Coco Brotheran, may I please get some feedback...

[Guest]

Here is the situation...

• Switched up from profit disk coco and decided to do a whole run with the 5kg bales from Botanicare. Got them nice and clean and let them soak in canna coco (subculture, and other innocs also) with an EC of .5
  
  The plants were transplanted 7 days ago into 2 gallon poly bags... day 1 of flowering was yesterday...

Here lies the problem...

• Since day 3 of veg, I have been feeding them with an EC of 1.1, then 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and now 1.5
  
  They are watered with a nice watering wand, once a day, a nice stream comes out that ensures the bag gets watered evenly with about 10-20% runoff.
  
  Everything else is good except the fact that my run off came out at .77 after feeding them 1.5 : The runoff EC has been low as hell every time I feed them, however the pH is spot on 5.8 - 6.0...

WTF? With the profit disk, if I fed them with an EC of 1.5, the run off would never ever come out that low, it was usually right on par with what was put in...

Sorry for being a whiny bitch, but I just can't seem to find the answer... the only thing I can think of is feeding them more... but my plants are kind of telling me no at this point, if ya get what I am saying

If yall need some more info just let me know, I know I probably left something out Thanks ladies and gents!

 

[Guest]

Me thinks you're getting back what they're not eating. I'd worry if it came back really high. Sounds like they're happy. I'd keep doing what you're doing unless they look like they're stressing over something. Right now seems they're ok to me.

Peace

 

[SirSmokalot]

i wouldnt trip> are your plants lookin fine? they tell the storyi would think. i agree w/ mojo fo sho>

 

[Guest]

Any pictures Indica Sativa?

 

[Guest]

At the end of the week, I'll post some pics. They weren't too happy before the transplant... and I didn't let the coco dry out enough in between waterings when they first went into the two gallons... They are looking better though, so I am not too concerned right now. I was just wondering if anyone else has experience this with this feed issue, if it even is an issue...

 

[Guest]

Cool.

I haven't had that problem but it sounds like a good one to have. I keep wrestling with climbing ec levels. I'd love to be able to see lowered ec levels in the runoff.

Peace bro

 

[20kw dreams]

Do this for me: Water them with your regular fert, then let them sit for a a couple hours or so, then give them another 1/4 cup of the same fert solution, then take the runoff from that and see what it says. This is a better picture of what is going on in the rootzone.

 

[sophisto]

Do this for me: Water them with your regular fert, then let them sit for a a couple hours or so, then give them another 1/4 cup of the same fert solution, then take the runoff from that and see what it says. This is a better picture of what is going on in the rootzone.

Good advice....

 

[Peter Petrelli]

The run off from coco is notoriously deceptive, canna (although I note you are using botanicare) suggest that coco is able to retain and release elements. If this is accurate then this may explain your run off being like half the feed.

Steps for taking and analysing a coco sample are as follows:

1. Take a sample of the coco from slabs/ pots, collect coco from as many places in the pots as possible to get an represenatative sample. (Not just top layer of coco salts can be higher there than slighlty deeper due to top layer drying first.

2. Collect the sample in a bowl and make sure it contains satisfatory level of moisture (Squeeze coco in one hand if water run through your fingers... your good, you want it dripping not pouring- if not add demineralised water and mix into coco.

3. Take a 250ml measuring jug and fill with 150ml of demineralised water. Add coco uptil the 250ml mark, fully mix and let settle for at least 2 hours.

4. Mix again and measure pH

5. Filter the coco/ water mix and measure EC

This test should be done after 3 - 4 weeks. Target EC is between 1.1 and 1.3, pH 5.3 - 6.2.

Hope that helps some mate.

 

[Guest]

The run off from coco is notoriously deceptive, canna (although I note you are using botanicare) suggest that coco is able to retain and release elements. If this is accurate then this may explain your run off being like half the feed.

Steps for taking and analysing a coco sample are as follows:

1. Take a sample of the coco from slabs/ pots, collect coco from as many places in the pots as possible to get an represenatative sample. (Not just top layer of coco salts can be higher there than slighlty deeper due to top layer drying first.

2. Collect the sample in a bowl and make sure it contains satisfatory level of moisture (Squeeze coco in one hand if water run through your fingers... your good, you want it dripping not pouring- if not add demineralised water and mix into coco.

3. Take a 250ml measuring jug and fill with 150ml of demineralised water. Add coco uptil the 250ml mark, fully mix and let settle for at least 2 hours.

4. Mix again and measure pH

5. Filter the coco/ water mix and measure EC

This test should be done after 3 - 4 weeks. Target EC is between 1.1 and 1.3, pH 5.3 - 6.2.

Hope that helps some mate.

It's nice to be sure and better safe than sorry. Good post.

I've not had an accuracy issue when I measure the first runoff out of the pot. It's the water most closely indicating the ec of the pot in my experience. But then I also watch the ec of my reservoir as the return water comes back in. If it drops, my return is lower ec and I'm happy if the plants are happy. If it rises substantially, I'll add ro water to the res and re-water because I like to keep the nutrients right on the edge of what the plants can handle. Lower ec return and I've got some breathing room. Higher ec return and I need to react, if you catch what I'm saying. lol.

Peace

 

[Guest]

Like he said the coco companies will tell you themselves that readouts from coco are not reliable.. you have to read the plants. Pretty much don't pay any attention to the readings.. read the plants; you know whats up homie.

I use 5kg bales from Botanicare also bro I gotta buy another bale too heh.

 

[Guest]

Like he said the coco companies will tell you themselves that readouts from coco are not reliable.. you have to read the plants. Pretty much don't pay any attention to the readings.. read the plants; you know whats up homie.

I use 5kg bales from Botanicare also bro I gotta buy another bale too heh.

Too funny. I was working on my edit while you were working on yours. I always read the plants and my gages are just back-ups. Having said that, I very seldom have a conflict between the two and if I do, I go with the plants.

Peace

 

[Guest]

I appreciate the advice guys

Its about time I feed them again, I'll let yall know whats going on in a few...

 

[Neptune]

it's like this:

if you soak your coco with tap/ro water like I do, to flush it of factory salts then your coco will be saturated with low ppm water. when you feed with a cup of 500 ppm solution, it is mixing with 0 ppm water that is being held by the flush... net result is ~ half of the feed or 250ppm.

catch me?

So, if you have a gallon of 0 ppm water and you pour in a gallon of 1000 ppm water, the net result is 500 ppm. this is what is happening in your bags.. they are holding water from the flush.

so you can do a few things, raise your feed ppm to negate this effect, or else continue to water with your desired ppm feed but make sure you really DOUSE them good, and do it over 12 hours.


and remember, this dilution phenomina will always be the case... even mid bloom.
ex: say you have been feeding 500ppm and the runoff is 500ppm, perfect. and you want to bump it up to 750ppm for later bloom stages, you must water with 1000 ppm solution to mitigate the dilution effect.

word.

 

[Guest]

Just fed them...

• Tap/RO - EC 0.25
  
  Canna A+B + Floralicious Bloom - EC 1.57
  
  pH 5.8

Return Feed + Quick sample from bowl

• About EC 0.9
  
  pH 5.7

I'll keep the EC around here for another week... I am guessing this is the reason why one should soak this kind of coco in a nute mix around EC 1.0 to get things going...

Everything is looking good though... so it ain't really a problem anymore Thanks guys, i'll get some pics up around day seven just to keep yall updated

again thanks everyone for the comforting advice

 

[Guest]

Yeah, what Neptune said, lol.

I don't flush or soak with the coco I've used but it sure wouldn't hurt and it'd make your readings lower initially. Having soaked the coco in a 0.5 ec mixture though, you should be getting higher ec readings if it's a case of the coco being saturated in elevated ec levels. I still think your plants are just enjoying what your doing. If they look fine, let them be fine. Worry when you see them refusing to eat, hehe.

Glad to hear things are stabilizing a little more for you.

I'm interested in how things go, so please keep posting every once in a while, dude.

I've been smoking a little of the recipe so it the above doesn't make sense, I apologize. I'll clean it up later, lol. I certainly didn't intend to come off rude.

Peace

 

[Guest]

Makes perfect sense dude =) I swear I will do a weekly journal this time around, its about time to start giving back to the coco crew for all the help over the years!

 

[i_score]

has i dont test the PH nor the EC i cant give you exact inputs, but something similar(although you dont seem to be afected) happened to me wen i soaked my coco bricks, i did it with just tap water and i forgot to ad some nutrients so that the roots wouldnt starv, wen i tranplanted them they started to get yellow real fast, and i didnt wanna watter them right away as i like to let them dry a lill bit, so they are now recovering from this mistake of mine,lesson learned here...
peace

 

[Guest]

i_score... I basically did the same thing... except I didn't allow the coco to dry out... they were basically starving and over watered a couple days after the initial transplant. Although, I only allowed them to recover and veg for a week, they are now 5 days into flower and not to shabby looking I am happy for now

I could never be separated from my sm802... I sometimes wish I weren't so reliant on ec/ph meters... but you and other folks who can pull it off without a problem are kickass in my book