Buffering Coco / Fix Unbuffered

[Axiom]

Seasonal Greetings and all that...

 

I am reusing coco ( again) and last time I reused with an EC of around 0.7-0.8 runoff with good results. 

This time I may have flushed excess nutes out and ended up with EC between 0.3-0.5..

I've never added calmag to buffer it purely because I was lazy and skipped that step before and did fine. 

.... even though I have a huge amount of Calmag lying around... doh.. 

 

I thought that this yellowing may have been something to do with the new HID -> LED replacement.

Then I quickly figured out that it must be a buffering issue.

 

Is the damage done or can I simply add a ton of CalMag back to the feed to correct it? 

For future reference how much CalMag should I be adding to the coco before I reuse it?

 

Currently hitting with 1.3EC in RO water. Checked runoff on one plant yesterday and it came to 1.1EC.

 

 

[mikeydoughnut]

Do you add calmag to you RO water? 
 

Ideally you want your run off to be close to what’s going in the top. As the plants drink the EC should rise really. Consistently low EC run off to me would indicate you’re not feeding enough.

 

e2a - a couple of those plants look mega dry. Coco is hydro. Once they root out a bit they’ll drink like a pisshead like

Edited October 17, 2023 by mikeydoughnut

[Shumroom]

I see you mentioned that you’re using RO water,

what nutes are you using?

 

How do you mix up your feed?

 

Atb

 

 

 

[Axiom]

1 hour ago, mikeydoughnut said:

Do you add calmag to you RO water? 
 

Nope, never needed to until I stripped too much out of the coco in the pics above. 

1 hour ago, mikeydoughnut said:

e2a - a couple of those plants look mega dry. Coco is hydro. Once they root out a bit they’ll drink like a pisshead like

Yeah there is one of 4 from seed that's lagging behind I'm pulling it out because it looked bad from the beginning and I've given it a fair chance to catch up to the others. 
The super yellow ones are clones. They've been deprived a lot longer it seems. 

I've decided to push the EC up to 1.5 for the today's feed. 

 

Just now, Shumroom said:

I see you mentioned that you’re using RO water,

what nutes are you using?

Sensi Coco and a few of their other bits.
it only feels expensive when it doesn't go to plan. 

Just now, Shumroom said:

How do you mix up your feed?

with an old rod from household door blinds.  

 

I just hope it was nothing to do with the fungus gnats infestation I had recently. Most of them seem to be dead

 

 

 

[mikeydoughnut]

Just now, Axiom said:

Nope, never needed to until I stripped too much out of the coco in the pics above

With 0.0 background EC? Does your feed contain the required Ca and Mg? 
 

I mean, ArthurMix dunt even buffer them shitty arsed bricks, maybe I’m missing summat … I’ll bow out on this one …

[Axiom]

@mikeydoughnut The background EC would be 0 in the  RO water but 0.3-0.4 in this run but previous run had 0.7-0.8EC and was fine. 

[Great uncle Clark]

Co Co coir is my favorite medium. I reuse my Co Co coir. I first let several months then I  solarize it in clear plastic trash bags, to kill any disease, parasites, viruses ect..., then fill 44 gallon trash can with and add7.5 ml of calmag per gallon of water. Stir add co Co coir, leave in 8hr covered remove then rinse with water. If you don't buffer then the Co co coir will pull the cations from your plants. If you run your ppm to high then you will make those nutrients unavailable to the plant. I keep my ppm 800 or less except when I run co2 then about 1,000 to 1100 ppm. Fungus gnats you'll need sticky traps, something with D T or H202 ,or Diatomaceous Earth. If you use H2O2 as a soil drench then I would suggest that you make sure that you remove the drain off and flush with fresh nutrients after a few minutes. I then add Mycorrhizae at the base of the stem then trickle nutrients on top so that it may slowly adhere to the plants roots. Because the h202 will kill all micro life in the medium, it should be replaced. I bought a bug zapper it helps. Be delgent and it needs to all be done at the same time. Good luck!

[lildaveham]

@Axiom

 

Have you ruled out all other factors such as environment? 

[Axiom]

 

@lildaveham upping the feed + calmag + more seaweed + more frequent fertigation + fan above LED light pointing down seem to all have done the trick. 

 

Still getting lower EC runoff readings though.

 

@Great uncle Clark I used mosquito bits and wrapped em in a coffee filter and let them soak in the nute bucket. I throw a water heater in there at 30c and I find that the bacteria (BTI) proliferate much better and become visible (cloudy water). Worked really well and I only used Diatomaceous earth on one application and kinda wish I didn't bother with buying it. The good news is that it won't expire, and can be used for other applications but mosquito bits did the trick (within a week). I would use h202 as a last resort or prior to buffering the coco before use. 

Edited October 20, 2023 by Axiom

[mikeydoughnut]

14 minutes ago, Axiom said:

till getting lower EC runoff readings though

Keep feeding at that level (e2a I’m saying that level. I’m not sure what your feed strength is, they don’t look too bad though bud). It should righten its self out. If it doesn’t with in a few fertigations it’s an indicator it’s eating what yer giving and it’s still hungry. I’ve got the same problem with my seedlings. Pale and low run off numbers I just keep feeding them. 

Edited October 20, 2023 by mikeydoughnut