Coco holding too much water. Pots wont dry and roots turning brown

[Mikell]

We're gunna change the world.

Without water, we can grow food crops in the desert.

 

[Encrypt]

I always dry my coco out so that dust flies off when the fans are pointed anywhere in the vicinity of a pot it's in. I let it get so light that the pot practically lifts itself off the ground. I dry my coco out soo dang much that when I bring water over towards the dehydrated coir, it sucks it right out of the bottle from 2 feet away.

That's the secret- Dry. If you think you haven't watered your coco enough, then don't water it. Think desert, think arid wasteland. Think the Moon. Watering is passe and all new growers use it. Coco does best in 0 percent moisture.

The Dry/Dust Cycle, I call it.

Sorry, but I completely disagree with you..
NEVER let the coco dry out, even if you treat it like soil, you must feed when still have some moisture.

First, you throw away your nutritional ratio off.
Second, the water evaporation increases to levels that you can easily check your runoff and you will see what I'm talking about. For each 10% evaporation you increase salt concentration in the media by 10%.



"The secret" is quite the opposite actually, water more and more frequently. Coco does best in 60-70% "moisture".

 

[Mikell]

You really swallowed that hook, eh?

 

[Phases]

Yeah I think he may have missed the sarcasm there.

The dry/dust cycle - going to have to give that a try!

 

[Levitationofme]

Some people are sooo serious.

 

[Old Toker]

Nobody will go to wet/moist, it will always be wet/dry and some people will stunt their plants with dry.

Wellll....seeing as though I'm using the wet/moist method....I won't be one of the stunt growers.

 

[ganjalfthegreen]

wow that just happened huh...

 

[dribbled]

lol the dry/dust cycle.
Actually I use a styrofoam/silica pack medium and feed with dehydrated water tablets.
Plants love it.

Sorry, back to your thread.

 

[jidoka]

Calcined DE vs silica packs. If you have limited water...say a guerilla grow check it out.

 

[Dropped Cat]

Electrolytes, it's what plants crave

 

[phaedrus]

Solution grade.

Just weighed a gallon of wet and dry coco

702.8 g / 2,252.8

These numbers are irrelevent though because I cut it w 20% perlite and don't have any perlite here I don't think. I can probably just kill a runt and run weights on that tomorrow when im not so stoned

Edit: I weighed dried coco after measuring a half gal. Then I soaked it and strained off and let it drain until it stopped and weighed that.

Hi,

I came upon this forum through an internet search referring to my coco issue. I am trying to determine if my coco is holding too much water because there is something wrong with it or if the issue is something else, such as the temperature of the room.

I recently had to do the buffering procedure on my coco as seedlings were dying in the medium. It ended with a thorough rinse (read: causing the coco to be saturated with water). The coco/perlite is now in 12 3.5 gallon pots. No plants are in the pots, else I would heat the room! The temperature is 50 deg F (10 C). I just checked the pots and they are heavy. (By the way, seedlings with the same coco in plastic cups are doing great and the drainage is real good as well.)

I just emptied out one of the pots gradually and the lower third or so, I can squeeze water out of the coco. I was also able to squeeze water out of the bottom of the empty pot. I saw elsewhere that it is recommended to have the pots be seated above the drain trays. Mine sit right on the trays. (By the way, any advice for what to do to seat them higher?)

I just weighed the pot with coco. (This is why I quoted the above post - wondering if the weight means a serious issue.) It came out to be 2,027 grams/gallon.

What do any of you think? Is the coco no good? Might the fluid retention be mainly caused by variables other than the coco, such as room temperature, pots seated right on top of trays, and perhaps less perlite than optimum?

It's going to be a few weeks before seedlings are poised to be transplanted into the pots, but I need to make the right decision, which might be to dump the coco and replace it.

Oh, in other grows with the same brand coco, the pots dried much more. But the temperature was never nearly this cold as a grow was always ongoing.

 

[goingrey]

What do any of you think? Is the coco no good? Might the fluid retention be mainly caused by variables other than the coco, such as room temperature, pots seated right on top of trays, and perhaps less perlite than optimum?

Yes, the rate of evaporation depends on the temperature and lifting pots off trays will allow airflow and prevent the coco wicking up water from the tray. I'm sure your coco/perlite mix is just fine.

 

[phaedrus]

Yes, the rate of evaporation depends on the temperature and lifting pots off trays will allow airflow and prevent the coco wicking up water from the tray. I'm sure your coco/perlite mix is just fine.

Wow, that's great - thanks!

 

[LostTribe]

Hi,

I came upon this forum through an internet search referring to my coco issue. I am trying to determine if my coco is holding too much water because there is something wrong with it or if the issue is something else, such as the temperature of the room.

I recently had to do the buffering procedure on my coco as seedlings were dying in the medium. It ended with a thorough rinse (read: causing the coco to be saturated with water). The coco/perlite is now in 12 3.5 gallon pots. No plants are in the pots, else I would heat the room! The temperature is 50 deg F (10 C). I just checked the pots and they are heavy. (By the way, seedlings with the same coco in plastic cups are doing great and the drainage is real good as well.)

I just emptied out one of the pots gradually and the lower third or so, I can squeeze water out of the coco. I was also able to squeeze water out of the bottom of the empty pot. I saw elsewhere that it is recommended to have the pots be seated above the drain trays. Mine sit right on the trays. (By the way, any advice for what to do to seat them higher?)

I just weighed the pot with coco. (This is why I quoted the above post - wondering if the weight means a serious issue.) It came out to be 2,027 grams/gallon.

What do any of you think? Is the coco no good? Might the fluid retention be mainly caused by variables other than the coco, such as room temperature, pots seated right on top of trays, and perhaps less perlite than optimum?

It's going to be a few weeks before seedlings are poised to be transplanted into the pots, but I need to make the right decision, which might be to dump the coco and replace it.

Oh, in other grows with the same brand coco, the pots dried much more. But the temperature was never nearly this cold as a grow was always ongoing.

If the roots arent visible on top then you are probably overwatering it. Let them dry out a bit and don't water as much.

I have 2 runs in coco the last run I started to get the hang of it. Don't worry so much about keeping them wet. Wet dry cycle until they start using water more and then you can start feeding them daily or multifeed. Just get one runoff a week if you are worried. If the plants look healthy don't worry about it. Trust me.

 

[mexweed]

I cut the coco with hydroton and find it has a lot to do with the particular plant, I am running a chem #4 and 2 jillybean phenos, the chem and one of the jillybean start to get dry on the top layer and drink pretty heavy/fast, the other jillybean though stays saturated after watering much longer to the point sometimes white fuzzy mold starts to grow on the top and hydrogen peroxide becomes a regular thing, I am considering trashing the 'mom' I have of it because I really don't want to deal with it again in the larger finishing buckets

ultimately it's just a weak ass root system, the pheno roots fine but once the clones are in the solo cups it starts to show

 

[goingrey]

I cut the coco with hydroton and find it has a lot to do with the particular plant, I am running a chem #4 and 2 jillybean phenos, the chem and one of the jillybean start to get dry on the top layer and drink pretty heavy/fast, the other jillybean though stays saturated after watering much longer to the point sometimes white fuzzy mold starts to grow on the top and hydrogen peroxide becomes a regular thing, I am considering trashing the 'mom' I have of it because I really don't want to deal with it again in the larger finishing buckets

ultimately it's just a weak ass root system, the pheno roots fine but once the clones are in the solo cups it starts to show

On the upside she can probably go longer between waterings? Can be convenient sometimes.

 

[mexweed]

yeah but it sucks when trying to run the plants on a regimen with some supplements being added to the nutrients every other watering

 

[GR8]

So I've been using the same brand of coco peat mix and I have seen slight variations but the last batch clearly had a serious issue retaining water as well. Everything in environment was exactly the same but I could tell coco looked and felt different. I think way too much peat and that held water in. Bought new batch at store, transplanted all 35 and it was a matter of days the issue was forgotten. I realized the issue before any problems revealed themselves but we're sure to come!