I am growing my seedlings in Coco coir in solo cups, and they aren’t hardly growing at all (mostly I would say from over watering). My question is: what exactly is everyone else’s methods for growing this way? They are probably 10 days old, I put them under 4 4ft. 6500k florescent bulbs and put them on 24 hr until 7 days. After 7 days I tried to give some very diluted nutes (bluemax 2 part and calimagic), but they haven’t grown, they don’t look nute shocked just yellowing on all the leaves. Being coir, I figured I would need to water extra, but maybe not. And when/how often should I give nutes, or do I give just water until a longer period of time? Thanks in advance
4 Likes
i use the same but… heres how i do i use a coco 70/30 and add a 1 tabspoon of ech 4-4-4 and 2-8-4 dry ammendments plus some worm castings my ammendments of choice right now are gia green anywho i put the lil taproots in a hole about 1/2 inch deepand soft cover if i remember i will throw a pinch of mycro in the whole also usually i will spray and moisten the whole befor the tap root then lights 18/6 rh 50-60 rppm temp 78-80 then wait until they pop after a couple of days i will spray with just PHed tap water 6.5 does it for me the give em a spray every 3 -4 dayzzz or so
i have found that coco doesnt retain water as well as a living soil mixture its kinda like hydro x a peat coco living soil mixture
2 Likes
With the information provided I’d say they are hungry.
Pics would help 
4 Likes
I start in pure coir. Water coir with ro by itself till runoff. Then plant seeds directly into coco. No germing on my end. Drizzle ro over where I planted the seed. Wait for it to sprout. Once it sprouts. I water every other day for a week. With super light feed. Once they have that second set of leaves. I kinda just take off from there. Daily watering and food. Like an adult. Just less food.
6 Likes
Oh okay, thanks for the replies! As far as nutes, I like to keep them simple. I use the 2 part Blue Max usually and Calimagic, but until now I just used a little calmagic and a couple drops of Rapid Rooter in some water. I might try to give it some actual nutes soon, but the cups are still real wet from watering a day or so ago so I may need to wait a bit.
1 Like
It’s almost imposible to overwater the coco…if You have holes in cup of course.
this is what i do.
only coconut and of good quality.
canna cal/mag EC 0.4 (0.5 if strong led), the rest is canna A/B, canna rhizotonic, and a bit of fulvic acids. 5.8 PH, and max 1.2 EC, from start to finish. from day 1 you have to feed the coconut.
5 Likes
Have you tried increasing the nutes and water more often with nutes? I have good success with 1/3 strenght H3ads formula first couple of days, fertigate daily in solo cups…later transplant to 1gal and give full H3ads formula. All good. One cannot overwater coco, if there is holes in the cup… cannabis thrives in DWC too you know, it is all about oxygen. Which gets replenished every watering in coco.
1 Like
Yes they are not drinking too much, plus I do have them in rapid rooters in the Coco coir which does hold water longer. I think maybe tonight or tomorrow I will try diluted nutes. Thanks again for replies!
2 Likes
Definitely don’t start watering til runoff with seedlings! Only begin this when roots are well established. After your roots start to reach about the cup, you can go all hydro wit it.
@Alta.Gama has some great examples of how roots should look in coco. For the plant to be that small, the roots look like grown ups
Do yourself a favor and hurry up and join this cup contest and follow along and get advice from some pros
5 Likes
I would love to, but I’m only a basic member. It sucks, I keep looking at it wanting lol.
1 Like
@Indoornesian yes thank you this was my suspicion I’m glad I didn’t water it like crazy lol. I know it can take a lot once it’s grows past seedlings, I just have to get it there lol.
2 Likes
You can water to often. You know how when you let coco dry out. Your plants over feed? It will literally do the exact opposite when you water way too often. Won’t uptake as much food as you want. It’s hard to do. Usually happens to people that let sit on run off. Or the drainage holes are way too tiny. Shit. Flora flex tells you to increase watering volume by 30% if your tips burn in coco. Rather than pull feed back. Like in soil.
1 Like
I get that, but using rapid rooters which do hold water longer and the fact that they still tiny seedling plants, I would guess that is could possibly be bad advice until the plants are big enough and have a big enough root system to start drinking more. I watered 2 days ago and it was still pretty soaked.
1 Like
There is no advice other than my first post. And even that’s not really advice. Just saying what I do. I’m in pure coco.
What works the best for me.
Saturate media (coco)
Plant seed
Wait to sprout
And I start feeding from sprout very lightly. After that first week. I pretty much just work my way to full feed from there.
Watering to run off is important because of media ph… Like a re set button. You don’t need 30%. Simple 5% works just fine. Running 30% every other week or so. I use advanced nutrients ph perfect full sensi line. So as long as I don’t overfeed. I never see a problem. Pretty much eliminated everything with my choice of feed. I have pictures of everything if questioned. I even have 6 new sprouts right now in pure coco I can take pics of every day to show rate of growth. And how fast I increase my feed. It’s a sensitive part of life no doubt and many many ways of successfully sprouting and getting babies to size. This is just what works for me. That’s all. Not better than anyone one else’s. Just my comfortable way of going about it.
1 Like
I understand, thanks for the explanation. I am out of rooters this time anyway, so I will have to do just Coco next time, and I will try your setup. I do like that you do ‘easy’ nutes. I’m sure it works great, but whenever people say they use 10 different ingredients, I get confused and think of how much they all cost to purchase. My BlueMax 2 part lasts 3 decent sized grows with the small bottles
1 Like
Nute lines are widely argumentative. I’d just go with what makes you comfortable and leave it at that. The key is healthy green plants. Healthy flowering plants. And clean ripening process. Nitrogen will always be nitrogen. No matter what brand is carrying it. How you place everything today is the art. But at the end. It’s your garden. Your time. Your space. Your money. You get to do and use what you want. Don’t worry about others so much, but yourself. And I think you’ll be just fine. It’s once you start doing everything everyone does you start chasing your tail, you know?
1 Like
Absolutely. And not dogging anyone that does things differently, but keeping things simple with me is key to success. I really don’t even like to PH my water unless there are super obvious signs I need to. So maybe I should word it as I may be too lazy to find tune things as well as some.
1 Like
Sounds like something ph perfect is in your alley. That’s what I did
1 Like
@McKushin yes definitely. The BlueMax mix does run slightly hot, but my well water is 5.5 or so, so it stays in an acceptable range unless the strain is very particular. That’s why I mostly look for ‘begginer to novice’ type plants because they can take a little more beating and still pump out buds.
1 Like
They are doing better! I switched from the fluorescent bulbs to one of the regular lights, and gave them diluted nutes. They have most of their color back so far.