A couple days ago the larger of my little plants started to develop brown blotches around the tips of the bottom leaves. The blotches have gotten larger and spread to more leaves. i took a couple pictures earlier today before i trimmed the brown parts off. Obviously i am doing something wrong...but what? Are they burnt from the lighting, nutrient burn, lack of water, excess of water...? I am growing with two 6500K cfls about 2.5-4.5 inches away from the top leaves of my plants. i am growing in coconut husk fiber. trying to grow as organic as i can. I heard coconut husk is deficient in Mg, Ca, and N. i have not added any nutes, except a tiny amount of miracle gro to one of the plants like 3 weeks ago. any help would be awesome. i couldnt get a straight answer on any of the other boards.
They look hungry and coco has 0 nutes. In coco you need to start feeding as soon as they sprout. You don't want to feed MG(chem fert) if your growing organically or, it will kill the microbes that attach to the roots and feed the plant. The brown leaves are most likely a ph issue, but could be a cal/mag deiciency. In organics we usually don't worry about adjusting ph and instead amend the soil. When you blended your soil did you amend with anything..? What are you using for an organic fertilizer?
I don't think I'll be growing organically in this stuff for much longer. I have zero nutes on hand and i honestly don't know what specific kinds i need and where to buy them..? The soil is about a year or two old, i used it as a substrate for my lizard. maybe the lizard crap put some nitrogen in there. I didn't put anything into the soil when i made it either. would it be possible to grow in coconut coir with MG? i know there are tons of people who hate it but.. just a thought
That's a shame man. You got 2 strikes against you so far and hope you can pull this off without them dying or, the plants becoming runts. Next time decide how you want to grow and have all your supplies before you start... First off I'm a little doubtful about your coco, but you got this far so let's just chalk this up to a learning experience and give it a go and will give you some option for another alternative. Even with a good coco you need to hydrate the bricks, or loose medium with 2mm per gallon of cal/mag, that's about a 1/4 tsp and you don't want to over do it in seedling stage. You need to always ph adjust coco to 5.8 and if your using tap water must let it sit to evaporate the chlorine before watering. You can use distilled water,filtered or, RO without worrying about chlorine. Feed with a very dilute nutrient. If your using MG no more than 1/4 tsp per gallon. Is best to make sure you dissolve it in some warm water(micro) and shake the H out of it before adding to our feed water...Your going to be upping the nute intake in small increments as the plants grow new leaves and you don't want to over do the nute feeding. You want to concentrate on developing a good root system so the plants can uptake more nutes. If all you got is a couple cfl's and they get to much nutients without proper lighting they will get a salt build up and burn because they can't consume a full dose.... Lighting should be 100 watts (actuall) for the first plant an 50 watts for each after that An alternative is to get some peat based potting soil mix in some perlite and transplant. Anything that dose not have a time release fertilizer added!!...Very important.... In either coco, or peat you can add 1tbls of garden lime per cf of mix in place of cal and 1/4 tsp of epsom salt added to your water for the mag. The lime is a ph buffer and will help keep your soil neutral but, you still need to ph coco to 5.8 and peat medium to 6.5. Don't use the epsom salt unless you start seeing a deficiency. Always keep coco moist and never let dry out. With peat you can let dry out more. If you can do all that you migh have a chance.... Do some reading and that will help.....
I thought the coconut coir was like some super-good growing medium that i didn't need to add anything to! If i knew before hand i wouldnt have used it! I have been dechlorinating all the water i give to my plants. i used to have an RO/DI unit before someone broke it. Well after considering my choices, i've decided to transplant. I have "hyponex potting soil" on hand (Hyponex Potting Soil - Scotts Miracle-Gro) and i actually found an organic fertilizer in my garage too. So should i use like 70% potting soil 30% coconut coir or should i just ditch the coir completely? The only additives in this potting soil are hypnum peat, compost, sand, and perlite. Are there any special ways to reduce stress to my plants when transplanting?
It is a good medium. Just depends on where it came from. The coir you find in pet stores may need to be rinsed to belo 100ppm where as a good brand like cocogro is ready to go. To get yours going maybe just Canadian peat, never heard of hypnum peat. This will have some nutrient value for starting roots with just water for a couple weeks....When those roots start developing then transplant to your choice og medium and start a mild feed schedule. Be carefull their is not any time release fertilizer added in the scotts, MG etc....
I have the same soil and ran into drainage problems. Did you use the soil throughout the grow. If so how did the soil work for you? And if not then what did you switch to?