How much air does coir have compared to other media?

[ogtealover420]

Any body know ratios of O2 and H2O in coir? Or even some others like rockwool, potting mix, hydroton.

 

[ogtealover420]

Well so far I found rockwool is 80% solution, 15 air, and 5 % rockwool when saturated. I have found some info on coir. But it varies which make since though because it has many many different forms. But since we use mostly the same type of coir which is fine I have been tying to get to the bottom of the water and air holding capacity. I could use some help so far it seems that it may be something 60% water 30% air 10% coir.

 

[southernstyle]

 

[LexLuthor]

I have no idea about any of that, but now that you mention it I'm interested. I'll search Google and try to find some info on the subject.

 

[LexLuthor]

I just found this within 10 seconds of doing a Google search. Hope it helps.

 

[LexLuthor]

Here are the ratios when medium is saturated (approximately):

Coco coir 81% water 11% air 08% medium

Rockwool 80% water 15% air 05% medium

Pine Bark 59% water 20% air 21% medium

Sand 35% water 05% air 60% medium

Perlite 30% water 32% air 38% medium

Growstones 35% water 53% air 12% medium

Hydroton 10% water 70% air 20% medium

Rice Hulls 20% water 68% air 12% medium

 

[ogtealover420]

How much perilite or hydroton should add if I want to water ever 1 or mabye 2 days think the air/water percentages will look like? What so ou guyI found something that said 50/50 coir perilite holds 36% air and 68% water in a acontainer but that does not add up. 36 +68= 104 and where is the coir so that must be wrong. Right? Or I am I missing somethting. And no one ever says what kind of coir do they in the test. They never discuss particle size so I am having a tough time calculating air/water/media ratios. ARRRRGGG!@$%^#$

 

[ogtealover420]

Found perilite that is 76.7% air 22.8% water But again it did not mention the size of the perilite itself. WTF? Seems like hydroton and coir might work but wouldn't coir and fine perilite be mor consistant due to the size of hydroton. Can you crush hydrotn?

 

[LexLuthor]

I think your over thinking this entire issue, if you want to water every day or 2 then mix a couple different ratios of different mediums in a few pots and test each one. It doesn't matter what the water/air ratio is because that graph is showing mediums that are not specific brands or types, so the Canna Coco might be different then what they tested, or maybe they tested small perlite so chunky perlite would be slightly different.

I use about 50/50 Ocean Forest/perlite and sometimes 80/20 OF/perlite and I still water about every 3rd day with 80/20 and every other day with 50/50, I know people that use coco/hydroton and they water multiple times a day with a drip system when its 75/25 hydroton/coco. So if you water once a day try 75/25 coco/perlite, 50/50 coco/perlite and see which one drains to your liking. I wouldn't break up hydroton because it might not perform the way its suppose to. Just test different mixes and see which one comes out in your favor, good luck.

 

[southernstyle]

Most of the quality coco coir is about the same as far as water to air ratio. It's best to water coco once a day at least. The idea is to start your seeds and clones in small containers and transplant into bigger pots as they grow. When seedlings or cuttings are young, you don't need to water daily. Usually every 2-3 days until they get a good root structure. Once you have a nice sized rootball in a beer cup or small container, you can transplant into a 1-2 gallon container and water daily if you're under HID lighting. I don't recommend using perlite in the coco because it will dry out faster.

 

[LexLuthor]

^^^^southernstyle is right, I forgot 100% coco usually needs watering everyday, some people let there coco dry slightly and water every other day, but your gonna get conflicting opinions on that. Get a bag of coco and test it yourself and don't think too hard about the water/air ratio, because it can be confusing and misleading, results speak for themselves so real life testing is what you want to see, not just #'s on paper.

 

[ogtealover420]

True

^^^^southernstyle is right, I forgot 100% coco usually needs watering everyday, some people let there coco dry slightly and water every other day, but your gonna get conflicting opinions on that. Get a bag of coco and test it yourself and don't think too hard about the water/air ratio, because it can be confusing and misleading, results speak for themselves so real life testing is what you want to see, not just #'s on paper.

True, doing it will tell all. I use 1:1 coir/perilite mixed 1:1 FFOF and coir/perilite. And water 2-3 days with large containers. I wonder if i can water my coir every day if it is just coir? I want optimum root growth of course. I also thought of running straight coir or will I have too little O2 leves in my root zone. Maybe the more stringy kind but it is less available and I am not sure it is good to use. The kind I find is usually very fine and dark.

 

[LexLuthor]

True
True, doing it will tell all. I use 1:1 coir/perilite mixed 1:1 FFOF and coir/perilite. And water 2-3 days with large containers. I wonder if i can water my coir every day if it is just coir? I want optimum root growth of course. I also thought of running straight coir or will I have too little O2 leves in my root zone. Maybe the more stringy kind but it is less available and I am not sure it is good to use. The kind I find is usually very fine and dark.

I'm not sure about using different coco if its low grade, just get the good stuff thats been working for ya. With straight coco I don't see any problems with O2 in the root zone. Alot of people use str8 coco with great results.

 

[ogtealover420]

Anyone used growstones?

 

[monkeymun]

Here are the ratios when medium is saturated (approximately):

Coco coir 81% water 11% air 08% medium

Rockwool 80% water 15% air 05% medium

Pine Bark 59% water 20% air 21% medium

Sand 35% water 05% air 60% medium

Perlite 30% water 32% air 38% medium

Growstones 35% water 53% air 12% medium

Hydroton 10% water 70% air 20% medium

Rice Hulls 20% water 68% air 12% medium

Where did you get this info from?

 

[LexLuthor]

I don't know the exact website, I just googled something like "water to air ratio of grow mediums" and one of the 1st web sites I clicked on, I think it was a site that sold growstones or some type of hydro medium. If you can't find it let me know and I'll take a look.


EDIT: oh shit, the graph I got from the website, the numbers I did myself by looking at the graph and adding the water + air #'s then subtracting that from 100 to get the ratio of the medium.

 

[kushsmoker30]

cana coco has really low PPM's. do 100% coco premix bennies (CAPs r good), put so much coco in the container till u can put ur transplant on top n gently back fill the sides to the proper level.

this next step is real IMPORTANT!!! add the appropriate nutes a little at a time whatever it may b (clones or bigger plants) with root additives, "BUT DO NOT" let ur plants get a run off in fact when the color of tha coco starts to get darker at the bottom of the pot stop adding food.

IF u do follow the above exactly NO flushing or rinsing needed with "CANNA COCO" u will have roots poking out the bottom in as little as 36 hr's to 3-4 days. do not try this with any other brand of coco since nobody has PPM's as low as canna, this may burn ur plants or result in salt build up.

if u truly follow these step mentioned above n it fails to shoot roots out the bottom fast, come on here n call me a bull shiter!!
also if ur plants r shit n it fails, u know why n cant it b blamed on this^.

 

[KitsapGrapeApe]

cana coco has really low PPM's. do 100% coco premix bennies (CAPs r good), put so much coco in the container till u can put ur transplant on top n gently back fill the sides to the proper level.

this next step is real IMPORTANT!!! add the appropriate nutes a little at a time whatever it may b (clones or bigger plants) with root additives, "BUT DO NOT" let ur plants get a run off in fact when the color of tha coco starts to get darker at the bottom of the pot stop adding food.

IF u do follow the above exactly NO flushing or rinsing needed with "CANNA COCO" u will have roots poking out the bottom in as little as 36 hr's to 3-4 days. do not try this with any other brand of coco since nobody has PPM's as low as canna, this may burn ur plants or result in salt build up.

if u truly follow these step mentioned above n it fails to shoot roots out the bottom fast, come on here n call me a bull shiter!!
also if ur plants r shit n it fails, u know why n cant it b blamed on this^.

have you tried nutrifield coco? pretty much canna but a different bag, carries the same rhp seal, doesn't need rinsing either only difference is just cheaper since it doesn't have a canna label.

 

[kushsmoker30]

have you tried nutrifield coco? pretty much canna but a different bag, carries the same rhp seal, doesn't need rinsing either only difference is just cheaper since it doesn't have a canna label.

never have tried nutrifield whats the coast?, currently can get canna coco for around 17 a bag on a front no money down. doing a test against H&G coco, it has really low PPM's just not as low as canna let the farm know how it does.

 

[KitsapGrapeApe]

never have tried nutrifield whats the coast?, currently can get canna coco for around 17 a bag on a front no money down. doing a test against H&G coco, it has really low PPM's just not as low as canna let the farm know how it does.

its $20 a bag msrp but we know msrp is dying more and more everyday, $17 a bag isn't bad, up here in washington though we don't get deals on canna, there are 5 stores that sell it in the whole state and they are only allowed to give a 10% discount if you spend $1000 canna rules these guys with an iron first like the mafia.