botanicare BOSS coco 6" grow cubes

[buddin_904]

anyone got any experience with these???

they have a small compressed coco brick inside of a white plastic growbag.....you hydrate them....then cut drain holes......they also have a coco fiber mat underneath the coir

just wondering if anyone currently uses them or has in the past and what your opinions/experiences were.

thanks

p.s. - please dont go on about telling me to and how i should flush them. im not going to. HA!

 

[dansbuds]

good question ... was wondering about them myself .

 

[whodare]

botanicare are good people. i use alot of their products and have not once had a problem.
those cubes should be good to go but if you want you could flush with some cal-mag.

 

[BillFarthing]

Boss blocks are great. Botanicare gets their stuff from Pelemix, which has some of the lowest salt content.

 

[buddin_904]

^ awesome....good to hear.....

hydro owner was like yea their made by botanicare (apparently Pelemix)....and he said they got good products......

when i found out they have a fiber mat on the bottom it really was the selling point to me though....i thought that was a great idea and cant wait to see how the roots flourish with it

 

[BillFarthing]

The coarse fiber mat in the bottom is great for drainage. It makes it so you can cut larger drainage holes in the bottom to prevent pooling stagnant nutrient solution.

Also, when I used boss blocks, I stapled the corners on the top of the bag together so there was less exposed coco. It wouldn't dry out as quickly when dripping or hand watering.

For being cheap, they are really effective. I like Boss blocks a lot.

 

[buddin_904]

hey bill thanks for the great input and im glad u like the BOSS blocks

quick question for u.....how do you prefer to make your drainage holes on these bags??

 

[BillFarthing]

I have a hole punch for papers for a 3 ring binder that only makes one hole at a time. It makes round holes that won't tear like if you use a knife to make it. I think you can pick one up at Office Depot or Office Max.

 

[maxmurder]

damn bill you are a smart fart-hing, that's 2 tips , thanks

 

[buddin_904]

well...used the BOSS blocks for the 1st time.....threw 2 RW plugs FULLY rooted into the BOSS's.....concerning the BOSS hydration....i had to use approximately 3/4 gal of nutrient solution to rehydrate them.....i started off pouring a half gal into each BOSS.....i was a little impatient and after 10 min of soaking...i pretty much got in there and started physically chunking apart the brick....its what i would normally do to a normal sized brick....idk if im just impatient or if thats what you have to do....it didnt seem like you can just soak them and they would fully hydrate for full potential aeration...however i definately admit i didnt give them much time to hydrate....perhaps if they sat overnight they would have fully hydrated without the need to breaking them apart.

that is pretty much the only question i got now....do you let them sit for a good while and just pop a clone in or do u let them soak for a small time and start chunking apart???

otherwise....the growth out of them is perfect.....i hydrated with half gal nute mix per block...chuncked out...then put them on the tray...popped in clones...cut holes....a little drained out....that was it....probably 2 days ago....the new growth looks flawless....so obviously as i had suspected...all these newbs insisting on "flush flush flushing" brick coco are out of their minds....ill give them a thorough watering with like 50% run off tommorw and they should be just perfect. i also want to comment on the quality of the botanicare coco coir they use. the coir is just how i like mine......probably 25% fibers 25% chips and 50% coir......i usually like the sunleaves coir mixed with sunleaves chips 50/50....but this BOSS botanicare blend seems just right!

ps...dont use GH cocotek greenlabel bricks....the quality of the coir in those is piss poor! its like half dust with half coirish (seems like leftover shit)....i didnt really feel like those had good aeration...too much compaction with all that dusty "coir" in there....ill stick to these botanicares for now....until i get too tired of the gnats at least!! LOL then its back to RW perhaps!....i no the gnats are coming.....only a matter of time lol....going to get some azamax soon, prevenative.....

peace

 

[buddin_904]

got all BOSS man coco bags now....there pretty sweet. ive found that soaking some for 30 minutes...some hydrate well and are much easier to fluff up....however the other half, you can let them sit in water and they dont really get any hydration besides the outside...so those require 5-10 min a piece to break apart into granules.

the aeration they put out is great. i think its better than rockwool.....the contents of their coir/chip/husk ratio is perfect imo.

i also thought i might re use them once......cut out the root ball.......flush with plain pH water...then pop in another clone and give light nutes with a strong hygrozyme or possible cannazyme solution......yes i prefer not to use hygrozyme, but in this situation of reusing the medium it would be appropriate for a short period of time.....never reused a medium before so i will do some research on flushing and what not....

anyways thats my update on the botanicare boss coco bags.....their pretty satisfactory......$3.95

 

[buddin_904]

also using azamax as a preventative for gnats.......10ml per gal currently

sooo anyone else running the boss man bags right now???

 

[BillFarthing]

Hey Buddin,

I like to throw them in a rubbermaid tub with a few inches of water, some humic/fulvic and kelp extract overnight to let them rehydrate. There is no breaking them apart or coco leaking out to clean up.

 

[twoguysupnorth]

I liked the boss 6 and 8 in cubes very well. 6 in is pretty small though, id think for more hydro application. I hand watered everything. I just got the 5 kg block but that is to tear apart and mix into my soiless mix. might try one since there are 3-4 holes to put plants into.

Soaking and watering in cubes is extremely easy since you can dunk the whole block into a bucket of solution and it basicly flushes excess at the same time and makes sure they are fully hydrated

I also taped the top shut to slow down evaporation. id recomend them to most peopes.