to drench or not to drench is the question.

hey folks! started my 1st. grow indoors dec.5 in a 4 by 5' tent under a 1200w and 600w leds. growing 2 n.l auto. 1 n.l blue auto, 1 early widow auto all in 4 gal. airpots of 70% coco and 30% perlite. was watering a small ring around them daily of 1/8th strength flora nutes plus 1tsp ca/mag in a gal. of well water phd 5.5-6. they were growing good but were very bushy and only 6in. tall by day 20. someone suggested i raise my lights from 20 in to 24in. at this time i upped my nutes to 1/4 and started drenching with 20% runoff every 3 days. I'm getting new growth but the stems are spindly with red on them and the new leaves are staying small. my older leaves are showing some tip burn but the color is good. even my biggest leaves are barely 3in. i don't know if i should go back to watering daily or continue with drench and dry. I've read conflicting info. not just here but in other weed sites. i also think i need more N to spur growth. my plants are 7-8in and still bushy but are starting to stretch a little. I'm worried tho. about the tip burn. what you vet. growers think? I'm on 24/0 lights and 78-80f temps. RH at 45% they're into 27 days of growth and the clocks ticking. any opinions are
very appreciated! Happy New Years and happy growing!

need somepics
need to know for each fertilizer item how much per gallon your adding
are you hand watering or on auto feed

is that GH 1part floraGrow or GH 3part ?

isn't coc suppose to be above ph6.0?

ill try to post some pics. I'm giving 1/4 tsp micro, flora and bloom w a 1/2 tsp cal/mag per gal. the instructions recommend 5.5 -6 ph for coco. i also ad a sprinkle every 2 weeks of great white supplement .

Moose71 said:

ill try to post some pics. I'm giving 1/4 tsp micro, flora and bloom w a 1/2 tsp cal/mag per gal. the instructions recommend 5.5 -6 ph for coco. i also ad a sprinkle every 2 weeks of great white supplement .

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don't let that coco dry out,always feed at least cal-mag pic be nice

you need to let the coco dry out a little while their small to get the roots searching for moisture, not completely or you will get salt build up, if you keep drenching the pots they will take days to dry out and you will starve the roots of oxygen
you should also get an ec truncheon to take the guess work out of feeding
your also wasting your time giving them magnesium while phing at 5.5-6, best uptake for MG around 6.3

thanks for the advice. you're right on about the MG bob! i think my problem is magnesium lockout caused by a low ph. was trying to keep it at 5.5-6.5 but its hard to tell with the drops i ph with . got a meter coming. i just gave them pure phd water at 7. phd runoff and it was 5.5 .also got a dark claw leaf so i have to back off on the N. gonna finish week 5 with veg nutes with half the N in the watering then transition to bloom at end of week 6 to give them time to grow a little more. i did water little circles around the seedlings till' day 22 then i started drench and dry w/ 20% runoff. they're small but still healthy. hopefully i fixed the issue and still get a decent harvest. glad i grew 5! still learning. happy growing!

bobtokes said:

you need to let the coco dry out a little while their small to get the roots searching for moisture, not completely or you will get salt build up, if you keep drenching the pots they will take days to dry out and you will starve the roots of oxygen
you should also get an ec truncheon to take the guess work out of feeding
your also wasting your time giving them magnesium while phing at 5.5-6, best uptake for MG around 6.3

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that all sounds right to me
im pretty sure coco works best between 6.0 and 6.5 (so ive read)

im going to take a look at your nutes...be back soon!

but without a pic where all shooting in the dark

Moose71 said:

thanks for the advice. you're right on about the MG bob! i think my problem is magnesium lockout caused by a low ph. was trying to keep it at 5.5-6.5 but its hard to tell with the drops i ph with . got a meter coming. i just gave them pure phd water at 7. phd runoff and it was 5.5 .also got a dark claw leaf so i have to back off on the N. gonna finish week 5 with veg nutes with half the N in the watering then transition to bloom at end of week 6 to give them time to grow a little more. i did water little circles around the seedlings till' day 22 then i started drench and dry w/ 20% runoff. they're small but still healthy. hopefully i fixed the issue and still get a decent harvest. glad i grew 5! still learning. happy growing!

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N leaches rapidly

I understand you think you might have to much N but don't under feed the N to long

Mg def your leaves will cup almost as if it was a canoe long down the margins and or smaller leaves twist
N toxicity makes the leaves super green and fold or sag the opposite way...sagging along the long margins
N def yellowing on lower fans
calcium def leaves red freckles on on the lower fan leaves
iron def yellowing on new growth at very tops

severe nute burn your leaves get crunchy

Originally Posted by OldPhart
Basic cheat sheet:
Ec goes up, PH goes down=plants require less nutes.
Ec goes down, PH goes up=Plants require more nutes

im4satori said:

that all sounds right to me
im pretty sure coco works best between 6.0 and 6.5 (so ive read)

im going to take a look at your nutes...be back soon!

but without a pic where all shooting in the dark

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coco works best at 5.8 been using for yrs,treat it like hydro don't let it dry out,al ways feed nutes never plain water.comeon its all over the net

so this is what your feeding
the micros are very low leaving iron zinc and copper low

thumper60 said:

coco works best at 5.8 been using for yrs,treat it like hydro don't let it dry out,al ways feed nutes never plain water.comeon its all over the net

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as I do not grow in coco I would have to refer to those that do.... its been a few (many) years since ive read on coco

.comeon its all over the net[/QUOTE said:

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youd be better of feeding this...to get your micros up

2ml grow
4ml micro
6ml bloom
2.5ml calmag
0.9 grams of Epsom salt

keep in mind..this is full strength veg nutes

thumper60 said:

coco works best at 5.8 been using for yrs,treat it like hydro don't let it dry out,al ways feed nutes never plain water.comeon its all over the net

Click to expand...

I just did a search
ideal ph for coco
and whats all over the internet is 6.0 to 6.5

again...since I do not grow in coco I can not say from experience... therefore I will let those whom actually grow in coco be the judge

the ph might very well be better at a lower range im not sure (you cant aways believe what you read lol)

full strength bloom nutes
per gallon
2ml grow
4ml micro
6ml bloom
1.5ml kool bloom
2ml cal mag
0.25 grams per gallon Epsom salt

im4satori said:

N leaches rapidly

I understand you think you might have to much N but don't under feed the N to long

Mg def your leaves will cup almost as if it was a canoe long down the margins and or smaller leaves twist
N toxicity makes the leaves super green and fold or sag the opposite way...sagging along the long margins
N def yellowing on lower fans
calcium def leaves red freckles on on the lower fan leaves
iron def yellowing on new growth at very tops

severe nute burn your leaves get crunchy

Click to expand...

they're definitely showing MG and mild N toxicity( claw leaf) maybe some iron def as the new growth is light green on some of the new growth. also had some mild browning between the veins on the older leaves and brown tips on some older growth. had my lights too close at 1st and was showing some light burn so i moved them up. these are also all autos so they're even more sensitive to any ph/ nute change. i just flushed with water phd at 7. I've been following the GH feed schedule written in tsp. been feeding 1/4 tsp. / gal of all the above GH nutes. its the ph that causing the lockout. ill ph everything to 7 now and continue the dosing I'm using till next week then ill switch to the transition bloom stage. was supposed to do that now but I'm gonna wait another week. they're small for their age. hopefully they bounce back some before budding.

dude I got it wrong im sorry

I converted the tsp to ml in my head wrong

I apologize

let me do it again

this is what you first said and its a good ratio
my mistake I apologize again

feeding the ratio you first said is good
here is what full strength would look like
the ratios are good
without a pic its hard but if there 12" tall you might need to give them stronger feeds