starting seeds in coco nightmare(part 2:the nightmare continues)

ebenezerfagglegold

Active Member
ok so I have been sending seed after seed to the meatgrinder trying to get these things going in coco. second time grower. did my first with miracle gro and thought that was bad but that was nothing compared to this.

problems are obvious in the pics. Orange burnt leaves on one. Miserably sick fuck of a plant in the other. The orange one may possibly be a nutrient burn, because light nute solution is one of the things I've tried on THAT ones.

so it's gone like this: bought a hot house humidity dome with heat pad. Tried that. Lost 4 seeds right away to damping off. Tried using heat pad without the humidity dome. lost 4 more to damping off, though more slowly this time. All of these are after only 1 initial watering and that's IT, and this is a 80/20 coco/perlite mix, which(*from what I've read) you should be able to water every single day and be fine.

next thing I tried was germinating in paper towels for a long tap root before planting and only very lightly watering. This time it was like a dead stunting. They'd pop out of the soil and never push out any true leaves. They would have little crispy moldy looking spots where the true leaves should have been. I have one survivor from this session, though I made the executive decision to cut off the mold to prevent spreading.

next thing I tried was disinfecting the coco. gave it a soak in a hydrogen peroxide solution. let it sit overnight. flushed the bejesus out of it with plain water, then baked the coco in the oven at 250 for 3 hours straight, then used very diluted general hydroponics rapidstart (npk 1,.5,1) with 2 drops of calmag to a gallon of water. Planted a seed and this is where the orange burnt one came from. That one sprouted 2 days ago but the other one sprouted on the 15th, so its obviously stunted to hell, but still alive.

Next I tried starting them in jiffy peat pellets before transplanting them into coco, which I'm having success with at the moment, but I don't know what's going to happen when those roots go deep into that coco.

Anyway this is a total mindfuck. Everything looks good on paper. Plenty of light. Temps and humidity are right. Lightly watering. phing water to 6.5. sterile medium, sterile equipement, rubber gloves.

Guys if anybody has experienced something like this, specifically with coco coir, could you give me some help. Its not genetics because I have two different strains of shit weed in there.
 

Attachments

*BUDS

Well-Known Member


They dont like this coco. Change to a coco mix that is pre mixed and sold in a bag . The stuff you have now is shit and will always cause issues.
 

jondamon

Well-Known Member
Here's how I germinate seeds in coco.

Ready some coco by taking it out of the bag and putting in some Dixie cups.

Soak it with either plain water or a precharged nute mix around 0.6EC.

Then I plant my seed and light it up under my lighting.

Then I wait.


Then when the plant pops up above ground I wait for the top surface to become dry on the coco.

Then I feed my 0.6EC MIX.

Then I wait for the top surface to become dry.

Then I feed my 0.6 mix again.

Then I wait for the top surface to become dry.

Then I feed again at 0.6EC.

I continue this process until is transplant out of the cup.

Then I go up to 0.8-1.0 EC nute mix.

Then I wait for the top surface to become dry.


Do you see the recurring thing here??

Waiting for the surface to become dry.


You're over watering at present.

Only when plants are fully established can you water every day.

Personally I never use plain water on my coco plants.



J
 

ebenezerfagglegold

Active Member
I don't get it. That's not far at all from what I'm doing. Almost exactly but I'm having horrible results with this stuff. Lost another one today by doing almost exactly what you just said.

I never said I watered every day. This happens after ONE watering. Just one, that's all. I said I had read that you COULD GET AWAY with watering coco every day.

I'm beginning to agree with you there buds.
 

jondamon

Well-Known Member
I don't get it. That's not far at all from what I'm doing. Almost exactly but I'm having horrible results with this stuff. Lost another one today by doing almost exactly what you just said.

I never said I watered every day. This happens after ONE watering. Just one, that's all. I said I had read that you COULD GET AWAY with watering coco every day.

I'm beginning to agree with you there buds.

What brand of coco are you using?



J
 

ebenezerfagglegold

Active Member
This brand is called 'natures footprint.' came in a 650 gm brick. Bought it off of amazon, has a 4 star rating there, no one in the reviews mentioning anything about seedlings dying off. I added about 20% EB Stone Naturals 100% perlite. This shit doesn't make any sense at all. I grew 5 plants of the same strain in miracle gro soil and had a 100% germination and rooting rate. So far I've lost 11 seeds to this coco coir trying all of the methods mentioned above. I have 6 26w cfls(3 daylight, 3 soft white) about 8 inches above the containers, and a heat mat underneath. I've tried with AND without the heat mat and had the same results both times.
 
Last edited:

ebenezerfagglegold

Active Member


They dont like this coco. Change to a coco mix that is pre mixed and sold in a bag . The stuff you have now is shit and will always cause issues.
can you elaborate a little bit? this is my first attempt with coco. I germinated this seed in a paper towel so what you're looking at here was just planted and watered for the first time 24 hours ago. That's obviously why its wet. First watering. Why do you say this coco is shit. Is it the texture, consistency? I don't understand why you would recommend buying a mix sold in a bag when people swear by a coco/perlite mix or just coco by itself. "you're coco is shit" doesn't really tell me a whole lot ya know? but thanks for stopping in to say hi!
 

ebenezerfagglegold

Active Member
here are two side by side. both germinated at the same time in paper towels. one put in a jiffy peat pellet, the other straight into the coco coir both at the same time 48 hours ago. The one in the jiffy pellet is doing fine.
 

Attachments

jondamon

Well-Known Member
When purchasing coco in compressed bricks its unbuffered.

It ideally needs treating with a calmag nute to precharge it or a coco buffer product.


You may be able to get away with precharging your coco with your coco specific base nute at about EC0.6-0.8.



J
 

ebenezerfagglegold

Active Member
using calmag w/ general hydro rapidstart doesn't seem to help this issue, thanks for replying and helping though. I don't even have an EC meter :/
 

luciferi

Well-Known Member
planning to change to coco ASAP!! but right now got to stick to soil, perlite, vermiculite, peat moss, worm casting, bat guano any advice for time being found thai soil so clay like wen watered so added like 40%perlite 20%peat moss 20%soil 20%vermiculite.. worm castings and bat guano dont know how to use scared of killing my plants wid too much nutes
 

ebenezerfagglegold

Active Member
planning to change to coco ASAP!! but right now got to stick to soil, perlite, vermiculite, peat moss, worm casting, bat guano any advice for time being found thai soil so clay like wen watered so added like 40%perlite 20%peat moss 20%soil 20%vermiculite.. worm castings and bat guano dont know how to use scared of killing my plants wid too much nutes
hey man, do you see me going around and jacking your threads?? That literally has nothing to do with this thread, what are you doing?
 

luciferi

Well-Known Member
hey man, do you see me going around and jacking your threads?? That literally has nothing to do with this thread, what are you doing?
No offense meant sorry... I just wanted to know more about growing in coco cuase planning to change style of grow... if you dont have any advice its alrite... im quite new to aeroponics too even to soiless mix only ever grow outdoor in my gardens soil. But yea coco advice like mixture and how to feed when to feed wat ty
 

ebenezerfagglegold

Active Member
yeah this coco thing is turning out to be more of a pain in the ass than I thought. I think I'm going to abort this mission and go for happy frog or something. I don't have a hydroponics system. I'm just trying to find the medium that works best for me, trying them out with bag seed before spending tons of dough on designer genetics.
 

jondamon

Well-Known Member
using calmag w/ general hydro rapidstart doesn't seem to help this issue, thanks for replying and helping though. I don't even have an EC meter :/


2 things you can try.

1. Soak your coco in a calmag solution suitable for treating a deficiency based on the bottles recommendations. Make sure you pH the calmag mix to 5.8.

2. I honestly think your pots are a little big. I start in small cups to help develop a better initial root system.

Other than this I would recommend a better brand of coco.

Some that I've used are
BCUZZ COCO
COCO GREEN
CANNA COCO PRO
PLANT MAGIC COCO

There are many differing grades of coco and also many differing techniques to make it viable to use for horticulture by manufacturers. Even the harvesting location of the coconut husks can impact on its ability to be used.




J
 

ebenezerfagglegold

Active Member
yep this stuff says it was harvested in india. I have two bricks of general hydro coco tek that I haven't opened yet. That stuff says it is a 'low salinity' mix of three different types of coco. I read through the amazon reviews of the 'nature's footprint' stuff I'm using now and it turns out there are some negative reviews saying that you do indeed have to wash this particular brand thoroughly before use, a step that seems unnecessary with the coco tek, maybe I'll have a different result there.
 

rob333

Well-Known Member
ok so I have been sending seed after seed to the meatgrinder trying to get these things going in coco. second time grower. did my first with miracle gro and thought that was bad but that was nothing compared to this.

problems are obvious in the pics. Orange burnt leaves on one. Miserably sick fuck of a plant in the other. The orange one may possibly be a nutrient burn, because light nute solution is one of the things I've tried on THAT ones.

so it's gone like this: bought a hot house humidity dome with heat pad. Tried that. Lost 4 seeds right away to damping off. Tried using heat pad without the humidity dome. lost 4 more to damping off, though more slowly this time. All of these are after only 1 initial watering and that's IT, and this is a 80/20 coco/perlite mix, which(*from what I've read) you should be able to water every single day and be fine.

next thing I tried was germinating in paper towels for a long tap root before planting and only very lightly watering. This time it was like a dead stunting. They'd pop out of the soil and never push out any true leaves. They would have little crispy moldy looking spots where the true leaves should have been. I have one survivor from this session, though I made the executive decision to cut off the mold to prevent spreading.

next thing I tried was disinfecting the coco. gave it a soak in a hydrogen peroxide solution. let it sit overnight. flushed the bejesus out of it with plain water, then baked the coco in the oven at 250 for 3 hours straight, then used very diluted general hydroponics rapidstart (npk 1,.5,1) with 2 drops of calmag to a gallon of water. Planted a seed and this is where the orange burnt one came from. That one sprouted 2 days ago but the other one sprouted on the 15th, so its obviously stunted to hell, but still alive.

Next I tried starting them in jiffy peat pellets before transplanting them into coco, which I'm having success with at the moment, but I don't know what's going to happen when those roots go deep into that coco.

Anyway this is a total mindfuck. Everything looks good on paper. Plenty of light. Temps and humidity are right. Lightly watering. phing water to 6.5. sterile medium, sterile equipement, rubber gloves.

Guys if anybody has experienced something like this, specifically with coco coir, could you give me some help. Its not genetics because I have two different strains of shit weed in there.
seeds aint that hard to start in coco 2 things how much do u water and do u feed them let me no and we will take it from here 10 years growing in coco
 

ebenezerfagglegold

Active Member
I haven't gotten past the first watering on any seed. Either water or feed only once them either dampen off or mold or stunt. Then when they finally look like they've had it, I get down to see how the roots looked and it looks like they only rooted for a day or two and that's it. I'm doing a lot better using jiffy pellets but I'm afraid that's only temporary because those roots are going to be all up in that coco sooner or later.
 
Top