[edelephant]

Hey yall

Im trying out coco for the first time and was wondering if any of you more comfortable with it can give me input. Ive always grown in sunshine mix with perlite with either advanced nutes or gh nutes. Ive also never really worried with pH as my tap water comes out a nice 7.0 and I throw an airstone in my 5 gallon buckets for 24 hours prior to using. Ive had excellent results with this method but have heard of the wonders of coco so I wanted to give it a shot.

Can I not worry about pH as my tap pH is already 7.0?

How often do I water? I've heard daily, every 2-3 days,

How often do I feed nutes?

Do I have to water down my nute mix for coco or is nutrient uptake similar to sunshine mix?

Any general input from the coco experts will help...

cheers yall

[Texas Kid]

I gotcha bro, been running coco exclusively for 3 or so years now, it's an easy transition.

The first thing I will say that it is not very suitable to container growing and hand watering especially. You just can not get the media saturation level adequat enough for much success. Coco does not hold water or retain very much at all in the way of moisture at all. Just about everything you pour in the top will drain right out the bottom. I am not saying it can't be done, it is just damn hard to realize the benifits of the coco with this method.

Ebb and Flow or continous top drip down or even feed to waste works great with coco. Timed feeding cycles it the trick, timers make the world grow faster, bigger, and more robust. Bucket systems work great, waterfarms work awesome, ebb & grow, even DWC works good.

ph at 7.0 is a little high for coco, especially when used as a hydro media, I like to let it float between 5.5 and 6.1 but it usually settin at 5.8 with a bullet. Test your runoff water and try and hold 6.0 or so but stay under the 6.5-7.0 soil ranges and your golden.

Depending on the size and consistancy of your chip, whether it is fine coir or bigger chips, that will dictate the flood cycles. In bigger chips I like to flood the table for 15 minutes every 3 to 4 hours while lights are on and none while off. In late flower you might increase it to 15 minutes every other hour when lights on for the heavier feed. In coir, which is real fine and it hold alot more moisture, you might could go a couple of days but not on a big plant, she'll keel over under the lights.

Feed nutes every time unless doing an intermidiate or final flush but thats it, always feed.

This is for the most part a hydroponic media and really fails miserably when used as a soil substitute in container growing. It doesn't do well when you apply soil methodology to it at all.

Tex

[edelephant]

Thanks TK,

Im using fine coir, currently using gh nutes so after a few hours in the 7.0 pH tap water it drops down a bit. I was wondering if this is enough, or if I should get some pH down and pH the nute mix. Never pH'd any solution before, how long do I wait after adding pH down to check the pH? Is there a limit to how long this nute mix can sit out? Never really had to worry about pH, so this is all fairly new to me.

[grizz]

like tex said get your ph down. don't worry about your nutes sitting to long as you will use them fast. The only thing I disagree with is the container part. I use the 1 gl. grow bags with coco can coco. I grow stadium style so I start them flowering early and they do great. I would also recomened canna a & b nutes, Its made for coco and works great. also watch for cal mag def, its very easy to correct in coco. grizz

[Texas Kid]

ph is a little more critcle in hydro setups but nothing to fear it's easy cheesy stuff...a little ph down will do wonders.

Nutes can sit mixed for awhile, just agitate a little before using incase the solids have settled out a little. You do want to avoid high heat though because it can effect the nutes especially if there are any live bacteria or microbes of any kind.

Tex

[ProGroWannabe]

I know this thread is almost two weeks old but here's my input incase you need it:

One thing that I learned the hard way was how valuable a decent pH meter really is. I used the GH liquid pH test kit for a long long time and never saw the need for a meter. Once I finally decided to get one ('cuz of a great deal I saw on Ebay), the health of my plant increased significantly. I attribute the difference to my inability to read the colors on the test kit bottle as well as I thought I was, causing my nute solutions' pH to be off without my realizing it.

In short, if you are lke I was, and growing while broke, the liquid pH kit will get you by. If you wanna show of some beautiful plants, get yourself a meter.

You'll love coco if ya watch your pH and listen to guys like those above--very good advice they gave ya.

[tex1969]

I have a uncooled grow area with a cab temp sometimes reaching low 90's high 80's, promix has no probs. I want to know what are my options for coco or hydro? Can I use a res for nutes and drippers or must I hand water or should I just stick with soil?

[ProGroWannabe]

Well there are as many options or more with coco than one would have with any other medium. You CAN use a rez for nutes and drippers, you can run flood cycles off of a timer, you can hand water....just about anything you want. And that is just the thing--what do YOU want? Each option has it's advantages and disadvantages. I prefer to hand-water right now cuz it keeps things simple.....s'all up to you tex.

[tex1969]

What is the max temps that a nutrient solution can be when drip feeding a plant.

[Ganja Baba]

Originally Posted by Texas Kid

ph is a little more critcle in hydro setups but nothing to fear it's easy cheesy stuff...a little ph down will do wonders.

Nutes can sit mixed for awhile, just agitate a little before using incase the solids have settled out a little. You do want to avoid high heat though because it can effect the nutes especially if there are any live bacteria or microbes of any kind.

Tex

hi tex , i mix up my barrel and use it up with in 3 days , its 350 lt . the thing is i have been using , carbo load and sweet leaf as additives to my canna range , if i leave it over night with the advance stuff in the barrel it starts to go throthy and gunky , with the air stone it goes like wine and the ph goes down , i do like the carbo it seems to be the sweet L and the combo of both .... just adding ...