Testing The Quality Of Your Coco Coir.

  • Thread starter BigPunkin
  • Start date
  • Tagged users None
BigPunkin

BigPunkin

28
3
Many people that I’ve came across in person and online, doesn't know how to test how clean their Coco Coir .

When washing large batches of Coco Coir, it can be a pain in the butt for us lazy people, so with this method, you can test a small batch of your coir using things you already have at home


Things you need…
  1. PPM Meter
  2. Measuring Cup
  3. RO Water (I use tap in a pitch)
  4. Large Bowl
  5. Strainer.
  6. Coco Coir (Duh!)
  7. Clean spoon or Hand.

Take 8 cups of H20 and pour it into the large bowl, then take note of the PPM using your meter.

Take 6 cups of the Coco Coir and mix into H20 with a spoon or your hand, then let the Coco/H20 mixture sit for 20 minutes.

After 20 mins, take your strainer and place it over the measuring cup, then pour the Coco/H20 mixture into the strainer.

When enough of the liquid is collected back into the measuring cup, take your PPM meter and test the liquid.

If your meter is reading over 200ppm, you will need to wash your coco.

I use just tap water, and my tap water is 70ppm, and when I tested this new batch of coco coir I received, it was 125 ppm, so no washing was needed.
 
S

Socalking

270
93
I rinsed mine for about 40 minutes at 3/gal a minute, whilst a plant was in there using florakleen, definitely a must, the plant picked up vigor within 12 hours and is still impressing me, i know 120 gallons spunds like a lot, but i was using a 35 gallon bucket with a smaller plant(3 ft). But it loved it.
 
B

BuddaBud

1
1
Ok fine.. 200ppms or lower is a go-rt. But what about the imbalance of Mg, Ca, K? We need to wash the coco in Magnesium nítrate and calcium nítrate . Otherwise the potassium will crowd out the Mg and Ca.. right???
 
Montana89

Montana89

1
1
hello, thanks for the info. Noob here; still planning my first grow. Can I use a soil pH meter in coco coir?
 
amekins

amekins

2,684
263
Ok fine.. 200ppms or lower is a go-rt. But what about the imbalance of Mg, Ca, K? We need to wash the coco in Magnesium nítrate and calcium nítrate . Otherwise the potassium will crowd out the Mg and Ca.. right???
My understanding is that after the coco coir is washed, then it gets a watering with a good dose of calmag for the coco, and then nutes always with calmag.
 
tobh

tobh

Supporter
4,194
263
Ok fine.. 200ppms or lower is a go-rt. But what about the imbalance of Mg, Ca, K? We need to wash the coco in Magnesium nítrate and calcium nítrate . Otherwise the potassium will crowd out the Mg and Ca.. right???
You can precharge coir with calmag, but it's not really necessary. Just ensure you're adding it every fertigation and you won't run into issues.
 
Milarepa

Milarepa

8
3
Glad I saw this. New to coco, and I have not done any of this coco prep and my shits gone sideways. So, to be clear, should I wash with regular tap water that is not PH'd? And no need to add cal/mag like I've been reading as long as nutrients have cal mag in them?
 
Last edited:
Madmax

Madmax

4,733
313
I just rinse the ppm down using rainwater to say 150ppm for seedlings then run phd 200ppm nutes through ..when i up potted to go into flower i rinsed and fertigated new coir to the ppm i was feeding then the day before..working pretty good so far.half strength cal mag was added..in some instances like you said some nutrient lines do have it such as canna classic.i used calmag 3 times i think..but using more near every feed this time.for abit more of an assurance .
 
T

TryingToGrow

Supporter
322
63
Shouldn’t you also check the ph? The coco I got is 6.5ph and it kills my plants. I’m trying to lower it before I start my grow to 5.7-6.0ph. What should I use? Thank you
 
Clearbluesky

Clearbluesky

297
63
Yes I use canna Coco and it is buffered but I wash it just to know for sure what I'm working with. I put my canna brick in a tote and add 5 gallons of RO water and let it set over night, then I use a strainer and take everything off of the top and put in another tote, then all the fine stuff at the bottom I throw out. Then I buffer what I took off the top, I mix up my Master blend 3 parts to 1.0 EC and PH 6.0 and add the 5 gallons of nutrients to my Coco and let it set over night and remove it from tote and it's ready for use. With my master blend it puts the magnesium and calcium back in the cocoa. Here's a auto at 61 days old.
 
Screenshot 20220430 073334
B

benjones

363
93
did i do this correctly ?

for the last 2 days i washed and buffered enough coco to start some seedlings , i soaked it in cal mag 1700 EC , PH 6.5 for 8 hours twice .

today i put all the coco into a fabric pot . in a reservoir i put plain water with a PH of 5.9 . i did not check the PH of the coco i put into the pot

i kept running the pouring the water through the pot and collect run off from the pot and the PH was still high at about 6.8 . so i kept lowering the reservoir PH eventually to about 5.3 . it was only then after a few goes of pouring water through the fabric pot containing the coco did the run off at the bottom of the pot that i collected measured 5.9 PH . the EC was 400

was this correct ?
 
shortcake

shortcake

22
13
Many people that I’ve came across in person and online, doesn't know how to test how clean their Coco Coir .

When washing large batches of Coco Coir, it can be a pain in the butt for us lazy people, so with this method, you can test a small batch of your coir using things you already have at home


Things you need…
  1. PPM Meter
  2. Measuring Cup
  3. RO Water (I use tap in a pitch)
  4. Large Bowl
  5. Strainer.
  6. Coco Coir (Duh!)
  7. Clean spoon or Hand.

Take 8 cups of H20 and pour it into the large bowl, then take note of the PPM using your meter.

Take 6 cups of the Coco Coir and mix into H20 with a spoon or your hand, then let the Coco/H20 mixture sit for 20 minutes.

After 20 mins, take your strainer and place it over the measuring cup, then pour the Coco/H20 mixture into the strainer.

When enough of the liquid is collected back into the measuring cup, take your PPM meter and test the liquid.

If your meter is reading over 200ppm, you will need to wash your coco.

I use just tap water, and my tap water is 70ppm, and when I tested this new batch of coco coir I received, it was 125 ppm, so no washing was needed.
Thank you! I am using coco for the first time indoors and never knew that!
 
N1ghtL1ght

N1ghtL1ght

Staff
Supporter
670
143
did i do this correctly ?

for the last 2 days i washed and buffered enough coco to start some seedlings , i soaked it in cal mag 1700 EC , PH 6.5 for 8 hours twice .

today i put all the coco into a fabric pot . in a reservoir i put plain water with a PH of 5.9 . i did not check the PH of the coco i put into the pot

i kept running the pouring the water through the pot and collect run off from the pot and the PH was still high at about 6.8 . so i kept lowering the reservoir PH eventually to about 5.3 . it was only then after a few goes of pouring water through the fabric pot containing the coco did the run off at the bottom of the pot that i collected measured 5.9 PH . the EC was 400

was this correct ?
pH 5.8 for the soak next time and 1 time is enough.
you're still fine at pH 5.9 EC 0,4
 
3

33rdgrower

30
8
Many people that I’ve came across in person and online, doesn't know how to test how clean their Coco Coir .

When washing large batches of Coco Coir, it can be a pain in the butt for us lazy people, so with this method, you can test a small batch of your coir using things you already have at home


Things you need…
  1. PPM Meter
  2. Measuring Cup
  3. RO Water (I use tap in a pitch)
  4. Large Bowl
  5. Strainer.
  6. Coco Coir (Duh!)
  7. Clean spoon or Hand.

Take 8 cups of H20 and pour it into the large bowl, then take note of the PPM using your meter.

Take 6 cups of the Coco Coir and mix into H20 with a spoon or your hand, then let the Coco/H20 mixture sit for 20 minutes.

After 20 mins, take your strainer and place it over the measuring cup, then pour the Coco/H20 mixture into the strainer.

When enough of the liquid is collected back into the measuring cup, take your PPM meter and test the liquid.

If your meter is reading over 200ppm, you will need to wash your coco.

I use just tap water, and my tap water is 70ppm, and when I tested this new batch of coco coir I received, it was 125 ppm, so no washing was needed.
Thanks for this bro, I didn’t even know I needed to check ppm on coco 😊
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom