Reusing Coco question please help.

  • Thread starter Supergoo
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Supergoo

Supergoo

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Hi Farm,

So here is my predicament. I recently just had to abandon one of my grows because of what I assume is a combo of stretching and damping off. I have since taken all the coco and put it in a trash bag because I did not want to reuse it for fear that the coco is bad now. Heres where my problem gets bad, I germed 10 seeds 24 hours ago expecting to be able to go to the local hydro store and buy more coco just in time for my new beans. However this store just moved locations yesterday and isnt in buisness for a week. So im left with no growing medium to use and if I order the amount of coco i will need and do a next day shipping i will be paying an arm and limb for it. Which leads me to the 30 gallons of coco that i have in the trash bag.

1. Can i resuse coco that had damping off happen. I assume it was an over water thing and also im a newb who threw beans in a 3 gal pot right from the start so that might also be a problem.

2. Can I wash it with hydrogen peroxide bought from walgreens to kill any fungus that might be in the coco?

Thanks,

SG
 
GR33NL3AF

GR33NL3AF

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I'd say your safest bet (if reusing) is to get yourself some OGBioWar tea and hit it with a very heavy dose of brewed tea. H202 WOULD work but beneficial bacteria is always my first approach.

BTW, the peroxide bought at walgreens is probably 3% and that wont be strong enough. You need the 29% peroxide.
 
Supergoo

Supergoo

79
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Hey Gr33nL3af, thanks for getting back to me, amazing looking grows btw:)!!!

my problem is i jumped the gun thinking hey theres no way in a 48 hour period my local hydro shop will be moving locations, so now im stuck trying to figure how to pot these sprouts. You think maybe washing it with the peroxide i have available to me, and putting it in the microwave for 1 minuet would do the trick. Also I have root excelurator i dont know if that has good microbes or what not. im still a noob :(


SG
 
G

grimlock

29
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Personally, I would use the stuff you just trashed. I've ran plenty of used coco before, just pulling the big strands of roots out and nothing else. Never gave me any problems, but that's just my experience, good luck.
 
GR33NL3AF

GR33NL3AF

1,904
263
Hey Gr33nL3af, thanks for getting back to me, amazing looking grows btw:)!!!

my problem is i jumped the gun thinking hey theres no way in a 48 hour period my local hydro shop will be moving locations, so now im stuck trying to figure how to pot these sprouts. You think maybe washing it with the peroxide i have available to me, and putting it in the microwave for 1 minuet would do the trick. Also I have root excelurator i dont know if that has good microbes or what not. im still a noob :(


SG
Have you ever brewed a tea or worked with any sort of beneficial bacteria? I would honestly advise that route over sterilization (with H202). Bennies, like the ones found in Capulator's Tea packs, will protect your future roots. May consider grabbing some Sea Green from Primordial Solution's as well. These products will insure a safe, stress free transplant.

Thanks for checking out my grows brother.. I reuse my coco every round.

Here is the link to Capulator's Tea... www.OGbiowar.com
 
Supergoo

Supergoo

79
18
Im just worried that it will still be infected with whatever the damping off problem is. If that makes sense, I loosely understand damping off but from what i can tell it is either too much moisture in the soil/coco and the stem sucks up too much and it becomes to succulent and falls over from lack of support(which would make sense because they stretched quite a bit, lights too high) or its a fungi that infects the medium because of dampness and attacks the roots or something. or a combination of both lol. idk im so confused :(... Btw i pulled the sprouts that were in there after about 5 days after they broke soil.
 
GR33NL3AF

GR33NL3AF

1,904
263
Im just worried that it will still be infected with whatever the damping off problem is. If that makes sense, I loosely understand damping off but from what i can tell it is either too much moisture in the soil/coco and the stem sucks up too much and it becomes to succulent and falls over from lack of support(which would make sense because they stretched quite a bit, lights too high) or its a fungi that infects the medium because of dampness and attacks the roots or something. or a combination of both lol. idk im so confused :(... Btw i pulled the sprouts that were in there after about 5 days after they broke soil.
Dampening off is some sort of Rot, I used to get it when I ran Rockwool and didn't let the cubes dry out enough. All I can say is you have 2 options... H202 or Beneficial Bacteria.

H202 will kill everything in the coco and make it vulnerable to future disease...

Beneficial Bacteria will out compete rot, fungi, or pathogens and it will die off. Bacteria will also nurse the new baby roots and make a safety net for their growth.

Do a couple of searches through google on both options and make your decision based on what will work best for you.
 
Aladeen OG

Aladeen OG

343
93
go to your local nursery, even cow towns have them, and get a small bag of organic soil.

plant in this, A because soil is ten times easier for seeds to sprout B. because popping beans in coco as a newbie sounds like trouble from square 1 C. cause you cant even get it right now


care to explain a little more about your set up? you musta had tiny plant in huge pots and watered every day to damp off some coco cuts.... have yet to do that and i water every day all sorts o sized pots
 
G

grimlock

29
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Dude, I have seedlings stretch all the time. Have a few paper clips bent up like mini halo supports, works like a charm for me.
 
Aladeen OG

Aladeen OG

343
93
but if you do stick with coco i'd personally go the sterile/h2o2 route vs bennies. bennies are a lot cheaper to use and easier in soil. if your doing a soilless media like coco, its a tricky contradiction a lot of growers (even experienced) do when it comes to bennies and hydro... youre feeding the roots with coco and providing fresh o2, where as soil you basically charge and it eats as necessary.... they are two different games entirely, and with feeding so much, and so much oxygen, bennies are more of a preventative in soilless than a growing regimen, IMO. but i guess i can round around... the only reason i switched to coco is because i wanted larger yields and more of a challenge. start in soil. easier buffer, a lot simpler, and you'll even find people that prefer the taste of dirt over how the plant tastes on its own, so if you mess up people will still like it a lot of times.... haha... just dont chop early in soil. my .02 for reading this.
 
Supergoo

Supergoo

79
18
Heres my set up kind of https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/250w-clf-help.63594/. Thats my tent which this happened in. The other is my closet which I havent had any probs in yet. Ive been using coco since my first grow on grow 3 now, and i never had that happen:(. I think part of the problem was that i put freshly popped seedlings in a 3 gal pot of coco that had just been pre-soaked/flushed, and the tent didnt have an exhaust yet, just passive air though the vent, and a mini fan blowing up at the lights.


Heres a thread to my first grow. https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/threads/under-350-micro-grow-journal-complete-with-pics.63763/
 
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