Canna Coir problems - newbie

[Greyskull]

Canna Coir problems - newbie

Have you tested your water at all out of the tap?

RO is great but for every 1g ro theres like 2g waste water....

If youre only doing a small 1g batches maybe its more economical to just buy a G of spring water each time?

I think you should check out your water first before going RO...

Canna works great w tap water imo

RH @ 40 is good
Maybe a little low for veg but def good for flower (40-60 is ok range ime)...

What kind of light are you using?

 

[JeremyP99]

Tap water PH is bang on 7, and yes, I thought it might be cheaper just to buy the water for the mo. Got an LED - http://www.growlightsled.co.uk/90w-...m-p-42.html?osCsid=bgrlcbtnccl6jobal2munu2cd4

Humidity, Googleing suggested higher for veg; again, it might be easier at the mo to spray the cupboard now and again.

Cheers
JP

 

[Greyskull]

Canna Coir problems - newbie

Do you know the ec of your tap water is what i meant to ask?
Ive used tap water with ec .5 before no problems

Not the best option but a working one (you just dont feed as heavy).

 

[JeremyP99]

EC meter in the mail from the States as I write, so don't know for the moment; are you saying - feed less if using tap water? And why tap water over rain water collected in a butt?

Cheers
JP

 

[Greyskull]

yes feed a little less if using tap water. if you have to....
canna recommends an ec range for each stage of growth
if your tap water (your nute base) has a starting point ec of 0.5 thats 0.5 less ec you have room for in the nute solution... so you'll have less room to add your nutes/additives and still be within their recommended range. does that make sense?

now if you look at their postcard sized feed schedule you'll see that it says something along the lines of "if your starting ec is 0.5, just add that (the 0.5) to the recommended ec
range. (the recommended ec + your tap water ec = recommended range)... what i am saying/suggesting totally contradicts what canna suggests.

my reaosning for this is:
cannabis is pretty much a weed.
a weed doesnt need much to survive.
just because you can feed it a shit-ton until the leaves get burned doesnt mean you should feed it heavy...
some weeds perform best when given "just enough", not excess.

sorry for the ramble

 

[JeremyP99]

Yeah - think I have it! Will be easier to grok when I have the meter. For the mo, am doing a reduced feed when I water the plant; it seems to be growing very slowly - but growing it is, which is the main thing.

Cheers
JP

 

[Greyskull]

hey man
two things...
one - sorry for the spelling errors. i should probably "edit" my posts before hitting submit but... well, whatever hahaha. sorry for bad grammar.
im not gonna blame the iphone and my fat fingers man so please you dont too lol

two - i thought yo had mentioned getting a dehuey, not a humidifier. after re-reading on my laptop i am going "doh!"
if your rh is 40, you could use a bump up in veg for sure. you can buy a little humidifier and see if that works. itll probably do the thing for you. however, have you thought about filling up a 5 bucket full of water and putting a fan over top of it to add rh to the room?

plants are like friends. fat friends short friends fast friends slow friends. sometimes plants just need to reach a certain point before they start to "take off". hopefully yours starts taking off for you shortly...

 

[JeremyP99]

Plant looking better - new shoots appearing. Am watering/feeding less frequently than I had been at first. Think I'll probably go for a small humidifier - it's a small space the plant is in (2'6 x 2'6) so it would be an easier option than a bucket and fan. Will keep ya all posted

Cheers
JP

 

[JeremyP99]

OK. An a month in now, and have a one day in three water/feed regime; plant certainly not sick - however, it does seem to me to be very small still - two inches high at most, and two inches at most at its widest. Is that anything to worry about - the growth seems to me to be terribly slow, but maybe it is slower with Coir than compost or other alternatives?

Am using tap water that has stood for over 72 hours; feed as per Canna Guide, but HALF portions, PH Down has brought the mix down to c5.8 to 6 (iusing low spectrum PH drops to test this now, rather than litmus). Am still awaiting my PH/EC meter, so no idea on EC.

Anything else I can do - someone suggested half tap, half RO - have investigated RO filters, but I think it would be cheaper for the mo to buy a flagon ready mixed, so to speak!

Anyway - over to the experts!

 

[Greyskull]

nice ncie nice
except for the runt anyways

growth with coco is usually a little faster than plain dirt and a little slower than rockwool cubes/hydro, but thats just how its been for me using similiar plants.

this seedling individual may just be a small slow grower. it sounds like the environment is all good. the food thing you got down... gotta give it a bit more though. you are making progress.

 

[JeremyP99]

Cheers - as noted, the plant seems healthier than it was for sure. Have ordered a 25 litre container of RO, so will try as suggested above, a mix of half RO and half tap water. I'll feed as is for a couple more feeds (still treating as < 3 weeks, rather than the next stage, as it is so small) and then up the feed amounts a small amount.

Am feeding

Canna A & B
Rhizotonic
Cannazyme
& a drop of SuperThrive.

 

[JeremyP99]

OK folks. The plant is still struggling; as soon as the next set of leaves develop, the ones below yellow and die. There's no bushing out at a;;, just a spindly plant some 2" high after five weeks.

I've just got my PH/EC meter, so will play around with that to see if it brings up anything of note, but I don't think this is a happy bud plant at all. It's very frustrating as I have no idea WHAT the problem is. I think if it doesn't perk up soon, I shall the another seed, and then if that doesn't thrive, it's back to dirt for me again - I've never had any problems growing big plants with those, tho' I have lost a couple as the cupboard was too hit with the metal halide lights.

I'm pretty sure I have the PH OK now, PH drops says around 6.0, and I mixed up some of the substrate with my feed water, shook it hard and left it over night. Added PH drops the next day, shook it hard again and left it to settle - PH is 6.0 to 6.2.

Would RO water help? I've got a good offer (£50) for a portable kit; can't afford to have a filter fitted to the cold water system.

Anyway, there's a pic of my weedy weed, and I'll get back later with EC measurements when I have that sorted.

 

[JeremyP99]

The EC meter says the water I use is 225pm.

However, this bears no resemblance to the figures in the Canna Grow Chart I posted earlier - and I have to say, I can't make head or tail of what they say there.

I'm still using Veg phase 1 as the growth is so stunted. The chart says that

EC+ in mS/cm (uh?) should be 0.9 to 1.1, and that
EC total in mS/cm should be 1.3-1.7

Notes on EC say -
EC+ value is based on mS/cm when EC water = 0.0 by 25 degrees C, ph 6.0.
Add the EC of the tap water that us used to the recommended EC! (yup, EC!)
The EC total in the example is with tap water with an EC of 0.4

Sadly, this might as well be Greek for all I can make of it.

Anyone? And how do I change EC if it is not correct?

 

[JeremyP99]

And with the Canna nutes added (as per post above), EC is 778ppm.

 

[dramamine]

You could make a foliar feed with the Rhizo....spray it a couple times a day. This should help green that plant up for you. I hope you're not doing the plain watering anymore...that's not a good practice.

 

[JeremyP99]

Will try that. By "plain watering", you mean with no nutes? See post of 02-28-2012, 04:49 PM above for my feeding regime. Have been watering with feed every 3 days, and getting rid off the runoff immediately

Cheers
JP

 

[dramamine]

Ah, sorry I misunderstood. If it were me, I would do small waterings, no runoff, every day until good growth started happening. I know it's confusing to get so much different advice. I can only tell you what I would do.

 

[JeremyP99]

dramamine,

Thanks. Had wondered about that myself. I suppose also it could be a poor seed. May start another regardless and compare. Any idea on the EC readings, and how they related to the feed chart suggestions? Or whether I should use RO water, or half and half RO & tap? No worries if not, hopefully someone here will.

It's no big deal if this seed fails; I need to learn how to grow properly with nutes, and preferably in coir as well. I'm retired, so this will augment my pension

 

[dramamine]

With that EC recommendation, they're saying you should add the starting EC of your water to the total recommended EC. So if they recommend EC 1.5, say, and your starting water is EC .4, then you would need to feed at EC 1.9. This is why RO water is so nice. You can provide all the nutes without feeding at too high an EC. There's less chance of salt buildup this way...........I use straight RO water and build my EC from there. This is because my tapwater is .7 EC and has lots of carbonates. It fucks things up for me, even in small amounts. You may want to use all RO water, at least for now. Once you get a good routine going, you could try mixing some amount of tapwater to see how it affects things. It could be just fine.
Don't give up on coco....once you get it, you'll be amazed.....and it's much simpler than it's seeming for you right now.

 

[Greyskull]

Canna Coir problems - newbie

I think its a runt seedling
Time to chuck it
Environment is good
Ph is good
Ec/ppm is good

What kind of seed is that/whered you source it from?

Damn bummer