Flush yo coco botanicare beware

[NachoConQueso]

It definitely happens. I get it that people are successful with their product, but it happens from time to time. Some people swear by B'Cuzz, but that brand nearly killed my clones with high salt content. I checked my notes recently and I'd like to point out that I threw my Botanicare out because I had root aphids and wanted to clean and clear everything. It wasn't because it was salty. I don't think Botanicare is horrible, but I'm not going to use it again because I'm getting better results from Canna. It seems to be the superior product thus far.

 

[megayields]

I use botanicare straight out of the bag. No rinsing before putting into my mix.
My babies love it

If Diesel Don Marlo says it's good, you can take that to the bank.

 

[JAY LENWEED]

QFT

to the OP

listen you cant have a small amount of water run through a large amount of media and expect to get a reasonable reading as it will pick up salts along the way and give you a skewed reading...



btw i use Botanicare all day the shit rocks...

It almost took 5 gallons of H20 per 3 gallon pot of coco to get the ppm between 400 & 500. Again this is the FIRST bag of cocogro that has been like this, but I will check every bag from here foward. Peace

 

[JAY LENWEED]

Botanicare coco is pretreated to help avoid nutrient lockout upon initial use. Rinsing it all out is actually counterproductive....true story. Try it straight out of the bag and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Is this true even if u precharge or recharge with your own nutrient mix?

 

[Snow Crash]

I don't think Botanicare is pre-charged.

My experience has been this.
Botanicare CocoGro, expanded with filtered water, 1:1 runoff EC at 0.4ish.
Canna Coco, 1:1 runoff EC at 2.2ish.

So you tell me, which is ready out of the bag for seedlings in your opinion?

It sounds to me like you used the Botanicare Coco for your grow, and you weren't getting enough runoff to rinse the coco, and as a result you got a build up.

Coco does a very good job retaining the nutrients you use without adequate runoff.

So, it sounds to me like the Botanicare CocoGro was fine when you got it, but then after a few months of you feeding it then things went south... And you want to blame Botanicare for this???

IMO, Botanicare has the best quality Coco (especially for the cost per L) on the market. Canna Coco is 99% hype. I got 2 bags of the Canna 50L coco a short time ago. I found all kinds of stuff. Sticks, bugs, nuts/seeds, tufts of non-composted coco, shredded up plastic trash... and a RIDICULOUSLY high starting EC. With compressed coco you control the starting point because it is clean to begin with.

I like to expand with 4ml of Canna Coco A+B with 3ml of Cal-Mag plus, per gallon. In the future, though I haven't done it yet, I'd like to move to an all Botanicare system and instead use about 8ml/gallon of the CNS 17 Coco/Soil Grow to expand their coco.

Botanicare Compressed CocoGro FTW... Unless you like Roots Organic coco mix like I do. A new favorite in my grow room for certain.

 

[JAY LENWEED]

I don't think Botanicare is pre-charged.

My experience has been this.
Botanicare CocoGro, expanded with filtered water, 1:1 runoff EC at 0.4ish.
Canna Coco, 1:1 runoff EC at 2.2ish.

So you tell me, which is ready out of the bag for seedlings in your opinion?

It sounds to me like you used the Botanicare Coco for your grow, and you weren't getting enough runoff to rinse the coco, and as a result you got a build up.

Coco does a very good job retaining the nutrients you use without adequate runoff.

So, it sounds to me like the Botanicare CocoGro was fine when you got it, but then after a few months of you feeding it then things went south... And you want to blame Botanicare for this???

IMO, Botanicare has the best quality Coco (especially for the cost per L) on the market. Canna Coco is 99% hype. I got 2 bags of the Canna 50L coco a short time ago. I found all kinds of stuff. Sticks, bugs, nuts/seeds, tufts of non-composted coco, shredded up plastic trash... and a RIDICULOUSLY high starting EC. With compressed coco you control the starting point because it is clean to begin with.

I like to expand with 4ml of Canna Coco A+B with 3ml of Cal-Mag plus, per gallon. In the future, though I haven't done it yet, I'd like to move to an all Botanicare system and instead use about 8ml/gallon of the CNS 17 Coco/Soil Grow to expand their coco.

Botanicare Compressed CocoGro FTW... Unless you like Roots Organic coco mix like I do. A new favorite in my grow room for certain.

No my man this was a fresh bag I have been using and will continue to use botanicare, I was precharging with a 300-350ppm for freshly rooted clones was measuring the ph and ppm of the runoff and it was 1800 ppm. Normally this wont get over 500ppm.I flushed the shit out of it and recharged it. Plants looking great.Just think I got a "bad" bag. Know now to check runoff from here out.Gettn a couple more bags this weekend will post for eveyone what the runoff reads. Do you have to add calmag when using canna coco nutes?Got the entire line for coco gonna do an Advanced sensi line and canna run to see whats the real deal for coco. peace

 

[itisme]

I been growing in coco 4 about 6 months and my local grow shop only carries cocogro by botanicare.On the bag it states that its ready to grow ! The last bag I used, salts contents were thru the roof!!!!!!!!![1800ppm] Avoid lock out and flush yo coco!!!!!!!!!Beware of Botancare !! Flush,flush,flush and all will be well!! Hope this will help an IC brother or sister!!!

HHHHMMMMMM????? Would this cause it to make the tips of the leave yellow and completely fuck up your grow I mean Because that is what I am experiencing!!!! I can't get mine to look right for shit!

 

[JAY LENWEED]

HHHHMMMMMM????? Would this cause it to make the tips of the leave yellow and completely fuck up your grow I mean Because that is what I am experiencing!!!! I can't get mine to look right for shit!

How old are your plants?If you use full strength nutes you should flush them every 4-5 weeks.

 

[Sam87]

Lol, so after giving Sunleaves blocks a glowing review just up the page, I'm currently having a terrible experience with them. Just blew up three of their blocks, only they wouldn't expand. Over 12 hours soaking, and they're still bricked up, and dry at the center. Three hours of manual break-up later, I'm left with a product that is soggy, waterlogged feeling, and completely unusable for plants without added perlite. I have water pooling on top of my coco, never seen that before.

And that my friends, just goes to show why QC is so goddamned important! Now, I have to wonder whether this is a manufacturer error, or a grow store storage error. Anyone ever experience this before?

Regardless, back to the Hydrofarm, and probably doing some more experimenting with Botanicare. May be a buck or two more, but the texture is always gorgeous, at least where I buy it from. The hassle and blood pressure fluctuations just aren't worth it. They managed to turn an hour long job into 4+, with the outcome probably going in the outside flower beds, if not the dumpster. . .

 

[Bud Spleefman]

All these brands of Coco are packaged on some salty beach in Maylasia or Vietnam, so anything is possible. I prefer Canna myself, but even that could have a salty bag here or there, who knows if everyone working that day was hung-over, or what else might be going on on the other side of the world. Maybe they were out of their fresh water supply, anything could happen.... so I always try to either give it a rinse, or water the shit out of it the first watering...
I have seen some bricks that released an oily residue, that was the last time I bought bricks.....

 

[BongRipkenJR.]

Yeah, my botanicare coco was fine out of the bag. I did 3 plants in Roots organic soiless coco mix and the salt content was a bit higher from them. The run off water was around 800ppm. The botanicare was the same as whatever I put into it. Maybe occasionally a salty batch gets through.

 

[BerndV]

How old are your plants?If you use full strength nutes you should flush them every 4-5 weeks.

Actually, you should never flush coco until the last week or two before harvest. Doing so will completely destroy the cation equilibrium that is achieved by buffering and/or pre-treating the coco.

 

[blooper]

just picked up a bag after the shop dude assured me it was rinsed properly and good out of the bag but after mixing with top quality worm castings and perlite in equal parts and transplanting into it, plants aren't looking happy at all.

any chance quality of production went down? i figure at this point all i can do is either get em out of there and into something safe or just flush it with ph'd RO or distilled water and crank up the fan.

 

[Snow Crash]

I'd probably just drop in a good compost tea soaking and let the plants sort themselves out. You'll need more than worm castings and hydroponic media to grow with. Calcium and Phosphorus might be hard to find for your roots right now if you're not supplementing anything else and filtering all the water they get.

If you're looking for an organic coco mix I think that Root's Organics Hydroponic Coco mix or Botanicare ReadyGro Moisture Mix would have been good options. I really like the Pure Blend Pro nutrient system for what you're doing. Regardless, I think getting on a good nutrient program and providing some beneficials will help out a lot.

It is VERY hard to pH balance RO or distilled water because they are so unstable. For an organic mix that prefers a 6.5 pH, start with your "7.0" neutral soft water and just add it to the container. The organics and coco will self regulate and buffer the pH into the correct range without hassle. Stop tinkering with this and you'll have a better result.

I think some of your issues may be self inflicted. Don't blame the coco just yet.

 

[blooper]

yeah, i just rinsed the coco until the runoff was about 50ppm and transplanted into that with ph'd water. at the start, runoff was almost 300ppm.

i've used this mix with coir i've rinsed the shit out of and it works up to a few weeks veg as long as you do a light feeding after transplant while the roots settle in.

you're right about the pH swinging all over the place with RO and distilled. might start mixing half and half RO/tap water. guess i'll just leave em alone for now and hope things recover. maybe a foliar. thanks for the input!