S
smirkis
- Posts
- 25
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2011
- Points
- 1
I strictly grow with coco only in smartpots and I hand water them. While my yields were always better than average when using ss #4, castings and perlite, they have really exploded with coco. Coco is quite an exceptional medium. I have tried many many different brands of coco. B'cuzz, botanicare, earth juice, royal gold, teufel (local landscaping supply co), and bio-bizz just to name a few off the top of my head. Royal gold was the worst by far, it has great porosity but is still full of salts. My smartpots became stained with white salt dust at the bottom after watering to run off the first few times. Botanicare and Earth Juice are quite similar and are the better ones that I have used, no lingering salts and a similar particle size and porosity. Earth Juice is the best that I have used. It appears to be of a slightly larger particle size than the botanicare, and in side by side comparisons the plants seemed to have enjoyed it most. Now the B'Cuzz and Bio-bizz are by far the most expensive coco that I have used. IMO the steaming process used by b'cuzz is costly and actually causes the coco to underperform by killing bene's. The b'cuzz coco isn't good and is a HUGE waste of money. I should say that I use mostly bio-bizz nutes and have found them to be of a superior quality if properly used. If improperly used, you'll have out of control deficiencies. With that being said, the bio-bizz coco is an inferior product. I have experienced lower yields and lower quality with the bio-bizz coco. At first I was sure it was my fault, but after more side by side comparisons of the same strains and feed, it appears that it is the biobizz coco itself. Ive just started using the teufel coco, its cheap and has a wide size range of the particles. It seems to work really well. Now the botanicare, ej, and teufel dont come precharged and are much cheaper. Imo opinion they outperform both the b'cuzz and biobizz. So this is the order from best to worst, of coco brands that I have used:
1. Earth Juice Companion Pro-Coir Bricks
2. Botanicare Coco-Gro Bricks
huge difference in quality between above and below
3. Atami B'cuzz (purple bag)
4. Bio-bizz Coco-Mix
5. Royal Gold
A hint on hydrating the 5kilo coco bricks. If you have access to a saw cut the bricks into 8ths. It'll make your life a lot easier.
Thanks. I've got that part down- meant the question to be a little more specific, ie groves along the coast and interior plantations. Coir coming from the interior doesn't require the leeching that coastal sources do where there's less room for error and more potential of getting a bag from a bad batch or from a generic, off brand source that just doesn't care. The biggest problem I see from what I've picked up in discussions is a lack of consistency. One guy's dream coir frequently turns out to be another guys nightmare.most of the coco mediums come from Sri Lanka
IMO B'cuzz makes the best coco
I just got some Royal gold coco, I think its to wet in the bag, makes it heavy and harder to work with, I feed them with 650 ppms and the run off was 850-900, So i guess some salt in there. Guess im going to stick with canna.
The gave me a free bag of Coco, I think it's Sunlight Supply brand, at the hydro store today. I got it home, and was going to use it, and it has gray mold growing on it!!!!!! Now that, I had not seen before! WTF!!!! No wonder it was free! Guess I'll throw it in the flower bed.......
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