Figured the 5kt brick of coco coir I bought from "general hydroponics" would have been fine to rehydrate with phed tap water with Epsom salts. Obviously my assumption was incorrect. Today I was looking at my plants and noticed one of my seedlings first true leafs starting to brown at the tips. They only spouted about 5 days ago. Mind you I have only been watering with phed water. I immediately sanitized my bathroom tube, put my pots in and ran my sprayer in each pot for about 10 mins a piece until it came clear. Then ran 2 gallons phed tap water through each pot. Then I used a very light nutes solution/eposom salts running a gallon of that in each pot. All phed to 6. This is more of a rant because I know my pH was correct and no way the plant should have problems like this from the beginning. So obviously Low Ec on package is misleading. Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk
ha,ha, coco is a trip. Just imagine it is a pot full of perlite or rock. Man you need cal mag every watering. Or lime mixed in ahead of time, or something. Your plants need calcium, there is no calcium in your medium. If you don't have it in your tap water add every watering, don't skip. I use 1/16 teaspoon NPK Raw Calmag and 1/16 teaspoon amino acid to every gallon of water that goes in my coco. And every 650g brick of new coco gets 1/3 cup of dolmite lime when hydrating.
I use my tap water, it has plenty of calcium. This is why I use Epsom salts. Generally speaking seedlings from seeds can grow on there own nutrients free for about 2 weeks. 5 days from seed browning of leafs, that's because the coco has a high ec. Probably high salt and crap. For future reference I will always flush coco before using it, instead of just rehydration. Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk
I hear ya. I've tried hydrating it with a triple dose of cal mag, And finally decided to let my worms have first crack at it. By the time they are done with it it is good to go all through veg, very little anything else needed.
Have you been growing in coco for a long time? I feed 1/4 strength nutes daily from when it sprouts because coco is inert. GH coco does not have high ec or high salt and crap in it - you failed to pre charge the coco properly in my opinion - and just rehydrating with pH'd water and Epsom salts isn't precharging. When you flushed with all that plain water you messed with the cation exchange capacity - coco should never be given plain water. A seedling can't grow very well in coco for 2 weeks without food and you basically washed everything out by flushing with plain water. It's not the fault of the coco. 2 week old plants that were fed everyday from sprout. Good luck with your grow.
Well for the last 2 days they have been looking good. Been feeding 1/4 nutes and Epsom to runoff each night. Yes this is my first run in coco so maybe a few small slipups, but looking good now. Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk