Im with baba on this. Ive been using coco for years but started with peat. I currently have several beds setup and my sunshine 4 is crushing all the others in coco with far less maintenance and nutrients.
Bricks are good just preference of prepping. Just dont get the mexican coco shit has sand in it, terrible standards.
After reading the report from University of Utah I decided to do a lil experiment.
Sunshine #4
Canna/Perlite (70)/30)
Sunshine #4 and Canna/Perlite.
The differences were astounding!!! The peat way out performed the coco, and the mix seems to be right in line with the straight peat. I currently have about 300 gallons of canna/perlite, and will be cutting it more and more with peat. Don't wanna lose my HERD. But until I start seeing problems with peat...I don't think I will buy another bag of Coco. My local Nursery has Sunshine #4 bales for 20 bucks.
Thanks for posting that a while back MWD.....you got me on the Peat Train for sure!
One the subject of blocks....I tried it a couple of times, and it was just a hassle for me personally. I had to wet the brick to let it expand. I then did a slurry test and wound up with a 1600 ppm reading....so I flushed the shit out of it til it got down to the 100ppm range. Then I had to wait to let it dry out a bit so I could add perlite.....that took a couple of days. That was it for me....never again. I would gladly pay a few extra bucks for my bags of Canna.....but not anymore.
I think a lot of it comes down to convenience.....well for me anyway.