Organic teas boost the microherd, those little buggers are probably sorting out some issues for us in terms of nutrient availability in the coco.
My first observations growing with Coco: Coco vs Soil
- Thread starter cannariffic
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Organic teas boost the microherd, those little buggers are probably sorting out some issues for us in terms of nutrient availability in the coco.
pedrodepaco
Member
I feed with guano teas from the organic beginners stickies. planning on using ionic on some of my next grow.
My organic res (Pura Vida) is over 2000 PPM and rising, and the plants want WAY more food. I've been told meters are damn near useless with organics, just feed what the girls need. I'm using DM liquid light and it seems to greatly increase the plants appetite, I am at 1500ppm in my salt (AN) tank and they want more food too. Starting to think I just don't know squat about nutrient profiles, lol
cannariffic
Member
MY second observations growing in coco.......
Plants grown in coco grow taller! I find they are a little lanky in comparison to the soil. However, the soil plants have larger buds in comparison to coco.
I have one soil plant that is having some serious pH issues. Soil seems to be compacted in comparison to coco plants. Drainage in coco is far superior.
All in all, I am very pleased with coco.
The nutrients that I am using are Fox Farms Tiger Bloom and Grow Big. Liquid Karma. Sweet. http://foxfarmfertilizer.com/soilfeed.pdf thats the nutrient guide. I am for the most part following it to the T.
Feel free to comment.
Plants grown in coco grow taller! I find they are a little lanky in comparison to the soil. However, the soil plants have larger buds in comparison to coco.
I have one soil plant that is having some serious pH issues. Soil seems to be compacted in comparison to coco plants. Drainage in coco is far superior.
All in all, I am very pleased with coco.
The nutrients that I am using are Fox Farms Tiger Bloom and Grow Big. Liquid Karma. Sweet. http://foxfarmfertilizer.com/soilfeed.pdf thats the nutrient guide. I am for the most part following it to the T.
Feel free to comment.
Meters and ph's are not used in organics.... organics is a whole different boat lol.... took me a while to get that through my head...
everything including the buds should be larger... i know i get more off of mine then i did dirt.... if your using chems try and drop the ph alittle coco should be fed at a hydro ph of around 5.4 -5.8 ish
I am growing with a mix of 50% coco, 20% peat(or Pro-Mix), 20% mushroom compost(or EWC), 5% composted manure/humus(Scotts), and 5% fine clay(kitty litter). To this I add dolomite lime (1 tbsp per gallon), Espoma Flower-Tone(2 tbsp per gallon), Espoma Bio-Tone Starter Plus(1 tbsp per gallon), and bone meal (2 tbsp per gallon).
I never test pH, I never test ppm, and I never have deficiencies anymore. Unless they get root-bound, which takes a LONG TIME with this mix, they really only require water, though I do sometimes feed them aerated compost tea that I brew in a 64oz cup.
Coco can make a good base for an organic mix, but the best organic mixes are diverse mixes in my opinion.
Here's a shot of my veg chamber(and an old shot at that, looks better now than it did then):
I never test pH, I never test ppm, and I never have deficiencies anymore. Unless they get root-bound, which takes a LONG TIME with this mix, they really only require water, though I do sometimes feed them aerated compost tea that I brew in a 64oz cup.
Coco can make a good base for an organic mix, but the best organic mixes are diverse mixes in my opinion.
Here's a shot of my veg chamber(and an old shot at that, looks better now than it did then):
M
mrred
how far is that light from the ones in soil?
It is a decent amount of upfront work, but it's simple work. Once it's done you have a really stellar medium. More simple variations of this mix like 50% coco, 25% peat, and 20% EWC is pretty good too. The money saved is generally more than what you'd earn given the same time spent at a job to earn the money to buy premade soil of anywhere near the same quality.
my point is your running mostly coco right, well the ingrediants your putting in are only going to last what a month tops? considering the amount u put in(organic amendments) thats a good estimate at best. then after that your left with a medium inferior to pure coco for growth and ph control and once again thats more costly, dont forget u can run around 15 gallons of coco for like 15 bucks with botanicare coco, any decent mix is much more then this for sure , i like the idea of soil in that u actually get some nutes for your money, but when u compare the cost even this way, pure coco n a bottle of fertz verses coco plus amendments, plus nutes youll need later its just more money plus more work for lesser performance and i dont understand the point.
Agreed with Leviathan (i think!) on coco and nutes, lately I'm advocating doing the initial soaking of coco bricks in a strong nute + cal/mag solution so you can start off with a healthy, deficiency-free medium.
Whenever I've started with plain coco, I've had to run double-triple strength nutes on young clones just to get some food to the roots, otherwise the coco just eats it all up itself. Better to soak em in nutes from the get-go so the plants have something to eat.
Whenever I've started with plain coco, I've had to run double-triple strength nutes on young clones just to get some food to the roots, otherwise the coco just eats it all up itself. Better to soak em in nutes from the get-go so the plants have something to eat.
Oh, and if you use any EC, guanos or the like, you can't flush it out if you wanted to. With most liquid nutes you can flush easily, and control proportions much more tightly. I like to be in control of EVERYTHING though, variables are a bad bad thing IMHO.
wow that was an epic run-on sentence lol
There's a lot of compost in this mix, and even without the Espoma products I add, I've yet to have hungry girls all the way through flower. We're not really feeding the plants in a mix like this, we're feeding beneficials, and they can sequester any nutrients the plant does not specifically need. Unlike with soluble inorganic fertilizers, you end up with a huge buffer of nutrients that need only become soluble when needed. Compared to chemical foods, you can grow in huge amounts of actual fertilizer. In a chemical grow this would fry the plant.
I have never had a pH problem with organics. Not once. My mushroom compost, composted manure/humus, bone meal, and the Flower-Tone together cost less than 20 dollars, and I've still got a lot of it left. More importantly, I can reuse my medium. I can put the whole mix into a worm bin, and have lovely worm products to grow in. I can also break down my old roots and reuse the material from them. Same goes for stems, seeds, or any other plant matter I don't want. I think the net total is a gain because atmospheric carbon and nitrogen are used in part to construct the plant in an organic medium, so you're taking carbon out of the atmosphere. What I'm getting at is the nutrients don't vanish. Just what we smoke of it. That constitutes a pretty small amount of actual material though.
I hope this covers whatever questions you may have had about this.
your doing a soil run in coco bascially, just useing the coco for more air retention, ill leave it at that. but fact is still compared to pure coco your doing alot more work and going to yeild less while having no control over variables, just letting your little micro herders do there thing which is fine. like i said your a soil guy.. i will say this, i dont like to start plants(seeds) in pure coco, i think its to tricky in terms of how fast it dries out and the fact that it pretty nuteless to begin with, i prefer a little jiffy starter and then i plant that in the coco
They do make coco pucks. Also, you can use a tiny clear plastic cup full of coco with no holes in it. Stays moist a long time and you can see when the roots are ready.
cannariffic
Member
Heres a little update wit my grow....
Everything is still the same, but the soil plants display nutrient troubles. Low pH due to a build up of salts and therefore nutrient lock out. They bounce back with good growth and bud development but aggravating none the less.
The soil bud's smell more earthy. With muskier notes.
The coco bud's smell similar but with less of that pronounced musk than the soil.
Coco seems to allow the plant to branch out and go nuts. There is a lot of pop corn bud below the main canopy.
They both soil and coco bud's appear to be frosty. They are 40 days old and have approximately 30-35 days to finish.
Thus far, I am a true coco believer....
Feel free to comment with any tips or suggestions! Thanks!
Everything is still the same, but the soil plants display nutrient troubles. Low pH due to a build up of salts and therefore nutrient lock out. They bounce back with good growth and bud development but aggravating none the less.
The soil bud's smell more earthy. With muskier notes.
The coco bud's smell similar but with less of that pronounced musk than the soil.
Coco seems to allow the plant to branch out and go nuts. There is a lot of pop corn bud below the main canopy.
They both soil and coco bud's appear to be frosty. They are 40 days old and have approximately 30-35 days to finish.
Thus far, I am a true coco believer....
Feel free to comment with any tips or suggestions! Thanks!
