I seem to be having issues making the jump from my cloner to coco coir. Getting better, but I stumble through. Any tips? I have an aeroponic cloner, not much to figure out there. Amazing roots, 100% of the time. But when I go to coco coir my plants either suffer right away, or soon. I was going to go recirculating DWC but Scotty Real kinda cleared that thought up.
To solve the right-away suffer, I let the roots grow long. Directions say 1 inch? Mine look like a Gandalf beard. That helped a ton, but didn’t solve. So I boosted humidity from 45% to say 65% and now the plants go in praying, and stay that way so I know I’m on the right track.
But then they started suffering later, because that 65% humidity was making the coco not dry out. I’m in 1 gal fabric pot/50% perlite/coco, so those pots are ALWAYS light, so I am over-watering.
Do you have any thoughts or tips to go from that cloner to coco? Also, my roots are a stuck together mess (though healthy) coming from the cloner, I don’t want to stress them by trying to separate. Any suggestions there?
On The photos btw, I know they could be worse. But these things were praying when I went to work. I watered, came home horrified to those photos. For light, it seems I’m running Blurpals but I’m really running 600W HPS Hortilux, just dimmed for diagnosis and stress, so the supplemental LEDs look more than they really are.
Love your show!
The coco will stay wet but not saturated with as much perlite as you added. It’s not like an amended soil. The coco’s pH is the most likely reason for stress. Make sure you run some nutrition through it with a pH between 5.7 and 6.0. Check the run off and make sure it’s in that range. Keep the temp under 80 F and humidity around 65%. Try to keep the light intensity about the same as it was during cloning for the first 2 or so days while they get established. Then gradually increase it the first week. You can add a little rooting hormone to your feed for the first week also to help the new roots establish themselves in the coco faster. Good luck and they’ll be fine.
Good tips, thanks. How long would you leave the humidity elevated like that? I’m thinking decrease slowly over 1 week?
Leave the humidity in veg between 60-65% and 50-55% in flower.
Wow, you leave it that high of humidity? I was definitely screwing that up.
^^^ Great tips from mystro as always. ^^^
I stopped using aero/hydro “cloning machines” kinda for this very reason. I always found it to be a rough transition from the cloner to soil/coco. I suspect anytime you switch mediums you are gonna have a significant delay as the plant adjusts.
I switched to cloning in rapid rooters and I find it to be a much easier transition to soil or coco.
I wondered, that aeroponic is just too sweet for them to transfer out of. But it works so well I may try to figure it out.
Thanks Soup!
I had this problem also, and still do sometimes. Ive found that mine do better when I go from the cloner right into an amended “supersoil,” but what I would try in your situation is before you put your clones into the coco, soak the coco mix with a heavy dose of recharge, maybe a tablespoon and a half per gallon of water. That way the new roots, which are starving by the way, will have a nice colony of microbes to interact with, along with a little kelp and other goodies to get it going. You could also add a little fish fertilizer to the water. Grow MO, Bro!!!
Thanks for the info, my Missouri brother. I got my card, it was no problem at all. I’m so proud of MO 🙂
Another possible issue could be the quality of coco. Low quality coco could be salty and need a good rinse. I only buy Canna coco for this reason.
I buy cheap coco, a holdover from my prohibition days. I will try to find some quality now that I’m out from behind the curtain.
I have had this issue as well switching from my ez- cloner. One problem I was using the botanicare coco bricks, which is a lesser quantity coco. Also my light intensity would be too high with low humidity. Try planting into solo cups with quality coco and higher humidity around 65%. The solo cups will dry out a little faster than the 1 gal. I also use vegbloom nutes
Thanks for all the help, guys, I can’t tell you what it means to me. I think I’m going way too low on humidity, and way too high on watering. I think I”m down to just those.
Thanks again, you folks are amazing.
Mychorizea Fungus during transplant on the roots will help them transition to the coco….I know this is an old post but I didnt see anybody mention it.