Coco with GO Box nutes.

[Bubblejoe]

First grow in coco. Want to use GO Box nutes I already have on hand. Does anyone have advise on how to use them and problems I may need to avoid.

 

[BigCube]

I'm a big fan of gh. But do your research before you buy, it might come with stuff you'll never use. I use the main 3 from gh. Flora micro and bloom. Of the gh product I use, I can pretty much use exactly what they reccomend in their feeding program. Sometimes it's a touch too hot for some genetics and I dial it back to 3/4 recommended levels. But for the most part their regiment is bang on most the time.

Start with half, see how it goes and move it up to full over a couple weeks. Should be fine.

Coco comes with it's own quirks whe it comes to watering and feeding, so you also may want to heavily research that too.

 

[OldManRiver]

First grow in coco. Want to use GO Box nutes I already have on hand. Does anyone have advise on how to use them and problems I may need to avoid.

First rule of successful growing: don't try to forge your own path, "because this is what I have", until you know what you're doing. Coco requires a complete fertilizer profile, the same as hydroponics, as coco provides nothing except substrate to hold the roots. The General Hydroponics trio mentioned above is a good line to try, as would be other well known lines of hydroponic nutes. You could compare what you have to those, look at the makeup, to assess whether what you have is useful. Mixing and matching nutes is how "Why is my plant dying?" posts happen.

 

[BigCube]

Very true. We have to remember we are basically working with chemicals, some things dont mix or need to be mixed a special way. Also some of these chemicals get old and lose their composition. I hada friend who couldn't figure out what his problem was, turns out he was using like 5 year old nutes lol.

If you've used nutrients before, you already know what you need to know. But coco requires different watering methods and a touch of calmag. It's not like dirt. It's more like gravel.

 

[OldManRiver]

Very true. We have to remember we are basically working with chemicals, some things dont mix or need to be mixed a special way. Also some of these chemicals get old and lose their composition. I hada friend who couldn't figure out what his problem was, turns out he was using like 5 year old nutes lol.

If you've used nutrients before, you already know what you need to know. But coco requires different watering methods and a touch of calmag. It's not like dirt. It's more like gravel.

Yep. Specifically, each fertilizer vendor has choices about what to get, say nitrogen from, and potassium from. Some of the choices will react with each other, creating insoluble results, making the nitrogen and potassium unavailable to the plant. The vendors have someone with background in chemistry making those choices. Mixing and matching across vendors throws that knowledge away.

 

[Jimster]

I use Promix, which is also empty of nutrients. I use wood ashes and compost/manure to provide all of my micro and macro nutrients, and use general 20-20-20 fertilizer. I find that the less I mess with things, the better they seem to go. Everyone loves Cal-Mag... like it is a miracle potion. Excessive use can skew the PH and cause nutrient uptake issues, in some cases it prevents the uptake of Magnesium. A magnesium supplement causing Magnesium lockout? Yep. So now, pour more Cal-Mag on to take care of the problem, which only makes it worse. This is some of the issues that you need to be aware of when using a soil-less method, such as Promix and Coco.
The biggest difference between the two are the watering issues. I water mine daily if needed... typically a gallon or so in a 5 gallon bucket. I believe Coco is supposed to dry out somewhat between waterings, but I prefer the Promix because it takes care of any overwatering issues by it's composition. Make sure that you are familiar with watering Coco as it can go south quickly from what I can figure.

 

[BigCube]

That's what I'm using now too. Promix hp coco with mycrorysa. I also water daily with about %20 run through. So I pretty much go full nutrients every watering.

I used gh cause its easy lol. I would like to try a more organic rout someday but not this time around.

Everyone loves calmag, many of them don't need it lol. Here in Vancouver our ppm out of the tap is 12. So I do need to use it at the end of veg and throug flower. But I use very little. Like 1/4 recommended.

 

[Jimster]

That's what I'm using now too. Promix hp coco with mycrorysa. I also water daily with about %20 run through. So I pretty much go full nutrients every watering.

I used gh cause its easy lol. I would like to try a more organic rout someday but not this time around.

Everyone loves calmag, many of them don't need it lol. Here in Vancouver our ppm out of the tap is 12. So I do need to use it at the end of veg and throug flower. But I use very little. Like 1/4 recommended.

I didn't know that Promix had a Coco version, but they have a lot of newer products out since I started using them in the 70s. I water daily if needed, usually about 1-1.5 gallons/day. I don't fertilize more than about once every 10-15 days, but add about 20% compost/manure to the Promix BX (non coco version) ad some wod ashes to add micro and macro nutrients. I use a lot less fertilizer than most, but everyone has their own method. I don't really use any meters (I have them, but don't have a need for them as I don't seem to have any over/under feedings and my local water is great for the extra minerals, even though there is plenty of calcium and stuff in the wood ashes and compost/manure). Ive grown for many years and never really had a need for a lot of the stuff that everyone pours on their plants. CalMag is great if you need it but people often seem to use distilled or reverse osmosis water just so they can justify using Cal-Mag. I learned long ago that less is often better unless you really have a handle or experience with higher doses of nutrients. The buds being produced nowadays are nice, pretty, and are pretty decent, but the older strains are quickly being replaced by countless hybrids and autos. It's getting hard to find actual landrace strains, and when you do, they are usually hybrids themselves despite the claims to be originals... even the seeds nowadays are tiny and mass produced instead of the fat, tiger striped seeds of days of old.
Anyhow, I think I had this discussion on another post, so I'll spare you the misery of reading more of my blather. Good Luck and keep up the good work!

 

[Bubblejoe]

Thanks to everyone for the input. I'm going to use a timed flood and drain system for watering.