Avoiding nutrient burn in seedlings started in amended coco.

S

Sokofofat

Active Member
Looking to start and autoflower run in coco in 3 gal fabric pots and I want to amend my coco with gaia green 444 & 284 right from the start but I'm worried it will burn my seedlings when they are just getting started.

For 3 gal of coco coir (from bricks) I will amend with:
6 tbsp 4-4-4
4 tbsp 2-8-4

Do I have to worry about nutrient burn?

I'm also considering adding real growers recharge to my amendment right from the start... can i mix it into the coco or should I add it to my waterings?

Open to any advice.
 
Sokofofat said:
Looking to start and autoflower run in coco in 3 gal fabric pots and I want to amend my coco with gaia green 444 & 284 right from the start but I'm worried it will burn my seedlings when they are just getting started.

For 3 gal of coco coir (from bricks) I will amend with:
6 tbsp 4-4-4
4 tbsp 2-8-4

Do I have to worry about nutrient burn?

I'm also considering adding real growers recharge to my amendment right from the start... can i mix it into the coco or should I add it to my waterings?

Open to any advice.
Click to expand...
Use soil if you want to use dry amendments.
 
Just an fyi, good quality bagged coco will start with an ec of around .8-1, just from the calcium nitrate it was buffered with. If you just leave that as it is, it can potentially burn seedlings all by itself. The ec of brick coco is all over the place, whatever you do, be sure you prepare it correctly, and consider getting canna to start. I suspect 6 tablespoons of fertilizer will murder your seedlings. I hate to tear down an idea and not give an alternative, so might I suggest using maxigro/bloom (or just maxibloom all by itself) instead? If you use brick, rinse that sucker out like crazy and then soak it in calmag per instructions you can find in these forums or elsewhere, mix in 30% perlite and then double check the EC. Keep your EC below .6 to start, you can water with light nutrients from the beginning, but they can stay at .6 to .8 for a long time unless you see deficiencies. If you do see deficiencies, try upping the EC a little more. To change the EC of your starting media, pour nutrients with your target PH and PPMs through it until the runoff matches. With Maxi I feed once per day once the seedlings have well established roots, feed to a lot of runoff if you are a new grower, always PH to 5.8 and check your ppms. Runoff prevents a lot of problems. By the end of veg you will probably only need an ec of 1 and can go up to 1.4 by around the end of stretch. By the end of veg, when your roots have filled out your final container, begin feeding twice per day at ec of 1. You see people using crazy high ec's, but they aren't needed, in fact they can be counterproductive. It's better to feed a relatively low ec in coco, multiple times per day than give it a high ec. If you are using coco for the first time, I promise you will have better luck with Maxi than with dry nutes due to the CEC (cation exchange capacity) of the media-https://www.icmag.com/forum/marijuana-growing/growing-in-coco-coir/308425-the-chemistry-behind-coco-coir-a-strange-journey-from-ferts-bottle-to-to-buds?t=307683
and if you want to read a few hundred pages about maxibloom-https://www.icmag.com/forum/marijuana-growing/nutrients-and-fertilizers/189616-the-k-i-s-s-method?t=191645 Trust the decade of knowledge accumulated in this post over some youtuber's side hustle.
Good luck!
 
I should mention I’m just finishing my first coco coir w/ Gaia 444 and 284.

Coco coir was pre buffered commercial quality
With amendments:
Gaia green 444, 284, kelp meal, worm castings, mycorrhizal fungi, and dolomite lime.

ALL four girls had deficiencies, magnesium/calcium first, which lead to more.
In the end, the bud was very fluffy, not at all dense, and all the stems were hollow.

One did better than the others, but I’m thinking..
“why did I not just use soil? Instead of go through the headache and pain of 2 things that don’t work well together”

I’ll include some photos of my plants I finished in coco w/ dry amendments, in the end, it’s absolutely your decision, but I thought I’d just give you the heads up I wish I heard before doing this (and yes, I did follow the YouTuber Recipe lol)
 

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Green_Alchemist said:
I should mention I’m just finishing my first coco coir w/ Gaia 444 and 284.

Coco coir was pre buffered commercial quality
With amendments:
Gaia green 444, 284, kelp meal, worm castings, mycorrhizal fungi, and dolomite lime.

ALL four girls had deficiencies, magnesium/calcium first, which lead to more.
In the end, the bud was very fluffy, not at all dense, and all the stems were hollow.

One did better than the others, but I’m thinking..
“why did I not just use soil? Instead of go through the headache and pain of 2 things that don’t work well together”

I’ll include some photos of my plants I finished in coco w/ dry amendments, in the end, it’s absolutely your decision, but I thought I’d just give you the heads up I wish I heard before doing this (and yes, I did follow the YouTuber Recipe lol)
Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your experience! Since I'm totally new to growing I think I'll take your advice and go with the more forgiving soil rather than coco to get my bearings as I learn how to treat my ladies.

Best of luck on your future runs and thanks for the heads up!
 
Decide whether coco or soil.
I have yet to see a successful grow using coco and dry amendments.
There are people who use dry amendments with success........but they use soil or peat moss.
There is a thread in the organics section.........Official Gaia Green thread...........worth a read.

Edit: I wish mr. canuck would be banned from youtube........he just fucks people's grows up.
 
Green_Alchemist said:
I should mention I’m just finishing my first coco coir w/ Gaia 444 and 284.

Coco coir was pre buffered commercial quality
With amendments:
Gaia green 444, 284, kelp meal, worm castings, mycorrhizal fungi, and dolomite lime.

ALL four girls had deficiencies, magnesium/calcium first, which lead to more.
In the end, the bud was very fluffy, not at all dense, and all the stems were hollow.

One did better than the others, but I’m thinking..
“why did I not just use soil? Instead of go through the headache and pain of 2 things that don’t work well together”

I’ll include some photos of my plants I finished in coco w/ dry amendments, in the end, it’s absolutely your decision, but I thought I’d just give you the heads up I wish I heard before doing this (and yes, I did follow the YouTuber Recipe lol)
Click to expand...
What is your feeding/watering schedule with that mix? Do you treat it like hydro coco or soil? Nice plants
 
Hoverjet said:
What is your feeding/watering schedule with that mix? Do you treat it like hydro coco or soil? Nice plants
Click to expand...
Thanks, I’m going to redo but in soil w/ the same amendments and get an idea of the difference, and see how much better they do/grow.

I treated all 4 like soil, watering every couple days when the pots were light.
I top-dressed after the first 5 weeks of veg and then every 3 weeks in flower
 
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