Coco is killing me!

[scoobysnacks72]

man ill tell ya i just switched from hydro and have been using this Batch 64 coco watering every other day and doing pretty well im starting week 5 Thursday and while they are not as far along as id like i did battle some mad root lock before flower and i think that's partly the culprit and i didnt scrog well enough so i kinda had to toss it to the wind lol so now its just kinda a well taken care of group instead lol

also only costs 18-20 bucks per 2 cubic feet
really cost effective. plus made with local soil so when i grow outdoors flowering out moms less of a transition for the region.

 

[Jnugg]

Fuck it...after a half week and no turn for the better,I'm taking cuttings from the mom and going back to FFOF.

All this pH needing to be spot on ontop of other bullshit is just that,bullshit.

Anyone that says coco is easier and more forgiving than soil is full of shit...FULL OF IT!

At this point if I don't go back to soil,I don't get any meds this year.

Soil FTMFW!

 

[Midwest Toker]

Don't give up on the coco yet it will be the easiest thing you'll ever use once you get use to it. And the ph does not have to be spot on I run mine anywhere from 5.5 to 6.5 depending on what phase and what my plants are telling me, If you have CaCo3 in your water already go easy on any cal/mag. Your coco will eventually fill its requirement of calcium and then you will start a mag lock-out from an over abundance of calcium in the coco. Which seem to be happening in the pic.

 

[papaduc]

Fuck it...after a half week and no turn for the better,I'm taking cuttings from the mom and going back to FFOF.

Jnugg, let me ask one question. Instead of going back to FFOF, choose a random compressed block of whatever soil you can get for cheap?

Is there a reason you're going straight for the FFOF?

 

[Sleeper7784]

Let me set ya straight on a few things before you end up hating coco. First Gh coco bricks/blocks are salty as fuck! I love how course it is, but damn that shit is always salty. Canna and botanicare have an excellent rep for being washed, buffered, and ready to transplant into straight out of the bag (personally I prefer to wash everything so I know exactly what's in it. Eliminates salt content as a potential issue if something goes wrong). Second thing, PH is extremely important in coco (keep it between 5.5-6.0 at all times. This means readjusting the solution after 24 hours if it raises above a PH of 6). No reason you can't use the drops (I use them to confirm the accuracy of my pens), but if you don't know what ph lockout looks like a pen will make life easier. Third you almost never want to give coco straight water other than during the flush period before harvest (this has to do with it's Cation exchange capacity). If you have an imbalance it's better to just pour full strength 6/9 run to waste until things are back in balance. Last thing, lucas is a terrible recipe to use with coco. Stick to just 6/9 with the proper ph

Oh and use full strength 6/9 with every watering from day 1 of veg until flush (for clones and seedlings). IF you experience burn just mix your 6/9 slightly weaker (i.e mix 4 gal. worth of 6/9 in 5 gal. of water) and continue feeding. To fix the plants you have now, I'd start by slowly pouring 5 gal. of half strength 6/9 through each pot, allowing the excess to run to waste (in the tub would make that easy ). Once they have drained throughly, add another 1/2 gal of full strength 6/9. This will wash out the excess salts while preserving the CEC of the coco. You should see improvements within 2-3 days.

I 3rd this! I live by rinsed Botanicare 5kg bricks, but have had equal success with GH Coco Tek. I actually don't mind using it. A long as you rinse there shouldn't ever be any issues on that end.

I also have ran 6/9 plus calmag & silicate in 150ppm dechlorinated filtered tap religiously with NO (knock on wood) issues over the past 4 years. My ppms are always 750-800, sometimes around 850 when I've got the Sativa shakes.

My plants always perform to the best of their ability and the end product is always clean A+.

What Mr. D preaches is the 420% truth. This should be in the guide to every successful 6/9 coco grow. Coco can be easy, just don't over complicate it.

I was going to try organic bottle nutes, in straight coco but ran into deficiencies right away.

I've got my 6/9 style so dialed in I was stupid to try anything else.

My plants are consistently healthy and green, for the most part, although my current Gsc cut is doing this downward clawing on just a few leaves at the bud site, at mid flower. I'm looking into the dehumidifier possibly causing this, pulling just slightly too much moisture.

Cali just got a little squirt of rain so the dehuey is on alert for the time being.

 

[flat9]

Fuck it...after a half week and no turn for the better,I'm taking cuttings from the mom and going back to FFOF.

All this pH needing to be spot on ontop of other bullshit is just that,bullshit.

Anyone that says coco is easier and more forgiving than soil is full of shit...FULL OF IT!

At this point if I don't go back to soil,I don't get any meds this year.

Soil FTMFW!

With your tap water at such high EC I think you're going to have problems no matter what you use, but that's just my opinion. I've done RDWC, coco, and now PPK with no problems, but my tap was really low EC 0.08 and pH always comes out spot on at 5.7-5.9 after adding in Jacks Hydro + Calcinit. Anyway, good luck to ya...

 

[Morcheeba*]

Jnugg,

did ya see any RA's w/your scope when you transplanted?

I hope Midwest Toker is right about the reason for Mg lock out.


peace

 

[Jnugg]

Jnugg,

did ya see any RA's w/your scope when you transplanted?

I hope Midwest Toker is right about the reason for Mg lock out.


peace

Just transplanted the third lady a little while ago and checked her wirh my 60x to 100x scope and no RA's.

Here are some pics to show how rootbound these plants got in their 2liter coco hempy homes.I removed the lower portion of roots that were in the perlite reservoir because I had a build up of green algae from not taping/painting the bottoms of the 2liters.

 

[Jnugg]

Don't give up on the coco yet it will be the easiest thing you'll ever use once you get use to it. And the ph does not have to be spot on I run mine anywhere from 5.5 to 6.5 depending on what phase and what my plants are telling me, If you have CaCo3 in your water already go easy on any cal/mag. Your coco will eventually fill its requirement of calcium and then you will start a mag lock-out from an over abundance of calcium in the coco. Which seem to be happening in the pic.

I haven't been using any cal/mag supplements,just using 6ml Flormicro/9ml Florabloom per gallon of my tap water.

The tap water comes out between 300 and 320 ppm and pH of about 8.0

After adding 1/4 teaspoon of pH down to my nute solution,the pH reads 6.5 with my pH drops.

 

[Coconutz]

I dont know where 6.5 came from, buts thats still out of range for coco. Unless you are talking about soil now
I aim for 5.5 because it will naturally drift upwards.
Those plants werent rootbound.
In coco you just water them more often. If they had a bunch of water in the hempys those pots should have been fine

 

[Jnugg]

Why did you edit to a period?

 

[Jnugg]

I can't aim for 5.5 only as low as 6.0

This is why I like soil...mix up my nutes and just water/feed away...the lime buffers everything for me.

 

[Ckali559]

Having the same exact problem. Just fed my two liter pots w r/o water and lowered the ph to right around 5.5 (more towards orange on the strip). This is the last time I'm going to fuss with it, if it doesn't work, ph pen here I come.

 

[Jnugg]

Thing that sucks about all this is that if I was in soil,I wouldn't be having these issues...everything would be green and healthy and I'd have been able to flip to 12/12 already.

Behind on schedule and now have to take cuttings from the mom and root them,then veg them to a decent size...running out of time as temps outside are starting to climb.

 

[Jnugg]

Do you guys think I'm suffering from a Cal/Mag lockout?

Water is pretty hard at about 300 to 320 ppm and I'm using the regular GH Floramicro (not the hardwater version).

Any tips to get things back on track?

Been thinking about mixing up 1/4 strength nute solution (head formula of 6/9) and pHing to 6.0 (can't read 5.5 to 5.8 because I only have the pH drops test kit) and giving a good flush....or does it look more like a cal/mag deficiency?

 

[Hugh Midity]

fwiw after seeing that solid chunk of root (holy shit bro it looks like uncooked ramen, respect lol) kind of looks rootbound from here. that micro is fine with 300ppm tapwater, if you transplanted stay the course, if not then transplant and see if that does it. and dirty pee gold is fine on the ph drops

 

[Jnugg]

Yeah,those bitches were rootbound like a mofo lol.

 

[Coconutz]

you should try the hardwater version and get a pen!
People grow trees in small pots of coco.
Ive never grown hempy, but its hard for me to believe you could be rootbound in properly watered coco

 

[Hugh Midity]

properly watered is what I'm thinking about, that rootball would need multiple waterings per day in a 2l pot and probably not getting it. and I use the regular micro with 300 ppm water with no issues so I'm fairly sure he'd be fine with it. the hardwater has no calcium in it and he'll end up with deficiencies for sure
this is with 300ppm water and regular micro included in my feeding schedule in coco at 63 days flushed with plain tap for a week prior

 

[FlaDankster]

Coco will handle more roots.You got lots and they look good.

PH bro......you may have all the cal/mag your girls want in your feed......but if that ph is out of range chit ain't gonna get taken up.

I rocked 6/9 GH with protekt using r/o and/or rain water.....easy peasy dude.....never an issue.I get your frustrations......but you get that ph pen and i'm bettin all your frustrations will go away and youz gonna shit yoself when you see what can be accomplished with coco.

Can you put a bucket out for some rain water to split 50/50 with your tap?that is if your not keen on using your tap.We can have some crappy h2o here in the swamp.I have been doin the 50/50 so i don't have to mess with ph to much.