Hey guys,
I’m starting to wonder if maybe using Real Growers Recharge on the initial soak of coco is not a good idea 
These guys are at day 12 and day 8, and their coco is already covered in what I believe is Trichoderma:
I’ve read it’s ok to see some trichoderma on the top of the coco of an adult plant.
However, I’m wondering if at this point the microbes could be competing with the small plant? Or generally it’s just not good what’s going on with the top of the coco?
recharge isn’t just beneficial microbes, it also has a whole bunch of plant growth hormones and enzymes derived from many different sources.
it would make sense that the hormones and enzymes could throw things off in seedling phase.
In my experience recharge really messed up late flowering plants and made them herm and caused mutant growth in the buds. (that was across multiple strains, all of which I was already familiar with and were stable in normal conditons).
I don’t have a lot of experience with recharge “magic” that people use. I do know coco depending on where you get it may have high ppm. Did you by chance get a reading on it before soak?
I did not. I’m using Canna brick coco. Supposedly it’s ok to use out of the gate, but it wouldn’t hurt to check… I might be able to hydrate some later today and see what it reads. Thanks for the reminder!
Day 8 and 12, I don’t think they’re stunted personally but I’ve never seen that happen before and I almost always spray old seeds in with recharge after they’ve soaked for 12h-10 days in distilled water with a drop or two of hydrogen peroxide. I use soil with a very light dusting of coco to cover the seed and spray that with recharge and have never seen or heard of this. I only really use it for old seeds for a little boost but viable seeds don’t need anything but their cotyledons for the first 15-20ish days(strain depending) I have several strains I start feeding at day 8-9 haha
Temp/RH avg?
Hey man, thanks for taking a look here!
Temps are 73-79 F and RH is 50-55%.
I am keeping the coco moist with small daily bottom feedings.
Here is how I started and how I feed/water:
Without reading too much further, as soon as I saw bottom water I have a feeling that may be the problem. Top water and see if it clears.
Glookies, One of my faster growing cultivars at day 12 from soak. You’re not stunted in my soil eyes but some of the hydro guys may have a way different option, Some of those hydro growers are pumping out 30-40% faster growth overall. They’ll be on day 20 and my plants are half the size on 40 haha. We’ll get it figured out, it’s very interesting!
I usually start day 1 as the first day above ground where they are “open”, which is 3-4 days after the seed goes into the paper towel. So your day 12 and my day 7-8 are about the same as far as timeline.
I had this same white covering on my last set of plants and it only started after I started top feeding them 4 times a day in an automated system (about day 30). So I’m not sure that top feeding will stop it. I have tried to avoid top feeding so as not to disturb the seedling and tease out the roots.
I’m actually not sure it’s bad… I guess if my plants aren’t stunted maybe I shouldn’t worry about it?
I didn’t worry about it on my adult plants because I’m fairly sure that’s OK (and it didn’t seem to hurt them), but It is a bit unsettling to see that amount of it on the coco already.
I dunno… sorry I don’t mean to go back and forth on this. Just still thinking it through.
Keep us posted for sure!
Why not scrape it off ? Or rake it in? Seedlings look fine.
Not going back and forth, we're discussing. So many details with gardening that it's hard to quantify all of it in a comment or two. I agree with you and from what I've read it's not harmful. I just like seeing new stuff after 20+ years, I always enjoy seeing something like this and trying to figure it out.
A top watering with runoff is vital for soil not sure if coco is the same but you HAVE to top water every once in a while with soil or you’ll get salt(i guess?) build up.
That’s some pretty good stuff. I like this topic
It definitely feels weird not watering to run off lol
I do plan to at some point after I transplant these into their final container.
I’m following a method that I saw some people have success with on another forum, but I’m the only one using recharge so I’m the only one I’ve seen with all the fungus on top…
Supposedly this method is great for getting a larger root mass fairly quickly, but this is my first time doing it.
On a side note, one of the growers I used to follow is a soil grower who never watered to run off. His plants were always so much faster growing than mine. I think he had things really dialed in.
This is one of his journals from 2015 that I’ve been going back to. He shows every day of the grow and I’ve tried to get my plants to keep up with his, but never quite get there:
I think in a “living soil” you don’t water till runoff either or use perlite( which is insane to me haha) That’s what I love about gardening tho there’s 1000’s of ways to get there and we’re discovering new stuff all the time.
Cannot compare photos to autos growth rate tho, Brother Mendal has a gigantic DWC auto that had some of the biggest buds I’ve seen in autos so far(He could hide behind them haha).
Speed only really matters to newer growers imo, once you get several 50 gal trash cans full of dried flower it doesn’t matter if the plants take 10-12 weeks haha
My plants seem to like the recharge. I’m in soil though and just water it in every other watering.
Lol, agree on all points man.
There are definitely 1000 ways to grow and it messes me up because I have to try all of them… Wouldn’t have it any other way though.
The plants in my picture are autos, and some of the autos I’ve grown really are zippy. I mainly try to keep track of days to get a better idea of how happy my plants are compared to previous grows.
Had something similar in soil while using Dynomyco mycorrhizal inoculants on re-potting.
Seemed to be totally harmless but was less pronounced compared to yours.
Cheers
G
you have some people interested. Me for one. I’m wanting to change my soil up some. I’m wanting to put clones in two gallon container. Because of the root structure. Seeds have tap root style. I know you know this. Coco is something I’m looking into.