My seedlings keep having lower leaves die

mikaroni

mikaroni

Active Member
So, for the past several grows, the lower leaves on my seedlings keep drying up, curling and dying. Pictured, these two girls are a little over a month old. The heat under my canopy is about 79, but sometimes rises to 81. my percentages have been a little low lately at 52%. I don't feel like 79 most the time would fry the girls, so there must be another reason. I water them properly, and I'm not fert burning them because only the lower leaves are affected. Anyone know what might be happening here?
 

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raggyb

raggyb

Well-Known Member
mikaroni said:
So, for the past several grows, the lower leaves on my seedlings keep drying up, curling and dying. Pictured, these two girls are a little over a month old. The heat under my canopy is about 79, but sometimes rises to 81. my percentages have been a little low lately at 52%. I don't feel like 79 most the time would fry the girls, so there must be another reason. I water them properly, and I'm not fert burning them because only the lower leaves are affected. Anyone know what might be happening here?
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Is that coco coir? Looks dry.
 
mikaroni

mikaroni

Active Member
A little more info: I'm growing in coco, and using roots organic dry amendments. I gave them 1/8 tsp dry amendment while they were in cell pots (around 27 days in), and they loved it. I repotted them in 1 gallon pots with 2 tsp ferts a few days ago. The soil is only dry on the surface, still moist though. I'm usually really good on watering on time, so I don't think the watering schedule is the issue. Not sure what is tbh
 
Fangthane

Fangthane

Well-Known Member
You're just using plain water? How often?

If they're a month old, I don't think they've loved much of anything you're doing so far. They're pretty tiny for that age.
 
mikaroni

mikaroni

Active Member
Fangthane said:
You're just using plain water? How often?

If they're a month old, I don't think they've loved much of anything you're doing so far. They're pretty tiny for that age.
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I use RO water with calmag. The pH is good.
EDIT: When they were in cell pots, they were dry every night or every other night and needing water. Now that they're in 1 gallon pots, I'll water the pots about halfway through since the root ball is small still, and do that every 2-3 days maybe? for about 1-2 weeks, then I'll fully water the pots through as usual, and water maybe every 3-6 days depending?
 
Fangthane

Fangthane

Well-Known Member
I'm still in the prep stage for growing coco, but you seem to be doing it in a very sub-optimal way. Apparently having something to do with cation exchange capacity (which I have about zero understanding of) I'm pretty sure that watering without nutes is generally considered a very bad idea. Again, how often do you water?
 
mikaroni

mikaroni

Active Member
Fangthane said:
I'm still in the prep stage for growing coco, but you seem to be doing it in a very sub-optimal way. Apparently having something to do with cation exchange capacity (which I have about zero understanding of) I'm pretty sure that watering without nutes is generally considered a very bad idea. Again, how often do you water?
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When they were in cell pots, they were dry every night or every other night and needing water. Now that they're in 1 gallon pots, I'll water the pots about halfway through since the root ball is small still, and do that every 2-3 days maybe? for about 1-2 weeks, then I'll fully water the pots through as usual, and water maybe every 3-6 days depending? I do water with dry amendments in the soil. I don't add nutrients to my water because it's already in the soil and feeds for 2-3 weeks. I should also add that when I sprouted them, I was on the wrong light schedule, as 16/8 instead of the proper 18/6. That would explain why they're smaller probably. I'm worried about the dying leaves. My last grow did that too, older leaves died and the plants stunted. The 2 grows I did before that was fire! It went perfectly.
 
mikaroni

mikaroni

Active Member
Fangthane said:
I think you should probably do a good bit more reading around this forum about how to properly grow in coco. Hopefully some of the coco peeps chime in and explain better than I could.
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I have 3 successful grows in coco. The last 2 grows though I've been messing up, like the wrong light schedule, etc. The last 2 grows my plants leaves kept dying just like they are now. On those 3 successful grows, I had very few issues. Now it's like I can't grow anymore for no reason at all lol
 
Fangthane

Fangthane

Well-Known Member
I haven't done coco yet, so I'm just regurgitating info that very experienced growers repeat every other day on here. Coco shouldn't be treated like soil. It should be fed at least once a day once the plants are established, multiple times for larger plants. People seem to avoid mixing organics and hydroponics to the degree you're trying. Off the top of my head, those seem to be some very likely causes to your issues.
 
mikaroni

mikaroni

Active Member
Water schedule: good.
temps: could be better (79-81 f, 48-52% rh)
What I use: RO water, calmag, roots organic ferts, canna-coco, King Crab microbes, recharge, teas, mykos, azos, worm castings, exhale bags
 
TCH

TCH

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure how well the coco will take to being treated like soil. My guess is that you are experiencing some lockout causing under nutrition for the plant, causing it to cannibalize itself. Can your nutrients ts be mixed into water and used that way? If so, I would mix up several gallons of a weak solution and flush the coco with that. I would be willing to bet that if you made a batch of your calmag water and measured the ppm and then run it through your coco to excessive runoff and then measured the ppm, it will be substantially higher.

Coco needs to be fed every "watering" and that needs to be at least once per day. This not only feeds the plant, but also brings in fresh oxygen to the roots. Without this, the plant starts suffocating and will struggle to thrive. When coco is allowed to dry back, there become salt buildup and that will also wreak havoc and cause bad pH issues along with nutrient lockout. For being a month old, those plants are way behind and obviously struggling.
 
Nutty sKunK

Nutty sKunK

Well-Known Member
TCH said:
I'm not sure how well the coco will take to being treated like soil. My guess is that you are experiencing some lockout causing under nutrition for the plant, causing it to cannibalize itself. Can your nutrients ts be mixed into water and used that way? If so, I would mix up several gallons of a weak solution and flush the coco with that. I would be willing to bet that if you made a batch of your calmag water and measured the ppm and then run it through your coco to excessive runoff and then measured the ppm, it will be substantially higher.

Coco needs to be fed every "watering" and that needs to be at least once per day. This not only feeds the plant, but also brings in fresh oxygen to the roots. Without this, the plant starts suffocating and will struggle to thrive. When coco is allowed to dry back, there become salt buildup and that will also wreak havoc and cause bad pH issues along with nutrient lockout. For being a month old, those plants are way behind and obviously struggling.
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Folk love to over complicate things. I don’t even grow in coco but a little research (in the right places) And it’s an easy media to grow/mess up.

Charge it with food, plant seed, keep moist and water once a day, increase as it gets older. Never plain water and increase feed as it gets bigger.

So all you need is, coco, liquid feed, mycorrhiza and water
 
Modern Selections

Modern Selections

Well-Known Member
Your leaves are dying because the plants are not getting enough water.

Read some coco journals and check out how other growers are successfully growing in coco. Dry amendments are not a good way to grow in coco.

Coco needs to be watered with nutrients a few times a day, not every 3-6 days. This is your problem.

If you insist on using dry amendments switch the medium to soil.
 
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