge at that rate , you think I should mabe up the cal/mag rate to dificiency rate until the problem clears up?

Ya know ... at some point, ya just gotta throw up both hands and start over, especially if you haven't much time invested.
There is an old yiddish saying: "As it begins is as it ends." It means that if things start off bad, cut your losses and opt out. It usually doesn't get better. I have found that to be even more true with these plants.
If your grow starts out bad, you will struggle with it the entire grow, and the crop weight will not be worth it.

You didn't say what the genetic was. Things for less experienced growers to consider:
- Choose a genetic that this on the easy side for growing.
- Stick with that genetic for three or four grows until you become expert at it, then find something new, and get expert at that one. They are all different.

Upping the cal mag is the logical thing to do, if indeed your coco is sucking up some of the cal and or mag.

Ph can affect uptake.
What nutes?
What kind of coco?

Interesting. I've never heard of a local hydro hut providing coco charging services. What do they do?

I Here you HashBucket and to some degree a agree with you , don't think im at that point yet , and im not pressed for time at all so if this puts me a couple of weeks behind its fine i still have more than enought time To let them recover and veg them out rpoperly before the flip , im doing Fraco’s Lemon Cheese this wil be my 4th run with this specific pheno , very hardy plant has never given me any problems. Thanks for your input apreciate it

Hey Tinteastwood , I agree upping the Cal/mag is the logical thing to do just dont know if that is going to be enough to get the coco charged/bufferd in time , they basicly sold me coco Blocks but they hydrated them and put them into bags for me , what they never dit was buffer the coco with cal/mag

Ph is fine sitting at 6.1
Nutes Genaral hydroponics flora series , never had problems

The problem is defiantly that the coco was never buffered ( ran into this problem on 1 other occasions) , problem is that my plants are already sitting in the pots.

VkingBud said:

Hey Tinteastwood , I agree upping the Cal/mag is the logical thing to do just dont know if that is going to be enough to get the coco charged/bufferd in time , they basicly sold me coco Blocks but they hydrated them and put them into bags for me , what they never dit was buffer the coco with cal/mag

Ph is fine sitting at 6.1
Nutes Genaral hydroponics flora series , never had problems

The problem is defiantly that the coco was never buffered ( ran into this problem on 1 other occasions) , problem is that my plants are already sitting in the pots.

Click to expand...

I've experienced the same. It worked out ok by feeding more, but they do take a few weeks.

My go to site for coco.

I have a small grow and only use bagged coco. Charged overnight in 800ppm of calimagic water @ 5.9

If so inclined. Run your GH numbers in @Renfro spreadsheet.

I would be worried about it not been rinsed too. Depends on the coco, only used block a couple of times but I rinsed the sheet out of it because it had a lot of sodium.

I would flush the frick out of it with tap and then proceed to give it high does of calmag and low dose of nutrients.

You should be able to foliar feed with Cal/Mag for more efficient uptake...
Flush the coco first..
Toad

What kind of coco? Decent coco like Botanicare or Canna bricks are already prewashed and buffered. Just rehydrate and use. It's the same coco both companies put in bags as loose coco. It's just been compressed into bricks. If you're having issues with the coco it's because they sold you some cheap stuff. I wouldn't "flush" the coco but I would water it until a significant amount of runoff of nutrient solution for the next couple of weeks when watering. You can add additional calmag as well.

Good luck

Hey Guys thanks for all your replies and help , i have decided to do a foliar feed with calmag at ph 6.5 and 200ppm + using a wetting agend , and il also do a proper flush on the coco , can anyone recomend ppm’s for my calmag flush , should i add nutes or just use the calmag and use nutes next feeding what is a high dose of calmag i usually give 200ppm in all my feeding is it ok to up that to say 800ppm and ad some light nutes?

If your foiler feeding then maybe dont go so high with the feed and calmag.

Calcium is most efficiently absorbed above a pH of 6.2..yet most other nutrients fall below that level for optimal absorption..so depending in strain..you might have to tweak a bit..a light flush with ph adjusted RO water should help..if you pH before and after runoff you'll have vague hint as to how far off you are..if you so that for a couple days to help the plant adjust (remember there are still residual nutrients in the coco)..add back a mild nutrient solution and work back to your regular levels..you want to avoid dramatic swings.

For future, I run Mills DNA Coco Cork, right out of the bag. It's ready to go, not bricked. Awesome stuff.