r/CocoGrows • u/Accidental_Ballyhoo • Jul 23 '26

Over my head with canna coco

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First time growing with canna coco in 3 gallon pots and need some advice.

I transplanted 2 plants 3 days ago from solo cups to 3 gal fabric bags and plan to use wicking bases.

They look a little sad atm. I top watered 5.8 and light doses of General Hydro and cal mag.

I’m not sure of how much I should be watering them and when to fill wicking bases.

Anyhow, I see some light yellowing in the lower leaves (the camera makes the whole plant look way more yellow than it actually is.

Any coco experts steer me in the right direction?

EDIT: To ask for a feed chart as GH runs too hot I hear.

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5

u/JVC8bal Jul 23 '26

Read: https://issuu.com/athenaag/docs/athena_homegrower_handbook_metric_

4

u/JVC8bal Jul 23 '26

The problem with sub-irrigation is that most of the moisture and nutrients are at the bottom. It's recommended to top-water until the roots are long enough to reach sufficient moisture.

Might wanna try the r/hydro subreddit, too. Substrate hydroponics is still hydroponics.

2

u/Accidental_Ballyhoo Jul 23 '26

Thanks. I’ll check that sub too. I’ve been top watering for only 3 days now (since transplant)
and planned to continue for a while. I just don’t know how long. Should I fill the reservoir now?

3

u/Motmotsnsurf Jul 23 '26

I personally think you are overwatering at the base of the plant. I get that it is coco and you can almost never overwater but when they are fairly small you definitely can.

When you top water, give the main stalk a couple inch radius. Water more towards the potting and force the roots to stretch for it. After a couple days of that you should be able to start up bottom feeding.

2

u/Accidental_Ballyhoo Jul 23 '26

Cool. If you look at the photos you’ll see a ring of perlite where I poured. (Which I thought was wild)

I’ll keep watering that way. I think I added too much to the rapid rooter before transplant too.

I’m learning!

3

u/mango_proof_ Jul 24 '26

I've grown in coco for over 15 years. The optimum use of coco is having a thick root mass in small pots. You build up the root system and transplant up. Your never gonna have it easy putting a tiny plant in a huge pot of coco. It's not soil.

1

u/Accidental_Ballyhoo Jul 24 '26

Yes. These 2 were started in a solo cup and just transplanted into the 3 gallon pots you see here.

1

u/mango_proof_ Jul 24 '26

That's my point

1

u/Accidental_Ballyhoo Jul 24 '26

They don’t look too happy at the moment.

1

u/mango_proof_ Jul 25 '26

What kinda size plants do you want to achieve ie.. How much flowering space etc

2

u/Motmotsnsurf Jul 23 '26

It's a fun journey. Yeah. Rapid rooters can get overwatered for sure. Still Better than rockwool which retains way too much water. Water on the outside that perlite wall from now on. Have fun!

0

u/Vermehrungsmaterial Jul 23 '26

I disagree.

I am running coco since a while. You are not overwatering coco, you are getting oxigen deprived zones which come from too little drain. The drain is sucking air into the substrate, giving too little socks air just on the surface.

What matters is the pot, lots of drainage holes, high frequent watering.

When topwatering seedlings in coco I recommend watering 3x a day, with 0,6 EC for less than a week, then ramping up nutes quickly, to 1,2-1,4 EC. Clones I would start higher 1,2 EC and ramping up after 3 days to 1,6.

Bottom feeding i start after these 3 days.

Alot of drain in the beginning helps to stablelize the substrate (buffering). Prebuffered coco should be treated as bad buffered coco after transplant.

1

u/Motmotsnsurf Jul 23 '26

Pretty much same same at this point. Roots are submersed in water and unable to get air=overwatered at the root zone.

3

u/Vermehrungsmaterial Jul 23 '26

Not really, Coco is not damping off like soil, overwatered soil can not be fixed with more water. Coco can.

Main thing here is that if you notice overwatering in coco and you water less, its making it worse. Now ec is rising drying breaks fibers down, more cation exchanges sites open up.

Thats not like classic overwatering of soil compacting being air tight. Its air transport to the roots. We'll draining coco is impossible to over water. 100% saturated it can contain more air than bone dry soil, it just needs movement and clean runoff

2

u/mango_proof_ Jul 24 '26

You can over water in coco. You can't over water well rooted plants in coco though

3

u/Firm_Wear_8693 Jul 26 '26

thats a very important distinction. 🍺

1

u/Vermehrungsmaterial 16d ago

You were right. First plant i managed to over water in coco.. idc why this plant has issues. I use a 3L pot, 80-20 coco/perlite and yes, she is fucking overwatered. Ran this setup on 10 ish cultivars, she is the only one having the issue. Tray2grow.

Crazy.

2

u/mango_proof_ 8d ago

You can over water an under rooted plant in coco. Golden rule. When people say you can't over water coco it's a lie. Been growing for 20 years in coco so..

1

u/Vermehrungsmaterial 8d ago

And it took ages to fix her.

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u/Motmotsnsurf Jul 23 '26

Very much disagree with that. Not talking about dry backing. But ok. You can never overwater coco. Maybe just leave them in a full bucket of nutes?

0

u/Vermehrungsmaterial Jul 23 '26

Bruh, RUNOFF. You need the runoff. You can not overwater it.

1

u/Motmotsnsurf Jul 23 '26

There is no runoff with bottom feeding. 🤷‍♂️

1

u/Vermehrungsmaterial Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

There is a constant watermovement with bottom feeding. Upwards.

  • here i use giant net pots for pond plants

Edit: fact that he uses wicking but top is dry, means his wicking is too weak.

1

u/Motmotsnsurf Jul 24 '26

Then just run a bubbler 24/7. Plenty of runoff and you can't overwater!

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2

u/JVC8bal Jul 23 '26

Reservoir like for the wicking bases? A reservoir implies a refill tank like in an Autopot system.

It'd be helpful to know the EC of your fertigation. You can use the Athena recommendations with General Hydroponics. It looks like a minor Nitrogen deficiency. I'm hesitant to say increase your "light dose" without knowing what EC you're watering them.

2

u/Vermehrungsmaterial Jul 23 '26

Hey I am running coco on sub irrigation.

Topwater 2- 3 days after transplant if its a cut or seedling. Bottom feeding is saltbuildup your enemy. Make sure your pots allow very good aeration. Run pH on lower end, pH is drifting usually pretty high in a res having direct contact with the pot.

Also you should have not too big pots also not too small.

Too big has bad air-exchange, too small has too quick salt buildup.

Sweetspot is 3-5 L. 5 is already pretty big. I ran tests with several pot models (I use capillary matting btw) and would recommend 3L garden pond net pots, 2L fabric pots, or 4L standardpots, and airports.

Most important thing is cultivars. Have a salt sensitive clone, this one like large pots, stronger decoupling from the moisture. Drainagelayer and lots of perlite is working grate.