5th Fail in Coco Coir

Why can I never remember this word much less spell it correctly?

Sorry to hear that, and understand the frustration. Start up a journal when you’re ready to get started in the soil and we’ll get you growing!

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Aww man that sucks, I feel your pain
I hope you get things going well in soil

Thank you Hellraiser. I will definitely take a look at your grow journal. I can use all the help I can get!

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No worries. Better to move on than remain frustrated. Not hating on Coco Coir. It’s just that I clearly do not have what it takes to grow in that medium. Not really a big deal. I just was stubborn. I should have moved to soil after my second or third fail. In my mind I was going to “conquer” the medium. Not possible. I don’t have the talent. Maybe I do have the ability to grow in soil. We’ll see shortly. I’ll post pics as well. My greatest concern is that now I need to learn how to grow in soil. I have no idea. Never grown a blade of grass let alone cannabis in soil. So now I gotta read up on how the medium works and how to water it correctly and pray I can get it right. Otherwise, my time as a grower will end. If you don’t have the talent move on. I hate people with no talent that keep trying to hang on. Kick rocks! Find something else to do. That includes me.

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I’ll leave you with this for now… Below is a link to my first grow journal. I’m NOT saying to necessarily follow it, but it will show that not all of us come out of the gate swinging… I made plenty of mistakes including starting in Miracle Grow (which some have success in but I’d personally not do again), some PH problems, plenty of questions, etc…

You’ll also see how this community jumped in to help me correct issues. I would not have had a successful grow without that journal and without this community helping…

Reading some of the grows from VERY experienced growers like @Hellraiser helped me a LOT, but as a new grower sometimes you need to see the warts as well and know its ok to feel lost…

BWAHAHAHA! In what universe???

Never met a real seer before. Can you give me a few lotto numbers? Just 5 out of 6 would do nicely.

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@Aiconic , Hello
I have read all your posts and topics you started. You and I are much alike. I too have a similar background. Growing was a difficult skill to learn for me because its not “Mechanical” in nature.
I am going to give you a life changing piece of advice here…
Quit trying to control the plant, and just let the plant control you.
Meditate on that a few days and you will come to understand what I mean.
And stop throwing away living plants.

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That’s what I’ve been thinking

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I can’t believe he tossed them either…those were PERFECTLY healthy seedlings in those pics…lol. You MIGHT be way overthinking things Aiconic. I have a tendency to do the same thing. I had MULTIPLE issues going on this first grow. FIRST, my light inside was inadequate (only 105W total and a lesser brand/quality light for SIX plants, lol). They got “leggy” first (MUCH spacing between nodes). Took them outside and had TOTALLY misunderstood what “real leaves” meant. I figured if they weren’t the cotyledons and were serrated then they were “real leaves” so when those tiny tots got the third set of them developing, i started giving 1/4 ratio of what the Nutes line bottles recommended and STILL ended up stunting them because those leaves have to develop at LEAST into 5point “real leaves” and they were tiny 3pt leaves, lol. At any rate, NOW, my girls are OUT OF CONTROL in growth once i dialed back and flushed out those nutes and only gave it once they were all at least 18" tall again and started alternating nutes this watering, water/cal-mag next watering, back and forth. They are MONSTERS now :wink: :slight_smile: Don’t give up so easily. Spiny Norman said it best, STOP trying to control the plants. Pay attention to them and to the leaf color charts here and you will learn EXACTLY what THEY"RE trying to tell you they need. It really is more simple than most allow it to be. It IS afterall a WEED and would grow with NO ONES help otherwise if left alone outdoors :wink: THAT fact alone helped me to CHILL and just back off and watch the plants and give what they need WHEN they need. You will see subtle signs BEFORE any discoloration if you’re paying attention to drooping, tacoing (which is actually usually too close to lights) , etc etc and adjust what is KNOWN to be the issue for that symptom and check results and you’ll find this really isn’t hard at all :slight_smile: Happy Growing, welcome to the forums.

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Wow. Are you sticking to top feeding by hand? I tried one plant in an autopot with coco. Just took delivery of another four and prepping 40 - 60L of coco to fill them with. And of course Jack’s 321

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Yeah for now but can see moving to an auto-watering system like the autopots in the near future.

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you might be over watering they dont need much the first few weeks i soak mine when i pop them in and im sure they dont see any more water for a week

Thank you to everyone in this thread. Your comments did not fall upon deaf ears. Here’s what I did to change my situation:

  1. I stuck with the Coco Coir. After so many fails I wanted to feel sorry for myself. Couldn’t bring myself to do it. Obviously I was not putting the knowledge together correctly. So I chucked every video and article I read. Came back to this thread and started taking notes. One thing I learned almost immediately is that you guys are consistent. There are base traits and methods that are not always described in a way I understood early on. You guys made it simple. I was too inundated with “learning” to see the obvious. I kept everything simple.

  2. Instead of Mothers Earth Coco Coir I chose 420 Dakine Blended Coco. It has nutrients in it and comes pre-washed twice. Price wise they’re about the same but the 420 Coco seems even higher in quality in comparison. I am growing Maui Wowie autos and the seedlings did not burn at all. I added CalMag to my of water. Other than that I see no reason to give them what is already in the Coco. At least for now.

  3. I started them under a seedling light. This may be why I saw stunting in my earlier attempts. It worked out great and the growth was rapid. The water is always PH’s to 6 with or without nutes. No stunting. Normal growth.

  4. Environment is 75% 65RH for now.

I’ve still got a bit of work to do and a lot of learning as well but I feel like I have my feet on the ground now. Thank you again for the help.



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They are looking good and happy. I’m glad you didn’t give up - lots of growers here swear by coco. I will probably be trying it out on my next grow when I can get some auto-watering pots (and maybe a remote on my phone to water them lol)

Just stay on top of keeping them fed and pay special attention for when the cotyledons start to turn yellow - they will likely start needing supplementation at that stage, even if your coco has nutrients in it. I can’t speak from experience other than to say a growing plant will devour everything it can when it wants and not when you want it to.

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I’m excited to watch this unfold now

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Nice choice in medium, loaded with all the beneficial bacteria needed to her build a solid root foundation :love_you_gesture:

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I decided to switch it up a bit. Make it a little easier on myself. I also used Great White too.

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Smart move, I switched from coco to soil back to coco. I could not get my own coc building skills down enough so I went an organic coco (Fox Farm coco loco) great with water only for up to week 4ish. That I get a better yield using coco :love_you_gesture:

You’ve received many comments and I’m reading you totally giving up… For what my comment is worth to you…

Summary: nutrients and co2!
I rehydrated my coco in cal-mag for 24hrs before starting.

I experienced the same issues and more:

  • Germination:
    Plants grew long stems (stretching) due to a long distance to the light.
    Solution:
    I placed the light closer on the lowest setting.

  • Seedling Week 1:
    Still growing long stems and slow growth!
    Solution:
    I set up a light schedule timer 18h on to 6h off.
    I used a 1mL syringe to feed water once a day.
    Kept at 65% rH / 22°C temp and introduced a blue light on 24hrs.
    I fed them on day 5 with nudes (see end of comment). What really helped, wriggling the stem side to side (careful not to break it) and LST (low stress training).

  • Seedling Week 2:
    Stems stopped stretching👍but still slow growth!
    Solution:
    On day 9, introduced home made co2 and monitored it (keeping minimum 1200ppm to max 1500ppm). THIS WAS THE SOLUTION.
    On day 10 fed nudes again. THIS HELPED ALOT.
    I added more 50% coco to 50% perlite to the pots, making a mountain right up to the first leaves.

  • It’s day 17. I’ve learnt high quality nudes, co2 and lighting is most important.
    I have equipment to help me.
    I recommend having AC Infinity Cloud t6 fan, otherwise, a smart hygro/thermo meter (connects via Wifi).
    Today, I’ve received a smart plant monitor so I have a feeding/watering schedule. I believe this will make them grow even faster.

My resources:

  • Autoflowering Blueberry
  • Canna Coco Professional
  • 2 gallon smart fabric pots
  • 3 part hydro nutrient system called GP3 by GreenPlanet
  • 3x3x6 tent
  • Delta Culture Full Spectrum light
  • Humidifier
  • 2x Vivosun fans
  • Plant Growers Red+Blue LED grow light (3 heads)
  • North Plant Monitor (get the smart Wifi)
  • AC Infinity Inline Fan
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