First Time Coco Coir Grow! yellowing leaves??? possible nute burn or deficiency?!

Plants which are that size do not have deficiencies. Your plant needs little to no nutrition at this stage. I would put my money on too "hot" of a pre-charge in that organic coco mix even with your rinse because of what you added back in.

She should pull through. It'll be a little tough on her, might slow her down a touch and add a few days onto your veg time to catch back up, but she should pull through. Just don't over love her. I'd use plain water for the next feeding or two (perhaps pH balanced with some Fulvic Acid) and ensure I was getting a good deal of runoff. In excess of 30% to remove any residual salts from the mix and/or the pre-charge. Once the plant has 2-3 node sets present is when I begin to worry about building up the Cation Bank in the coco.

 

I've grown in coco a few times now and I've found ph of 5.8 or under causes defs but if I move it up to 5.9-6.0 they seem fine, don't know if this will make any difference to yours being so young?

 

The problem is that you're in an organic coco mix, not just coco, so you don't really know what is in there to begin with.

Little plants don't really need much food. 90% of that plant is Carbon and Water, which it breathes and drinks. The rest of it was already present in the seed. The total amount of mass of that tiny little thing is just so small that 3ml/gallon of Cal-Mag might not seem like a lot to you but to your little seedling it sure as hell is a lot. I feed my full grown girls 3ml/gallon after all. If you were to pluck that seedling out of the coco and put it on a scale you might have 0.5g there. Maybe. And most of that is just water. 3ml/gallon of Cal-Mag plus is going to be like 10x the mass of the plant, think of it like that. It'd be like a giant giving you a ton of food and expecting you not to get sick to your stomach trying to consume it all.

The Liquid Karma kicks up a very high EC in your solution, so you don't need much of that either.

And you're not going to flush the media. Every time you water you should be watering to runoff anyway... Right? So, all you're doing is getting a little extra runoff and making sure that whatever was in your organic mix to start with won't be an issue.

Odds are that the more you do, like add a little extra of some nutrient you think it needs, or water it too frequently, or spray it with something... All of that stuff is going to get you in trouble. Seedlings are REALLY easy in coco. Water to runoff, nothing special, then keep the light on it and come back in 3-5 days and water it again. The next time you come back around it's ready for food and then the plant is off to the races.

Do not push her too fast too soon or you're just going to slow her down and kill her. Let the roots fill out and the leaves grow in and the stems thicken up and then she'll ask you for what she needs. Until then... Light and water and time is all that little thing needs.

 

i started seeds in coco 1 time. needless to say i never did it again. theres just to fine of a line between too much nutrients and not enough when the seedlings are that young and fragile, even if you didnt think you put much in it. i always start mine in botanicare ready-gro moisture or aeration mix. its charged enough to get you through the first couple weeks of seedling growth without you having to do anything but water at 5.8-6.0 until yellowing start to occur. thats them telling you that they are ready for something to eat

 

also.... next time you should start your seedling in a smaller container. its hard for that little plant to establish a strong root structure in a 3.5gal pot.

 

^............................How would it differentiate?

 

Just wanted to chime in here because people might get the wrong impression from this post. I start my seeds in straight coco all the time. It's easy and convenient for me to just use what I already have rather than buying something specifically for seed starting. I wouldn't want people to be discouraged from using coco in that way just because of your one bad experience. I have yet to have any problems with seedlings in coco.

 

that stuff is for lizards and frogs and is not rinsed at all and prob has the highest salt content u could get. rinse rinse and rinse again

 

the reason you should start in a smaller pot is when u water in a big pot the plant uses the water close to it and the water around the outside of the rootzone just sits there and can cause rootrot. by letting the root system fill out a small pot u build a stronger root system . in a big pot the roots don't fill the pot out cause ur roots don't need to search for water, and when the plant gets bigger you get problems cause the root system isn't strong enough. ur already in the big pot so the best thing you could do besides root stim is water the outside of the pot and only a little at a time to force those roots to spread out and search for water

 

I agree with some others in that you might have a hot mix for those little seedlings. I don't run any nutes until I see the plant going pale. Usually its 2nd set of fan leaves. Then I hit it with half the recommended dose for seedlings. Increase from there. Once you get a feel for the strain, it gets way easier. Practice makes perfect. Some things can't be taught, but learned over time.

I had the hardest time learning the proper coco moisture level with young seedlings. Be sure to let it dry out a fair bit. I do the lift test. Keep the same size cup/pot around with dry coco in it. When you lift the plants to check the weight, compare it to your dry coco pot. Wait until its close to dry, then water. You want the roots to stretch out. Keeping it constantly wet results in slow root development. The ones I let dry out more grew quicker than the ones I kept wet all the time.

 

seconded, my seedlings grow in coco just fine without food until they have 3 or 4 leaf sets... with the exception of a drop of superthrive per gallon

 

i did the exact same thing for my first grow.

 

so in another thread, there were people arguing about how to plant the seeds (root tip up or down) based off of media being used... in coco which way should we be doing it?