NEWBIE PANIC!!!

[Autofire]

Brilliant reply Mañ'O'Green

 

[Sheriffatman]

Yeah that's spot on. It's a lock out sign. I had the same problem in several grows and then I talked to several experienced growers (and not the tossers on RIU) and they advised that flushing is the key for a healthy Coco grow. I was actually talking to my local grow shop owner about this yesterday. He said that as the plant develops and drinks more water the salt concentration they leave behind in the Coco concentrates. This makes total sense and could deffinetly be what is happening in this fellas grow.

The other approach is to run a lower EC throughout the grow. With a lower EC you don't get the same concentration build up in your Coco but you also don't get the same growth rates in weeks 2-6 that you would running a higher EC

Thanks again peoples, super feedback as always at af. I never got anymore orange spots after those two appeared and everything is on track, my ec and ppm were super high through veg like 1.9 ec, I now have it at no more than 1.2 and ppm around the 800. She’s never looked better and so far not had any nute burn, guess I got lucky this time round.
cheers
The Sheriff

 

[Autofire]

The beauty of coco and why cannabis growers use it. It can be fertigated many times a day without much danger of over watering. This will allow you to present fresh in balance nutrients to the plant all day. Start fertigating 2 hours after lights on and stop fertigating 2 hour prior to lights out. Roots continually exude substances to stimulate the root biome (Yes all hydro has a root biome) to make the elements it wants the microbes to produce for the plant. Many of these processes happen at night when the plant is in respiration. When the day starts the plant assimilates the nutrients. If you fertigate too soon after lights on you will rinse these substances out of the root zone and waste them. Even though coco drains very well you still want time for a dry back before lights out.

Coco requires rinsing to remove the natural salt and pre-charging because it has an affinity for calcium and magnesium that needs to be addressed for the entire grow. It will also benefit from additional iron compared to other media. Coco is naturally high in potassium. A nutrient schedule must take these basic elemental starting points into consideration. A nutrient designed for coco will have addressed these baselines. With a starting water that is 250 PPM up to half of that can be calcium and even conservatively that can be 100 PPM of calcium. The common range for calcium in Hydro (coco is hydro) is 80 PPM to 140 PPM So starting with so much already it is easy to exceed the desired levels.

A huge benefit to coco is how easy it is to correct an imbalance in the pot. Without having lab equipment run-off measurements are IMPO worthless. They may tell you that you have 1400 PPM coming out but that is 1400 PPM of what? It is the nutrients the plant is not using. A build-up only happens in three scenarios: 1. you are not fertigating to a proper 20% run-off 2. you are putting too much in to start with and 3. the plant is growing very rapidly and the VPD is out of range. In this case the plant is taking in much more water and leaving the nutrients behind. No matter the reason for the out of balance pot it is easy to fix; slowly Fertigate to 33% run-off by the end of the day for 3 days in a row with 50% strength BALANCED nutrients PH to 5.8 +-. You will replace what is in the pot with what should be in the pot without flushing out the biome. If you have a good PH probe (you should have this as a standard tool) you can and should adjust the PH of your nutrient input to steer the PH in the root zone to remain in the 5.6 to 6.2 range.

IMPE Photoperiod plants can use balanced nutrients as high as 1200 PPM (not counting the starting water) in hydro. I have found that about 550 PPM is the top for autos. If you are fertigating only once a day 2 hours after lights on then you need for that 1200 ppm or 550 PPM to be in the mix that you fertigate to 20% run-off in that session. If you are going to fertigate several times a day then the PPM of your balanced nutrients can be much lower and the plant will still have access to the individual elements it needs (the whole idea behind coco). You must still fertigate to 20% run-off by the end of the day.

Hi mate,

I'm about a year into growing and I'm just starting to get my head around VPD. In theory could the orange spot lock out be caused by high humidity at the leaf surface reducing the plants ability to transpire and therefore reducing nutrient mobility?

I've been going with the "never defol autos" method but my plants get extremely bushy. Now that I'm starting to understand VPD I starting to think that lack of air flow at the leaf surface could be the culprit behind some of my problems.

 

[Sheriffatman]

Hi mate,

I'm about a year into growing and I'm just starting to get my head around VPD. In theory could the orange spot lock out be caused by high humidity at the leaf surface reducing the plants ability to transpire and therefore reducing nutrient mobility?

I've been going with the "never defol autos" method but my plants get extremely bushy. Now that I'm starting to understand VPD I starting to think that lack of air flow at the leaf surface could be the culprit behind some of my problems.

My thoughts exactly, I don’t defol either, just dead leaves and yes extremely bushy girl aswell, the Foliage is there for a reason and I wanted to see how she grew out naturally for first grow, maybe I will defol in the future , who knows, she is a healthy girl but seems to be slow at times, maybe too busy and bushy is slowing growth, again who knows I will add it all to my growing list of questions and queries lol learning fast and still enjoying the ride.
cheers