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First coco grow -> very slow growth

ibreza

New member
You're overthinking it. Please reread my first post, everything is in there.

* use your tap water. ro water has no pH buffer, that's why it's falling
* add some epsom salt for your Mg def
* bionova is fine, forget about changing ferts in the middle of a grow if you don't know what you are doing
* final mix for use with runoff => EC@1.2 pH@6.0

Truth is most people get it working by accident, meaning they don't know what they're doing! that's why you've been given so many different advices in this thread.
Patience and perseverance will get you through. good luck :)
 
Yes, definitely overthinking. Honestly all these measurements are likely doing more damage than good. Keep it simple in coco.

I don't measure most of this shit and plants are healthy and grow at a fast pace.

Smart pots - great for coco, let in plenty of fresh air for explosive root growth. You can go as low as 1 gal and still see success.
Botinacare coco - when hydrating i let soak in the same nutrient solution i use to water
Tap water - why use RO, unless you have really bad tap water?
Dynagro Foliage Pro - a nearly one and done nutrient formula, mix ~2ml per gal. ease back if you see burnt tips. Cheap too.
Calimagic - use only if plants shows deficiency without it. i personally need ~1.5ml per gal.
PH up/down as needed to achieve 5.8-6.2.

Water once a day to runoff. Twice a day can accelerate growth.

The only wild card in this is the tap water. I don't need to measure EC or even the micro nutrient breakdown. I simply watch the plant for problems and adjust as needed until i found the sweet spot.

Still wondering why more folks don't use Dynagro. It's cheap and is all in one. You can use the foliage pro throughout the whole life cycle too.
 

Snypie

Active member
Yes, you are right guys, i am overthinking sure. But i have this reason.
Everything came together. My third PH meter died on weekend. Always the ACT goes wrong, but now i ordered a better pen, a Hanna combo.

ibreza: Can you explain the final EC? I do dot understand one thing. So my tap water EC is 0.56. I want to make 10 liters of solution. I add some BioNova Coco A+B fertilizer (for example 0.7 ml/l). Say it will be together (tap + nutes) 1.3 EC. Then i add 3 gr (10*0.3) Epsom, the EC will be for example 1.5 EC. I dilute down to 1.2 EC. But after diluting there will be no more Epsom than 0.3 gr/l.

RumblefishTwist: I am now in 1 gallon and the roots coming out side of the fabric pot :)

Why i use RO water? I don't know. Everywhere you can read clean water, clean water. Tap water is bad. And this nute has more CaO as Canna, GHE etc. But i finished these measurements. I learned that RO is not for me.
 

ibreza

New member
I would start by mixing half tap/RO. It will bring all the benefits that we talked about and keep your EC low. when your plants are healthy you can try with only tap water.
I've used yara kristalon brown lately and in their brochure they say a water with EC < 0.5 is suitable for hydroponic, so you're on the high side. some people on this board grow with tap at EC@0.7 so it's something you're going to have to test for yourself.

that's okay for the dilution, you're still adding more than enough Mg.

for pH testing, I use ph drops. cheap, accurate, doesn't break. It's always nice to have some as backup in case your meter die.
Also now that you're using tap water check the pH a day after changing your res. ph has a tendency to rise a bit in hard water. once you've worked out the quantity of acid needed for a stable pH@6.0, pH testing become more of a failsafe.
 

maimunji

Active member
Do you use cheap Chinese ph meters? Im not sure how accurate they are but if they are cheap I think this is part of your problems. I highly recommend you to buy canna coco profesional + and canna coco AB basic nutes. Use your tap water and their light feedeng schedule. Start fresh with seeds or clones. Wait new ph meter and post your reading.
 

967

Active member
Do you use cheap Chinese ph meters? Im not sure how accurate they are but if they are cheap I think this is part of your problems. I highly recommend you to buy canna coco profesional + and canna coco AB basic nutes. Use your tap water and their light feedeng schedule. Start fresh with seeds or clones. Wait new ph meter and post your reading.

Or house and garden coco nutes, they're really hard to stuff up, or at least they were. When I first stared I was feeding at EC 3.6 for weeks without any sign of burn (didn't realise I was reading ppm instead of EC). Either there is a whole bunch of nothing in their nutes or it's unavailable to plants or something strange, but plants grew really well and turned out great. Not to mention it put my ph right on 5.8

Then I stated using fulvic acid with it and was getting tip burn at EC 1.6. Figure that one out...
 

maimunji

Active member
Or house and garden coco nutes, they're really hard to stuff up, or at least they were. When I first stared I was feeding at EC 3.6 for weeks without any sign of burn (didn't realise I was reading ppm instead of EC). Either there is a whole bunch of nothing in their nutes or it's unavailable to plants or something strange, but plants grew really well and turned out great. Not to mention it put my ph right on 5.8

Then I stated using fulvic acid with it and was getting tip burn at EC 1.6. Figure that one out...

Thats cool story. I also use h&g cocos and really love them. I run them at 1.3 ml/ltr. In veg and never goes above 2 ml/ltr. Week 5-6 flowering. Thats 1.2-.1.3.-1.4. E.C. max. Including 0.4.e.c. Tap water.
Plants is healty. H&G fucking rock. I never watering to run off in flower.
 

Snypie

Active member
Do you use cheap Chinese ph meters? Im not sure how accurate they are but if they are cheap I think this is part of your problems. I highly recommend you to buy canna coco profesional + and canna coco AB basic nutes. Use your tap water and their light feedeng schedule. Start fresh with seeds or clones. Wait new ph meter and post your reading.


The PH meter's name was ADWA. It was relative cheap. This is hungarian brand and made in Romania. Then i bought Milwuake and last just 1 month... It was relative cheap too. Tomorrow will arrive my new PH meter. Hanna HI 98129. This is a combo pen. PH and EC. It cost five times more than Adwa or Milwuake.
 
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maimunji

Active member
The PH meter's name was ADWA. It was relative cheap. This is hungarian brand and made in Romania. Then i buyed Milwuake and last just 1 month... It was relative cheap too. Tomorrow will arrive my new PH meter. Hanna HI 98128. This is a combo pen. PH and EC. It cost five times more than Adwa or Milwuake.

Ok this brands isn't bad at all and not give you false reading. Mine is same price and pretty accurate. To me ph is spot on. Its really important to found nutes that work good in your environment at the beggining when you learn your setup, strains, water etc. When things doesn't work check for bugs. If you check, check double and triple. Scope root for root aphids. Quickly remove plants from pots and scope roots. You need to be quick because this things is faster and hide very well. Check leaves also
 
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Snypie

Active member
I don't have bugs. I checked it several times. I checked it by microscope.
Now that you wrote down that you are using tap water also my problem is ro water i used, i am sure. But many people use ro with H&G. So no more ro i learned the hard way. And secondly the flushes as advised was bad too. And probably the PH pen problem.
 

967

Active member
I think coco is easier than soil. Good quality coco, quality ph and ec pens and a decent coco specific nute formula and you can't (shouldn't) go wrong. Soil comes with problems coco doesn't, like compaction over the grow period and deficiencies taking longer to correct
 

PoweredByLove

Most Loved
You guys are over thinking all this shit.
picture.php

Generic brick coco mixed with burpee bricked coco cuz i found it was even cheaper than the shit at the grow store, didn't rinse shit, didn't even get a ph meter till last week which showed the nutes in the bucket had risen to 8.4 (prolly wasn't that high all the time, but might have been) grown by my friend who barely knows how to grow. Neglected some, over watered some. But still here we are at week 2 flower using only miracle grow all purpose 15-30-15 and some Epsom salt because MG doesn't have magnesium in it.
 

967

Active member
Not me overthinking, I've been such a lazy grower at times, not watering until plants wilting almost weekly, feeding plain un-ph'd water etc, always turned out mint! Not really sure what op is doing wrong
 

Snypie

Active member
My new pen has arrived. Guys that is awesome! :) It is so quick. I put it in the water and bamm in 2 seconds the display is stabilized. Awesome :)
So my first blight: the old pens shows for example my tap water's PH 7.3 and the new pen shows 7.8. And the yesterday mixed nute solution's PH is with old pen 6.3 with new pen 6.8. So maybe i was feeding too high PH. And my runoff is not low probably. Today i can't watering just tomorrow morning. I will see it.
And the EC is with old pen 1.2 EC, with new pen 1.145.

Tomorrow i will post the runoff measurements.
 

MickFoster

Active member
I don't own a ppm meter or a pH meter. I use the GH pH drops for pH and I use the K.I.S.S. method so I don't need a ppm meter. Pens go out of whack and you don't know when it will happen until it's too late. The drops are never wrong.
 

967

Active member
In my experience with coco ph isn't nearly as important as people make it out to be. I bet you could feed 6.8 the whole grow and not notice anything really wrong..
 

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