This is my first time growing autoflowers, and my first time in a new environment (high desert indoor grow).
I have some 8 day old seedlings that I don’t think are doing well. I stupidly messed up and added twice the amount of organic nutrients to the soil as I was supposed to when building the mix. I realized this the day after getting the seeds into the coir, but figured I may as well wait and see if it would be a problem (or how big of one). They seem too pale in the center and I figure this is probably due to excess nutrients, but I’m also unfamiliar with autoflowers so…
I am in coir (plain brick coir), 5 gallon fabric pots with perlite and worm castings added. I am using Gaia Green for nutrients. Humidity is 70% and temps are low 60F with lights off and get up to around 67F or so with lights on (still winter temps here). I know temps would ideally be higher, but it isn’t really possible at the moment. Light is a 300W LED at 25% intensity 2 feet from the soil surface. I get a PPFD reading (using Photone app) of 250.
Is there anything I can do to recover from this, or should I start with new seeds and coir mix (with CORRECT nute proportions this time!). I did intentionally select the freebie seeds I received with a seed order in case I messed up (and I did!) and they looked pretty small so I’m not super invested in the outcome just yet. But I’d hate to waste time waiting for something that will end up failing in the end. I’d appreciate any thoughts about it.
Autos are low feeders, agree with the flushing, I would give them just plain water for some days and see how they react, what is the EC and pH while watering them?
Organics and cocoa can be tricky. Its not this and it’s not that .
It could be showing signs of frying. Above suggestions are for a flush, but that’s just going to unleash more of your amendments and exacerbate the problem IMO and I’ve never found flushing a pot filled with organic time released fertilizers to accomplish much in a positive sense. But I’m strictly hydro now.
The other potential challenge with a flush - you’ve got a seedling in a 5g pot. Now that’s a fine approach for an auto, but to flush that pot? I don’t think you could dry the medium out fast enough to avoid root/stunting problems.
Rather than tossing it, can you gently dig down around the tap and grab a handfull of your mix and the sprout and transplant into a more auto friendly mix? Worth a try, even if you do decide to drop another seed. That’s clearly not ideal but it might save it. Sometimes they are more resilient than we think. Good luck.
That’s an interesting point of view, I wonder if coir retains or not water enough time to spoil the seedling , I’m a soil man, hope soilless people will enlighten us …
I don’t known how is looking a seedling burned by organics amendments, but it’s not cocoa shells in the pics. With this RH level, cocoa will be already covered by mold.
edit : you’re right george, it’s an opportunity to be educationnal
The problem is still the same , overfeeding , maybe it’s better avoiding problems (no transplant in this delicate stage, no flushing to avoid drowning) and just give her pHed water (no nutes) for some days until recovered …
Has been working great for me for about a year and a half now. No perlite, no coco.
When you get the potting soil, add a handful of kitchenscraps + a handful of treeleaves and a handful of grass clippings for every 5 gallon pot.
You can add a handful of your current coco & perlite mix for every 5 gallon soil.
Mix it all up and let it sit for a couple of weeks, and fluf it up every day or every other day to get some air into it.
When you grab a handful and you make a fist, if only one drop of water comes out, that is perfect moisture level, keep it like that throughout the “cooking” phase, this is because microbial activity will be so high that it’s too much for anything to grow in.
Two weeks is about the minimum, probably letting it rest a month is ideal.
First pic sure looks like an autoflower seedling well on its way to nitogen toxicity. OP stated he double amended with “organic nutrients”. I don’t know cocoa coir from hot cocoa, but I’ve lived enough years to know that’s not a soil based mix.
theyre autoflowers, you aint on no skedge baby! start some new ones but let the originals rock, either theyll adapt to having too hot of soil or theyll die. if you over water trying to flush theyll more likely die in my opinion.
I got it now, you’re writing cocoa coir for coconut coir.
Not much to educate on cocoa, it smell funny but it’s too prone to mold and attract mildew like a magnet if you’re close to vineyards. Very good to keep the soil moist under, but only in dry areas. I’ve not found any utility for our plant, at least under my lattitude.
I’ve grown with coco a lot in past decades, but stopped three years ago because the supply is a nightmare here. Can’t really help with exotic blends like that (and long release feeds), if you don’t say me that it’s outside this context i will say by instinct that it’s totally abnormal to have a seedlings state with a so wet surface in coco.
My experience with those types of mediums is second hand, but when friends have tried amending their grows with organic ferts it seems they have generally run into problems. I grow in rockwool, so flushing is pretty cut and dried for me, as far as knowing that you can really clean out things and start fresh if necessary.
I agree with that. I will be even more pushy, the advantage of this coir is its retention rate and uniformity.
Making it heterogeneous is losing its advantages VS soil (in term of yield mostly). It’s also why i never buy soil with “peat moss” inside, it suck the rich juice (even with mineral feeding) and concentrate it in fews patchs that can be problematic after a time if your nutes have high concentration of ballast salts.
I disgress again damn. At least we are all ok obviously : transplant or prey ^^
At this stage can always scoop out the seedlings tap off the excess and replant in more balanced mix, will it slow them for a day or two sure but less so than staying in a mix that may be detrimental atm.
Also the drier the coco the higher the EC will be in the root zone to a point regardless of organic or synthetic, saying that one can go too wet as well.
Thank you everyone for the thoughts. It seems there was some confusion about cocoa and coco (I blame auto correct). I think in the future I’ll just use the term coir, even if it is closer to coco peat in this batch.
@George, I have been giving just plain water since I started so based on how they’re looking now I doubt they’ll recover without something more drastic. They did get lighter green in the center in the day or two before I posted so it didn’t look it would correct itself.
@Tripl3fastaction, I agree with your thoughts on flushing exacerbating the situation. This was a concern of mine, so I decided to post and get second opinions! And thanks for the OG welcome
I did decide to transplant the sprouts into new coir mix with appropriate levels of organic nutrients (even a little lower than originally called for). I figure they’ve been through a lot already and I can always top dress in the future if needed. For what it’s worth, the taproot was nice and white but clearly not as robust and big as I would like. Thanks @Tripl3fastaction & @Mr.Sparkle
@Rogue, I will file away your method to try in the future. I already have time and money invested in the current setup and I’d like to try to recover from this if possible. I’m looking at it as a learning experience and an experiment. Also, there are not really any stores close by that have anything other than Miracle Grow or similar soils and I can’t justify taking a two hour round trip to the nearest grow shop to see if I can locate any. My current locale is quite limited in availability of some things compared to where I moved from, so I’m still adjusting.
I’ll be keeping an eye on how things go. I’m being careful not to over or under water, primarily using the weight test to see if they need watering. In the pics I posted, I had watered a little bit the day before so it hadn’t had time to really start to dry out. When transplanting, the original medium was dry on the very top and sides (fabric pot) so I think I’m doing ok there.
I really appreciate everyone chiming in. I will post some new pics after a few days, hopefully the transplant will help. Cross your fingers everyone!
Fingers for you homie.
Heads up: any hiccups in an auto lifespan usually results in some stunting (maybe since its early these won’t), so be aware that you may end up with a quarter oz. on a lollipop stick.
Hey thanks man! I know stunting is a possibility (unfortunately). I figured things may not go to plan since this is my first auto grow. Hopefully there will be some indication of what to do next later/end of the week. At worst, I can start with new seeds. I’d rather problems early than when more time has been invested! (Actually, I’d rather no problems…)
So today I remembered to ph the coir mix and plain water (dechlorinated tap water) I am using and it looks like it is around 7.5 (using ph drops) so from what I understand, that needs to come down to 6.0-6.5 for autoflowers. This is a change from a few weeks ago when I measured it and it was 6.5 from the tap so I’ll need to keep consistently measuring it from now on. I always let the water sit uncovered overnight and also have a bubbler from good measure. The water only uses chlorine, no chloramines thankfully. I forgot to do this earlier when @George asked me. I don’t yet have a way to measure EC.
What are thoughts on citric acid to adjust ph? Or molasses? I have both (molasses is blackstrap & unsulphured). Searching the internet says 1.4tsp citric acid per gallon of water should lower ph by 1.0 point. Does that sound right?
I plan on ordering some ph down, any recommendations?
, overfeeding 
, maybe it’s better avoiding problems (no transplant in this delicate stage, no flushing to avoid drowning) and just give her pHed water (no nutes) for some days until recovered … 
for you homie.
