What kind of water are you using?Soil is mixture of garden soil 80% and coco peat 20%. On a 18/6 schedule w/ 3 cfls only. No nutes applied yet. What's wrong with them?
I water every other day and make sure there's plenty of run off. Please help!
This is incorrect.... Some of it anyways. If the plants were overwatered they would show signs of overwatering such as drooping leaves. These show no sign of overwatering. However, you are correct about adding perlite. This is necessary for root aeration and adequate drainage.Way too much watering, wait until the soil is dry before adding water....and some perlite or similar in the soil would help![]()
snocapz - I use purified drinking water.
I have no ways of finding out the run off pH.
Also perlite here in our country is a bit hard to find. There's no whatsoever a shop with just for gardening. Coco peat is said to be good in aeration and drainage though.
Run off pH is important Just not as critical as the pH of the water you are using to feed. Also since the plants are so small i would suggest using a spray bottle and spraying the top of your medium with 5.9-6.2 pH(which is best for coco mediums) water until it is wet then give it 2-3 more sprays so the water has a chance to penetrate the top layer of medium down to the roots. This is an excellent way to be sure you do not overwater. When the top of the soil looks dry Just repeat the process. Some people think feeding more will increase rate of growth which is probably his case. Patience is key here. Over thinking it will lead him to drown his plants like you said.you can use hydroton, rice hulls, pumice, you can even use those small river pebbles, coco has good areation but not having anything in the medium to prevent it from compacting and watering as much as you do you are going to suffocate the roots.
forget about the runoff ph. coco has a natural buffer since you arent adding nutes water with a ph from 5.4 to 7.0 should be ok. what you do need to find is what the ph of the water that is going in is.
and stop watering so much, seedlings dont need that much water, clones on the other hand do need a very wet medium the first 3 days
he said hes not using nutes yet.Run off pH is important Just not as critical as the pH of the water you are using to feed. Also since the plants are so small i would suggest using a spray bottle and spraying the top of your medium with 5.9-6.2 pH(which is best for coco mediums) water until it is wet then give it 2-3 more sprays so the water has a chance to penetrate the top layer of medium down to the roots. This is an excellent way to be sure you do not overwater. When the top of the soil looks dry Just repeat the process. Some people think feeding more will increase rate of growth which is probably his case. Patience is key here. Over thinking it will lead him to drown his plants like you said.
Clones should never stay "very wet" they should remain moist which is why using a humidity dome is key to successful rooting everytime. A presoaked plug with a cutting, a small amount of water in the bottom of your tray sitting on a seedling heating mat, a humidity dome, low wattage light or partially shaded area outdoors and a spritz of water on the leaves is all that's needed. The plug being "very wet" will rot the stem before it gets a chance to root! Since a cutting only feeds through its leaves during this process that is the main focus area for feeding. Keeping the plug "moist" will allow cuttings to seek out water once they grow roots. I have ran this method of cloning for a while Now and have 100% success rates with this. I presoak my coco plugs in CloneX and a worm tea for 15-20 minutes then place them in a ziplock bag for a few hours then i take my cuttings, dip them in pH 5.8 water with a drop of CloneX in it for 15-20 seconds then dip it in Life Rooting Gel for 15-20 seconds then gently place them into my presoaked plugs and in the humidity dome they go!
he said hes not using nutes yet.
i agree and disagree on the clone thing, ive notice many methods work, mines works all the time and i dont even use clonex just water,coco and a bag over them for the first 4-5 days under t5s roots 6-10 days later the key is a healthy mother and a good genetics, some strains are just a pain in the ass to clone no matter what you do