problems.... and I have been reading

indoor..8 x 12 foot room. 3rd grow, novice.

coco in 6 inch pots, transplanted three weeks ago into 2 gallon smart pots. I used Botonicare Rhizosphere Root inocullant per instructions at that time.

specific medium...becuzz coco

Hand water 18 to 24 oz every other day. most of the pots are lite every other day.

Nothing has been added to the soil

Soil or slab runoff pH---can't get the water to drain out of the pot.
Water source tap water from hose

Source water pH is 7.3, ppm is 350, ec is 0.5

Age of plant-6 weeks veg and now 2nd week bloom.

Type of fertilizer-General Hydrponics Flora Grow9 mill per gallon..2-1-6
Flora Bloom 6 mill per gallon..0-5-4
Flora Micro 4 mill per gallon..5-0-1
Diamond Nector 5 mill per gal
Botonicare Cal Mag 1mill per gal
Rate of application..see directly above.

Lighting source and distance from plant...1000 HPS 24 inches from tops.

Air temperature 76 to 80 night.........76 to 84 day

Air % Relative humidity...30 to 50%

20 gal C02 tank set at .2 cubic feet every 15 minutes

Lighting schedule.......12 and 12

Type of ventilation your room has..Closed room with ocilating fans. AC with fan taking cold air from outside cooling HPS then exhaust to the outside.

After all the nute's were added usually had a ppm of around 1400 to 1500 and a ph of 6.0 after using Mad Farmer get down.

My plants looked great when I transplanted. About a week later some of the leaves started to yellow. I trimmed most of them off. They are still yellowing. The fan leaves start to yellow at the tips and work the yellow towards the stem. I would say one in 4 or 5 fan leaves are like that, maybe one in 6.

They eventually dry out and turn a brownish color, some turn up, some turn down. The rest of the fan leaves look perky, but a little pale. These are Chocolope, whatever the f23k that is.

I did my reading regarding the movement of the smart pots too late. I have handled the plants as though they were in plastic containers, and I have read that is a no-no. I ran the search under "coco", yellow leaves, and several of the stickies. I am still kinda lost.

I tried to take one plant out of its' smart pot and the coco started to come apart, I was afraid to loose the whole thing. Wanted to check the roots, but I didn't.

I am thinking that everything was okay until the transplant and the addition of the root stimulant. But what I know really isn't a whole lot, just a guess. Maybe one of you men or women can lead me down the path.

Thanks, I M Stone

Hello isaacmstone,

First thing that jumps out is your water.
PH is a little too high (6 after adjusment) coco users usually get better results at 5.5 or so.
Plus 350ppm of something in the water to start is alot of crap in there. I wouldn't even drink that myself unless I had a water analysis to see what was in it. You are a canidate for a RO water system.

I'm also troubled by your lack of drainage from your pots, this is absolutely neccesary. When you water your plants it should be at least to the point of seeing run off from the bottom. Plus inorder to do a flush you need too get 2-3 times the volume of the pot to pass thru it.

Asking the plant to feed at 1400-1500 is asking alot, especially without good drainage. You will have nutrient/salt build up quickly.

CO2 use at this point my skew what problems there are, makes one problem look like another. Untill you get a handle on what you have going on I would not use it. Once dailed in, and everything is growing as it should at ambient CO2 levels, that's when to start using it and then start pushing nutrient levels.

Hope this might help you.
OM

So it sounds like I should put some holes in the bottom of the smart pots for drainage, give them a good flush at the correct ph, and then feed to a lower ppm of maybe 1000 ppm.

The water I have is city water, maybe I should filter it like I do my drinking water.

I will try this tomorrow when I water again. Thanks, Isaac