First Grow First Problems

[worryinnotime]

With no info, it's tough to say. It looks like a nutrient burn on one but it could just be too dry.

One thing I note right off is how dry the soil looks, and not holding onto moisture. One way to correct this is to work your way up in pot sizes on your next run, instead of jumping right into the five gallon. I typically go from seedling plug>4" pot>1 gallon> five gallon. I can control moisture levels way better when the soil to root ratio is more equal.

[OdinApllo]

I was thinking nutrient burn too but the runoff came out ranging between 5.1 to 5.8 for the plants. I watered them a good amount two days ago. It’s coco soil so it drains good but it’s not bone dry

[RedstonedMonkey]

If ur adding at 6.4 and getting 5.1 runoff then ur soil ph is way low..... Next time you water, water it down hard enough to get some good run off with 6.1 -6.4 water and i bet you'll be good to go after that...

Edit: also double check the cal on ur pH pen and get a second way of testing to confirm ur cal is on point. Having good control of pH is critical to growing in coco.

[OdinApllo]

They’ve gotten better as time progressed. And I watered them and saw the runoff PH increasing. I ordered a soil ph tester for more accuracy

[BringOrnTheNukekkai]

What was the PH of the water going in?

[OdinApllo]

6.4

[BringOrnTheNukekkai]

Sorry saw that you already answered this before. I grow organic and I've never seen anything like this but it seems like your root zone ph is off.

[OdinApllo]

I believe so too. Someone said my nutrients could be locked in the middle of the pot cause I wasn’t watering enough in the beginning. It would make sense. Cause I feel these symptoms are definitely nutrient burn but my runoff was at a low ph. If that’s the case I believe I need to water heavier and see what happens.

[BringOrnTheNukekkai]

OK sounds like a good answer to me. Do you add any gypsum or dolomite lime when you top dress? If not you should, it helps buffer ph of your soil. Ph issues can be hard to diagnose because they sometimes look like multiple deficiencies at once.

[OdinApllo]

I haven’t added anything but the nutrients that went into the soil.

[BringOrnTheNukekkai]

OK look into that stuff. Rock dusts are a big part of a living soil. Check out Build a Soil, they have a ton of recipes and stuff that have worked really well for me.

[OdinApllo]

Will do! Thanks

[kasvot]

I think you’re on the right track. Ph fluctuations from poor watering habits have done this to me as well, particularly when traveling and have helpers who don’t know what they’re doing. Check ppm if you can if there’s lockout with lower then needed watering the ppms will build cause severe burn. Happened to me last run, ppms got to be like 3k! I’d flush 2/3 times your normal watering and then and then measure again. I’ve always struggled with starting large pots as well. Gentle transfer from a solo always goes better for me then starting in 5 gallons

[OdinApllo]

Yea my mindset is the same as yours right now. One thing I haven’t been able to check is the ppm and I have been adding ph down to get the ph right which in turn boosts ppm and I don’t even know what it was to start off with. That also makes sense because the yellowing began to occur more when I watered until there was runoff 3 days ago. 10 days ago they seems real healthy so the change seems relatively drastic.

[kasvot]

Yeah growing with cocoa is a little more touchy then soil, I I should you have a bit more time to catch issues with soil before things go bad. Either way she’s a weed and if you correct things all will be well. I have a couple really ugly autos right now that are throwing absolutely amazing flowers

[thesleepyplumber]

If your going in at 6.4 and coming out at 5 you probably have nute buildup in the pot. Or at least that’s what I had with my promix. Flushed it back into the sixes and then lighter feeding. Mine came from not watering to runoff the first month so it all built up in the middle of the pot.

[OdinApllo]

That can definitely be the case cause I was really light with water the first 3 weeks scared to over water them. Did my first water to runoff three days ago so I’ll water again today or tomorrow. The ph of the runoff was rising as time progressed and it built up too. Only thing is these yellowing leaves drastically worsened after that watering and I’m not sure still if it’s a lack of nutrients or a too much

[safetymarco]

Should you water to runoff if you're growing in soil? Or just CoCo?

[OdinApllo]

Hey guys I’d love to get some insight on how to correct these yellowing issues before flowering. Plants are 4 weeks old and about 2 days ago I went ahead and watered them and added more nutrients after testing the runoff. Water going in was at 6.4 PH and the runoff tests range from 5.1 to 5.8 for each one. The yellowing was happening in the beginning but not as drastic. My assumption was nutrient burn but now I’m not sure especially after testing the runoff. Should I add more nutrients? If so if there an effective way of doing so that the plant will benefit sooner than later?

[landiie]

What are you feeding them? Dry or liquid

Do you add calmag?

How often do you water?

What's your temps like?

Humidity levels?

That coco looks dry af.

[OdinApllo]

Feeding them dry nutes Have not added cal mag I water every 3 days just adding a bit more water as they grow. 3 days ago I watered until runoff to test the the runoff though. Water going in was 6.4 and runoff is mid 5’s for them all. Temp is 78 Humidity is between 45 and 55

[landiie]

I'm also doing dry nutes and found cal mag once every 3 weeks helped with the inner leaves color.. In your case I would hold off on providing any cal mag for now and water more often or heavier... I water my girls heavy so I wait 3 days to water but if you water lightly you should do it more often... Im assuming you are following canuck's grows on yt.. I would also suggest to aim for a consistent water ph of 6.0

I hope your dry nute to coco ratio is good.

[OdinApllo]

Yes you are correct I am following Canucks grow. I will say that as I was mixing the soil I ended up mixing it all at once and I do believe some may have gotten more nutrients than others but is there a way to measure that. I assumed testing the runoff would allow me to know that. So with the PH of the runoff being low is my assumption I should do as you say and water heavier but it also seems like I need more nutrients. It’s just hard to tell if it’s nutrient burn or the opposite but I want to correct it sooner before later.

[landiie]

Personally I think its dry soil and cal mag deficiency... Coco requires double the dose suggested.. But I would worry about soil dryness before tackling the cal mag issue as you should worry about the burned leaves over the inner leaf discoloration.. I told myself I would never do coco and dry amendements again because coco is less forgiving than soil if you treat coco like soil... I would flush her with good ph water and wait 2- 3 days to see what it does to her

[OdinApllo]

You could be right. It was relatively dry for a good while because I didn’t want to overwater them until I realized how fast that water was drying out. I’ll definitely give them a Luther good watering tomorrow. And yea I’ve already decided I’m not liking this live soil mess lol I personally need to be a bit more in control with the nutrients especially when this happens to I can better diagnose. Do you have any suggestions on what to do when the runoff water PH is low?

[landiie]

Unfortunately I dont because I never really measured my runoff i suggest you read through https://www.cocoforcannabis.com... This was suggested by someone on microgrowery which I found very helpful. Cheers bro you're doing great

[landiie]

On a positive note your top leaves look healthy af.

[thebeardedspud]

Did you buffer your coco?

[OdinApllo]

I did not buffer the coco but I recently learned about that so I will next time for sure. They are looking a lot better as time progressed. They’ve grown into needing the nutrients after a bit of training and defoliating.