Hello fellow coconutters, I'm well into flowering now and I noticed a weird deficiency going on. The lower fan leafs were rapidly turning a uniform yellow within 2 light cycles and dropping off and it started to work its way up the plant. This only started happening at the start of flower formation, something you would expect at the end, but not this early. This is not a nitrogen def as it appears, my guess is iron def from possible phosphorus toxicity or from too much epsom salt. I followed the intructions of the canna coco, running 2.5ml/L a+b @ 800ppm (including tap water) once a day with at least 20% runoff, yet obviously it was not enough to prevent salt buildup. I then flushed each 20L container with 20L of 60ppm tap water to bring the runoff below 200ppm. Which instantly haulted the yellowing of my leaves. Interestingly the runoff before i flushed was typically only around 600ppm, which seemed to not be an accurate judge of salt buildup since i suspect coco hangs on to alot of salt. Anyhow, any one have issues with Canna coco? Thankfully I ain't run into any calcium deficencys this time, but I'm sure it would of been heading that way. Canna states to allow for 20% runoff at least and I feel either this ain't enough or canna reccomends way to much nutes or flushing every 2-4weeks is a real must. i decided to run with 600ppm once a day now with as much runoff as I can be bothered with (pain in the ass emptying the pans!) and hope for the best. Can anyone relate? Also can epsom salt be become easily toxic, Asked said to use around one teaspoon per gallon, but on other forms people claim much much less than this. I used around 1/4 teaspoon per gallon since they were clones. Cheers and happy cocoing.
i cant relate on the salt buildup. i use drip clean from house and garden and i think it works wonders. might want to try that. i also run cocotek coco but have always heard good things about canna
I run nearly zero run off always with my coco. I only water to run off about once a month. Every other watering/feeding I have no run off at all. Works fine for me.
Adding florakleen has allowed me to minimize my run off as well. it's nice not havig to deal with all the waste.
are you checking your runoff EC or PPMs? i run the entire canna line with house and garden drip clean and i still have to watch out for salt buildup, what a pain in the ass. i think (for me at least) it's easier to give them RO water and drip clean every other feeding instead of tons of runoff like i used to do to keep my EC in check, just seemed so wasteful. i'm always having cal/mag issues so i'm now going to start including cal/mag with my just waterings. even though the drip clean makes salt buildup easier to deal with (like flushing), it DOES NOT prevent it. i now keep a close eye on my runoff EC levels and lightly flush (water) when needed. 1.5-1.8 EC seems to be the ticket for me, and that's diluting my nute mix 50/50 with RO water!
PPM of runoff was around 600ppm before flush, which I didn't think was too much. The leaves are still yellowing, so maybe the problem is opposite to what I thought, not enough nitrogen. But its hard to believe given that I feed everyday with 800ppm, but I am running alot of light in a small space. So who knows? I just hope the lose of lower leaves doesn't effect yeild.