Best Brand Coco Coir

Canvas · Jul 5, 2012

My Botanicare Cocogro, heavily amended with compost, has turned all moldy on me. Both batches.

Batch one, is full of Aspergillis. It is as salty as the sea, which is surely my fault; yet it also does not drain or dry out *at all*.
Mind you, this same batch did produce my best yield ever, 2 oz per sqft, in a DR80 tent with a 600 HPS bulb.
But that was because I filled the canopy by supercropping the plants, the soil/coco was hell to manage.

Batch two, is full of Pythium, and springtails and Fungus Gnats.

Now, the bad bugs and mold surely came from the manure, which was not pastureized. My Bad.
However, the pith is just junk, it does not clear or drain at all, and no amount of perlite will fix it.
All that moisture, and static air, is perfect for mold. Well, almost, the funny thing is, the first batch is so lacking in air, the Aspergillis can only grow on the very surface!
I had no idea how anyone was getting good results with this stuff.

Then I came across this stuff:
It's a block of pure chopped fiber, no pith at all. I now have some wetted out, it's a totaly different world.
I can't see the fiber ever being over watered, it takes a good long while to really dry out, holds loads of air and a good supply of water.
How to use it in my upcoming grow is my current quandry.

The Roots Organics Coco Chips also seem very nice, I have some wetted and mixed with perlite, should be better than pith.

Hopefully I now have the right coco, the pith seems useless no matter the brand.

ProdigyGrower · Jul 5, 2012

the coco grow is the best i have used i use it straight out the bag only thing i add is azos and mycos and works like a charm i do want to try sun shine just coir but coco grow is the one for me

Confuten1 · Jul 5, 2012

I use crip circles, chunky coco, mixed with brick coco that is pithy at about a 50/50 or 60/40 ratio.

Confu.

Illmind · Jul 21, 2012

roots organics loose palms

Mikenite69 · Dec 3, 2013

I am not trying to knock anyone's methods or anything. But growing in bagged coco and coco slabs is like night and day or comparing apples to oranges. All that bag shit is like growing in promix it's all amended. Where the coco slabs you really have to be on your shit to grow in it. Sunshine mix 4 is a coco/peat blend. The coco slabs doesn't have anything added to it so I feel that's when you can really claim that you has grown In coco. All the bag stuff is pretty fool proof where the slabs or compressed bricks you can have your grow go south on you in a minute. Just my 2 cents on the coco issue.

I have grown in sunleaves and it claimed to be rinsed so my first coco grow sucked because I never rinsed it and also read that you have to water daily and yada yada. Needless to say I will never run sunleaves blocks again the coco is like coffee grinds. I just went out and bought botainacare slab and roots organic slab I am gonna mix the two and use them or I might do seperate plants in each to see which one does better. I am loving the look of the roots organic plus it looks like the company made a superior product.

Peace mike

Puscifer · Dec 3, 2013

I don't know, been using Botanicare CocoGro for 'bout 7 years now and issues are non-existent. Guess i'm just lucky...:rolleyes:

Mikenite69 · Dec 3, 2013

Oh ya not knocking botainacare I haven't really used it yet and through the white bag that it comes in I can't see what it looks like. Lol. I am sure the botainacare is a good product just like the roots organic I just think that roots uses thicker fiber than the pith coffee grind looking fiber so you amend it with peat of you like or just run it straight. I am thinking of mixing the 2 or testing them both on seperate plants.

The only real comparison I was talking about is peoPle saying they have grown in amended coco bought is pre-ready bags that stuff is amended and charged right out the bag where the blocks you have to control what goes into it. Your more in control of the grow. When I compare the bags of broken up coco to promix pretty much all you have to do is water and feed and call it a day. You dont have to worry about run off or other variables. Especially with sunshine mix 4 being a coco/peat blend you do get better growth rates because of the coco but it's not like a true coco out of the blocks grow that you have to break apart yourself. Peace mike

Billygoat · Dec 3, 2013

Nectar of the Gods Coco
Canna
Royal Gold Coco

Puscifer · Dec 3, 2013

That wasn't aimed directly at you Mikenite69, more of a general comment to the thread title.;)

Mikenite69 · Dec 3, 2013

No I wast taking it like that really just was really trying to state my opinion on the topic about the whole block coco verses pre bagged coco. I have heard from a lot of growers though that the botainacare coco blocks are some of the best out there that is why I grabbed one of each of the roots and botainacare. I feel coco is like nutrients you have to search for one till you find the one you like or that suits you.

I just feel strongly that peeps really can't say they grew in coco until they grew in the compressed blocks u better know what you are doing. Lol

shoestring · Dec 5, 2013

Ive been growing Botanicares Readygro moisture formula for a long time now. Basically because i find adding about 3 parts perlite to 7 parts coir gives me slightly faster drainage and more oxygen to the rootzone especially for younger plants. And this stuff has the perlite already mixed in. It also has some very light charges consisting of castings, compost starter, humic acid, and a few other goodies. Its very light though and is washed out after a few runoff feeds. Never rinsed any prebagged coir and never had problems. This coir to me is better than Atami, Canna, Cyco etc. So i stick with it. I use 1 and 2 gallon growbags and smartpots and start my ec at about 1.0 and bump it up to 1.6 to 1.8 and never past that. The readygro is good stuff for sure!

Fresh Starts · Dec 7, 2013

I've had great results with Tupur coco mix although I can't say that I am impressed by its quality. Botanicare has a good product but I think that Roots Organics has a small lead in quality over Botanicare as far as coco goes.

I also use Roots Organics comressed coco chips for a mulch and man that shit is great for longer vegging/flowering plants. The roots grow upwards through the chips and the main stalk gets beefy!

homebrew420 · Dec 16, 2013

I am going to go out on a limb and say..ours.
Haha.
Brick coco works fine. If there is an issue withthe stuff, its prob the grower. Sorry guys. Though there may be "bad batches" I really don't know how. Even if it was salty by the third or fourth feeding all should be corrected.
We use block coco directly imported to us. It is "rinsed" only when transanted to media for watering in. Watered to 20-30% runnoff. Then under the 1000s. Fed 4x a day. No problems. Ever.

click80 · Mar 20, 2015

Canvas said:
My Botanicare Cocogro, heavily amended with compost, has turned all moldy on me. Both batches.

Batch one, is full of Aspergillis. It is as salty as the sea, which is surely my fault; yet it also does not drain or dry out *at all*.
Mind you, this same batch did produce my best yield ever, 2 oz per sqft, in a DR80 tent with a 600 HPS bulb.
But that was because I filled the canopy by supercropping the plants, the soil/coco was hell to manage.

Batch two, is full of Pythium, and springtails and Fungus Gnats.

Now, the bad bugs and mold surely came from the manure, which was not pastureized. My Bad.
However, the pith is just junk, it does not clear or drain at all, and no amount of perlite will fix it.
All that moisture, and static air, is perfect for mold. Well, almost, the funny thing is, the first batch is so lacking in air, the Aspergillis can only grow on the very surface!
I had no idea how anyone was getting good results with this stuff.

Then I came across this stuff:
It's a block of pure chopped fiber, no pith at all. I now have some wetted out, it's a totaly different world.
I can't see the fiber ever being over watered, it takes a good long while to really dry out, holds loads of air and a good supply of water.
How to use it in my upcoming grow is my current quandry.

The Roots Organics Coco Chips also seem very nice, I have some wetted and mixed with perlite, should be better than pith.

Hopefully I now have the right coco, the pith seems useless no matter the brand.

I have seen several different posts where you have problems with your mixes. Do you think that getting away from Coco, or identifying why you are having these repetitive problems would perhaps be a better quandary to consider than what you proposed.

I would search on Google Scholar, there are numerous research papers on the different qualities, from different factors, of Coco harvested from different geographical areas. To make it more complicated, Coco that does poorly in the U.S. does great in India sweetpotato farms.

I only remember that what I use was okay. Premier gets theirs for mixing for the Sunshine products, and Canna, but some people think Canna is expensive.

I do know here in Colorado, even experienced growers will only use Coco on outside grows. I'm not saying everybody, just a few that I know. Tap water is a big problem because of Calcium Carbonate concentration, total water alkalinity, and some other buffering factors , yearly BOD (biological oxygen demand) occur and they add shit in then that really can cause weird indoor growing problems, also the water is hard and cause calcium and phosphorus (?)bonding and locking together along with some other stuff that doesn't effect me.

Anyway, it just seems like you are having repeated problems and it's not coincidence. Respectfully. Just my opinion.

juicey · Apr 8, 2015

Just got some botanicare ready gro and it sucks. All 6 bags initial runoff was 1000ppm. Had to rinse the hell out of it. I've had the best luck with canna and atami.

LittleDabbie · Apr 8, 2015

Not for growing but for my worm farm which is far more sensitive to salts..

click80 · Apr 8, 2015

I just started playing around with some stuff that is made here in Colorado that is Coco and some amendments like bio char and rice hulls. As to what type of Coco the use I am sure they are buying in extremely large quantities but I don't know who. Anyway, I just put some clones directly in it the other day and they are doing great. I didn't even flush it. I completely zoned out on that because I have used FFOF x Sunshine Advanced for so long and was in a hurry. These are just extras and I never throw away clones, I use them for torture experiments :)

Anyway, they are doing great, and the beneficials seem to be having a positive affect. The ones I used bennies and compost tea on are definitely better root quality, so maybe this is a good coco mix.

I read about four or five papers today that all had conflicting results to some extent with coco and coco/peat mixes. Considering these were all peer reviewed studies, from major universities, I really don't know what to think about the conflicting reports that I have read of and heard from people. I think most of it comes down to getting used to it's one or two little quirks, like the already available K and tendency to hold calcium, or so some say about the calcium.

Skovi · Jun 20, 2015

I've been growing in coco for about 12 years. I recently started using HydroFarm's PLANT!T. I find that it rehydrates much more quickly for me. It has a soft texture. And sheds excess moisture quickly.

I compared some to the Botanicaire that I used to use by rehydrating it, letting it dry completely, weighing it, then adding water and weighing it again. This allowed me to see it's moisture holding properties. It actually holds a bit more water per unit weight of coco than the botanicaire does. It is also almost half the price.

I do all DTW so I'm not super concerned about excess salts. I pre-treat my coco by soaking it in hot tap water with Epsom salts and citric acid.

DirtySanchez · Jun 20, 2015

So we've pretty much run it ALLLL... Canna, atami, botanicare, nutriplus, nutrifield, Cyco, sunleaves, roots organics, sunshine, sanctuary, GH, fox farm, mills, plagron, Mother Earth, royal gold, gold label and probably a dozen others that aren't coming to mind right now..

Gotta say our favs are definitely the Plagron w perlite mixed and the Mills w the pre mixed cork. Nutrifield amended w perlite close to the top of the list too. Growing on slabs Plagron is DEFINITELY the way to go.

Definitely recommend amending coco with something to aerate, dropping ppm of feed and watering more frequently. This gives you hydroponic growth rates and the forgivingness of coco. We're doing our first run of Plagron nutes in Plagron coco and CRUSHING it.

xavier7995 · Jun 24, 2015

Right now I have some of the Cyco peat/coco going and the Nutrifield coco, both are the loose bags. They have been great so far and have performed about the same. The nutrifield was free as the hydro shop only had one bag of cyco left and it was the last loose coco they had around. I was actually looking for the roots organics, as I like the roots line of products, but they were out.

Best Brand Coco Coir

Best Brand Coco Coir

Canvas

ProdigyGrower

Alien Junkie and bush master

Confuten1

exploitin strengths - perfectin weaknessess

Illmind

Mikenite69

Puscifer

Mikenite69

Billygoat

Puscifer

Mikenite69

shoestring

Fresh Starts

homebrew420

click80

juicey

LittleDabbie

click80

Skovi

Attachments

DirtySanchez

xavier7995

Best Brand Coco Coir

Best Brand Coco Coir

Canvas

ProdigyGrower

Alien Junkie and bush master

Confuten1

exploitin strengths - perfectin weaknessess

Illmind

Mikenite69

Puscifer

Mikenite69

Billygoat

Puscifer

Mikenite69

shoestring

Fresh Starts

homebrew420

click80

juicey

LittleDabbie

click80

Skovi

Attachments

DirtySanchez

xavier7995

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