Coco grow going sideways, I need some help!

[Rootsruler]

It's what we do! LOL!

[Shneex0338]

Okay, soo.. Yeah. You guys were right. The big one is literally perking up with each hour gone by, after I didn't water yesterday. Lights will turn on in a little less than an hour, I took a little peek inside the tent, and.. it actually looks like it'd look with lights on after a few hours. I'm excited as to what they look like when the light turns on.

You guys probably saved my ass. Thanks a lot, you got a new member. Take this as a warning though, I'm a literal cannabis killer and I'll probably ask too much. But you got a new member

[Sixwinds]

I grow in coco too and can't imagine watering three times a day... it would drown the plant. At the stage your plant is in I would be watering with about 3 liters of water every three days or so. I let the top of the coco dry out and only worry about watering when the first inch or so of coco is totally dry. If I had to guess I would say overwatering may be the issue.

[Shneex0338]

Gotcha! I thought you were running solo cups.

Small update - I repotted it into the 1 gal now. I planned to repot tomorrow because roots were shooting everywhere out the bottom, the sides, but the smell threw me off, so I had to get that plant outta that contraption. Good news though: It wasn't the substrate itself. I was glad that it literally smelled like nothing, just a hint of typical "soil" smell. It was the pot itself, for whatever reason. I got it out the basement, that pot was probably 20 years old already, and I probably didn't notice it from the beginning on. Phew.

Let's see where this'll take us, I'm still more worried about the big plant, even though the smaller one is losing color too.

[Rootsruler]

Gotcha! I thought you were running solo cups.

[Shneex0338]

How is your translucent cup going to get any aeration effect if they're covered over by the outer cup unless the outer has drainage/aereation holes? Also explains a lot as to why you're getting that smell. Probably the beginnings of root rot due to water sitting in the outer cup.

They're not exactly cups, but tiny pots with different sizes, the bigger one doesn't touch the smaller one, it's only touching at the top rim, so no light gets in there. The bigger one is also fully open on the bottom, it's pretty much just a plastic tube.

[Rootsruler]

How is your translucent cup going to get any aeration effect if they're covered over by the outer cup unless the outer has drainage/aereation holes? Also explains a lot as to why you're getting that smell. Probably the beginnings of root rot due to water sitting in the outer cup.

[Shneex0338]

Okay I noticed something strange with my tiny plant in the same coco substrate. I do have a "double pot" setup, meaning one translucent cup to check for roots, and another cup over it, non-translucent. The translucent cups also has some slits around the sides, which I cut into it for some better aeration.

I just checked out the roots (they seem fine so far), but I noticed a strange smell.. almost like wet dog? Or maybe used socks? Just a strange smell. Is this normal for coco and Canna Coco nutrients? I do use the A+B, but also the rhizotonic which smells like fish, may this be the cause? My other big plant doesn't smell like this, at least I didn't notice anything.

[Rootsruler]

I got told the same thing with rockwool......uuuuuhhh NO......

I find light pot tends to work across the spectrum except DWC.

[Shneex0338]

Most of those guides are general guidelines. Use them to get in the ballpark then dial them into your specific situation. Everyone's a little different.

I agree with Ckbrew. Looks like you're overwatering. Use the light pot method like he suggested. Watering frequency is dependent on so many factors like environment, cultivar, PPFD, etc. so when someone says water X times a day take it as a jump off point and adjust accordingly.

Are you seeing a rise in fungus gnats? That's a good indicator of overwatering.

Nah luckily no gnats for me in the tent, as of now it's 100% clean of any pests. I usually water at 2pm, and that's long ago, so I will just skip it for today and see how she looks tomorrow. That's the only thing I haven't tried yet, so chances are that it's indeed overwatering. I'm just confused as to how everyone says you can't overwater coco, it's literally why I changed to that stuff. I'm usually 100% organic, but too dumb to water correctly, so coco was my choice in the end.

I guess I'm just so dumb that I even overwater a substrate which is almost impossible to.. overwater.

[Rootsruler]

Most of those guides are general guidelines. Use them to get in the ballpark then dial them into your specific situation. Everyone's a little different.

I agree with Ckbrew. Looks like you're overwatering. Use the light pot method like he suggested. Watering frequency is dependent on so many factors like environment, cultivar, PPFD, etc. so when someone says water X times a day take it as a jump off point and adjust accordingly.

Are you seeing a rise in fungus gnats? That's a good indicator of overwatering.

[Shneex0338]

I started with the coco for cannabis watering schedule. Then I switched to the GWE schedule. Watering multiple times per day did not work for me. Your plants don't look really bad. I would try pulling back watering to once a day, and perhaps skipping a day or 2 so they dry out a bit. Don't let them completely dry out. Get into the habit of lifting the pots to determine how much water is still in them. I usually skip a day every 4-5 days. This will change as the water requirements change as the life cycle of the plant changes.

Yeah I didn't follow the "multiple waterings a day" schedule anyways, as it.. scared me. I felt like once a day was enough so I only watered once daily with 15-20% runoff, and apparently it was fine going by lots of opinions. But for whatever reason, it isn't fine as the plant is telling me. I haven't seen it happy once in its lifecycle so far, which kinda bugs me out a bit.

Right now the pot is pretty heavy, as I watered around 25 hours ago. Some dry coco here and there on top of the substrate. I'll just leave her alone for today and see how she's looking tomorrow.

[Ckbrew]

I started with the coco for cannabis watering schedule. Then I switched to the GWE schedule. Watering multiple times per day did not work for me. Your plants don't look really bad. I would try pulling back watering to once a day, and perhaps skipping a day or 2 so they dry out a bit. Don't let them completely dry out. Get into the habit of lifting the pots to determine how much water is still in them. I usually skip a day every 4-5 days. This will change as the water requirements change as the life cycle of the plant changes.

[Shneex0338]

It was the cocoforcannabis guide that lots of people swear by, I thought it'll be 100% safe, especially because it's recommended to water 3 times a day, but I only wanted to do once.

And about the plant looking great - I don't know anymore. Technically it does indeed look nice, but I checked a bit closer today, and the leaves are apparently starting to lose color everywhere. The tips are all healthy, no burnt tips, but when I checked the tent today for the first time, it just seemed more yellow than usually. That viewpoint changes the longer I look at it, but images don't really lie.

Same for my seedling in the same coco perlite mix, with same nutrients. It's slowly turning lime-green. That one gets fed with an EC of 0.8 currently, same pH of around 5.8-6.0

[9fingerleafs]

Yeah. The EC will rise over time. Every few weeks you can flush but I don't flush and never had an issue with that. The amount of nutrients depends on the light the plant is getting so you gotta find the right amount for your set up. I flower outdoors so I got the sun full blast. Most days I water twice a day but only once if it's overcast. But my veg is indoor and I water every two or three days. I try to water with no run off. I now know when the plant needs water but takes some practice. The best way is to lift the plants and water when they feel super light.

Don't really know what coco guide you mean. It's not prohibited to mention or link other sites as long as you are not promoting or advertising. I'm going to take a wild guess and say maybe dr.coco has a guide? He was a member here before he adopted that name. Didn't get along with people here and developed his own site with a few other members. If that's not it just ignore that.

The plant looks really great. And remember the dry period in the medium causes the plant to grow more and longer roots in search for water, so it's a great thing to make the plant work for it a little bit. Bests of luck

Ps. Did a great job in your post. If more people would take the effort to explain and provide details they'd get more help. It's easier to chime in when you don't have to ask for information