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1st time Coco Grower help

BD3262

New member
Hey everyone, 2nd-time grower here. 1st time was in hydro, this time I wanted to switch it up and saw the ease of soil with the yields of hydro, so coco sold me. I bought some compressed no name brand coco brick and did the pillow case rinse until the water came out clean (20 min rinse with tap water), then I mixed 60:40 of coco to perlite. The clones after I transplanted them (about a day and a half ago) started to droop. Initially, I thought it could be transplant shock or over watering, so I put them outside to air out a bit and attempt to have them dry off. But as I checked on them again today, they haven't perked up and the soil was dry, so I re-watered and snapped some photos hoping you all can help me out.

Growing them in a 3x2x7 tent with a 400w MH/HPS set up. Only outside cause I thought overwatering might be an issue... No nutes yet due to them being transplanted a day and a half ago, but was planning on starting 1/4 strength tomorrow cause of the neutral medium. And for nutes, I was just going to do heads formula with 1ml Cal-Mg.

Also, how moist should the coco be before I rewater it?

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Thanks again for the help everyone, if this grow goes right; ill do a journal.

- BD
 

dansbuds

Retired from the workforce Bullshit
ICMag Donor
Veteran
did you precharge the coco with nutes ? ...... & at what PH ?
 

Hooter

Member
My guess since you just transplanted them it's shock. Water with 1/4 nutes saturate coco untill you get a good run off. It's hard to overwater in coco. I wouldn't put them in intense light untill the leaves come up. If the clones were bare root it will take a while for them to recover. I'm not an expert but I grow in coco. Hope that helps I think they will be fine.
 

BD3262

New member

My guess since you just transplanted them it's shock. Water with 1/4 nutes saturate coco untill you get a good run off. It's hard to overwater in coco. I wouldn't put them in intense light untill the leaves come up. If the clones were bare root it will take a while for them to recover. I'm not an expert but I grow in coco. Hope that helps I think they will be fine.

So I should keep my light about 2' away you think then?
 

Hooter

Member
I will rewater if coco is dry top 2 inches or if coco starts to separate from side of pot. After you do a watering lift pot check weight when it feels half that weight it's time to water again. I have know some that wait for leaves to droop before watering.
 

Hooter

Member
If your using 400 watt M/H at two inches I think you will be cooking them. If you put your hand over plant for 10 seconds and it is hot your plant will burn. Get a lux meter keep plants between 10 and 20 thousand lux. For now I would go two feet just a guess I use LED.
 
Could also be that your coco pH is off after flushing so much tap through it and not pre-charging. What pH is your tap usually? With coco, the pH is usually (depending on carbonates) what you feed it with, so its very important that you pH every single time you water/feed.
 

BD3262

New member
I haven't checked pH, I was going to give them 1/4 nutes and then check the run off of that. And I am order a lux meter as we speak, I broke my other one by dropping it... Thanks for the help everyone. And the light is 18 inches away.

- BD
 

dansbuds

Retired from the workforce Bullshit
ICMag Donor
Veteran
your going to need an EC meter & a PH meter ! feeding them at the wrong PH level will give you more problems than you already have !

those clones need to be in a saturated cup of coco fed at .7 EC & a PH of 5.9 or your wasting your time . they won't last very much longer without it .

i'm not trying to be a prick , but you jumped in head first without checking the waters . you need to understand coco & its needs before you put plants in it unless you want to see them die .
coco isn't dirt & its not water either ..... although its fed alot like you would a water grow .
 

BD3262

New member
No worries, I actually just got my EC/PPM as well as pH meter today. I totally understand the importance of pH in order to have certain ion uptake as well as other things. I just thought the first few days I would give them DI in order to let them adapt. Also, Ive always heard you want to run it like hydro, so you want it at a pH of 5.8, ideally. Why the 5.9?

- BD
 

dansbuds

Retired from the workforce Bullshit
ICMag Donor
Veteran
the sweet spot is 5.8 ..... i like 5.9 or 6.0 because my nutes have 25% calcium . yours may be different .


picture.php
 

dansbuds

Retired from the workforce Bullshit
ICMag Donor
Veteran
you never feed coco plain water till the very end of the flowering cycle , other wise the cation bank in the coco will get out of whack & will have to be recharged & your plants will stall & look like shit untill its restored .
theres alot of potassium in coco so we feed it calcium to balance things out , either in your nutes or a calcium suppliment .
coco is also a salty medium , so you never let it sit in its runoff or let it suck it back up or it builds to a toxic level ! drain it off or suck it out with a shop vac right away , never let the coco dry out completely because thats when salts crystalize & can cause major problems like really high EC values . & you want runoff every day to flush out any salt build up .
 

BD3262

New member
Awesome, pH was at 6.1 - 5.8 and all additional runoff was removed; with the light at ~18" above the highest point. Hopefully they bounce back, and soon!

- BD
 

Hooter

Member
Just keep up what your doing now. At least they are not getting worse. Look for new growth to be normal. Got my fingers crossed.
 

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