New Grower Autopot / Coco Indoor Grow - Dutch Passion Think Different and Seedsman Amnesia Haze

[jokgga]

@MANNIK hoping you could help.... at this point, do you think I should be watering more frequently (to run off?) or should i wait to let this grow with limited watering/spraying before turning on the aquavalve? I feel this is similar to your current run where it needs a nice soak but dont want to risk overwatering. I would drain and put back into the tray.,

 

[jokgga]

Day 24 - Looking at them today (trying to check once a day), looks like the AH is growing fast but has some clawing and cal mag issue.

Increased my nutes to the regular veg schedule for MC (1.6 grams per Liter) and topped around 500ML to each pot, lifting the pot against the tray for proper drainage. My plan is to check mid-day to see if things look a little better and will do another 500ML to drain today.

I am also going to set up my autopot by the end of this week. I decided to see all three through the entire process to learn. Even if I only get 1 oz, this will be worth the learning experience before starting new.

Nutrients - Per 3 Liter
Megacrop 1.6G
Great White 0.5G
Hydroguard 0.7ML

Lights at 30inches - May move this down to 20inches

Some pictures
Dutch Passion - Think Different 1

Dutch Passion - Think Different 2

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Seedsman - Amnesia Haze

Any feedback greatly appreciated.

Happy Growing Folks!

 

[elcoloan]

I've been watching your thread and I'd like to comment on some things. Not an expert here, but these past runs with coco and with autopot, and with LED lights similar to yours, have shown me...

1. A pH around 6.0 in fertigation seems to be better... lowest i've used is 5.8... lower than that gives me problems... between to 6.0 max 6.4 seems better. And very important and useful... try to do a slurry test to get a better idea of the pH of you media adn adjust the pH of your watering in relation to this. A slurry test can be done with 1 part distilled water to 1 part coco (taken from as close to root zone as possible), mix and wait 7 minutes and stick your probe in that mix (carefully).
2. If using MegaCrop, begin with just that, then add things to it if absolutely necessary...but even before that make sure any deficiencies aren't because of pH or environmental factors, or salt buildup. In that sense I'd stop using Great White... and use only Hydroguard 1 time per week at most (and only once you are really saturating the media or bottom feeding)... and make sure everything else is in check. And i'd keep some Epsom salts at hand which seems to be the only thing MC really needs (added Mg).
3. These LEDs will make your plants want/use more nutes, so if a plant is showing deficiencies, i think it's a bad idea to get the light closer before fixing the issueas at hand. As a reference... I always use my 120W light dimmed to 60W and just now it is at 22 inches from the plant... before that I kept it 28 inches or further. So if i were you, i'd move back to 30 inches and wait for the plant to get her green color in check.... also as Blue mentioned, better to use 18/6 or 20/4 for now.
4. Also, an EC/TDS meter is a great tool in this kind of method of growing... even a cheapo one to get a better idea of the input of your fertigation and you could also check runoff to make sure there isn't a salt buildup issue. I think at this point, with how the plants are looking, you shouldn't be giving more than 1.0 EC in total before making sure pH of media is ok and that there isn't a build up... BTW what's the EC of your tap water? If you were using MC at 1/4 strenght but total EC went up to more than 0.8EC, you might have very hard water and some adjustments would have to be done. I'd be giving them max 0.7 of MC plus the EC of tap (in my case would total about 0.8-09 EC)... and also checking runoff to se if it comes out higher than my input and adjust accordingly but not going ever over 0.9 EC of MC o more than 1.0 EC in total.
5. I wouldn't activate the aquavales anytime soon... wait until the leaves have reached and passed the edges of the pot, and make sure the plant looks healthy.


Hope it helps.

 

[jokgga]

Thank you @elcoloan your advice is greatly appreciated

Going to do a slurry test today and agreed that just MC /Salt may be best, going forward. There seems to be plenty of mycelium around the roots so I take that as a sign that the Great White is working.

1.) Is the best indication of light height based on the leaf color? My leaves are light green so I am defnitiely trying to get the green color in check. Changed my lighting to 20/4.

2.) My tap water EC is 0.2 and PH 7.2. It is fairly clean tap water. When I use MC at 1/4 strength, i do get to 0.9/1.0 EC total. When I did do my MC at the recommended dosage for veg, my EC went to around 1.3 EC.

Anything you are seeing specifically that I should pay attention to? My plants almost immediately perked up after I put some water in but I think there may also be some salt build up on the coco. Going to do another 500ML to each pot with just MC at slightly less than recommended dosage for early veg (aprox 1.6 grams per 3 liters)..this will get my EC up to 1.0 and will spray / add Epson salt.

Thanks again all for the feedback..

 

[elcoloan]

Thank you @elcoloan your advice is greatly appreciated

Going to do a slurry test today and agreed that just MC /Salt may be best, going forward. There seems to be plenty of mycelium around the roots so I take that as a sign that the Great White is working.

1.) Is the best indication of light height based on the leaf color? My leaves are light green so I am defnitiely trying to get the green color in check. Changed my lighting to 20/4.

2.) My tap water EC is 0.2 and PH 7.2. It is fairly clean tap water. When I use MC at 1/4 strength, i do get to 0.9/1.0 EC total. When I did do my MC at the recommended dosage for veg, my EC went to around 1.3 EC.

Anything you are seeing specifically that I should pay attention to? My plants almost immediately perked up after I put some water in but I think there may also be some salt build up on the coco. Going to do another 500ML to each pot with just MC at slightly less than recommended dosage for early veg (aprox 1.6 grams per 3 liters)..this will get my EC up to 1.0 and will spray / add Epson salt.

Thanks again all for the feedback..

1. From what i've gathered, leaf color is more an indicator of nutrient problems/root problems rahter than of light. If your light had been too far or too weak, I think the plant would be stretching rather than getting lighter colors first. I think the light color you have is more due to a nutrient problem... but this could be due to salt build up, pH out of range, among other things... like maybe too much light making the plant use up nutients faster and not being able to catch up. That's why i'd recomend backing off the light to at least 30 inches, and making sure everything else is in check, specially pH and EC in soil.

2. If your water is 100 ppms / 0.2 EC, and your are adding MC at 1.6 g/3L (277 ppm / 0.5-0.6EC)... your total EC shouldn't be over 0.8... so something might be wrong there. I would be using the "Veg 1 - Seedling/Small Plants" which seems to be what you are using... but again... something is increasing your final EC a bit more than it should. I would maybe stop the foliar Epsom and only use it after you confirm you really have a Mg def... and i would use it in the fertigation water instead of in foliar... adding max 30-40 ppms of it.

I think your coco looks too dry. I'd prepare nutes a the "Veg 1 - Seedling/Small Plants" dosage and pH depending on you slurry tests... but 6.0-6.3 is what i'd do if i couldn't do a slurry. I'd water the coco once with these nutes making sure it all teh surface gets moist and water until i get some runoff and take measurements of that runoff. Don't do this in the tray... do it in another containter where the runoff separates from the bottom of the pot. Measure the first runoff that comes out, then wait 5 minutes and measure the next runoff that comes out, and then after it has stopped runninofff measure what is left.... all this just to get an idea of what the EC in your soil is. Again, as reference, my runoff EC this run has never been over 100 ppms the EC I input. Some sources say you should aim for a runoff in coco a little higher than the input... but when i've done that i've faced problems so i try to have runoff EC very close or under input EC . Also, weigh the pot after this watering to get an idea of how it feels when properly moist.
Then i'd wait at least 3-5 days for next fertigation and, again, do it with enough to get some runoff to check its EC... and water slowly, covering all the surface of the coco. I'd only water before these 3-5 days if i see the coco dried up again too fast or if the pot feels much lighter than when i weighed it after watering. This second watering you should adjut its EC depending on the previous runoff numbers... if they were higher than input, use a lower EC this time.
I think this should help them gain back their green, and if you notice cotyledons or the lower leaves getting lighter after these two feeds, you know you can now increase MC to 350-400 ppms / 0.7-0.8 EC. And only after i have gotten leaves to have a nice emerald green, would i consider getting lights closer.

Other than these things, I can't really tell what's wrong.

 

[jokgga]

I was able to fix my nutes/EC issue with MC and gave these ladies around 1L to each 4G pot, to run off, and measured the PPM.

Going in was PH 6.0 and EC 0.8 with some epson salt. I only put MC on this feed and when I measured the run off, my PH coming out was 7.0 and EC was 1.6.
I know people say that run off measurement could swing but it seems these plants are not taking in the nutrients or I may have been keeping the coco too dry. Thinking maybe lockout and these plants are not taking in the nutrients I am putting in.

 

[elcoloan]

I was able to fix my nutes/EC issue with MC and gave these ladies around 1L to each 4G pot, to run off, and measured the PPM.

Going in was PH 6.0 and EC 0.8 with some epson salt. I only put MC on this feed and when I measured the run off, my PH coming out was 7.0 and EC was 1.6.
I know people say that run off measurement could swing but it seems these plants are not taking in the nutrients or I may have been keeping the coco too dry. Thinking maybe lockout and these plants are not taking in the nutrients I am putting in.

Runoff pH won't be a good reference for medium pH... much better a slurry test.
Runoff EC on the other hand is a little more useful... i'd say you definitely have a build up in your medium... maybe because of it being too dry or because of the higher EC in the watering or both. If you want you could do daily watering with 250 ppm / 0.5 EC of MC, pH 6.0, until run off EC is at or under 0.8 and then go back to watering at normal dosage and normal watering sched. They will recover, i'm possitive.

What do you think @St. Tom ?

 

[jokgga]

Day 24 - Seeing some growth... I am going to do one more nutes watering to drain..and check the EC.. feel that maybe these plants just need more feeding than now..

Think Different # 1

Amnesia Haze - Side View

Amnesia Haze - Top View

Think Different 2

 

[elcoloan]

Day 24 - Seeing some growth... I am going to do one more nutes watering to drain..and check the EC.. feel that maybe these plants just need more feeding than now..

Think Different # 1
View attachment 1243257

Amnesia Haze - Side View

View attachment 1243258

Amnesia Haze - Top View

View attachment 1243259

Think Different 2

View attachment 1243260

Keep us posted on what you get from the runoff you get now... I have kept healthy photo strains bigger than your plants in coco hempys watering every day with less than 0.5 Ec of MC... so i wouldn't worry about them needing more nutes just now if you do a daily nutes watering to drain at around that EC.
BTW, do they still have cotyledons? if so... what color are they? Just curious.

Also... did you do the slurry test? You really also need to make sure pH is in place before increasing nutrients an dcause more buildup. When I did my recent slurry tests they came out way below 5.8 despite runoff pH being above 6.5 with input at 6.0. I'm using the same coco from previous batches where i had Mg def (among other things) and in which I tried just increasing Mg to solve the symptoms and used 5.8-6.0 pH for watering... didn't work really until i had pH in better range. This run i decided to be more on top of the pH of both medium and water... no Mag def yet and i'm using less Epsoms and less Calmag and less MC now.

 

[jokgga]

Just did a slurry test and it came out at PH 6.5 and EC 0.6... run off being PH 7.0 and EC 1.6. Going in, I always gave nutrients with a PH of 5.8 - 6 and EC of 1.0.
I am thinking I should mix some nutrients of 0.5EC MC and PH of 5.8 to lower the nutrients and get things back to normal.

Welcome to any feedback on this.