Over or Under watering Coco perlite

Popped these seeds in rapid rooters 19 days ago and transplanted into solo cups a kittle earlier than i should to fix the stretching they did. I feel i have been under watering so i gave them a 50% feed of half 2 days ago and again today temp aand humidity are good. Your thoughts?

Day 4


Day 10

Today





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Looks over watered to me. Stretchy seedlings like that usually are because the light is too far.

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@204medismoke that’s a tough call. It appears the new growth has twisted leaf. There is also some yellowing/ or browning. Leafs curling downward. I think this is gonna come down to nutrition and water. What does your watering routine look like? Are you running tapwater or RO water? Would be rad if it was something simple like PH out of range ? The seedlings are so small they can’t require too much nutrition but if the PH is way off it could not allow for uptake possibly? Cheers !!!

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Imo they need more light. Closer to the light will help them dry back.

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i dont usually ph using my tap water and jacks it usually comes into the 6 -6.5 range wont hurt to make its own feed and start checking from now on. thanks for the reminder

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I bottom water/feed solo cup seedlings and allow a pretty good dry back before watering again. Good luck :+1:

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was debating doing this. thanks

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Ditch the perlite… it’s the root of all evil. :smiling_imp:

In all seriousness I find that perlite + coco is rarely needed unless you like to absolutely drown your plants to shit or live in an extremely humid area.

:arrow_forward: From what I’m seeing here and have experienced myself in the past I almost bet your media EC is way hot right now and propably throwing your PH outta whack (especially since you said you’ve been under watering). Coco likes and doesn’t mind staying on the wetter side of life. Letting it dry out increases media EC thus letting your plants sit in the salts. No Buneo!

Your lings stretching is also a lack of light but not a major they can always be propped up. I was very neglectful this round myself and wasn’t paying attention to PPFD and had some serious stretch. Turned my light up and fixed the problem.

Good luck!

Here is an example of my derp!

Lings on super stretch mode.

But after propping up and some TLC here they are currently.

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Check out this⬆️ guy raw doggin it without the perilite!
:rofl:
Funny you say that though.
I don’t know much about coco, but ditching the perilite was the first thing I thought of. :wink::call_me_hand:t4:

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Pure coco is frowned upon for… Reasons. I’ve been using pure coir for awhile now and love it. It’s prone to gnats even fresh outta the bag. I sterilize all coir I’m bringing into the grow or reusing for 30m at 15psi. The only issue I’ve had is gnats eating my young seedling. Once I started sterilizing issues went away. Keep it wet

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@sardinebags
I never once had nats in canna coco
Have you

I’ve also never had gnats in any bags of coco & I’ve received some that were warehouse-stored & pretty darn wet out of the bag :man_shrugging: but never any gnats in just coco without plants present, perlite notwithstanding.

IMO just do whatever @Rhai88 said because the proof is definitely in that pudding :rofl::ok_hand::+1::+1:

I personally LOVE coco for starting seeds and even rooting clones, again perlite notwithstanding. I also prefer doing one seed/cut per solo cup over the cell trays, it’s one less transplant to do & you can comfortably grow a plant in a solo cup for 20 days easy, as much as 30 days for runts stunts & otherwise slow-growers. But I realize this is easy with 2-6 plants and not as easy with more, but it’s just my preference

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I’m assuming that’s a specific brand? I’ve tried several brands from my local hydro warehouse. I didn’t have issues… Until I did. I run through quite a bit of the stuff since I use it for my outdoor garden as well as indoor. Ended up landing on using the bulk cubed coir then rinsing very very well. The bagged coir is the best, it’s been rinsed the best. The brick coir works, it’s cheap, but it’s still very salty.

As far as gnats though… Ya pretty much every brand I’ve used has a gnat problem. Something about the moisture retention. I use it for seed starting but I always sterilize now after losing a a very cherished pack

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Anyone else found these?


Like a Jiffy, but all coconut fiber.

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@blowdout2269
Thanks for the info
@sardinebags
Yes canna coco coir is a high grade I loved it for yrs

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@Rhai88 ya the only reason i use mother earth coco 70/30 is because its very humid where i stay and the dry backs are usually 2 days in a 2 gal. when i did pure coco it was as much as 5 days. im more of a clone grower and only pop seeds when hunting or testing for others. i find the seedling stage to be my most difficult phase. dont think iv never not stunted a run from seed lol

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At what stage was it taking 5 days for your coco to dry out? My plants are drying out their 1g’s in 2 days currently but all my plants are a bit over 1ft tall currently.

I’m just curious. You must live in extreme humidity lol

you ever tried rockwool for starting your seeds? I’ve used everything but i always end up going back to rockwool. Seems to honestly be a bit of a cheat code most times. Soak my 1.5s for a couple minutes in low EC nutes… shake out the excess… slap my seeds in there and just let it roll for 5 days without watering typically. Then dunk and repeat on day 5.

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going to say around the up pot from solo to 2 gal summer run central canada where it can be 35c and 99% it takes alot out of my lungs too lol.

but now winter… dry dry and cold. and produces the best harvests lol. hope i can get 2 crops this time.

i used rockwool back in day but went more enviro friendly i really like the rapid rooters just need to remember to be patient and give more light next time.

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