Possible nutrient deficiencies/lock out. Hello yall! Currently growing organically in a 4x4.
Medium- coco/perlite 70/30
Nutes: green rush
Feed cycle once a week. Water when dry with tap water dechlorinated at 5.8-6.2ph.
I left a friend in charge of grow while I was away. When I came back this is what I saw. I was gone for 2 weeks. He said he followed my regiment but obviously something is off. At first I thought it was a cal mag issue and I fed cal mag but I have not seen any evidence of recovery yet. Scratching my head. Yellowing is starting at edges of fan leaves. I’ve always used this style of grow with no issues like this ever!
I do not. I just follow the instructions and what I’ve found success with which is the recommended 1 scoop per liter of water. I’ve ran this 4 grows with each having great success.
In coco perlite you need to water every day. No exceptions. You have nutrient burn from a build up of salts. You cannot let coco dry or this happens.
Look at the article watering_coco on the cocoforcannabis website
You’ve been fortunate so far in that you didn’t have a finicky plant. Knowing your EC in and out will help you to understand what is happening in the root zone.
I was going to point out the coco drying out probably being the primary culprit. @John7 I am pretty sure EC is for Electrical Conductivity. The EC measurement tells you how many ppms of tds in the nutrient solution. My EC usually is between 1.75 and 1.8 in my nutrient mix, that is about 900 ppms of total dissolved solids in the liquid. My meter is an Apera EC60, I got it on amazon for about $60 a couple years back.
Spiney. Watering everyday in coco is completely false. Especially with organic amendments and the heavy perlite added as well. As stated above I’ve had great success with this exact routine and same pheno’s. I will check ppm tomorrow since you can’t get an accurate reading of ec from organic admentments. IMO the ph in the medium is off and causing a nutrient lock out. Will check the run off tomorrow.
I’m sure the person I left in charge for my 2 weeks of being gone was not letting my blue labs ph pen fully settle to an accurate reading as my resiovoir is over 20 gallons. My automated set up that has the exact same nutrient guide that he didn’t touch is completely healthy
They may be able to grow without frequent watering, but I had the same thing happen and it was from letting the coco go a few days between. This issue is completely gone now.
If you have a source for information on growing with less frequent watering in coco I am 100% interested.
Thanks.
Checked run off ph. It was as expected high at 6.8 and I gurantee it was even higher before I did the first watering when I got back. Will do a full flush on all plants. No doubt this will effect end results but still 4-5 weeks left. Should bounce back for a decent harvest still.
Why are you not watering with nutrient solution every day? Or better multiple times a day.
As the coco drys out or the plant takes in the water the nutrients are left in the root zone and the EC rises. In order to keep a consistent EC level in the root zone you must fertigate with nutrient solution to run off.
I use organic dry amendments. My coco is just a base as I love the water retention as well as with the added coco gives it amazing air pockets. Watering to run off would simply be counter beneficial as I’d be washing my nutrients out. This is not a salts or bottle synthetics grow. What you’re referring to/suggesting would be accurate if I was using those nutrients. And let me reclarify I am not letting the medium dry back to 100% I simply water when the plants tell me. That varies greatly on what stage of growth they are in. Cant accurately measure EC with organic amendments you would want to use ppm. Also this is my 10th seed to harvest with every other grow being completely smooth. Check my YouTube out for those results. As stated above I left someone in charge of my grow and they watered at a higher ph which caused a nutrient lock out. Thanks for the tips again
Thats a completely different style of how to grow in coco. Zero experiece that way but sounds interesting. Maybe keeping the soil moist at all times with no runoff or just a tiny bit. If you get a tiny bit of runoff let the pot soak it back up, should not hurt being organic. Think it was possible he may have just let them dry out a bit too much? Maybe the organics can have same affect as synthetics in terms of the “rules” of coco. Sorry im just theorizing
Ok thanks for the clarification your post said you used green rush, I googled them but only checked out the water soluble nutrients you mix with water. I didn’t see you were using dry amendments.
If you corrected the pH of the water going in it should be good to go
Definitely always worth keeping track of both pH and PPM [aka. TDS or EC].
This will help you keep a balanced nutrient level and uptake.
PPM is measures with a PPM/TDS/EC meter.
Nutrient levels at a base level per stage of growth is generally ruled as follows:
Seedling: 100-300 PPM
Vegetative: 500-800 PPM
Flowering: 800-1500 PPM
Enriched environment flowering: 1500+ PPM
I simply water when the plants tell me. That varies greatly on what stage of growth they are in. Cant accurately measure EC with organic amendments you would want to use ppm. Also this is my 10th seed to harvest with every other grow being completely smooth. Check my YouTube out for those results. As stated above I left someone in charge of my grow and they watered at a higher ph which caused a nutrient lock out. Thanks for the tips again 