Starting grow in coco coir

McSmokey · Sep 3, 2023

Hello lovely people of the cannabis world.

Ive been a lover of the the green stuff for quite some time now but have only just started to have a dabble at growing it myself. This will be my second grow that im gonna be starting this week, my first one was a complete shambles and only managed to pull 2oz from 3 plants ..! Il be using the same medium for this grow as i did with the first wich was 70% coco 30% perlite. Where i messed up with the last one is i wasn't watering the plant enough and was letting it dry out before watering, wich ive learnt is no good at all in coco. But i am torn with the best way to get them going from seed? Do i drench the medium before i plant the seed in there? And how much should i be watering whilst its a seed/ seedling? And do i start with nutrients from the get go?

Thankyou for your time in reading this post and hope to have some helpful feedback.

Love

Bdubs · Sep 3, 2023

No nutrients until the first single leafs turn yellow.

Keep the soil damp in a small area around it.

You can plant seed then water it.

If growing on cloth bags/pots. Using a more absorbent soil around the circumference of the pot will help them not dry out as fast, like a top soil. So when filling the grow bag, do it slowly and fill sides with top soil then add to the middle with your other coco mix and so on until it is done.

JohnBlazr · Sep 3, 2023

Bdubs said:
No nutrients until the first single leafs turn yellow.

Keep the soil damp in a small area around it.

You can plant seed then water it.

If growing on cloth bags/pots. Using a more absorbent soil around the circumference of the pot will help them not dry out as fast, like a top soil. So when filling the grow bag, do it slowly and fill sides with top soil then add to the middle with your other coco mix and so on until it is done.

I’ve never grown in coco but this sounds like a great rec, I haven’t heard of this before but seem like it would fix a lot of problems for new coco growers.

Bdubs · Sep 3, 2023

JohnBlazr said:
I’ve never grown in coco but this sounds like a great rec, I haven’t heard of this before but seem like it would fix a lot of problems for new coco growers.

It works like a charm in cloth grow bags. #1 issue with it is the soil drying out fast. This corrects that issue for sure.

Bdubs · Sep 3, 2023

I also recommend starting seed in a rockwool pod or small block first. It will speed up the process as well. Then just plant the pod/block in the soil. Do not let light hit the rockwool though it will grow algae and bad bacteria, so cover it or block the light.

McSmokey · Sep 3, 2023

Bdubs said:
No nutrients until the first single leafs turn yellow.

Keep the soil damp in a small area around it.

You can plant seed then water it.

If growing on cloth bags/pots. Using a more absorbent soil around the circumference of the pot will help them not dry out as fast, like a top soil. So when filling the grow bag, do it slowly and fill sides with top soil then add to the middle with your other coco mix and so on until it is done.

Thanks mate appreciate your knowledge, will definitely give this a go sounds like a great idea. With me adding the top soil to the pots, would i have to alter the way i feed them nutris. Because im guessing that the top soil will have a certain amount of nutrition all ready in it?? Thanks again.

McSmokey · Sep 3, 2023

Bdubs said:
I also recommend starting seed in a rockwool pod or small block first. It will speed up the process as well. Then just plant the pod/block in the soil. Do not let light hit the rockwool though it will grow algae and bad bacteria, so cover it or block the light.

I forgot to mention that im growing autos, would this still be an option to start them off in smaller pots? Ive read lots off different things about this.

Bdubs · Sep 3, 2023

No sir. It should just help the frequency of when to feed. 2-3 days between watering should be normal once in flower. Given you do a proper run off watering.
If the soil ever gets completely dry or has dry spots, that is when you’ll have big issues. You’ll need a major watering to completely saturate the dry spots or they will stay dry and moist spots will soak it all up.

ArtfulCodger · Sep 3, 2023

Check out the website "Coco for Cannabis." He has great articles on every phase of growing in coco.

Imzzaudae · Sep 3, 2023

Make sure that you wash and buffer your coco.

hoobastank_enthusiast · Sep 3, 2023

McSmokey said:
Hello lovely people of the cannabis world.

Ive been a lover of the the green stuff for quite some time now but have only just started to have a dabble at growing it myself. This will be my second grow that im gonna be starting this week, my first one was a complete shambles and only managed to pull 2oz from 3 plants ..! Il be using the same medium for this grow as i did with the first wich was 70% coco 30% perlite. Where i messed up with the last one is i wasn't watering the plant enough and was letting it dry out before watering, wich ive learnt is no good at all in coco. But i am torn with the best way to get them going from seed? Do i drench the medium before i plant the seed in there? And how much should i be watering whilst its a seed/ seedling? And do i start with nutrients from the get go?

Thankyou for your time in reading this post and hope to have some helpful feedback.

Love

I guess my process will be a little different but this is how I do it. I assume that the media is properly prepared at this point. My transplant pattern is 1/4 gallon nursery bag -> 1 gallon nursery bag -> 3 gal (sometimes 5) fabric pot. As mentioned earlier, nursery bags are good for coco and easy to work with/transplant from.

Once germination is complete, I will fully saturate (to run-off) the 1/4 gallon bag with pure water (no nutrients). I want that media to be at 100% saturation when the seed goes into it. I plant about an inch down and wait. From here on out, my goal is to keep my media at 90-100% saturation at all times with pure water. Coco is not as stable as soil so I'm very careful with my watering the first few days so as not to disturb the seed or uproot the sprout. I may be using a pipette or syringe or something similar to very gently water the media, but I am making sure that it doesn't fall out of the 90-100% range.

I also start feeding pretty quickly. Coco doesn't have anything of value in it and that seed only has enough fuel to expose its cotyledon; anything beyond that and my opinion is it stunts the plant. Once the cotyledon are exposed and photosynthesis can start to occur, I start feeding (introducing nutrients into my water) daily. I have my target nutrient ratios for each week but for week one specifically, I will slowly work my way up to those numbers over the course of the week so as to introduce the nutrients slowly.

sinse · Sep 3, 2023

McSmokey said:
Hello lovely people of the cannabis world.

Ive been a lover of the the green stuff for quite some time now but have only just started to have a dabble at growing it myself. This will be my second grow that im gonna be starting this week, my first one was a complete shambles and only managed to pull 2oz from 3 plants ..! Il be using the same medium for this grow as i did with the first wich was 70% coco 30% perlite. Where i messed up with the last one is i wasn't watering the plant enough and was letting it dry out before watering, wich ive learnt is no good at all in coco. But i am torn with the best way to get them going from seed? Do i drench the medium before i plant the seed in there? And how much should i be watering whilst its a seed/ seedling? And do i start with nutrients from the get go?

Thankyou for your time in reading this post and hope to have some helpful feedback.

Love

Best of luck ! Im right with you, 2 weeks using coco for the first time. I love the way it stays airy and drains well. I am using Fox Farm Coco Loco which is 1/2 coco half soil if I understand it correctly.

With soil, if I water to runoff or flush, it gets a little too heavy and muddy, not the case with coco. We'll see how it does, Im a little worried about Calcium and Mag deficiencies, apparently one of the problems with Coco..

I was interested in growing master kush so I bought an ounce from my local dispensery to see if I liked it. I didnt expect it, but the dispensery weed had a few seeds ( around 10 seeds--100 bucks an ounce Im not complaining.) So this is my first try with non fem seeds... I have 3 growing now, lets hope their not all males !

Pic below is end of week one under an SF-1000----Seedlings started in Coco Loco 60 PPM Dynagrow Foliage Pro and a few drops of cal mag.

sinse · Sep 3, 2023

Bdubs said:
No nutrients until the first single leafs turn yellow.

Keep the soil damp in a small area around it.

You can plant seed then water it.

If growing on cloth bags/pots. Using a more absorbent soil around the circumference of the pot will help them not dry out as fast, like a top soil. So when filling the grow bag, do it slowly and fill sides with top soil then add to the middle with your other coco mix and so on until it is done.

Interesting, I've seen others mentions this as well. So it helps to starve the plant a little bit at the start? I went with a very light dose of Foliage pro.. 1/16 tsp per half gallon RO water. The PPM's are around 60 which is lower than some tap water, so I think its pretty close to feeding nothing at all as you recommend. Leaves look a little light so I was thinking of upping the N doseage next feeding but maybe I'll rethink that.

bullfrog13 · Sep 3, 2023

sinse said:
Interesting, I've seen others mentions this as well. So it helps to starve the plant a little bit at the start? I went with a very light dose of Foliage pro.. 1/16 tsp per half gallon RO water. The PPM's are around 60 which is lower than some tap water, so I think its pretty close to feeding nothing at all as you recommend. Leaves look a little light so I was thinking of upping the N doseage next feeding but maybe I'll rethink that.

dont listen to that its absolute nonsense. probably hasnt worked out your growing in coco yet. soil feeding/watering protocols do not transfer over to coco.
as soon as your cotyledons open you have to provide photons and nutrients.
start with about 0.5EC and slowly increase it. youll wanna be at about 1.1-1.2 by the start of veg. and yes go to that website and read through the whole how to grow in coco section, because you really do need to get an overview of the whole process first. It will serve you well.

dsp · Sep 3, 2023

ArtfulCodger said:
Check out the website "Coco for Cannabis." He has great articles on every phase of growing in coco.

Dr. MJ coco's book is worth a read as well.

Bdubs · Sep 3, 2023

sinse said:
Interesting, I've seen others mentions this as well. So it helps to starve the plant a little bit at the start? I went with a very light dose of Foliage pro.. 1/16 tsp per half gallon RO water. The PPM's are around 60 which is lower than some tap water, so I think it’s pretty close to feeding nothing at all as you recommend. Leaves look a little light so I was thinking of upping the N doseage next feeding but maybe I'll rethink that.

What it is is that the plant has what it needs and will use up the nutrients in the first single leafs before it should need to seek nutrients. They are just not needed at that early stage.

hoobastank_enthusiast · Sep 3, 2023

@sinse TBH with Coco Loco I think you might want to treat it more like soil than coco. I'm not sure on exactly how that will handle; coco mixed with soil is something I try to avoid. To give you some perspective as far as feeding goes, looking back at my notes for my current grow it looks like my first feeding on day 1 was 6.1 pH @ 460 μS/cm.

bullfrog13 · Sep 3, 2023

im over it

hoobastank_enthusiast · Sep 3, 2023

yeah i've been here ten minutes and i don't blame you, is this youtube's fault

sinse · Sep 3, 2023

hoobastank_enthusiast said:
@sinse TBH with Coco Loco I think you might want to treat it more like soil than coco. I'm not sure on exactly how that will handle; coco mixed with soil is something I try to avoid. To give you some perspective as far as feeding goes, looking back at my notes for my current grow it looks like my first feeding on day 1 was 6.1 pH @ 460 μS/cm.

I tried coco bricks and it was a nightmare, so I decided to just put a "toe in the water" with Coco Loco as I am already familiar with soil grows. I'm using Coco Loco, Perlite and rabbit poop from my pet rabbit... (along with Dyna Grow Protekt and Foliage Pro). We'll see how it does.

Also boiled and baked my coco loco, Ive had enough of fungus gnats and want all bugs dead... (yes killing the good stuff too, A trade off Im willing to take)

Boiling water and an oven until the soil/coco reaches 180...

Starting grow in coco coir

Starting grow in coco coir

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