Never grew in coco before

Adam1017 · Mar 8, 2026

Hey what's up y'all, been growing for a couple of years now only in soil , a friend gave me a clone in Cocoa.I can't believe how fast it grows and how big it's is. Its quadruple My soil plant size. Granted , my soil plants are in three gallon fabric pots and the cocoa plant I was given is in a eight gallon plastic kinda has me rethinking my soil. If I wanna switch to Coco n also if I wanna switch to bigger plastic container. This thing's like four and a half feet tall and three feet wide and it's on day forty four a of flower I guess my decision will come after the taste but unbelievable size difference.

Gmix · Mar 11, 2026

The size isn’t down to coir

It will taste different to soil grown some prefer it but honestly the medium has nada to do with the difference in size.

That will be down to various; watering, genetics ( even the same strains can vary wildly ) so much even the smallest difference in environment I.E another part of the tent can have a “ sweet spot “

I’m no coir hatter I’ve used it myself albeit it was a pita washing enough coir for 70+ plants.

Already washed & bagged coir was hard to find back then especially without the internet.
So I’d have to buy it in bricks & if you ever tried breaking down 15-20 bricks in the bath you’d say so to now it comes pre broken & even washed it’s much easier.

As said there is a taste difference tbh if I could get guano to work with coir I might go back but it doesn’t.

If you have the time it can be a good medium it is more time consuming than soil.

I’m sure you’ll enjoy it

PlumberSoCal2 · Mar 11, 2026

Adam1017 said:
Hey what's up y'all, been growing for a couple of years now only in soil , a friend gave me a clone in Cocoa.I can't believe how fast it grows and how big it's is. Its quadruple My soil plant size. Granted , my soil plants are in three gallon fabric pots and the cocoa plant I was given is in a eight gallon plastic kinda has me rethinking my soil. If I wanna switch to Coco n also if I wanna switch to bigger plastic container. This thing's like four and a half feet tall and three feet wide and it's on day forty four a of flower I guess my decision will come after the taste but unbelievable size difference.

Yeah, 6+ year ago I made the switch and have been telling EVERYONE!

The largest pot I've used is 5 gallon. No more as my back aches and I can't spend hours manicuring. Gonna stay with 2-3 gal pots

phxazcraig · Mar 11, 2026

I've been growing in Coco for three years now. It can be quite the adventure! The size advantage is due to with water runoff ability of coco - you can feed almost constantly and not drown the roots. More feeding=more growth. My last two crops got fed every 2 hours during lighting, and a couple of 'don't dry outs' during the night. Grew like weeds!

I don't think the pot size matters as much if/when you feed very often. If there is always some nutrients present, the plants will simply grow and grow.

My pot size is 3.5 gallon air pots in a 4x4 tent with a single 650w LED light (HLG). I keep the pH of the nutrient reservoir at 6.0, and I use GH nutrients on the GH 'medium' feed chart. Besides the typical GH nutes, I add Silica Blast (thicker stems) to the mix.

As I feed a lot, I also have a lot of runoff. Around 3-5 gallons a day at peak. I bring a bucket of runoff nutes out of the grow room every day and spread it around the house plants and the yard plants. Everything is blooming here in May!

Adam1017 · Mar 21, 2026

PlumberSoCal2 said:
Yeah, 6+ year ago I made the switch and have been telling EVERYONE!
View attachment 2611819
The largest pot I've used is 5 gallon. No more as my back aches and I can't spend hours manicuring. Gonna stay with 2-3 gal pots

Adam1017 · Mar 21, 2026

Hey, what's up, my man?Thanks for the reply.I didn't realize anybody replied to my post, I have a couple questions.

Do you feed every time you water?

When you are on your last week, do you flush with just plain water?

I like the flavor of soil grown but I've never grown in Coco, so I really don't know too much about it.

I have a 10 gallon pot, and everything ive read says need to water every day.It seems like i water every three days
I appreciate your help and thanks a lot, man.

phxazcraig · Apr 10, 2026

Adam1017 said:
Hey, what's up, my man?Thanks for the reply.I didn't realize anybody replied to my post, I have a couple questions.

Not sure if you're replying to me.

Adam1017 said:
Do you feed every time you water?

I have a drain-to-waste 30 gallon reservoir on a timed feeding system, so yes, feed every time. What I vary is the duration of the feed. I do approximately 10 seconds every 2 hours during the day, but only 4-5 seconds after dark. I don't want the coco to 'dry out' during the night as it raises the feed concentration at the roots.

I didn't start out this way a few years ago. I would feed every 4-6 hours, but as the plants got bigger I fed more often. Last year I decided to just set schedule to every 2 hours from day 1, lengthening the feeding a bit as plants got bigger and started using more water. Since I use the runoff to feed lots of plants around the house, I don't feel like I'm wasting nutrients. Regardless of plant size, I try to end up with about a bucket of runoff every 24 hours - that should be enough to keep the roots stable.

By having nearly-continuous feeding, I don't think I need to make the nutrients more concentrated as there will always be some nutrients available. This grow seems better than ever, without even having burnt leaf tips. Super healthy looking plants, growing like weeds! In fact I should have flipped to 12 hours at 3 weeks (since seed germination) instead of 4. About 3 weeks in my pots in the tent, after a week in red solo cups as seedlings.

Adam1017 said:
When you are on your last week, do you flush with just plain water?

I go by the General Hydroponics 'medium' schedule, which includes a 1 week flush at the end. Specifically, I use the Floraseries 6-part feed chart here: https://generalhydroponics.com/resources/flora-series-feedcharts/. I also add 2.5ml/gallon of Silica Blast, which I think makes stems thicker and stronger.

Adam1017 said:
I like the flavor of soil grown but I've never grown in Coco, so I really don't know too much about it.

I urge you to find and read (at least my entries) in a thread I made 3 years ago here called 'Explosive Growth in Coco Coir', where I detail pretty much everything, and I have lots of pics. The biggest problem I faced was the growth rate being REALLY fast, and my plants outgrowing my tent during the flower stretch. I had to change tents in mid-flower for one that was 1 foot taller. (8 feet instead of 7). I'm almost in the same situation again as this crop really took off on me. I'm 1.5 weeks since flipping to 12 hours (from 18), and my plants are about halfway up the tent, before flower stretch.

Fortunately, I think, my new grow light may make it possible to have reasonable coverage as close as 6 inches from the canopy, though I suspect the light will be too strong then. At the beginning of this grow, my 5-year-old HLG led light died, and I had to quickly replace it. I ended up with a TLS 'light bar' system that spreads the lights right to the edges of my 4x4 tent. My HLG had the leds concentrated in the center, wanting 24 inches of clearance, minimum, for decent wide spread.

Adam1017 said:
I have a 10 gallon pot, and everything ive read says need to water every day.It seems like i water every three days
I appreciate your help and thanks a lot, man.

There is a huge difference in watering between coco coir and any kind of soil. Soil holds water, so overwatering drowns the roots. Roots need oxygen at night, so there needs to be some relief there.

On the other hand, coco coir drains so quickly that you almost cannot overwater. So you can feed almost constantly (somewhat like hydroponics) but NOT have too much nutrient concentration. Lots of nutrients at lower concentration means the plant always has food, but never too much, or too much water. There are some other differences, like needing to add Cal/mag, but if you follow the feed chart I use, plants will grow pretty much at the maximum rate they can under your lighting, temp, humidity and CO2 values.

Grownsince95 · Apr 10, 2026

phxazcraig said:
Not sure if you're replying to me.

I have a drain-to-waste 30 gallon reservoir on a timed feeding system, so yes, feed every time. What I vary is the duration of the feed. I do approximately 10 seconds every 2 hours during the day, but only 4-5 seconds after dark. I don't want the coco to 'dry out' during the night as it raises the feed concentration at the roots.

I didn't start out this way a few years ago. I would feed every 4-6 hours, but as the plants got bigger I fed more often. Last year I decided to just set schedule to every 2 hours from day 1, lengthening the feeding a bit as plants got bigger and started using more water. Since I use the runoff to feed lots of plants around the house, I don't feel like I'm wasting nutrients. Regardless of plant size, I try to end up with about a bucket of runoff every 24 hours - that should be enough to keep the roots stable.

By having nearly-continuous feeding, I don't think I need to make the nutrients more concentrated as there will always be some nutrients available. This grow seems better than ever, without even having burnt leaf tips. Super healthy looking plants, growing like weeds! In fact I should have flipped to 12 hours at 3 weeks (since seed germination) instead of 4. About 3 weeks in my pots in the tent, after a week in red solo cups as seedlings.

I go by the General Hydroponics 'medium' schedule, which includes a 1 week flush at the end. Specifically, I use the Floraseries 6-part feed chart here: https://generalhydroponics.com/resources/flora-series-feedcharts/. I also add 2.5ml/gallon of Silica Blast, which I think makes stems thicker and stronger.

I urge you to find and read (at least my entries) in a thread I made 3 years ago here called 'Explosive Growth in Coco Coir', where I detail pretty much everything, and I have lots of pics. The biggest problem I faced was the growth rate being REALLY fast, and my plants outgrowing my tent during the flower stretch. I had to change tents in mid-flower for one that was 1 foot taller. (8 feet instead of 7). I'm almost in the same situation again as this crop really took off on me. I'm 1.5 weeks since flipping to 12 hours (from 18), and my plants are about halfway up the tent, before flower stretch.

Fortunately, I think, my new grow light may make it possible to have reasonable coverage as close as 6 inches from the canopy, though I suspect the light will be too strong then. At the beginning of this grow, my 5-year-old HLG led light died, and I had to quickly replace it. I ended up with a TLS 'light bar' system that spreads the lights right to the edges of my 4x4 tent. My HLG had the leds concentrated in the center, wanting 24 inches of clearance, minimum, for decent wide spread.

There is a huge difference in watering between coco coir and any kind of soil. Soil holds water, so overwatering drowns the roots. Roots need oxygen at night, so there needs to be some relief there.

On the other hand, coco coir drains so quickly that you almost cannot overwater. So you can feed almost constantly (somewhat like hydroponics) but NOT have too much nutrient concentration. Lots of nutrients at lower concentration means the plant always has food, but never too much, or too much water. There are some other differences, like needing to add Cal/mag, but if you follow the feed chart I use, plants will grow pretty much at the maximum rate they can under your lighting, temp, humidity and CO2 values.

I've been using GH trio for a really long time and one thing you can try is cutting their "grow" amounts in half after week 4 if the stretch is consistently a problem. Making up the lost potassium with a little extra "bloom" is no problem.

When N levels are high in the root zone it comes in via mass flow whether the plant wants it or not. If it has to spend energy to move it from lower growth, it will only take it if it's essential.

Never grew in coco before

Never grew in coco before

Adam1017

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Never grew in coco before

Never grew in coco before

Adam1017

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PlumberSoCal2

phxazcraig

Adam1017

Adam1017

phxazcraig

Grownsince95

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