Coco Newbie: Struggling with building roots

bunkerking · Sep 11, 2019

Medium: 50% coco 50% perlite
Current PH: 6.4 (running a cal based line)
Nutes: NFTG
Lights: t5 96W
Temps: mid 70s
RH: low-mid 50s.

I am watering everyday and have been struggling to grow big healthy white roots.
They have been growing super slowly.

Is the trick really to just to stop giving them water for a few days. Let the roots grow out?
And just rebuild the microbes in the soil?

I keep seeing people having massive success with coco.
Most of the time its wet, with white fuzzy roots. (their transplant imgs/root porn)

Any suggestions?

Jimster · Sep 11, 2019

When I start a new batch, I start with a 5 gallon bucket and Promix and a few amendments. I thoroughly water the medium before planting the sprouted seed. After planting, I water a very small amount around the seedling for a day or two, until the root grows a little into the medium. I don't water for a week or 10 days, but add a little around the seedling if it looks dry. As the medium dries out, the roots will usually follow it and fills the bucket and comes out the drain holes in a month. Too much water can saturate the lower levels of your container and medium. Roots like to have plenty of oxygen, so if there is a lot of water, there isn't a lot of O2 and the roots don't grow into it as quickly. Once the roots come out the bottom, you can water daily (or at least I do if needed), since they will draw water up from wherever they can reach. Too much water can drown the roots due to lack of O2.
It really is as easy as going easy on the water until the roots have filled out. The roots will seek out the damper soil, and grow like crazy. FWIW, your plants look pretty healthy. Smaller plants don't need as big of root systems to grow well, but as a general rule... the bigger the container, the bigger the plants tend to grow. I let my Sativas get about 7 ft, and they drink water like camels... a gallon or more a day, indoors. Other strains don't drink nearly as much, but also tend to be smaller than Sativa strains.

Ph 007 · Sep 11, 2019

Iv not long. Starts using coco, I been through hell and it's een down to over watering leave them dry about 1-2 days sin e I done this the root growth has gone crazy and coming through my fabric pot in more places a lot of roots

I was over watering people keep telling me you can over water.
I was to feeding iv gone to bottom feeding now and top mini flush once a week.

My plants about your size I'd water till all the coco was soaking then kept watering daily this went bad. So I left them dry a lot don't be scared if the you have been top feeding till run off and you know the ccoco is all wet then let it dry you see.. The worst can happen is if they get to dry they will droop a bit so that's the worst that could happen and it be only the once as you know how dry is to dry, but the odds are you will water before then. When their really big and drinking fast every day will probably be needed and not to much

After a day or 2 of drying just bottom feeds out quarter a litre to half daily if they sucking it up fast u know to give little more

Ph 007 · Sep 11, 2019

Ph 007 said:
Iv not long. Starts using coco, I been through hell and it's een down to over watering leave them dry about 1-2 days sin e I done this the root growth has gone crazy and coming through my fabric pot in more places a lot of roots

I was over watering people keep telling me you can over water.
I was to feeding iv gone to bottom feeding now and top mini flush once a week.

My plants about your size I'd water till all the coco was soaking then kept watering daily this went bad. So I left them dry a lot don't be scared if the you have been top feeding till run off and you know the ccoco is all wet then let it dry you see.. The worst can happen is if they get to dry they will droop a bit so that's the worst that could happen and it be only the once as you know how dry is to dry, but the odds are you will water before then. When their really big and drinking fast every day will probably be needed and not to much

After a day or 2 of drying just bottom feeds out quarter a litre to half daily if they sucking it up fast u know to give little more

I was also using cak mag and this really fucked things up even at half strength I use tap water it's soft water but still cal mag give me problems slow growth and yellowing..

Are you organic feeding?

I'm using canna Coco Nutrients, try. Not using calmag see happens
After I stopped using calmag it took about a week to see growth improve

Looking at your pics top of your coco looked like mine slight green on that perlite and I can see looks to wet like mine did and the wet stains on the side of the pots.. I let mine dry a lot and just kepy feeling the bottom on the pot very bottom yo abkiuy3 2 inches up wa still saoaing afte 1 day and they slowly got better as top looked dryer and bottom stayed the same

bunkerking · Sep 11, 2019

Ph 007 said:
Iv not long. Starts using coco, I been through hell and it's een down to over watering leave them dry about 1-2 days sin e I done this the root growth has gone crazy and coming through my fabric pot in more places a lot of roots

I was over watering people keep telling me you can over water.
I was to feeding iv gone to bottom feeding now and top mini flush once a week.

My plants about your size I'd water till all the coco was soaking then kept watering daily this went bad. So I left them dry a lot don't be scared if the you have been top feeding till run off and you know the ccoco is all wet then let it dry you see.. The worst can happen is if they get to dry they will droop a bit so that's the worst that could happen and it be only the once as you know how dry is to dry, but the odds are you will water before then. When their really big and drinking fast every day will probably be needed and not to much

After a day or 2 of drying just bottom feeds out quarter a litre to half daily if they sucking it up fast u know to give little more

The struggle lol.

Nice. Ok. My thoughts was let them have a few dry cycles until the point where they start drinking up the water within a day. Then hammer time? People kept scaring me into thinking going two days without water was gonna kill all the roots.

Ph 007 · Sep 11, 2019

bunkerking said:
The struggle lol.

Nice. Ok. My thoughts was let them have a few dry cycles until the point where they start drinking up the water within a day. Then hammer time? People kept scaring me into thinking going two days without water was gonna kill all the roots.

Yes mate trust iv been through it all lol, are growing organic?

Ph 007 · Sep 11, 2019

Look through my posts usee problems iv had lol, mainly calmag and Iver watering

bunkerking · Sep 11, 2019

Ph 007 said:
Yes mate trust iv been through it all lol, are growing organic?

like 95% Organic. Few non-organic stabilizers in the NFTG line.
Its all broken down, and available at the time of feeding.

Ph 007 · Sep 11, 2019

This was daily feeding till run off, about half a litre to 1 litre a day tip fending seen bottom of pot then look at my second pics that's after 2 days drying.

Then after drying

bunkerking · Sep 11, 2019

Crazyyyyy difference.

We are about 1.5 days in currently. Will see what mine look like in a few hours.

Thats what mine looked like. Maybe 2 roots poking out.

Ph 007 · Sep 11, 2019

OK nice thigh so that night pH makes sence. I'm do t know a lot about organic but I'm.sure its bad for organic I might be wrong. Any way try one with out calmag for a week or u using filderd wetter? Google it calmag and organic i. Might be wrong but 100% cal mag give be a lot of problems yellowing and slow growth in was getting lock out some how

cemchris · Sep 11, 2019

Generally on fresh transplant from clones you don't want to be watering everyday. You want to give them time to stretch their legs to the bottom of the pot. Usually I will fresh transplant. Wait about 3 days water. Wait 2 day water. After that its everyday usually by that time. If you see some plants lagging behind the others skip a watering on those. Overwatering on fresh transplants will give you a lazy root zone since they dont need to "search" for water. That is a super important step that has a big impact on the plant and vegging. This is also assuming you are full drenching the medium vs regulated waterings like a certain ml vs pot size. This is also all dependent on pot size and lights and enviro.

bunkerking · Sep 11, 2019

Ph 007 said:
OK nice thigh so that night pH makes sence. I'm do t know a lot about organic but I'm.sure its bad for organic I might be wrong. Any way try one with out calmag for a week or u using filderd wetter? Google it calmag and organic i. Might be wrong but 100% cal mag give be a lot of problems yellowing and slow growth in was getting lock out some how

The line was designed for coco and soil. top feed.
Should be good. Their #8 is an all coco blend.

Ph 007 · Sep 11, 2019

Sorry u mean 1.5 weeksni. Veg I guess lol

Mine are here in the link 1.5 weeks Into flower when it stated

Any body know whays wrong with my plants

Hi everyone People probably have noticed iv been having a bad time with coco. Well im still having a bad time. :( I had 4 plants 1 and a half Weeks into flower they stated leaf cupping a few days ago.. I'm sure I over fed them, so I flushed with water and slight fees at 0.2/ec of canna coco...

www.thcfarmer.com

bunkerking · Sep 11, 2019

and wow thanks for the quick responses everyone. Will update when good things happen.

bunkerking · Sep 11, 2019

No new roots today.
Pots still are abit heavy, so im sure they still have access to water atm.

Maybe in the morning.

Cheers

Ph 007 · Sep 12, 2019

bunkerking said:
No new roots today.
Pots still are abit heavy, so im sure they still have access to water atm.

Maybe in the morning.

Cheers

Here are mine another 16-20 hours later.
The bottom of the fabric pot still feels very wet. Little heavy still like you said. Mine are still wet from the bottom up to about 2 inch high ,
The tops of the pots are drying more coco looking dryer only the first inch on top under that inch its still moist

And iv have loads more root growth in them 16-20 hours

Just for the record um using canna coco pro+

Keep post updates mate

BigCube · Sep 12, 2019

It doesn't matter what you're growing in.
Roots will not search for water if there is readily available water. No matter the medium if you want to "build" bigger root structures you'll need to let them search for the water. Meaning water every 2 or 3 days when the plant is small.

Just cause you can water every day, and not worry about over watering, doesn't mean you always should. It's just a nice perk of working with coco. Just like any other medium, if you keep the plant constantly wet, it's not going to grow as fast. At least in coco it wont die, it would have by now soil.

MidwestToker · Sep 12, 2019

Stop watering so often, Plants like more dry days then wet days. I only water my coir plant every other day at full flower, 3 gal pots with plants like this.

bunkerking · Sep 12, 2019

Yep, they look super happy today. 48 hours without watering. The sides were drying up pretty fast, middle was still wet. I did give them 200ml around the edges.
With the intention of still letting the center dry out more.

Will give them another 2-3 days.

Coco Newbie: Struggling with building roots

Coco Newbie: Struggling with building roots

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