Coco Thread!

[Guest p&q]

Hello Lurker,

Hmmmmmmm! Slow growth you say! Possible you may have put them into a too big a pot to start with,really you need to start small especially with seedlings and like you know establish a good rootzone.

How often are you watering them?

Keep the coco moist mate not soaking,let it dry out a little (not too dry) so the roots start to search their way around the pot,when they are little I,ve read folks watering them every 3/4 days untill them roots are there when they start needing watered/fed more often.

Stic a pic up if possible.

p&q

[DD2001]

cheers guys,

I have a few soil grows under my belt years ago. I decided to start up a small grow in coco too help me with my migraine. Got some questions though, would be glad if anyone could help me out.

My seedlings cracked about two weeks ago in jiffys. Planted it straight in their final 3.5 liter pots under a 400w hps. I watered them with vitalink coir nutes according to the label for seedlings. So far so good. My concern is the growth rate. Despite the cotyledon it got two sets of leaves, but no "finger" leaves yet. It seems to grow very slow. May this be due to the pots being to big for the young and undeveloped root system? I'm thinking about to let it dry out a bit and see what happens. All plants look healthy though. Some input would be appreciated.

What's your temps like? Just with it being so cold lately and all that

[lurker]

Hello Lurker,

Hmmmmmmm! Slow growth you say! Possible you may have put them into a too big a pot to start with,really you need to start small especially with seedlings and like you know establish a good rootzone.

How often are you watering them?

Keep the coco moist mate not soaking,let it dry out a little (not too dry) so the roots start to search their way around the pot,when they are little I,ve read folks watering them every 3/4 days untill them roots are there when they start needing watered/fed more often.

Stic a pic up if possible.

p&q

Hello p&q, thanks for responding.

I watered 3 days ago with some nutes, and one can still see it's wet on the surface. I'm kinda sure it's the big pots versus the tiny rootzone that is the problem. I think you're spot on about that they need to "search their way around". I did water to run off, and due to their size they don't drink much i suppose. Otherwise they look healthy. I will let them sit in peace for a few more days and see if the moist is the problem. If they continue to struggle with the growth i'll try to get a pic. Obviously coco isn't like soil in any aspect, at all... Thanks for your input.

[lurker]

What's your temps like? Just with it being so cold lately and all that

yeah i'm in another part of europe but the temps are around 27 - 29 degrees celsius. So that's alright.

[DD2001]

Hello Lurker,

Hmmmmmmm! Slow growth you say! Possible you may have put them into a too big a pot to start with,really you need to start small especially with seedlings and like you know establish a good rootzone.

How often are you watering them?

Keep the coco moist mate not soaking,let it dry out a little (not too dry) so the roots start to search their way around the pot,when they are little I,ve read folks watering them every 3/4 days untill them roots are there when they start needing watered/fed more often.

Stic a pic up if possible.

p&q

Hello p&q, thanks for responding.

I watered 3 days ago with some nutes, and one can still see it's wet on the surface. I'm kinda sure it's the big pots versus the tiny rootzone that is the problem. I think you're spot on about that they need to "search their way around". I did water to run off, and due to their size they don't drink much i suppose. Otherwise they look healthy. I will let them sit in peace for a few more days and see if the moist is the problem. If they continue to struggle with the growth i'll try to get a pic. Obviously coco isn't like soil in any aspect, at all... Thanks for your input.

If I end up in pots that are too big for the stage the plant's at I feed as per the plant, not pot size.

That is if they've just gone in a big pot straight after rooting in cubes I only water a small amount around the cube daily (maybe 70ml) until I see further growth. Then I'd up it slowly as the plant fills out the pot. Have had FAR better results this way than just soaking the pot and waiting (days/weeks ) for it to dry out.

Don't normally go this way tho just as you know sometimes it works out like that. Normally would do cube - 3.5 inch pot - 1 ltr pot - 6.5 then final 11litre pot for fowering.

[Guest papaduc]

That's right. If you've put them into a 3.5L pot and you've totally saturated it til you get run off, they won't need watering for a good while yet. That'll do them a week easily. Edit: Maybe a bit less if you're under a 400 and your temps re 29 actually, it might dry them out quicker than that. But still, don't keep flooding them until they've rooted out the pot.

Besides, It doesn't sound like you've got slow growth anyway. If your seeds only cracked 2 weeks ago, two sets of leaves doesn't sound too far off where you should be. The more leaves they get, the more light they process, the quicker they grow. Don't worry. Over doing it at this stage will slow you down more than anything. Just let them do their thing.

Edited February 22, 2010 by papaduc

[dogzilla]

Excellent thread! Thanks for all the input everyone.

I'm going to be getting some Autopots for my next grow... Basically I'm moving out, living 45 minutes away from my current house. I still want to grow so I need something that can be left unattended for a while and is fairly simple to maintain by a non grower.

First thing I see is that Coco works well in Autopots but after reading all this is looks more like a Hydro system and so it seems you need to be ontop of your EC's and PH's as well as be spot on with your feeding, which seems like the opposite route I want to take really?

Can coco be as simple as soil? Or is that just wishful thinking?

The way I see it working with soil for example :

Sunday : Fill up 47 litre res. Add required nutes, would be 1 part in veg and 2 part's in flower. Ie, fairly bloody simple. Leave it for a week or however long and come back and repeat.

Can you do the same with coco and get decent results? Or do you need to start faffing with EC's and Ph's ?

I need to be able to give simple instructions like, fill up res, give 40ml of bottle A and 40ml of Bottle B.

[Guest papaduc]

I've got a question about PK13/14.

First off, do the people who use it think there's a noticeable difference to when they didn't?

Reason I ask is because I'm into my second week of flower, first run in coco, and have no ec pen. I'm having no problems right now, in fact everything is looking lush, I'm loving the coco. I'm on 3ml per L of Hesi bloom (with supervit & enzyme) and I wanted to add in the PK as well, but I'm hesitant to add it in in case I fuck things up. They're looking so nice now I don't want to risk putting it in without being able to measure the ec.

Question is, can I safely add this without using an ec pen, and if so, how much?

Do I lower/remove the bloom nutes when I add it? If so, by how much.

Or should I just leave it til the next grow when I've got an ec pen?

[Guest papaduc]

Can you do the same with coco and get decent results? Or do you need to start faffing with EC's and Ph's ?

I would imagine you need to keep on top of the PH mate. I am getting by fine without an ec pen, but wouldn't even bother using coco without the PH one.

[Guest papaduc]

Can you do the same with coco and get decent results? Or do you need to start faffing with EC's and Ph's ?

I would imagine you need to keep on top of the PH mate. I am getting by fine without an ec pen, but wouldn't even bother using coco without the PH one.

E2A: Has anyone else noticed an iron lockout when their PH was bumped up to 6.2?

I did. Sorted now tho.

[lurker]

Thanks for the advise guys!

I'll let it dry out a bit for the roots to form. It makes sense what you're saying papaduc, that calms me down a little. Maybe i'm just impatient, but it's my first run in coco and hydro so just wanted to make sure.

[GreenNinja]

Can coco be as simple as soil? Or is that just wishful thinking?

Can you do the same with coco and get decent results? Or do you need to start faffing with EC's and Ph's ?

It's not quite as simple as soil but has many obvious benefits....watering time is one of them :!: (coco drains so much faster than any compost mix, but on the flipside can't go as long without feed before drying out). The most important thing is to keep the pH and EC stable, which is easy if you're handwatering and a little bit more fiddly if you're recirculating.

For the cost and ease of pH and EC pens, it's SOOOOOOOO worth it for the output (quality and yield!). They're an absolute must, no matter what you read (i.e. grow based on facts, not luck...shit I sound like Rafa).

GN

[Guest papaduc]

Any answers to my questions?

[GreenNinja]

Any answers to my questions?

a) Get an EC pen :wink:

b) If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it

c) Make sure you do (a)

GN

[Guest p&q]

Papaduc,

Ive used the pk 13/14 on my first 2 grows but cant compare it with not using it buddy.

Honestly I went with the schedule & only suffered slight tip burn on week 8 after adding 15ml per 10 litres,wasn,t concerned tho as they finished in 9.

With this schedule Ive never had so healthey plants & thats without using my bluelab.

Give them half if you want & compare it to your next grow maybe?

Reguarding iron def,yeah on my last grow my mazar suffered from it,not sure if it was ph related tho as Im pretty bang on with mine at 5.9.

A quick blast of maxicrop at 4ml per litre sorted that out in around 4 days & she green,d back up a treat.

p&q