Hello IC,
I feel like it's been a while since I've done anything constructive for the site so I decided to start a thread for people who want to start using coco but feel dumb to ask simple questions. I hope this thread will give enough confidence to people wanting to try growing in coco for the first time once the thread is all said and done. I plan on documenting a current grow I have going on and trying to show all the steps I take from the small ones to the large ones. Now remember everyone is different which means we all have different styles and preferences in how we do things so coco growers please no arguments or dick measuring contest, but feel free to add in other methods/suggestions during the process if you do something different and feel it's easier or more efficient, I want to keep it as educational as possible. Here is a simple example of why I like to use coco coir when I grow. Here are two trays of wheat grass seeds sprouts, each where planted on the same exact day same conditions and all. After about 3 days the tray on the right plain coco coir was loaded up with roots, the tray on the left was soil mix with a little coco coir that was being using in the veg table garden, and don't get me wrong it's still effective but I was able to do this on the coco side tray and not on the soil mixed tray.
Lets start with the actual coco, now if you a first timer or just someone having issues with coco I must highly recommend you first start off by buying higher quality coco with lots of positive reviews, personally I like to use botanicare 5kg bricks I've never had an issue with them ever. Now other products will work I've never heard a bad thing about Canna and the GH coco tek bricks seems almost identical to the botanicare, important thing is to make sure your not buying the cheapest stuff out their, it will make a difference IMO. there are two ways I go about breaking up the coco bricks.
In the picture you can see large rubbermaid totes, 3 mil contractor bags, and a shovel. One way is to place a brick in a 3mil contractor bag and fill it with 3.5- gallons of water and tie a knot. leave it for 12 hour or longer and now your ready for a work out, just pick up the bag and drop it a few times the brick will crumble apart but you'll get your swell on, just dump the contractor bag into a tote and run threw it with your hands. The other way I usually do is just open up the brick laying it in the tote, go to the bath tub or or whatever water source you use and get 3.5-4 gallons of water that is at room temp, not hot but not cold. dump about 1.5 gallons into the bottom of the tote so that the bottom of the brick is absorbing the water while it's doing that slowly pour the rest of the water on the top of the brick so that the water can easily penetrate the brick on both sides. You can also just dump all the water in the tote and just flip the brick over a couple mins into the soaking as well just a little messier. Now just cover your tote and leave it alone for 24+ hours the longer to leave it the easier it will be to break apart. Now I don't charge my coco with anything and I don't use RO water, I will say that water will be an important issue and if your getting close to 300 ppms out the tap your gonna want to really consider getting cleaner water for your plants. I am lucky and mine comes out at about 130ppms and after 24 hours bubbling it comes down to 110 ppms. Now after 24 hours or so your brick should look like this.
Now your gonna want to take your shovel and poke and play around with the brick as it crumble just start flipping it until it looks loose. Now please make sure once you think its ready go back through and run your hands through to get the little clumps that will be most likely be left, they can easily be crumbled in between your hands,
I feel like it's been a while since I've done anything constructive for the site so I decided to start a thread for people who want to start using coco but feel dumb to ask simple questions. I hope this thread will give enough confidence to people wanting to try growing in coco for the first time once the thread is all said and done. I plan on documenting a current grow I have going on and trying to show all the steps I take from the small ones to the large ones. Now remember everyone is different which means we all have different styles and preferences in how we do things so coco growers please no arguments or dick measuring contest, but feel free to add in other methods/suggestions during the process if you do something different and feel it's easier or more efficient, I want to keep it as educational as possible. Here is a simple example of why I like to use coco coir when I grow. Here are two trays of wheat grass seeds sprouts, each where planted on the same exact day same conditions and all. After about 3 days the tray on the right plain coco coir was loaded up with roots, the tray on the left was soil mix with a little coco coir that was being using in the veg table garden, and don't get me wrong it's still effective but I was able to do this on the coco side tray and not on the soil mixed tray.
Lets start with the actual coco, now if you a first timer or just someone having issues with coco I must highly recommend you first start off by buying higher quality coco with lots of positive reviews, personally I like to use botanicare 5kg bricks I've never had an issue with them ever. Now other products will work I've never heard a bad thing about Canna and the GH coco tek bricks seems almost identical to the botanicare, important thing is to make sure your not buying the cheapest stuff out their, it will make a difference IMO. there are two ways I go about breaking up the coco bricks.
In the picture you can see large rubbermaid totes, 3 mil contractor bags, and a shovel. One way is to place a brick in a 3mil contractor bag and fill it with 3.5- gallons of water and tie a knot. leave it for 12 hour or longer and now your ready for a work out, just pick up the bag and drop it a few times the brick will crumble apart but you'll get your swell on, just dump the contractor bag into a tote and run threw it with your hands. The other way I usually do is just open up the brick laying it in the tote, go to the bath tub or or whatever water source you use and get 3.5-4 gallons of water that is at room temp, not hot but not cold. dump about 1.5 gallons into the bottom of the tote so that the bottom of the brick is absorbing the water while it's doing that slowly pour the rest of the water on the top of the brick so that the water can easily penetrate the brick on both sides. You can also just dump all the water in the tote and just flip the brick over a couple mins into the soaking as well just a little messier. Now just cover your tote and leave it alone for 24+ hours the longer to leave it the easier it will be to break apart. Now I don't charge my coco with anything and I don't use RO water, I will say that water will be an important issue and if your getting close to 300 ppms out the tap your gonna want to really consider getting cleaner water for your plants. I am lucky and mine comes out at about 130ppms and after 24 hours bubbling it comes down to 110 ppms. Now after 24 hours or so your brick should look like this.
Now your gonna want to take your shovel and poke and play around with the brick as it crumble just start flipping it until it looks loose. Now please make sure once you think its ready go back through and run your hands through to get the little clumps that will be most likely be left, they can easily be crumbled in between your hands,
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