New to coco and wanting your thoughts...

[SLYNINJA]

Hey there,

I'm curious about coco, I'm currently using 70/30 coco/perlite this is what the distributor says about the product:

pest and disease free, thoroughly rinsed, pH stabilised, pre-buffered with calcium, and has a very low salt index.

The thing is when I watered my clones in for the first time the runoff was very brown compared to the nutrient mix going in... Is this normal..? I felt like it should have been rinsed first till it ran clear than watered with nutrient mix...

Thoughts..?

Using fabric pots.

 

[Stokes]

What brand coco?

 

[carlosescobar]

I struggled for nearly 2 years with autos in coco, had all sorts of problems. calcium issues (coco holds onto calcium) i think salts built up with 2 grows which mostly show right at the end which is annoying. i let one dry out too much which pretty much fkd everything, my leaves had all sorts of burn issues ...so i went back to soil with photos and the difference is huge, i havent had one issue.

 

[SLYNINJA]

What brand coco?

Galuku CocoEarth

 

[SLYNINJA]

I struggled for nearly 2 years with autos in coco, had all sorts of problems. calcium issues (coco holds onto calcium) i think salts built up with 2 grows which mostly show right at the end which is annoying. i let one dry out too much which pretty much fkd everything, my leaves had all sorts of burn issues ...so i went back to soil with photos and the difference is huge, i havent had one issue.

Yeah same here, I've given coco a few runs and only ever had issues, soil no problem.

 

[Stokes]

Galuku CocoEarth

Ive never seen that. I like Canna bricks, its buffered and ready to go. The only brand i dont rinse or buffer out of the box.

Couple buddies speak very highly of plagron, ive never used it tho.

Coco is great as long as you have attention to detail. Safest way to do it is to water to runoff every time. You can do it with no runoff but you have to keep the substrate moist. Cant have heavy drybacks


But yea by the looks of it i would definitely rinse very well, then let it soak in calmag for like a half day

 

[Stokes]

Yeah same here, I've given coco a few runs and only ever had issues, soil no problem.

Try it with a self adjusting ph nutrient line like Mega crop, crop salt, or AN ph perfect sensi

 

[carlosescobar]

Yeah same here, I've given coco a few runs and only ever had issues, soil no problem.

I dont miss getting rid of the run off. I must admit i am not suited to coco because i have a haphazard approach to growing, i think with coco its better if you are more precise.

 

[spase]

I'm doing my first coco run. I'm using 70/30 coco/pearlite. I've set it up to feed them 3x day to run off. So far they're looking good. I'm getting close to flip. I started lollipoping today.

 

[SLYNINJA]

I'm doing my first coco run. I'm using 70/30 coco/pearlite. I've set it up to feed them 3x day to run off. So far they're looking good. I'm getting close to flip. I started lollipoping today. View attachment 2527922

They look real nice and healthy, are you feeding to run off 3x per day or is it just the last feed you get run off..? Also how do you irrigate watering can, hose etc..? Cheers.

 

[spase]

I get run off all feeds. I've got a 6 gallon reservoir that pumps into a couple funnels that feed the plants. It feeds every 6 hours the light is on.

 

[SLYNINJA]

I dont miss getting rid of the run off. I must admit i am not suited to coco because i have a haphazard approach to growing, i think with coco its better if you are more precise.

Yeah I agree, that's what I'm going for a precision run I guess I'll just have to preserve luckily tho my run off is plumbed into our household waste plumping so I don't have to worry about that, atleast that's one thing less.

 

[SLYNINJA]

I get run off all feeds. I've got a 6 gallon reservoir that pumps into a couple funnels that feed the plants. It feeds every 6 hours the light is on.

Interesting so your substrate is almost completely saturated most of the time, looks awesome. How long have you been running your system in this manner..?

 

[spase]

A few months.

 

[SLYNINJA]

A few months.

Nice, have you completed a run using coco yet...? I've had one good run I think I'm on my fourth or fifth run so far.

 

[KG1]

Any dry spots will form precipitate akin to a salt crust as elements in your fertilizer and water form solids from liquids. You never let it dry.

Better to use an appropriate size pot for the stage and size of plant as you can do more frequent waterings and cycle more air and nutrients through the Coco.

A small pot will hold a lot of roots, size down from soil considerably.

Do not treat it like soil ever.

Try never to pH anything just find water and ferts that make it in the right range. Most ferts seemed to drop the pH so any water over seven worked well for me and then there's a range of pH perfect fertilizer that employ better buffers. Keep it as simple as you can basically, most ferts should be built around good water for minimal adjustment.

Never needed calmag, was in the ferts in large doses almost too much. Wash the Coco or pour some water through the pot but my fertilizer set the right conditions I didn't have to do anything else, something to be said from finding a good Coco brand.

The size of Coco, some is more coarse some so fine it doesn't seem to do anything but hold water forever. People add perlite but some brands I felt just needed some larger coarser Coco mixed in for better drainage and free flow.

Don't get in a situation you have to baby them, fertilize from day one and find the right pot or plug that leads you to water as regularly as possible being able to lift the plug or pot to tell it's lighter but still wet as a sign to water. Essentially you want that to happen daily or more which with a seedling in a twenty gallon fabric pot is going to be hard to impossible.

The devil was in the detail with Coco, actually easy to grow in although not forgiving.

 

[spase]

Nice, have you completed a run using coco yet...? I've had one good run I think I'm on my fourth or fifth run so far.

This is my second grow. The first was soil and pretty successful. I like what I'm seeing so far.

 

[SLYNINJA]

Any dry spots will form precipitate akin to a salt crust as elements in your fertilizer and water form solids from liquids. You never let it dry.

Better to use an appropriate size pot for the stage and size of plant as you can do more frequent waterings and cycle more air and nutrients through the Coco.

A small pot will hold a lot of roots, size down from soil considerably.

Do not treat it like soil ever.

Try never to pH anything just find water and ferts that make it in the right range. Most ferts seemed to drop the pH so any water over seven worked well for me and then there's a range of pH perfect fertilizer that employ better buffers. Keep it as simple as you can basically, most ferts should be built around good water for minimal adjustment.

Never needed calmag, was in the ferts in large doses almost too much. Wash the Coco or pour some water through the pot but my fertilizer set the right conditions I didn't have to do anything else, something to be said from finding a good Coco brand.

The size of Coco, some is more coarse some so fine it doesn't seem to do anything but hold water forever. People add perlite but some brands I felt just needed some larger coarser Coco mixed in for better drainage and free flow.

Don't get in a situation you have to baby them, fertilize from day one and find the right pot or plug that leads you to water as regularly as possible being able to lift the plug or pot to tell it's lighter but still wet as a sign to water. Essentially you want that to happen daily or more which with a seedling in a twenty gallon fabric pot is going to be hard to impossible.

The devil was in the detail with Coco, actually easy to grow in although not forgiving.

Thank you for that I really appreciate the information, I do feel like the coco I'm using retains alot of water, it does take quite some time to get dry back so I got scared I was over watering because I was scared to let it go dry in fear of salt build up so and was noticing nutrient issues so I let them dry rite back then fed and saw an improvement, I know what your saying when you wait for the pot to be light but still wet and then water, I could give that a go...

I'm using 2gal pots, last feed I gave 3 liters per plant and got 500ml run off per plant, what's your thoughts about that..?
When I fed them they weren't showing any signs of being thirsty but the pots were super light

 

[SLYNINJA]

This is my second grow. The first was soil and pretty successful. I like what I'm seeing so far.

Yeah looks great so far, good job.

What genetics you got going this run..? Photoperiod or auto..?

 

[RoadKillSkunkHunt]

Ive never seen that. I like Canna bricks, its buffered and ready to go. The only brand i dont rinse or buffer out of the box.

Couple buddies speak very highly of plagron, ive never used it tho.

Coco is great as long as you have attention to detail. Safest way to do it is to water to runoff every time. You can do it with no runoff but you have to keep the substrate moist. Cant have heavy drybacks


But yea by the looks of it i would definitely rinse very well, then let it soak in calmag for like a half day

I was going to say, most people rinse their coco before using it. The way the Op described it, it sounds like it needed rinsed.

The problem most people have with coco is when they try to treat it as soil ... or mix it with soil. Although people do grow organically in coco, its really intended for a salts base nutrient program. Coco in its natural state has zero nutrients or microbes. If the mix is advertised to have microbes or nutrients in it, its been added by the manufacturer.

Coco is a great medium as long as you treat it for what it is ... a form of hydro.