Growing in Coco Problems

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LocalKushMen

Active Member
this is my first time growing in coco. I'm using coco choir and perlite mix from Plagron and 4-4-4 and 3-9-4 dry amendments from dr. earth. last feed was 3 weeks ago. I'm using 300w led lights. The temps in the tent are 77 degrees and humidity is around 45% i'm watering with ph 6,5. what seems to be the problem with the plant and how do I fix it?
 

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L

LocalKushMen

Active Member
SheeshM said:
agree with @Hydrowannabe. It's best to rinse and buffer coco before planting, IME. PH for coco should be lower, 5.7 to 6.2 ish. You should feed coco much more, daily, if possible. I'm not familiar with your nutrients but I would suggest daily feedings, ph at 5.8 and include cal-mag in your mix.
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I'm using plagron coco which is already rinsed and ready for use. the nutrients I'm using are organic dry amendments and need some time to break down in coco
 

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Teag

Teag

Well-Known Member
LocalKushMen said:
this is my first time growing in coco. I'm using coco choir and perlite mix from Plagron and 4-4-4 and 3-9-4 dry amendments from dr. earth. last feed was 3 weeks ago. I'm using 300w led lights. The temps in the tent are 77 degrees and humidity is around 45% i'm watering with ph 6,5. what seems to be the problem with the plant and how do I fix it?
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When I first tried this like Mr. Cunuck I had a problem with calcium and magnesium (it looks like you have a magnesium problem). When I compared my ingredients to his I found out that Dr. Earth doesn't have as much cal-mag as his Gaia Green ferts. I switched to Down to Earth ferts and some dolomite lime to clear up the issue.
 
L

LocalKushMen

Active Member
Teag said:
When I first tried this like Mr. Cunuck I had a problem with calcium and magnesium (it looks like you have a magnesium problem). When I compared my ingredients to his I found out that Dr. Earth doesn't have as much cal-mag as his Gaia Green ferts. I switched to Down to Earth ferts and some dolomite lime to clear up the issue.
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what pH did you use with your grow when you were using Dr. earth dry amendments and how frequently did you top dress and with what ratio, I'm using 15L airpots I've seen Mr. canucks use pH 6,5-6,8 on his chanel. I have some organic molasses which contains both calcium and magnesium would that fix the problem? if so how much should i use and how frequently should I water with it.
 

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myke

myke

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Maybe if you posted in the organic section you may get some help.Interested in the outcome,good luck.
 
Teag

Teag

Well-Known Member
LocalKushMen said:
what pH did you use with your grow when you were using Dr. earth dry amendments and how frequently did you top dress and with what ratio, I'm using 15L airpots I've seen Mr. canucks use pH 6,5-6,8 on his chanel. I have some organic molasses which contains both calcium and magnesium would that fix the problem? if so how much should i use and how frequently should I water with it.
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I PH'd between 6.2 - 6.9
I don't know anything about using molasses for cal-mag. I did water with it at about a rate of 1 tablespoon per gallon once every week and I still had problems with cal-mag.
I topped dressed every 3-4 weeks at a rate of 2 Tbls. per gallon.

I'm not an expert on any of this stuff and I stopped trying to grow this way. But this would be my advice based on getting to a couple of harvests.
A warning first.
When I grew in coco and dry organic amendments I never brewed compost tea like Mr. Canuck does every week. I tried to substitute compost teas with a microbial innoculant like Tribus. That being said, I never got the results that he does and YMMV.

1. In your current situation I fixed the problem by top dressing with dolomite lime(its a source of cal-mag and is a ph buffer). You can top dress at a rate of 2 Tbls per gallon of media but it might be a bit much depending on the size of your container. Just make sure you don't get a caked layer.

2. Top dressing lime in veg worked for me until I got to flower. Given your current setup, I think its going to be really difficult to avoid cal-mag deficiencies without adding a readily available form of cal-mag(the stuff that comes in a bottle). I would start watering with a cal-mag product at a rate of 1-2 mils per gallon once(maybe two times) a week starting 1 week before flower. I never watered and got runoff (just like Mr. Canuck), making it easy to over apply chelated nutrients and burn the plants. But in hindsight I think getting some runoff wouldn't have been a bad thing every once in a while.

It may be advisable to skip the lime. It was never enough to fix my problems so why bother with it.
Here is what my plants looked like in the end. I got 3 ounces but they had a rough life.

Ready for chop?...was surprised by the amber trichomes

Two plants here have been flowering for 2 months. I was surprised to see all the amber trichomes in one of the plants. I harvested the sample from the very top were there was some purpling from my led's. Should I have picked a lower location? I was surprised because I was using a loupe for a...
www.rollitup.org
 
L

LocalKushMen

Active Member
Teag said:
I PH'd between 6.2 - 6.9
I don't know anything about using molasses for cal-mag. I did water with it at about a rate of 1 tablespoon per gallon once every week and I still had problems with cal-mag.
I topped dressed every 3-4 weeks at a rate of 2 Tbls. per gallon.

I'm not an expert on any of this stuff and I stopped trying to grow this way. But this would be my advice based on getting to a couple of harvests.
A warning first.
When I grew in coco and dry organic amendments I never brewed compost tea like Mr. Canuck does every week. I tried to substitute compost teas with a microbial innoculant like Tribus. That being said, I never got the results that he does and YMMV.

1. In your current situation I fixed the problem by top dressing with dolomite lime(its a source of cal-mag and is a ph buffer). You can top dress at a rate of 2 Tbls per gallon of media but it might be a bit much depending on the size of your container. Just make sure you don't get a caked layer.

2. Top dressing lime in veg worked for me until I got to flower. Given your current setup, I think its going to be really difficult to avoid cal-mag deficiencies without adding a readily available form of cal-mag(the stuff that comes in a bottle). I would start watering with a cal-mag product at a rate of 1-2 mils per gallon once(maybe two times) a week starting 1 week before flower. I never watered and got runoff (just like Mr. Canuck), making it easy to over apply chelated nutrients and burn the plants. But in hindsight I think getting some runoff wouldn't have been a bad thing every once in a while.

It may be advisable to skip the lime. It was never enough to fix my problems so why bother with it.
Here is what my plants looked like in the end. I got 3 ounces but they had a rough life.

Ready for chop?...was surprised by the amber trichomes

Two plants here have been flowering for 2 months. I was surprised to see all the amber trichomes in one of the plants. I harvested the sample from the very top were there was some purpling from my led's. Should I have picked a lower location? I was surprised because I was using a loupe for a...
www.rollitup.org
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thanks for the info brother though I can't see the photo you posted. Today I defoliated her and did another tiedown. The damage was mainly on the older leaves but the rest of the plant still looks ok. I did a top dress with 6tbs of Dr. earth 4-4-4, 2 tbs of 3-9-4, 1tbs of bat guano, 2tbs of worm castings, and watered with molasses. hopefully the plant will recover a little. I'm going to order calmag in a bottle instead of dolomite lime as I've seen mr. canuck allmost kill his plants using it. is there an organic calmag product you recommend? I've also ordered seaweed extract to feed the microbes in the medium
 

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Teag

Teag

Well-Known Member
LocalKushMen said:
thanks for the info brother though I can't see the photo you posted. Today I defoliated her and did another tiedown. The damage was mainly on the older leaves but the rest of the plant still looks ok. I did a top dress with 6tbs of Dr. earth 4-4-4, 2 tbs of 3-9-4, 1tbs of bat guano, 2tbs of worm castings, and watered with molasses. hopefully the plant will recover a little. I'm going to order calmag in a bottle instead of dolomite lime as I've seen mr. canuck allmost kill his plants using it. is there an organic calmag product you recommend? I've also ordered seaweed extract to feed the microbes in the medium
Click to expand...
I'm not sure there is anything great to add at this point. The problem in my opinion is not having enough cal-mag organics throughout the entire container. Top dressing lime only did so much for me and it wasn't enough.

The only thing I can recommend is for what to do next time. I would switch to a fertilizer like Down to Earth, which has more cal-mag sources. AND also mix in dolomite lime at a rate of 2 Tbl spoons per gallon. This is the last plant I am growing this way and that is how I mixed it....Its not a very big plant so not a great example but I never had any problems with it and its been basically only water and Tribus.

No training or topping was ever done.
 

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Calbrowno

Calbrowno

Well-Known Member
If your in coco your pH should be within a 5.8-6.2 range regardless. Treat Coco similar to growing hydroponically, all the coco is doing is providing a medium into which the roots can grow. The nutrients lie within the water content as opposed to within the interstitial matrix in soil. I have no experience using dry amendments in coco because I haven't needed to, regular watering within the mentioned pH range using a balanced nutrient line with cal/mag should be more then adequate.
 
Calbrowno

Calbrowno

Well-Known Member
Teag said:
So, we are treating coco like soil which is why that PH range is too low. Their are NO nutrients in our water.
Why do we grow like this? Because of this guy.

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Ahh i see, see I've never come across this grow style and just advised based on what I know. As you were.
 
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