I'm new to the coco coir medium and I've been reading many different opinions about feeding seedlings. Some say do not give them anything for the first two weeks, others feed nutrients from the start. On my first coco seedling, I pre-soaked my coco in a very mild (less than 1/4 strength) nutrient solution and then fed it with the same mild solution a few days later. I am using the GH flora series trio of nutrients. It appears to have killed the seedling or at least stunted it. I posted about it in some others threads here: http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-beginners/1189666-help-sick-seedling.html http://forum.grasscity.com/coco-coi...curling-under-slow-growth-2.html#post17471414 Maybe it wasn't the nutes that stunted it but it sure seems that way. Basically, I was just wondering what everyone's take is on giving nutrients to seedlings in coco. Do they need anything like cal-mag? It seems like there is a lot of conflicting information about this. Thank you for any input.
I pre charged the coco like you did except i did 1/8th str calmag+. I then did water only until cotyledons are yellowed up. Then you can use nutes. The cotyledons have everything they need for a couple leaf sets.. But then its up to you! At least that is a method i read on here, tried it and it worked well.
I waited 8 days after my seedlings popped through the coco and were showing 1st leaves to give them the 1st feed, no pre charging. Im using the GH Flora series too and just gave them half of what the bottle says for seedlings (1/8th tsp each) and today is day 11 and they are all doing great and 2nd set of leaves are coming in. How often are you watering and what size pots? Ive only had to water twice (every 4 days) since I planted them after germinating in 3 gallon pots. Im using about 25% perlite too. Im thinking I might need to water them again tonight which if I do will just be ph'd distilled water.
I'm not an expert, and have no experience beyond what you can read in my journal. I don't think a seed needs (or wants) anything to eat until it runs out of its own food supply, and my limited experience with other plants has taught me that plants are far more likely to die from overfeeding rather than underfeeding. I have left a slew of houseplant corpses in my wake, but my pot is doing pretty well. If you have a chance, take a peak at the first couple pages in my journal in my signature. I dropped my seeds straight into coco without nutes or additives or germination tricks, and only started feeding very lightly after nearly two weeks above ground. I gave them an incredibly low dose of nutes or two before that time, purely from first-grow paranoia, but I don't think it helped anything. They're 52 days old now, two weeks into flower, and have still been fed absolutely nothing but Maxibloom and tap water, with distilled white vinegar to bring the pH into range. I wouldn't feed my plants any additives for a deficiency unless I had a reason to believe a deficiency existed. Admittedly, I'm keeping it excessively simple, but my plants haven't given me any indication they need anything more.
As soon as a seedling sprouts in coco and lose their helmet you need to start feeding @0.5ec. Raise the ec in increments of 0.1 as the plant shows growth. A safe ec to be at is 1.0 and then you need to determine at that point whether to raise or,lower the ec.... You can alternate feeding with cal/mag and your nutrients or, use 50/50.... Not feeding at this time may cause slow growth and stunted plants.... During the seedling stage you can let the medium dry out and get more oxygen between watering/feeding with little to no runoff. Older mature plants it is wise to maintain 30% runoff to avoid salt build up, unless you are in total control and have your nutrients dialed in....
Coir has different growing techniques than back in the day grows...Back then choices for indoor growing in soil were peat based mixes and their was enough nutes in the peat to give nourishment for the first 2-3 weeks before starting a feeding program...
The seeds got a little. But look at the size of the poor little things. Theyre just babes. Dont burn 'em from the outside. Coir got nothing. its just a sponge and a transport mechanism for the nutes. Use your eyes and ears and whatever other senses you might possess. And Be Careful