bluewind
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have you ever tried rinsing the coco with a soft nute bath just to give the medium a little boost then no water for a week to finish germinating?I start my seeds in coco at ph6.0 with no nutes for the first week then start off with really low levels of nutes and then build upa bit at a time.thats what i do although i dont use worm castings in coco.thats just coco perlite although im not 100% sure how much difference having worm castings in the mix would make to what ph should be.@G gnome im sure you have an answer to this.
Yes, it's a very good idea to rinse your fresh coco with a light, ph'd nute mix. Think of coco as a battery, keep it charged.
I personally start my seeds in peat pellets with no nutes, once roots show through bottom of pellets, I move into rockwool cubes which are pre soaked with light nutes and ph'd to 5.8, then when the cube is showing roots, into the coco/20% perlite mix which is also rinsed with light nute mix and 5.8 ph.
going to try that no nute method next thank you!
{before I noticed your reply I actually started a peat pellet test run last night, soaked it in a ph 6 nute bath to let it expand then placed into a coco packed solo cup,watered the coco with the nute bath I used for the peat pellet,barely placed the seed into the pellet, you can see the top of the seed,immediately placed into tent under light for 10+hr, just turned off lights for my other plants 18/6 cycle.}
the only issue I find myself having right now is the plant is taking awhile to grow prominent root structure, I uprooted 1 of my sprouts for notes and the root structure only grew about 4 inches down,two inches out, 3-4 root branches but nothing major, approx 2weeks worth of growth. Might try your method out with a tweak to it by adding a drop of root booster during the peat pellet phase.
edit: do you let your 1/4'' sprouted seeds stay in the pellet in darkness until it sprouts some more or straight into the tent?
The way I understand it, if you give them nutes too early, they have no need to grow quickly to search for them. Besides, if you're growing from seed, you should have a good week and a half plus of nutes stored in the cotyledons. I have my peat pellet in a cloning tray with water in the grooves in the tray, on a thin towel, on the boiler. Doesn't get massively hot so keeps nice and warm. Under a CFL when it sprouts through.
When I rehydrated my coco brick, I first mix up a bucket of RO water with 200 ppm of calmag, ph to 5.7. After the brick has sat a few hours (or over night), I strain off the liquid with a screen. I then “wash” the coco 3 more times in fresh solution. This is to remove left over salts from the manufacturer. This stuff grows by the ocean, it’s salty there. If I remember right it went something likeare we supposed to pre-soak the coco with whatever nutes we;re running? it says to feed with nutrients every watering pretty much just wondering if we have to prep it before planting that seed. Would anyone be able to tell me their ritual to starting with coco.
BTW this is a botanicare coco mix with perlite/worm castings already, its not brick form.
edit for clarity: by presoak i mean, lightly flood it and let it drain out and heat dry for an hour or so, then plant the seed and no water/food for 1-5 days.
I don't check for ppm...can;t afford 1When I rehydrated my coco brick, I first mix up a bucket of RO water with 200 ppm of calmag, ph to 5.7. After the brick has sat a few hours (or over night), I strain off the liquid with a screen. I then “wash” the coco 3 more times in fresh solution. This is to remove left over salts from the manufacturer. This stuff grows by the ocean, it’s salty there. If I remember right it went something like
1st soak = 1800ppm
1st wash = 1200ppm
2nd wash = 600ppm
3rd wash = 200ppm. (Perfect)
This is preferable to buying coco with “stuff” in it like EWC, bat guano, blood meal, etc. When using that type of medium, it’s harder to control when the plant gets the nutes. I have found (after buying the coco with stuff in it by mistake) it’s best to treat that stuff like soil. Water every couple of days. But you may run into issues. IMO, there is a coco technique and a soil technique and aspects of the two should not be mixed. It just leads to confusion and disappointment. I’m sure there is a use for this type of product, but not for new growers.
Yeah you got it, go low with the feeding until you know what she likes. And remember to account for the EWC for the frist month or so. ppm testing the bag stuff is pointless as we already know it has nutes in it. That’s just for the brick coco you rehydrate.I don't check for ppm...can;t afford 1
haven't really looked into testing for it/ damage control yet, I know what it means and that it can help prevent overloading your plant but so far the plants look healthy so I'm feeling good about this, as long as I keep feedings small, 1/4 - 1/2 strength I should be ok
I like the bricks much better, no bugs or pathogens. Plantonix makes a really good one with very low salt, ppm's right out of the gate.Hey guys would you add cal mag to this .i have some general hydroponics cal mag and for my first grow im using canna vega a+b canna flores a+b dtw.or should i just use the vega at 150ppm to start before putting seedlings into it..
Cheers max
Edit: actually im hand watering but nutes is used for dtw pretty much the same thing really..
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