Thinking about switching to coco as my medium with all organic nutrients. A few?????s

[BongRipkenJR.]

I don't know what it is, but every time I build a new room I want to try something I haven't tried before. I have done hydro drip systems, ebb and flow, soil organic, bio soil, and now I am wanting to try out coco as my medium. I understand there are a million threads on this and that is partly why I am starting a new one hoping the info comes to me. I am not a fan of searching through these forums and for that I am sorry if this type of thread pops up quite a bit. Anyways, down to the meat and potatoes of this post.

I am completely tired of salt based fertilizers. I have used cutting edge, GH, and various advanced and I feel they have nothing on properly grown organic bud. I want to grow coco, but I here there is a higher salt content and I rely heavily on my beneficial bacterias and fungi. I was wondering if anyone has had good luck with compost teas and coco fiber. If so what were some of the obstacles you had to overcome? I would like to use the same compost tea formula I used for my outdoor(which was insanely tasty and sticky, but lacked in density). If that poses too much of a problem I was thinking of substituting in some of the natural organic products from Humboldt Nutrients. I am generally not a fan of nute companies, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the bud that is produced from humboldt's master A and B and their organic 2 part. Of course there were quite a bit of other stuff used with those base nutrients. Anyways, I would love to hear about your organic coco experience. The only coco growers I know either use van de shwan(spelling?) or flora nova and I dont want to use either of them. Thanks in advance fellow gardeners!

 

[BongRipkenJR.]

Oh, and I just realized all of my spelling errors. I just woke up so forgive me

 

[treeofsatta]

Im flowering in Coco/soil mix with Canna Bio Flores. Just before switching to 12/12 I moved their 11L root balls into a 20L pot filled with nice soil.

I also use organic seaweed extract in the coco aswell as foliar feed. I did my veg with canna A + B which is an easy to use combo but there are definately people doing full organic coco.

Coco is great for root growth!

Satta

 

[BongRipkenJR.]

Hmmm, thanks man! I am still on the fence about coco. 707 formula soil might be my best bet, but coco sounds so promising. I just see most people using salty chem nutrients with it and I dont care what anybody says, that shit will bite your throat no matter how well it is grown and flushed!

 

[hazefest]

If its available in your area try to go for the Canna range of nutes, once you go with coco you wont wanna grow any other way.

 

[Sam the Caveman]

I've used a soil mix with coco and the main thing I noticed was that if I used plain RO water, the microherd struggled to buffer the ph properly for the plant, so I just fed from then on with ph 6.0 water. The plants recovered from their slight deficiencies quickly and looked great from then on out.

The mix I used was 4 parts coco, 3 parts mushroom compost and 3 parts perlite. The additives to the mix were Blood meal 0.5 tbs/gal, Cottonseed meal 0.5 tbs/gal, bone meal 2 tbs/gal, kelp meal 1 tbs/gal, dolmite lime 1.5 tbs/gal, diatomaceous earth 1.5 tbs/gal and espoma bio-tone at 1/2 application rate for 1 gallon.

I was used to running salt nutrients and didn't quite trust the organic mix the last 2 weeks before flush, so they also got fed dutchmaster advance a&b @ 1000 ppm (0.5 conv) for those last 2 weeks before the flush.

I fed them compost tea a few times, but I wasn't that great at making tea. I've just recently learned how much biodiversity can be had by using various feed sources in your tea.

Good luck with it, that was my first experience with organics, so take it into consideration.

 

[reddy1]

i just got a free sample of this product. it's about $15 a 1.5 cu.ft. says to keep pH 5.5-6.5 and only has enough food for a few weeks.

i'll let you know what i think. i think the GH organics, earth juice, floranova or roots organics would work well with this.

ROOTS ORGANICS COCOFIBER HYDROPONIC SOILLESS MEDIA
A unique formulation of the highest quality coco fiber/Coir on the planet which is repeatedly washed for an incredibly low EC, composted for over twenty-four months, and specially blended with extra long fibers, perlite, and pumice. Lightly amended with a starter charge of organic fertilizers like bat guano, worm castings and kelp, this mix is designed for heavy feeding and high performance in container or hydroponic applications. Coco fiber is a great medium and an exellent replacement for peat moss; it is an environmentally friendly byproduct, pH stable within the ideal range for nutrient uptake, and because of the Lignin content is slow to decompose. Roots Organics Coco soilless mix was created for the gardener who demands higher performance from their plants.

 

[BongRipkenJR.]

I have noticed problems with biodiversity with ROed water myself. I just had a lot more space open up so I will have a couple 2x4 trays running as well for coco test runs. I really like the idea of roots organic coco. I have used their line in soil and really liked it. I will see if they don't have a sampler pack to try in coco. Looks like %10-20 of my garden will be a coco experiment with liquid organic ferts and the rest will be compost teas and 707 formula soil. Shit, if I get enough trays I might do all coco. It sounds better and better the more I think about it.

 

[Lazyman]

I'm a recent convert to Botanicare's ReadyGro coco (eration formula) that has lots of perlite in it, in addition to EWC, Leanordite, bat guano etc. It's nice to start with a bagged mix that's ready to go, and provides an initial feeding duration to the plants. I've had trouble dialing in new, un-amended coco as I found a couple brands suck up a ton of the nutes. I also tried organic bottled nutes in coco (Pura Vida Organics) and hated it. It was extremely challenging to get the nutes strong enough to feed the plants, and without the elaborate "soil microherd/food web" going on, you're supposedly missing out on the primary benefit of growing organically. Also, maintaining a microherd in a reservoir SUCKS, lots of scrubbing and feeding the little beasties.

I much prefer a simpler dead res/salt nute regimen and I would gladly put my stinky, ripe, well-flushed and well-cured weed against any organics and defy you to tell me the difference. How about a blind taste test?

 

[BongRipkenJR.]

I am definitely switching to coco, as far as nutrients are concerned I will not be using a compost tea. There is too much hassle from the coco fiber it seems like so I will use something where I can reduce certain levels a lot easier. I was thinking about Roots Organic or Humboldt master A and B. I hit up humboldt nutrients about a free sample, same with Aurora innovations.

Who knows, I still might have a brew of molasses, EWC, and beneficials going and water once a week with the strained solution to keep the herd going.

I much prefer a simpler dead res/salt nute regimen and I would gladly put my stinky, ripe, well-flushed and well-cured weed against any organics and defy you to tell me the difference. How about a blind taste test?

I have smoked quite a few very good chemy grown bud that burns clean, tastes good, but they always lack the complexity and utter smoothness that properly grown outdoor organic can give you. I will take your taste test, although I am completely out of my outdoor organic and just purchased the lights for my room and the other stuff last night. Should be running by the end of the week and should have a harvest in 70-80 days.

 

[Lazyman]

Congrats man, sounds like you have a good plan and an exciting year ahead of you. hit me up anytime, it should be fun. Good luck on your new grow!

 

[BongRipkenJR.]

For sure, I am hanging lights today and trying to get the ventilation system done. Gotta read up on wiring a room up. I got some work ahead of me. Hopefully I use this room for more than 2 runs

 

[Azeotrope]

You can add a compost tea here and there if you wish in straight coco. I have done it many times before when running canna nutes. I have run straight organic coco with teas, but always ended up pounding the girls with to much P in flower some how. Never figured it out.....

Coco based organic mixes are what I have been using for a couple of years now and they are sooo much better than peat based. I am going to run some straight coco and Jack's pro hydro next run though. I think that it is way hard to beat the growth and yield of straight coco on refined nutes done DTW.

Whatever you do - Have fun!

 

[reddy1]

i think marlo said he mixes 10% EWC and feeds at a PH of 6.4, that's kind of different for coco, but seems to work for him.

you'd have to ask him though.

you could top dress with EWC and guano every so often also.

 

[BongRipkenJR.]

i think marlo said he mixes 10% EWC and feeds at a PH of 6.4, that's kind of different for coco, but seems to work for him.

you'd have to ask him though.

you could top dress with EWC and guano every so often also.

I recently read about that in the coco growers forum. I occasionally have been going back to it and picking things up. I am thinking of having one 4x8 side be all coco in coco specific nutrients like biocanna or canna and the other 4x8 side running 1:1 coco/perlite mix and using Humboldt master A and B with a few additives. Not the hole line. I will still have my molasses, EWC, hummus, and great white brewing to throw in here and there. I read you can actually see the beneficial fungus spreading after a little while even in the canna nutrients. I am excited none the less!

 

[BongRipkenJR.]

I keep changing my mind almost everyday though, but tomorrow or the day after I have to go buy some ferts and coco so I am kind of dedicated with how I want to do this now.