can coco be reused?
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LittleAmsterdam
Member
Depends on what you fertilized with last, how much, and how long did you flush prior to your pull.
A. Some people like using strong P/K Booster towards the end of flower. These are strong fertilizers and the medium should NOT be used after wards.
B. Coco holds a lot of nutrient so if you're aware of this or taken precautions; I believe Coco or Peat Moss is just as good if not better the second time around.
C. If you flushed your plants for two weeks then you've already done 1/2 of the work needed.
A. Some people like using strong P/K Booster towards the end of flower. These are strong fertilizers and the medium should NOT be used after wards.
B. Coco holds a lot of nutrient so if you're aware of this or taken precautions; I believe Coco or Peat Moss is just as good if not better the second time around.
C. If you flushed your plants for two weeks then you've already done 1/2 of the work needed.
I have reused coco many times. I strain it through a big screen with apprx 1/4" holes to get out the majority of root mass. I do notice that there are some roots still in the coco though and it hasn't seemed to affect anything, even rooting clones directly into the coco.
A few tips:
-Never let coco dry out completely bone dry, this includes between uses. I noticed that trying to reuse coco that had been dry for several weeks that it no longer held as much water
-If the coco has been flushed with plain water at the end of the previous cycle, you don't need to flush, otherwise I would flush with a lot of plain water.
-I have found that my plans needed some calmag after the coco had been previously used, more so than when using brand new canna coco.
A few tips:
-Never let coco dry out completely bone dry, this includes between uses. I noticed that trying to reuse coco that had been dry for several weeks that it no longer held as much water
-If the coco has been flushed with plain water at the end of the previous cycle, you don't need to flush, otherwise I would flush with a lot of plain water.
-I have found that my plans needed some calmag after the coco had been previously used, more so than when using brand new canna coco.
xcrispi
Member
5 yrs n going strong ....
It gets too small n pithy add a cpl bricks of chunky or mixed bricks to it ...
Look up Crunchbubbles thread on ending salt build up forever / Drip Clean .
Shit works and once I've flushed for a week or so theres damn lil nutes left i it anyhows .
Dude above mentioned roots missed when reusing coir = I use pond / foutain cleaner = Canazyme undiluted - 1drop per gallon of water and this stuff eats up all roots you missed and its plant ppl etc.... friendly .
Coir rocks man.
Crispi
It gets too small n pithy add a cpl bricks of chunky or mixed bricks to it ...
Look up Crunchbubbles thread on ending salt build up forever / Drip Clean .
Shit works and once I've flushed for a week or so theres damn lil nutes left i it anyhows .
Dude above mentioned roots missed when reusing coir = I use pond / foutain cleaner = Canazyme undiluted - 1drop per gallon of water and this stuff eats up all roots you missed and its plant ppl etc.... friendly .
Coir rocks man.
Crispi
LittleAmsterdam
Member
Carson points out a good point "I have found that my plans needed some calmag after the coco had been previously used, more so than when using brand new canna coco. "
Sometimes you flush soo much there's nothing left in the soil and needs to be replenished.
Sometimes you flush soo much there's nothing left in the soil and needs to be replenished.
i recently transplanted 80 plants for my new rooms into reused coco from my last indoor run
saved about 500 bucks on coco, and i havent seen ANY problems
probaly will keep reusing this shit forever haha
note: the previous plants were given a 4 week flush before harvest, so the reused coco was damn near perfect, no nutes left over.
saved about 500 bucks on coco, and i havent seen ANY problems
probaly will keep reusing this shit forever haha
note: the previous plants were given a 4 week flush before harvest, so the reused coco was damn near perfect, no nutes left over.
xcrispi
Member
I put coir back in pots and simply water them a cpl. times to runoff using just water and the pond enzyme , I never even rinse it back out . I don't run into cal mg issues like ppl. were above stating as I recharge it by watering it w/ cal mg plus and weak FNB before plantinmg in it again .
Crispi
Just started reusing my coco about 6 months ago.
Not that it was a HUGE savings $$ wise, but getting rid of the never ending tubs of used coco WAS a pain in the ass. AND a waste of great medium.
Now I just dump the pots into a big tubs, pluck out the root ball, and repeat with the next.....I'm not worried about a little root mass here and there.
It's been working great for me and I've let the coco go bone dry between runs. Just water to run off at transplant and your good to go!
Now that I know better, I feel kinda silly having wasted all that media in the past.
Not that it was a HUGE savings $$ wise, but getting rid of the never ending tubs of used coco WAS a pain in the ass. AND a waste of great medium.
Now I just dump the pots into a big tubs, pluck out the root ball, and repeat with the next.....I'm not worried about a little root mass here and there.
It's been working great for me and I've let the coco go bone dry between runs. Just water to run off at transplant and your good to go!
Now that I know better, I feel kinda silly having wasted all that media in the past.
LittleAmsterdam
Member
I set the pots off to the side to dry a bit before they go back into a pile and reused.
This helps shake the root ball loose when it's time to dump them and reuse them. I don't worry about adding more enzymes. The medium has been flushed long enough to be used again for seedlings.
This helps shake the root ball loose when it's time to dump them and reuse them. I don't worry about adding more enzymes. The medium has been flushed long enough to be used again for seedlings.
reused coco, especially if it was a living medium with micro-organisms, is usually better. promix/sunshine mix reacts even better imho. once you throw some beneficials and some organic stuff in there (bottled usually), the second time is much better. i always amend with new coco too. usually about a gallon of new coco to replace the rootball removed.
i never flush or over-feed. i find that the second crop is always better. after a year or so (5 harvests), the coco gets too salty (white residue everywhere) and i start over.
i grow in beds with botanicare nutes and some other organic additives.
i also find that coco beds yield slightly better than coco in 5 gallon buckets. the top of the bed is so saturated with roots that you cannot run your fingers through it what-so-ever. kind-of helps with over watering when the roots are exposed on-top like that.
i never flush or over-feed. i find that the second crop is always better. after a year or so (5 harvests), the coco gets too salty (white residue everywhere) and i start over.
i grow in beds with botanicare nutes and some other organic additives.
i also find that coco beds yield slightly better than coco in 5 gallon buckets. the top of the bed is so saturated with roots that you cannot run your fingers through it what-so-ever. kind-of helps with over watering when the roots are exposed on-top like that.
the hollow
Member
I reused the same stuff for 2 years. I had a couple of rubber storage containers that I kept the coco in between use. I poked holes in the containers to let air in.
I always pulled the root mass out of the pots and broke it down inside of the rubber storage containers. This way you could easily get the old dead roots out.
It worked great.
I always pulled the root mass out of the pots and broke it down inside of the rubber storage containers. This way you could easily get the old dead roots out.
It worked great.
Lowman
Member
I reused coco for the first few years of coco growing. Everything was fine for the most part. But.....right now I am running an experiment. 6 plants from the same mother...the same size, planted in the exact same container(Hempy), at the same time. All plants get the exact same amount of light( I grow vertical). Each pot has a different medium. Three have brand new coco from 3 different manufactures. One is 50/50 new coco & perlite. One is pure perlite, and one is reused coco. I just switched over to flower a few days ago....and the one with reused coco is doing the worst. Still early....but I just can't see the reused coco catching up. The difference really is big.
The first time I reused coco I got thrips my next run. I'm not sure if it's because I didn't cleanse it thoroughly or not. I put up a thread about a year ago when I first started out that I noticed yellowish, kind of fuzzy spots on the outer edges when I repotted. Haven't seen it since I've been going fresh, but I still have 40 gallons still laying around. What do you guys suggest? Crispi, which pond cleaner do you use? I do handwater in veg and I also have hygrozyme on hand.
d2g
d2g
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dramamine
It's my understanding that a main reason extra cal/mag is needed is to compensate for the high potassium levels caused by the breakdown of the coco over time.
I've noticed that when I frequently water to heavy runoff, the cal/mag issues don't show up, which would correspond to the fact that I'm flushing the extra potassium as it's released.
It seems that this could partly explain what we usually think of as cation imbalances.
re-used coco may or may not have been the reason you had thrips the next run. Thrips are very common with indoor growing. The best thing you can do is keep a clean veg room and use a safe insect spray throughout veg as a preventive before going into flower.
