Houston... We have a problem!

Basically... I started these blue cheese seedlings on the 7th of june, they germed by the 10th and were growing away happily.... tap roots had emerged from the small rockwool cutting blocks they were in and most were transplanted into 3" rockwool afew days after germing. A couple straight into small cups filled with coco... BUT, they were still happy...

On the 18th of june or summin like that some were put into 1L pots filled with coco & hydroton... (the hydroton was rinsed well) and teh one's in plastic cups left in those.

I run out of coco A&B so I feed them with advanced nutrinets of holland Micro, grow & bloom nutes- which are similar nutes to general hydroponics grow, micro & bloom.

Since they were transplanted most have shown roots poking out of the drain holes on the cups or 1L pots, but they have all slowed in growth and started to lose colour over the last 4 days or so.... They had 1 feed of 100ml each for the pots and 50ml for the cups last week monday, but were not dry enough to feed until yesterday! They are all under a 110w 'lightwing' floro...

As they were feed with 1/3 strength I thought maybe this was too weak and this is why they yellowed. So I feed with 1/2 strength nutes yesterday and they all look worse today! one have any burn or anything, they are just getting lighter in colour by the day.

On the advanced nutrients of holland feed it says it can be used with coco, but I understand coco requires it's own 'coco specfic nute' and the coco specific nutes are usually higher in Nitrogen....

The other thing is because the pots & cups watered yesterday I don't wanna risk overwatering by feeding them 'coco specific' nutes today, even though Canna say that u can't overwater coco... so should I leave them to see if they improve or try foliar feeding them?

I got this stuff from one of the trade shows for free... called Cellmax leaf spray.

Here's a dodgy pic of what they say it's for....



And a few pics of the seedlings.....







The roots are fine so I assume there no problems down below.



Here's a nice looking skywalker seedling pre transplant and one of the yellow looking Blue Cheese seedlings for color comparisson.

are those styrofoam cups?

I would definately move those into real pots.

If I were you I would submerge these in water to remove them and replant in
hydroton or dyna grow or a mix of the 2.

once youve done that I would feed with straight water for about 5 days and then feed with just under full strength

They could have a nute lock or be undernourished, its hard to tell, but to be safe I would do the above.

Wow

Wow

1st thing that bothers me is the roots comming out of those cups.
your going to rip em to shreads trying to transplant those... if you do.

Coco drains fast one of it's major benefits, more air to the roots.
Looks like you hand water?
Flush em and wait a few days, then try a bottom feed.

I'm thinking you use Coco Slabs?

Did you do anything different to these than your Skywalker?
Don't panic.
And whats your PH?

Sin

No they are normal plastic cups.... but the problem is not limited to those in the cups. In saying that I'm picking up some more Coco & coco nutes tommorow and they'll be transplanted then.

I am inclined to believe it's a nute issue but I don't see how they could have become locked out? There is not an overfert issue they need food so if I flush they will become even more undernurished.

I'm leaning toward possibly trying out this leaf spray stuff

Spraying wont hurt

Spraying wont hurt

Give that a shot.
But honestly if in doubt Flush.
At least flush the 1st nutes out before you switch to the coco nutes.
Coco is a very nice medium.. but has it's own set of problems.

Sin

Hi sin.... I did'nt see your post cause I did'nt refresh the page before repyin to brmse..... anyways,

Sinfuldreams said:

1st thing that bothers me is the roots comming out of those cups.
your going to rip em to shreads trying to transplant those... if you do.

Click to expand...

Man I really am gonna try not too! But as you can see it's gonna take some karate kid 'catching fly with chopstick' techinique, tact & patience to cut them out without any damage!

Coco drains fast one of it's major benefits, more air to the roots.
Looks like you hand water?

Click to expand...

Ya, I'm hand watering.

Flush em and wait a few days, then try a bottom feed.

Click to expand...

I was gonna flush them with a low strength Canna coco A&B feed? this way I get rid of the old nutes and they're replaced with the A&B, from what I know T'is the way coco works... unless your trying to lower your run off EC. The only reason I don't wanna flush with water and wait a few days is because as ya know coco is inert and they already look like they need food so I don't wanna starve em further...

I'm thinking you use Coco Slabs?

Click to expand...

What makes you say that?


My pH is 6.0, and the skywalker got the same treatment bar it has'nt had any of the Advance nutes of holland... I am thinking this is the likely culprit

I'll thinking to try flush them with low strength coco nutes as described above.... what d'ya think?

Cheers!

Should be ok

Should be ok

I was thinking you put the Cups on a Slab of Coco.. the way the pics looked.
I think you said you started these in Rockwool.
So I'm thinkin you put the RW in the cups and the cups on the Coco Slab.

There are a few types of Coco.. Slab Being Long Fiber and shredded Coco where it looks more like Compost than Coco.
The Long Fiber Coco Drains very fast and the Chopped and shredded holds water for EVER.

Depending on How your using the Coco and the type your using will make a difference. If it's draining fast and drys out quick do as you said, low Coco Nutes to flush.
If it's the Dirt like Coco you might even want to switch out the old Coco before you add the new Coco Nutes.

PH is in range, so I'm thinking your going to OK with your plan.

Good luck let us know how they react.
Sin

Ok so I flushed them with 1/4 strength Canna coco a&b yesterday, they look much better today and some even look like they're greening up a bit, they have definetly grown a bit so I am sure the flush done them good.

Would it be wise to still use the cellmax to give them some Nitrogen, from what it says on the back it would be suitable for this situation.... here's a quick snippet cause the pic of the directions is crap

Cellmax leaf spray takes care of better development of the leaves and fruits, will be used with young plants during the growth period, with the nutrient problems, stress problems and a bad root system. Will increase the resistance and protects against disease...

Leaf spray contains organic Nitrogen, plant extracts, more than 85 trace elements, Amino Acids, Phito hormones and vitamins

Anybody know what Phito hormones are?

Cheers!

hey mampi

sorry to hear you've been having problems. i've had similar difficulties using normal hydro nutes on coco plants. i suspect that now you're back on canna coco a + b you'll be okay. also pH probs can do this as you know. keep your coco at pH 5.8 and hopefully all will be resolved. i've found i can give them slightly stronger than usual nutes on coco so don't be shy of overfeeding. you know what you're doing, but just for anyone else, do this geennnnnttttlllly.

i'd continue to foliar feed if it's getting them green. also a little superthrive may help with the yellowing.

re phito-hormones, i suggest this is a common misspelling of phyto-hormones. phyto- means plant-related. they're just 'plant hormones' (perhaps oestrogen) wrapped up in fancy language.

from some online dictionary:

phyto- A combining form from Gr. fyto`n a plant; as, phytochemistry, phytography

Hey hern cheers for the advice bro

They have all had a growth spurt since returning to coco a&b and some have regained some color to which is a major relif..... That leaf coat stuff may have worked sure aint hurt none! Or maybe it just took em a day to get back to business after the proper coco nute feed but all is back on track from what I can see so far.

Cheers for the heads up on teh phyto hormones.... should of known it wasn't spelt correctly, as whoever did the translation made a shite job of it! teehee...

Good to hear your on track.
Sin