Seedlings and Clones in Coco, Week 1  

After the first week or so, when the young cannabis plants start to grow their first true leaves germination is over, and vegetation begins. There will be some difference in growth depending on if you started with seedlings or clones in coco.

You may not see much growth in the first week above ground. This is because your plants are using a lot of energy to grow a good strong root structure. When the roots have grown to a suitable level, the growth above ground will speed up.

If you have any questions about seedlings and clones, then feel free to ask for help in our cannabis growers forum

Encouraging Root Growth in Seedlings and Clones

There are many different ways to improve the root growth of your
seedlings and clones in coco. One of the easiest ways is to not give your plants too much water. This will force the roots to search further to look for water, and make them grow longer.

Proper Watering Technique

There isn't a lot of roots in the medium of a young cannabis plant, this means, they will drink less water, and they will also need less. As the root structure and the plant grows bigger, you should water your coco everyday, but for seedlings, and clones, you need to encourage the root growth.

Don't let the coco dry out, but you do not have to water every day in the early stages. Depending on the size of the pot, you may not have to water for 2 maybe 3 days at a time.

The important thing is to feed your plants with a low EC, and do not let the medium dry out completely. This will damage the roots, and also cause an "EC spike" in the medium. Your plants can suffer with nutrient burn if this happens.

If the top layer of the coco has dried out, water/feed them with the dosage given to you in the previous post.

Root Stimulators for Cannabis Plants Grown in Coco

Along with a proper watering technique, you can use one of many brands of root stimulators to increase the root production. You should have chosen a root stim from our guide on nutrients for coco, check it out here:

These "root stims" have enzymes, hormones and bacteria in them, to encourage the rate of growth in the root zone. It is recommended you do use some of these, they will make a big difference in the speed your plant can grow. It will also improve their overall health.

Do not underestimate how important keeping a healthy root zone is. This is how your plant will drink, and receive most of its nutrients. If the root zone is unhealthy, your plant will be too. Follow this guide to help you understand how to keep healthy roots and why.

Lighting

Giving your seedlings and clones a light cycle of 18/6 is best at this point of the growth cycle. The plant will spend more energy building roots during its night time hours. So give it at least 4 hours of darkness to help the roots along.

You should still be using low level lighting here such as T5 fluorescent, or a small LED. You can use HID lights, but shouldn't use anything higher than a 250w metal halide, until the plant has a few sets of leaves.

Feeding Young Cannabis Plants

Watch out for signs of your plants getting hungry. Keep them on a low EC just 0.2 points over your BG EC, unless they start to show signs of deficiency.

If you do have problems, then you need to make sure the pH of your feed is correct, as most problems in these stages can be caused by pH fluctuations. Increase the EC of the feed by 0.2 points at a time. And feed for a few days before raising it again.

It is easy to over feed your plants, but it is easier to fix an under fed plant than an overfed one.

Go light on the food, the plant will tell you if it needs more further into the grow. Still, during this week, you need to encourage root growth as much as possible.

Fans and Breeze

Seedlings and clones in coco should be strong enough to handle a light breeze at this stage. If you still have a dome or cup over your plants, they should be removed now, and a light breeze applied to the plants.

This may cause some plants to blow over if the stem is too weak. You can support the plant with a small cocktail stick, or something similar. But do not tie the plant too tightly to the support. The breeze still needs to move the plant a little to encourage the stem stem grow stronger. As the plant grows, remove the support and let the plant hold itself up.

Have your fans on the lowest setting. You only want a slight breeze, moving the plants a little and keeping the air in the grow space moving.

Final Notes on Seedlings and Clones in Coco

At the end of this week, as you start heading into week 2 of your cannabis grow in coco, you will start to see much more growth above ground. You should look into techniques like LST and topping. Ask some questions in our cannabis growers forum if you need any help.

These methods can seem frightening at first, but you have plenty of help from the members of the forum, and Percy's Grow Guides to help you through it. You're not alone with this, ask for help anytime you need it.

Keep the feed low for now, water every other day. Next week your plant will be able to handle more feeds and more light.