seedlings in coco help

[Yagirlsheugly]

hello everyone so I’m trying my first attempt at growing in coco ... I’m using botanicare coco grow ... it says pre buffered but I buffered with cal/mag anyway...

Question is.. so I have three seeds that have popped through the coco already and want to know when I should start giving nutrients? Also should I be letting the coco dry out or keep it moist? I’m scared of overwatering but have read that coco allows for a lot of oxygen even when wet?

 

[smokebros]

I use botanicare coco.

Keep the medium moist at all times, don't treat it like soil where you'd let it dry out a bit between waterings.

You can begin feeding full strength nutrients right away. Others may tell you half strength, but personally I go full strength from start to finish using the Jacks 321 recipe.

 

[PrometheanLeaf]

So, don't pay attention to brand of nutrients. Ideally whatever one you chose will be a well balanced formula.

Water sparingly until they get a bit bigger, but always add nutrients with every watering.

Established plants like around 1.8 ec or 900ish ppm of solution.

I use jacks 321 as my base, 33% strength for the first week after they break ground. 50% the week after that. Then I start feeding 100% strength. I'll feed 100% strength the whole time I'm adding nutrients. The same ratio the entire time as well. I just dilute to The correct ppm after mixing then I ph it.The last 21-28 days of flower I just water without nutrients to help senescence.

If I have to irrigate more than once every day in veg I transplant to a bigger container.

When I start flower I'm irrigating once a day but by mid flower I'm irrigating twice a day.


Sidenote: I've seen seedlings last 5 weeks growing in asphalt cracks. It's a vigorous plant that accepts a wide array of care tolerance, and I've seen and experienced more issues when I was over-caring for them.

 

[Yagirlsheugly]

Thanks to the both of ya... will make sure the medium stays moist ... so should I stay around the 1-300 ppm area for the seedling? Stage

 

[PrometheanLeaf]

What water and nutrients are you using?

 

[WinterSoldier89]

Treat it like soil first to establish roots

 

[Yagirlsheugly]

What water and nutrients are you using?

So I’m going out and buying distilled water today but up until it’s been tap water ... my city’s has good water at 66ppms but the ph is high around 8.5. So I ph down to 5.8or 5.9...

For my first watering I used a 200ppm solution and used a shot glass to pour it in at one shot lol... I watered last night about an hour before lights out with just ph’d water .

 

[Yagirlsheugly]

What water and nutrients are you using?

I’m using advanced nutrients coco .... I know some will hate me for that but at the time of purchase I didn’t have a ph meter so that was my deciding fActor ... when these run out I want to run house and garden

 

[TintEastwood]

Coco college.
https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/watering_coco/

 

[Yagirlsheugly]

Coco college.
https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/watering_coco/

Great link thank you

 

[Yagirlsheugly]

Coco college.
https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/watering_coco/

So upon reading that thread I noticed it said something that I should be watering with 10-20 percent run off... what exactly does that mean? The pppms coming out the bottom of the pot should 20 percent of what’s going in? Example of what I’m saying is if I put 100ppm into the coco the run off should be 20 ppms?

 

[TintEastwood]

Just water until some drains out the bottom. I dont worry about ppm of runoff until plants have vegged for a month.

If you are feeding 500ppm. The runoff should be higher, but not by huge amounts. 20% they say.

Example...
If I'm feeding 500ppm and the runoff is 1200ppm.....I have a fertilizer salt build up isssue. Not good. Need to do what they say at coco college to get the ppms down. (Flush, no)

If my runoff is 700ppm-ish or less Im a happy camper. Feed on.

 

[Yagirlsheugly]

Just water until some drains out the bottom. I dont worry about ppm of runoff until plants have vegged for a month.

If you are feeding 500ppm. The runoff should be higher, but not by huge amounts. 20% they say.

Example...
If I'm feeding 500ppm and the runoff is 1200ppm.....I have a fertilizer salt build up isssue. Not good. Need to do what they say at coco college to get the ppms down. (Flush, no)

If my runoff is 700ppm-ish or less Im a happy camper. Feed on.

So run off basically should be higher by 10-20 percent of what you put into the coco ... so for my example 100 ppm in should be 120ppm out.. in a perfect world?

 

[TintEastwood]

So run off basically should be higher by 10-20 percent of what you put into the coco ... so for my example 100 ppm in should be 120ppm out.. in a perfect world?

Yes. Although 100ppm is starvation level. Coco will have higher ppm than 100 out of the bag, or after being buffered.

 

[Yagirlsheugly]

So run off basically should be higher by 10-20 percent of what you put into the coco ... so for my example 100 ppm in should be 120ppm out.. in a perfect world?

Oh yea most def was just using that S an example ... man thank you all!! You have all been a great help.. I appreciate y’all taking time out your day to help a new grower

 

[PrometheanLeaf]

10% runoff. If you give 10 oz of water... 1 oz will come out of the bottom of the container. This is only for plants with established roots, like 10-14 days old.

Going to runoff on a 3 day old seedling will likely cause overwatering stress.

 

[Yagirlsheugly]

10% runoff. If you give 10 oz of water... 1 oz will come out of the bottom of the container. This is only for plants with established roots, like 10-14 days old.

Going to runoff on a 3 day old seedling will likely cause overwatering stress.

Ok gotcha I’ll wait till a few nodes form

 

[Supernova3782]

I just used Distilled water with 1/4 strength nutes for the first 2 weeks.150 to 200ppm @5.8 to 5.9 ph. You definitely need 10 to 20 % runoff. It's almost impossible to over water if you mixed in some perlite. Follow the manufacturers recommendations on which ever nutrients you use.

 

[Yagirlsheugly]

I just used Distilled water with 1/4 strength nutes for the first 2 weeks.150 to 200ppm @5.8 to 5.9 ph. You definitely need 10 to 20 % runoff. It's almost impossible to over water if you mixed in some perlite. Follow the manufacturers recommendations on which ever nutrients you use.

I’ve mixed perlite in but not sure if I put enough though... from some pics I see people have a lot of perlite in their medium.... I think I should’ve went with more

 

[PrometheanLeaf]

I’ve mixed perlite in but not sure if I put enough though... from some pics I see people have a lot of perlite in their medium.... I think I should’ve went with more

Tbh, you can do 100% coco without issues. My last batch I mixed 50:50 by weight and I wish I did about half that amount. (I'm hand feeding for now). I Need to actually build a res stand and automate. Shit is a lot of work for what's popped.