Grow Mediums Mephisto-Reserva Autopot run #1

[elcoloan]

PH going in is between 5.8 and 6.0. My guess is that my PH is swinging inside my coco because of the RO water.
Or the PPM is high inside due to the lack of runoff at this point?

I'd try 6.0-6.2 pH before increasing ppms of anything. That's what helped me when other things weren't working and just making symptoms worse. And you can start watering till runoff now and measure the initial runoff to get an idea of the EC in the coco.

 

[MANNIK]

I'd try 6.0-6.2 pH before increasing ppms of anything. That's what helped me when other things weren't working and just making symptoms worse. And you can start watering till runoff now and measure the initial runoff to get an idea of the EC in the coco.

Once again, I underestimated the watering needs of coco. The pots felt heavy and dense until I flushed them, they are quite heavier than before that. Lesson learned I hope (never said I was the quickest study)… I think they were thirsty. This stuff really needs to stay wet!

Girls got a Epsom salt foliar feed at noon for lights off.
I started flushing at 4pm and put 1.5 gallons of water through each pot. PH going in was 5.9 and 550 ppm.
125 ppm of calmag and 3 grams per gallon of Megacrop v3.

Runoff was caught in a 5 gallon bucket and measured at 5.65 PH and 650 ppm.

Now we wait and see how they react over the next day or so. I will be hooking up the Autopots and filling the reservoir for the girl who are big enough.
Fingers crossed for some

 

[Highway 61]

I think you are on the right track, Mannik. I might have been inclined to flush until the runoff was the same ppm/ph as what was going in just to make sure that you have a known starting point. Then you can adjust future feedings from there as you watch to see how your plants react. The photos look like a mag deficiency to me. Epsom salts foliar should help with that but my guess is that you were not feeding enough cal/mag before. Your coco will take some (or all) of your cal/mag before it is available to your plants (cation exchange) so you have to feed a certain amount of cal/mag to the coco to make sure that the coco doesn't use it up before your plants can use it.

 

[MANNIK]

I think you are on the right track, Mannik. I might have been inclined to flush until the runoff was the same ppm/ph as what was going in just to make sure that you have a known starting point. Then you can adjust future feedings from there as you watch to see how your plants react. The photos look like a mag deficiency to me. Epsom salts foliar should help with that but my guess is that you were not feeding enough cal/mag before. Your coco will take some (or all) of your cal/mag before it is available to your plants (cation exchange) so you have to feed a certain amount of cal/mag to the coco to make sure that the coco doesn't use it up before your plants can use it.

Yeah, they seem to have perked up quite a bit over the 14 hours after their flush. I didn't get photos but will after lights on in a few hours.
Most pots will be connected to the reservoir tomorrow as I wanted them to have a day or so to not be so soaked before bottom feeding.

Quite excited to see if they recover well and actually take off or not. My fear is that they are quite small for the 3 week mark and will not be very big plants but I hope that they surprise me.

Next run should be better after this learning experience.

 

[Highway 61]

I recently started my first run in coco/autopots myself so I appreciate following your thread. FWIW, I would suggest that until you turn on your res, that you top feed until runoff at least once per day. Out with the bad. In with the good. Your coco-perlite blend should hold enough air so that you won't drown your roots. But I would suggest that you vacuum the runoff out of your trays every day so that you have fresh nutes each day going in and you are not wicking back up the runoff.

Thanks again for the content.

 

[MANNIK]

The girls are much happier today! Looking a little light on the green scale, will have to increase ec/ppm for the next feeding if they don't darken up a bit.

Most of 'em getting hooked up to the res tomorrow or Tuesday.

 

[MANNIK]

Day 21 | 80 F | 65% RH | Lights = dimmed (165W each) @ 32" = 20,000 Lux/295 PPFD

Milestone day! Autopots on! Just waiting patiently for the explosion...

Filled 25 gallon res with 15 gallons of nutes

2ml per gallon Calimagic (160ppm) More?​

3 grams per gallon MC​

6.0 pH | 560 total ppm | 1.12 ec​

Hopefully I caught the mag deficiency quick enough, some leaf damage but it doesn't appear to be progressing.
Plants appear to be too light for my comfort but I am not going to increase much yet. A couple of them greened up a bit and I suspect the rest may do the same. If not I will increase ppm in the res and let time take it's course.

Will need to hand water the little ones until they are large enough to join the rest on the res (they are only 1 week behind the group). I really hope they can take the nute increase at that time because I do not want to hand water until the catch up to final stage.

 

[Highway 61]

Congratulations ! Looks great. I like how you have a 1/2 inch main feed line from the res. Tidy and functional.
That should minimize the possibility that a line will plug with sediment.

I have only limited experience with autos and understand that they are reputed to be light feeders. 560 ppm seems a little low to me for that stage of growth, though. Your larger plants look to be ready to take off and like they want to feed.

I'm not sure about the Calimagic. I use Botanicare cal mag and the recommended dose would be 3 to 5 ml per gallon. I'm still learning about coco and it's need to be fed cal/mag to avoid it stealing nutrients at its cation exchange sites. A possible explanation for your mag deficiency is that your coco needs to be fed which is preventing magnesium from being available to your plants. If that is correct, then you will need to bump up your cal mag a bit to get your coco to quit stealing from the ladies.

Your plants look ready to take off. My two cents would be to bump up the ppms and watch to see if they green up and/or start to show nutrient burn at the tips of leaves. If they show white tips, then you might have to back off a bit.

 

[jokgga]

Hey @MANNIK and anyone else..had a couple questions for you as I am doing a similar grow with the 4 gallon autopot system (square ones).

1.) How often did you hand water to run off in the first two weeks.
2.) Did you see water in the tray? Would you still top feed if there was water in the tray?

I have not top fed my plants in three days and wanted to water once more; however, noticed there is still water in the tray (from my last time). Is this a good indicator that this should not be watered?

Thanks,

Will

 

[MANNIK]

Hey @MANNIK and anyone else..had a couple questions for you as I am doing a similar grow with the 4 gallon autopot system (square ones).

1.) How often did you hand water to run off in the first two weeks.
2.) Did you see water in the tray? Would you still top feed if there was water in the tray?

I have not top fed my plants in three days and wanted to water once more; however, noticed there is still water in the tray (from my last time). Is this a good indicator that this should not be watered?

Thanks,

Will

I am not the best to ask watering questions for coco as this is my first run with it. I had a couple mishaps myself. Here is my experience and please take it for what it is worth.

I saturated the first day and popped sprouts, waited about 5 days to water again. Then I watered 1 liter and went based on the weight and top of the coco going dry. Watering about 500 ml to 1 liter to encourage root growth early.

My mistake was not watering enough and not often enough. Once I picked up the pace and quantity they really took off.

Moving forward I will water more often to runoff after the first week and it should help speed things along handily. I will be using risers and nursery trays until the plants are large enough for the Autopot system.