Coco nutrient lockout?

[Sosohigh11232]

First time growing in coco and have have been locked out! It’s day 9 and from the pic you can tell there’s a few issues.

Symptoms:

Lime green leafs
Stunted growth
Purple stem

A bit of background on plant

Temp: 23 degrees
humidity: 75%

The coco has been buffered, reconstructed with 7.7 ph water.

Great white microbes was not available in my country so had to settle with a similar product. When mixed with RO water, to get the PH down I had to use a generous amount of PH down, this barely made a difference as it should have. (I later found out that I was meant to put the PH down before adding any microbes)

1/4 of nute was added to my medium pre germination. Germination was done directly into my main pot.

On the second day the seedlings showed signs of turning lime green. I thought this was a sign of nutrient burn, on the 4th day I gave a mini flush of 3 liters in the 3 gallon pot, the run of showed e.c of 0.64 and ph of 7.8.

( I read online that measuring the p.h in the run of coco is needed.)

After the 7thday I noticed the plant’s growth had been stunted. To identify I took a pot with a seed that did not make it measured the run off. P.h 8 and e.c 0.7.
The stunted growth could be roots not taking nutes, the stem is also purple which shows that the plant is under stress. The texture of the leaf is dry but still lime green.

If this is nutrient lock out I’m considering of transplanting them as flushing in this medium is no use right now.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Arthur]

Coco proper pH 5.8 to 6.4 tops. PH needs to be measured going in and coming out, 20% runoff for testing. When growing in coco, pH and ppm are your guiding light. It's not a medium that is forgiving enough to "wing it".

 

[Sosohigh11232]

Coco proper pH 5.8 to 6.4 tops. PH needs to be measured going in and coming out, 20% runoff for testing. When growing in coco, pH and ppm are your guiding light. It's not a medium that is forgiving enough to "wing it".

P.h is 6.2 going in but 8 coming out
E.c is 0.6-0.7 coming out is 0.7

Not trying to wing it but I think the microbes I’ve put in is not so good. You think transplanting it to a medium without the microbes will help ?

 

[Arthur]

What kind of coco? And how much runoff are you allowing before testing? The first bit that comes out is waste. You need a good 20% before testing.

6.2 in and 8 out suggests high 7s in the root zone.

Unless you have some odd brand of coco, this is where coco shines, you flush until you hit your desired pH and continue.

Something I have gotten in the habit of over the last few years, I always pre test the pH of whatever medium I'm using... soil or coco. Have seen enough issues with qc from companies to not rely on what they advertise.

Can't imagine the microbes have anything to do with it, adjusting pH after just means mostly dead microbes, shouldn't change the pH at all.

 

[Sosohigh11232]

What kind of coco? And how much runoff are you allowing before testing? The first bit that comes out is waste. You need a good 20% before testing.

6.2 in and 8 out suggests high 7s in the root zone.

Unless you have some odd brand of coco, this is where coco shines, you flush until you hit your desired pH and continue.

Something I have gotten in the habit of over the last few years, I always pre test the pH of whatever medium I'm using... soil or coco. Have seen enough issues with qc from companies to not rely on what they advertise.

Can't imagine the microbes have anything to do with it, adjusting pH after just means mostly dead microbes, shouldn't change the pH at all.

What kind of coco? I’m using buffered coco from a local supplier in my country. They import washed and buffered coco a lot but quality wish I would know as it’s not branded so just taking the word of the company. I allow around 20% run off when feeding, for each individual pot. I just watered with 8.3 e.c and the run off was 9.1.

That the issue with the coco no matter how much I wash it the run off will not go below 8.1ph. But when I wash coco it takes around 4 gallons to have the ph down and completely wash the e.c.

That’s a really good habit and makes sense to measure all the time. I will try make that a habit too! My country has a exports a lot of coco but again because the products are handeled by careless employees can get contaminated I guess.

Yeah I was thinking the same with microbes, it should have had much of an affect but it’s the only thing I can think of as when I mixed it with water it was literally impossible to put the ph down no matter how much ph down I would use.

 

[Arthur]

A lot of the cocos, especially the cheaper sources, are washed where it was originally sourced... this is usually done with salt water. That might be part of it. If I buy cheap block coco and then rehydrate, flush and charge, I'm working in 55 gallon drums, so the amount of water doesn't sound like a ton if your dealing with flushing salinity.
If you have any leftover and unused, you could do a slurry test, the pH and ppm of just coco and distilled or RO water should be close to 0 ppm and close to 7pH. Basically reading inert.

Slurry test equal parts medium and water. Let set about 5 minutes and insert probes and test. Couple tablespoons is enough. Distilled or RO water, as they're pretty close to 0 ppm.


But... getting back to the original idea of repotting in new medium... what do you have available?

 

[Sosohigh11232]

A lot of the cocos, especially the cheaper sources, are washed where it was originally sourced... this is usually done with salt water. That might be part of it. If I buy cheap block coco and then rehydrate, flush and charge, I'm working in 55 gallon drums, so the amount of water doesn't sound like a ton if your dealing with flushing salinity.
If you have any leftover and unused, you could do a slurry test, the pH and ppm of just coco and distilled or RO water should be close to 0 ppm and close to 7pH. Basically reading inert.

Slurry test equal parts medium and water. Let set about 5 minutes and insert probes and test. Couple tablespoons is enough. Distilled or RO water, as they're pretty close to 0 ppm.


But... getting back to the original idea of repotting in new medium... what do you have available?

Don’t have any left over unfortunately to do slurry test. But on a good note the plants seems to be recovering much better. I put the temp up from 22 degrees to 25. Keep feeding them 500ml with e.c of 8.3 and p.h of 6.2 they seem to be loving it.

Today is the 12th day, compared to other journals for cheese xxl by Dina Farm it’s a few days behind but I’m just glad it’s growing.

Not sure if I should repot it now as I don’t want to stress them too much. Medium wise this was the best I could get my hands on. Corona is really bad where I’m located so getting things delivered is impossible.