Coco Problems - orange spots, curled down, purple stems

[FlowerFarmer]

Hey all,

I've been stuck in a funk growing in coco. I've grown in it for several years..sometimes no problems.. other times all kinds of issues. Things will be looking great and then sometimes end up looking like the below pictures. Sometimes they snap out of it without me really changing anything..this time they are not doing better. Almost seems to be transpiration or uptake issues. Once blumated and in a flowering cycles they seem to snap out of it.. of course I try not to put plants into bloom unless they are perky and thriving..

Bcuzz Coco
RO Water - Flora Micro/Bloom (6/9) Head Recipe - pH is high 5s.
(dont have meter here right now - orangish yellow on drops)
Currently hand watered.

Here is what I've done. Plants where receiving 6/9 around a 600w lamp and doing great..I was hitting them with 6/9, but not really watering to run-off. I started to see some orange spots (as pictured) so I figured it might be lack of Calcium since I was using RO water. I added 5mL/Gal Cal-Mag Plus but soon realized it might have put them too hot because I started to witness twisting/clawing.

I then flushed (lots of run-off) with plain RO with a weak solution of liquid bone meal...thinking that the calcium will help flush my medium of the excess salts that I thought I had while in turn keeping it charged with calcium. I immediately re-watered with 6/9 (no calmag).

Things didnt change. Leave looks "jank" as well as curling under. Spot issue continues.

I moved them into their new room I was building which has a split ac (76F - humidity is low - 30%). The problem only continues to get worse. I'm thinking that I have may corrected and deficiency/nutrient balance issue by watering heavily with 6/9. My intake EC is the same as my run-off EC. Looking for things to improve now.. maybe the curling is just transpiration issues..not enough oxygen in the root zone. I decide to let the pots dry and just wait to see if things improve. Pots get lighter.. no change in plant health. Rust continues..

2 are somewhat perky
8 are "curled"
Spot issues continues on all - so when needing watered I have been hitting with a 6/9 (calmag added again) and the the entire solution diluted down to around 1.0EC - watering with ample run-off.

What should I be doing?
I've been watering with a diluted 6/9 w/ calmag and things are not improving. EC is same going in as it is coming out. pH in around high 5s.. might be coming out a bit higher.

Do I flush with 6/9 to ensure no deficiencies?
Do I flush with weak strength?
Calmag on top of 6/9 or not?

Here are the pics.
Sorry for the Xs.

Most look like this:

Two are kind of perky, but still have some issues going on.

One seems to be exhibiting Mg def in addition to the "rust" and curling/drooping/jank leaves.

Any help? What should I do to get these plants back on track.
I come from a hydroponic background where I can simply flush with straight RO, re-nute with a weak solution and watch my ppms to tell me to give more or less.

Coco has not been so easy for me. Sometimes I do great in it....lately I get stuck in little funks (losing weeks) before they "get healthy" again.. without me ever realizing what I did wrong to change.

 

[RubeGoldberg]

I would personally skip the blu-mats, the idea is they only water when it dries out right?

Coco has a natural tendency to become a pain in the ass when you let water sit in there too long (cation ion exchange starts pulling cal/mg and excess potassium can sit around),

ideally you want run-off on a daily basis. I used to run the same b'cuzz coco in their 1 meter slabs in an 60x600w room and the slabs would have drippers watering 4 times a day with runoff.


I would bet my left nut that if you started always feeding cal/mg along with your GH flora and started getting run-off on a daily basis that this problem will go away.

In the meantime spraying with your cal/mg will help them bounce back while you wait for the uptake issues in the root-zone to go away.

 

[thefanfx]

hey

it's over-watered 1001% visible and sure

are these pots enough ventilated with enough holes at the bottom ...

the perky one are just trying to get up after you watered them

if you continue to feed them too much all will die

lower the amount and the period

GL

 

[TribalSeeds]

He said he watered to ample run off every time. I dont see a calcium issue. There would be spots on the newer leaves if it were calcium.
I had the same issue with drooping when I was over saturating the medium. When I put them on the blumats they perked up nice too. They needed a ton of water to get run off though, even if the medium was already wet.
Do you have worm castings in the medium? I think my issues may stem from the amount of ewc in my medium. I think I used about 20-25%, but I also mixed with roots organic coco. That stuff has 50% perlite with EWC and other amendments.

 

[RubeGoldberg]

the droop does look like over-watering, but there are literally hundreds of threads since the days of overgrow.com where people are drenching the shit out of b'cuzz coco

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=15270&do=filter&fid=5828

Reaper originally made the method famous.

however the 1 meter slabs are only about 20 liters of growing medium, usually supporting 5, 3 foot plants, in a big pot by itself, the plant might have a harder time catching up

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Thank guys..

I agree that the issue is likely uptake/ transpiration issues. While I started to see spots when in a single 600w circle.. the problem seems to have progressed as I put them all in a new larger room w/ large AC - humidity is really low.

I normally grow in fabric pots, but these are in plastic nursery pots with no additional holes made. They are also sitting on concrete floor which may be preventing to coco from breathing properly. I'll raise them up on something breathable to see if they'll perk back up. Its odd those because I have let them get pretty dry before watering thinking it was over-watering and they still didn't perk back up. If I would have waited too much longer the likely would have went limp..but maybe the coco is holding more moisture near the bottom of the pot then it seems.

I guess I'll keep hitting them with 6/9 + calmag and let em get pretty dry to see if they'll perk up and start up taking normally.


No EWC in the medium.. just straight atami coco.

 

[Green lung]

it does look like overwatering/low oxygen rootzone to me.




I use upside down saucers to lift my pots off the ground, they work great. The strong kind work the best but you can use those weak clear ones if you double them up.





.

 

[Lowman]

If you let them dry put...you're just asking for death. Never let your coco dry out if there are plants growing in it. Just make up a 1/4 strength solution with cal/mag.....flush the shit out of them....then feed normal after that with cal/mag at about 2.5ml per gallon. Feed when the top of the coco top starts to look dry. Stay on that schedule. You'll be fine. You canot overwater an adult drinking plant in coco....but you sure can underwater.

 

[Jbonez]

FF, I am having the same issue you are now, one of my katsu bubbas is doing this, and I am having a hard time figuring it out.. Seems my humidity is as low as yours is.. Makes me wonder..

 

[Granger2]

You can overwater in coco. I've done it, and that was before I went to AeroBags. Plastic containers can be dry on top, and very wet down below.

Doesn't Head feed/water/feed/water? Invest 10 bucks in a moisture meter so you can tell what's going on.

If it were me, I would flush w/pH'd water, followed right away with a medium strength nute mix w/CaMg, a root stimulator, and 1 TBL/gal hydrogen peroxide 3%. I would add the peroxide for 3 applications. Then I would inoculate with Great White or similar. I would then start using a sugar source to feed the critters you inoculated with.

I would not feed or water again till the pot dries to the point that the plant is getting ready to wilt. After that, I would feed or water when the moisture meter gets down to one point higher than it was when it almost wilted.

Or you can water a day sooner than it took for it to almost wilt. I'm talking about letting the plant begin to droop. You'll need to monitor every few hours or you may let them go too far. Good luck. -granger

 

[Jbonez]

You can overwater in coco. I've done it, and that was before I went to AeroBags. Plastic containers can be dry on top, and very wet down below.

Doesn't Head feed/water/feed/water? Invest 10 bucks in a moisture meter so you can tell what's going on.

If it were me, I would flush w/pH'd water, followed right away with a medium strength nute mix w/CaMg, a root stimulator, and 1 TBL/gal hydrogen peroxide 3%. I would add the peroxide for 3 applications. Then I would inoculate with Great White or similar. I would then start using a sugar source to feed the critters you inoculated with.

I would not feed or water again till the pot dries to the point that the plant is getting ready to wilt. After that, I would feed or water when the moisture meter gets down to one point higher than it was when it almost wilted.

Or you can water a day sooner than it took for it to almost wilt. I'm talking about letting the plant begin to droop. You'll need to monitor every few hours or you may let them go too far. Good luck. -granger

I figured it out... K lockout, high ph... Found my notes and I hit em kinda high last time, leaves started curling and twisting.. And one of my plants just needed more N... sall good..

Just fed em a low ph, gonna monitor them, Ill post results here... I noticed my sativa doms werent doing this, they were happy, so the low temp/humidity issue wasnt it... Been playing with H3ads coco mix..