Issues with establishing roots

First time coco grow. Having a hullva time getting these plants to take off and need some advice...

Got clones it 2x2 rockwool cubes which were showing some roots growing out bottoms but nothing crazy. Against my own better judgement of first planting into keg cups, i took the advice of the grow shop guy and transplanted directly into 1 gal containers.

I am in a 50/50 perlite and coco mix.

I've read so much contradictory bullshit i just need some solid advice. Girls have been in the 1 gals for 2 weeks and i expected them to be much bigger.

I know i need to be letting the coco dry out so the roots seek out the water, but it seems like its taking a long time considering im in a 50/50 mix. Im also reading about people who are saying to not let the medium dry out as it will create issues? Given the high perosity of my mix, would i not be brining in a pile of oxygen when i water? Im guessing it would be taking the pots 3 days to dry right out at this point.

I have some plants that are growing fairly decent, and aboit 25% that are a little bigger than their original clone size. Theres no consistency which makes no sense to me...

I have had issues with low humidity (20-30%) and ive been trying to deal with that the last few days so im not sure if that is a major contributor?

Anyways i know im rambling but wondering if anyone has some advice or motivational words lol.

Ive gone from rockwool cube clones with roots straight to 7 gallons promix without issues.. i know its wrong to do so jist sayin. i suspect maybe your rockwool drying out before your coco. Maybe the cubes r not deep enough? U sholdn be able to see rockwool on the top of your container... will ruin your roots if they havent established in the coco yet... i think 1 gallon is perfect. Not too small not too big.

Oh shit i didnt realize that. I have the tops of the cubes visible.

In my short experience, some semi-dry cycles seem to help get the roots going, but once they've established themselves a little bit, I think it's best to move to multi-feedings and keep the roots hydrated. With this in mind, you'll need to keep your feed really well oxygenated so the roots can still get enough.

Fml idk if I should be drying these things out or wtf.

Today was day 2 with no water or feeding. The coco is not dry but thete is a little bit of moisture in the medium. There is no roots pouring out the bottoms by any means.

I have shitty tap water which is at 380 ppm and didnt realize this until i bought a meter. So i fed week 1 veg nutes on top of the shit water so that explains why the plants took a turn for the worse.

I fed with ro water, sm-90 @ 5ml per gal, and Black Storm Humic @ 2ml per gallon and of course clone strength nutrients 2 days ago. Total was 250 ppm @ pH of 6.

Runoff is reading 200 ppm and 6.5 pH, so ill have to lower the next feeds pH a bit.

Idk if I should wait another day or 2 to dry right out or if I would benefit from starting to feed once a day now...

Heres a pick of some of them...

Lower the amount of perlite next time. 50/50 is like doing a perlite grow. You lose the benefits of coco once you go past 60/40. I agree having the top of the rockwool exposed didn't help you establish roots.

I also have the 1k's dialed down to 600w and top of plant to cooltube is exactly 36".

Been having issues keeping the hum up. If i run @ 1k on the lights i need to have the light run fan running which lowers the temps to 76-80 range but then the hum fucks right off.

Should be more than enough light for them at that size running at 600 ya?

stoned40yrs said:

Lower the amount of perlite next time. 50/50 is like doing a perlite grow. You lose the benefits of coco once you go past 60/40. I agree having the top of the rockwool exposed didn't help you establish roots.

Click to expand...

Okay... i wondered about that too but all those sticky threads i could have swore said to run 50/50.

Ill try a lower perlite mix next time.

If thats the case should i be starting to feed these things once a day or what? I have 2 seperate tables so i could try to up the feeds on one table and compare.

What brand of nutes are you using?

Holland Secret Nutrients.

Suppose to be fine for coco though they arent coco specific.

Wondering if you could explain the mix ratio a bit more? Im wondering how it could be more like a perlite grow considering i still have water retention in the medium with this mix? I could see if I was having my medium dry out at an excessive rate, but i went 3 days without watering and still had some level of moisture left.

I definitely fucked up not burying the cubes. I just went in and covered all of them.

All I can say is I read test results using various ratios of perlite in coco and the results went down after 60/40. I don't use any of that perlite shit myself. I and a lot of others think nothing beats straight coco. Anyway now you switched to RO, in coco whenever you use RO you need to add calmag to the base nutes. But that calmag is like poison sometimes. What is better is to mix some of your tap with RO and not use calmag. Make a mix of between 100-150 ppm tap/ro. Then to that add enough of your base nutes to bring the ec (500 scale) up to 1.0ec- 500ppm on the 500 scale. Don't use the humic for awhile and drop the sm90 down to 2ml gal. Now with this feed your plants till you get plenty of runoff. Wait 2 days and do it again. 2 more days and do it again. After that you should be able to go to daily feeds or multiple feeds per day.

Cant thank you enough for the advice. I will definitely be rocking the 100% coco next round.

Do you use the canna brand coco? Or the cheap bricks?

ganjalfthegreen said:

First time coco grow. Having a hullva time getting these plants to take off and need some advice...

Got clones it 2x2 rockwool cubes which were showing some roots growing out bottoms but nothing crazy. Against my own better judgement of first planting into keg cups, i took the advice of the grow shop guy and transplanted directly into 1 gal containers.

I am in a 50/50 perlite and coco mix.

I've read so much contradictory bullshit i just need some solid advice. Girls have been in the 1 gals for 2 weeks and i expected them to be much bigger.

I know i need to be letting the coco dry out so the roots seek out the water, but it seems like its taking a long time considering im in a 50/50 mix. Im also reading about people who are saying to not let the medium dry out as it will create issues? Given the high perosity of my mix, would i not be brining in a pile of oxygen when i water? Im guessing it would be taking the pots 3 days to dry right out at this point.

I have some plants that are growing fairly decent, and aboit 25% that are a little bigger than their original clone size. Theres no consistency which makes no sense to me...

I have had issues with low humidity (20-30%) and ive been trying to deal with that the last few days so im not sure if that is a major contributor?

Anyways i know im rambling but wondering if anyone has some advice or motivational words lol.

Click to expand...

Look at this chart, there is the secret to productive growing right there, if your garden is in the green zone, lush growth, if it is not... it is not...

50/50 is a little too much perlite for my taste but what is done is done.
Here is what I will do to correct the issue. I will post a clear picture of the plants to see if they show NEW GROWTH “shoots”, if they are showing new growth that means that the roots are growing but maybe at a slow rate. If they are growing then the probable cause of the issue can be, Nutrient imbalance, Substrate Imbalance or Environment.
I have great results making sure Temperature is at 79 degrees and my humidity at 70% during the early veg period.
I keep the EC very stable at 500 ppm the first couple of weeks and I allow the coco to dry enough that way the roots can search for water.
I keep the light at 600 wats for the first week and then I move it up to 1000 watts from there on….
Since you are having issues with hard water I will use clean RO water for now and just at a little bit of Cal/mag at a rate of 2-3 mill per gallon once they recover then I will go to a more traditional 50/50 RO/Tab water mix.
Give it a week with these changes and see how they respond…

Spent a little too much time finding the best deals on gear and not covering my bases for the environment. Disappointed with myself for not confirming the PPM of the tap water prior to starting this project. Poor plants got just roasted so early on. Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups...

Anywho, since I have brought the humidity up, things seem to be moving forward again. Was way too much air flow and exchange going on in the room so the first week hum was below 20%.

Thanks for posting the VPD chart but I have already been fighting to get things to the right spot using it. This is my first indoor in years, and i never learned of VPD until a month ago. I've tried to stay within the proper range but with no humidifier and my current ventilation setup it makes it hard to hit the sweet spot and stay there.

I have a Noma power plug timer but it only has 20 programmable settings so I have set it to turn off the fan for 20 minutes each hour so the humidity can raise. I have a stable temp of 77F and 35% with fans on. Once they shut off the hum peaks at 60%, and by the time the fans come on again its 85F. Far from ideal, i know.

Waiting until I have the funds for a good environment controller but may have to settle for a cheap thermostat controller for the meantime. I have a secondary 8" fan attached to the outside air which is at 14F average. If i had a good controller to turn on/off the ventilation I could have the heat from 85 to 75 in a matter of 5 minutes and have a higher, more stable humidity.

Purchasing a humidifier tomorrow. Seems to be models for 300-400 sqft for $40 or then whole house units for $200. The room is only 120ish sqft so a room sized one should be able to keep up and raise to the right range me thinks.

I'm already going in once an hour to spray down the tables with water to keep the humidity up. 1L gets sprayed between the plants to the point of pooling, and within 40 minutes they are bone dry. Its getting old fast.

I'll post pictures asap but there is definitely new growth and it is looking good. I sincerely thank you guys for the input and advice, combined with the lack of criticism for my piss poor mistakes lol.

bury your cubes better u will get high percentage taking properly and more uniform growth... wet your pots... 2 fingers deep down to your knuckles on your fingers. Make it wide enough. By pushing it back and forth... or with 2 hands put the bCacks of your first 2 fingers together. Palms facing out. Dig em in knuckles deep. And separate a hole wide enough..

When your cubes stick out they dry out quick. Damaging fragile roots. Stalls a plant out fast...

ganjalfthegreen said:

Cant thank you enough for the advice. I will definitely be rocking the 100% coco next round.

Do you use the canna brand coco? Or the cheap bricks?

Click to expand...

Canna coco bricks. These bricks hydrated are just as good and uniform as canna in the bag and cheaper. You'll get the hang of coco soon and love the stuff.

I let my clones literally almost dry out to wilting the first time in coco.. then after that I don't let them get that dry but it seems to work just fine. and after the wilt and really dry coco .. I just give them the normal 500ppms for 1 water then up to the 1000ppms on my TDS meter all the way till flower then boost to 1200.. then down to 50ppm flush.

If u dont fug up u never learn. Thing is ur level headed and can take advice. On the road to high grade bro... dont give up!!

I have shit for root growth when humidity is as low as your saying and slightly warmer. When humidity is at 50-70 i seem to get much better root growth. My veg closet goes thru extremes certain times of the year (when seasons change) and i just went thru it about a two months or so ago. Now its back on point and shit grows like it should. Only thing i know to do to help the humidity in those times is fill'er with more plants