Piss poor roots in coco

ninja1

ninja1

Well-Known Member
I know everyone says don’t let coco every dry out like soil and I haven’t done. So much so that one plant even looked over watered from being watered every other day and is now binned. Some have said at first you should let the pot get light?

Any ideas on why the roots look so poor? They are in two litre pots and been about two weeks now. Plants have grown but the roots look shit. Still look a bit hungry but upping the feed slowly. I have always had this problem and thought it has been solved by not packing down the coco to much. Seems I am still getting shit roots even when using rhizo.

should I be letting the coco dry a little so roots go searching and fill the pot? Water daily? I know people say that and I haven’t been letting the coco get dry. Can see for yourself one of the plants even ended up being over watered?
 

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Wastei

Wastei

Well-Known Member
What nutrients did you use and at what strength? Like EC and pH values. Coir is basically hydro and should be treated such.

Read up on hydro to better understand how to grow in coir. Roots need nutrients to grow, coir is inert.

Those look way malnourished and hungry. Are you another victim of Mr. Canuck?
 
ninja1

ninja1

Well-Known Member
Would that affect the roots? I know they look hungry, I just been cautious about bumping up the feed to fast as suffered with nitrogen toxicity in the past. They current are on an ec of 0.8 canna nutes. Tbh next feed I’m gonna just give em 0.9. Still within range for veg so fingers crossed it puts more colour into them.
 
Wastei

Wastei

Well-Known Member
ninja1 said:
Would that affect the roots? I know they look hungry, I just been cautious about bumping up the feed to fast as suffered with nitrogen toxicity in the past. They current are on an ec of 0.8 canna nutes. Tbh next feed I’m gonna just give em 0.9. Still within range for veg so fingers crossed it puts more colour into them.
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If you read my earlier post(I edited it) I mentioned you need to read up on hydro practices to understand coir. You can overwater small plants in coir buts it's almost impossible on established ones.

Do you use Canna Coco A + B? That's the only one you should use and need from Canna. If you use anything else and add to this you're in trouble("Calmag" is in no way needed). Rhizotonic is fine but I would much rather use some regular dry humic acid.

Like other mediums there's a learning curve. But it looks to me like you treat them like soil grown plants?

Get them off and above ground and in better aerated pots, that's the first thing I would do. Everything is sort of wrong, the shape of the pot and type being used.

But most certainly you haven't gotten watering practices down to a tee. How much and when to water etc. You also get better temps and aeration if you locate the pots more in the center of the grow space. Hope this helps in any way and hope you get things sorted. Cheers!
 
ninja1

ninja1

Well-Known Member
Okay think most people have said that you can over water but not once the roots are established. Which makes sense and like I say I was shocked to see one over watered as they’d never looked droopy before. I guess I had been getting to keen with watering to often. I did however try let these once get bit lighter but I guess it was still me being to keen. Some people still say water daily from the start but yeah think I’ve seen probably best to not do that until a pots rooted.

I am only using canna a and b along with rhizo. When you say I treat them like soil plants? What do you mean? I thought if treating like soil I’d be waiting for the pots to get light in weight. I haven’t been doing that.

they are simple square 2 litre pots, what’s wrong with them? Have always used square pots as does everyone else I know. clearly it is a watering issue as it’s the roots that look shit. Just not sure why. Some say water daily but then can see it’s possible to over water when such shit roots. Others say let the pots dry a little at first until the roots are there. I have been watering every two days to try get the roots searching but still not letting the coco dry out.

tbh These lot I’m tempted to just pot into 6litre pots and use the Wilma system. Always had good roots with that and then just switch to hand watering once the roots are established.
 
GanjaJack

GanjaJack

Well-Known Member
Just a thought....

Has anyone tried coco in DWC using 5 gallon buckets?

Basically the point being that the roots don't grow into the coco but the coco basically is just a medium to hold the plants upright.

When I grow in net pots in DWC, all of my roots end up in the bucket, not in the net pot(6 inch). I use hydroton and end up reusing almost all of it after rinsing because of this.
 
twentyeight.threefive

twentyeight.threefive

Well-Known Member
ninja1 said:
I know everyone says don’t let coco every dry out like soil and I haven’t done. So much so that one plant even looked over watered from being watered every other day and is now binned. Some have said at first you should let the pot get light?

Any ideas on why the roots look so poor? They are in two litre pots and been about two weeks now. Plants have grown but the roots look shit. Still look a bit hungry but upping the feed slowly. I have always had this problem and thought it has been solved by not packing down the coco to much. Seems I am still getting shit roots even when using rhizo.

should I be letting the coco dry a little so roots go searching and fill the pot? Water daily? I know people say that and I haven’t been letting the coco get dry. Can see for yourself one of the plants even ended up being over watered?
Click to expand...
Your coco looks extremely dry. None of those plants are overwatered. Are you thoroughly feeding to significant runoff?

I start seeds in starter pots or solo cups then up pot them to 3 gallon cloth pots. They don't get moved until a solid root system has formed in the first container. Fed daily.

Roots from solo cup.
PXL_20210618_161912055.jpg

Size of plant transplanted into 3 gallon pot.
PXL_20210618_162236946.jpg
 
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ninja1

ninja1

Well-Known Member
twentyeight.threefive said:
Your coco looks extremely dry. None of those plants are overwatered. Are you thoroughly feeding to significant runoff?

I start seeds in starter pots or solo cups then up pot them to 3 gallon cloth pots. They don't get moved until a solid root system has formed in the first container. Fed daily.
Click to expand...
Are you watering them every day from the minute they are placed in the solo cups? I have had some tell me to let the coco dry a little at first. I was not letting the coco dry out though and watering soon as the top of the coco looked to be drying. Ended up seeing shit roots tbh.
All the plants look fine in terms of not being over watered. It’s just that one plant, I watered it and it went droopy and looked over watered? Can’t be under as it was fine until the watering. I was shocked because I was also confident that you can’t over water in coco as well. Others have said though even on this topic. That you can over water coco if the roots aren’t established?

Fucked up thing now is I have gone from 10 plants down to 8. tempted to use the Wilma drippers and just turn the plug on for 5 minutes rather than using the timer which gives em 15minutes in 6litre pots. Or just pot them into the 6litre pots and use the wilma as always had good roots with that. Doesn’t solve my problem of why I’m getting shit roots though but don’t wanna lose another plant as hoping to be growing under two lights.

once again the coco in the pots seems to have lost that fluffy/loose feeling if that makes sense? Noticed it with the first pots as well. Which makes me wonder if that’s what caused the one to look over watered. As I have seen it in the past when I was packing the coco down to much when potting up. When I didn’t do that I didn’t get any issues with over watered plants in coco.
 
Fatleg77

Fatleg77

Well-Known Member
Did you add 30 percent perlite ? I made this mistake and it caused me some root issues. I use a mix of coco and super soil and what I realized was that without the perlite the root ball holds too much moisture in the substrate. It was not allowing it to have enough frequent wet-dry Cycles the top layer would dry out evenly but everything from the root ball down would hold too much moisture for too long just my opinion I'm no expert
 
twentyeight.threefive

twentyeight.threefive

Well-Known Member
ninja1 said:
Are you watering them every day from the minute they are placed in the solo cups? I have had some tell me to let the coco dry a little at first. I was not letting the coco dry out though and watering soon as the top of the coco looked to be drying. Ended up seeing shit roots tbh.
All the plants look fine in terms of not being over watered. It’s just that one plant, I watered it and it went droopy and looked over watered? Can’t be under as it was fine until the watering. I was shocked because I was also confident that you can’t over water in coco as well. Others have said though even on this topic. That you can over water coco if the roots aren’t established?

Fucked up thing now is I have gone from 10 plants down to 8. tempted to use the Wilma drippers and just turn the plug on for 5 minutes rather than using the timer which gives em 15minutes in 6litre pots. Or just pot them into the 6litre pots and use the wilma as always had good roots with that. Doesn’t solve my problem of why I’m getting shit roots though but don’t wanna lose another plant as hoping to be growing under two lights.

once again the coco in the pots seems to have lost that fluffy/loose feeling if that makes sense? Noticed it with the first pots as well. Which makes me wonder if that’s what caused the one to look over watered. As I have seen it in the past when I was packing the coco down to much when potting up. When I didn’t do that I didn’t get any issues with over watered plants in coco.
Click to expand...
Yes. Fed daily from sprout.
PXL_20210528_112847344.jpg
 
twentyeight.threefive

twentyeight.threefive

Well-Known Member
Fatleg77 said:
Did you add 30 percent perlite ? I made this mistake and it caused me some root issues. I use a mix of coco and super soil and what I realized was that without the perlite the root ball holds too much moisture in the substrate. It was not allowing it to have enough frequent wet-dry Cycles the top layer would dry out evenly but everything from the root ball down would hold too much moisture for too long just my opinion I'm no expert
Click to expand...
Perlite isn't needed.
 
MickFoster

MickFoster

Well-Known Member
You'll get different opinions........most are full of shit.
You cannot overwater a plant in coco in small containers, like yours.
I feed every day to run off starting around day 3 from sprout.
Never give plain water.
Never let the coco get dry........roots don't need a dry cycle to grow........think of the roots that are submerged in water in dwc.
These are the roots of a 2 week old plant that was fed every day to run off.
Transplant 2 wks.JPG
Good luck.
 
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