Organic grower testing out chems in coco

[Zen Medz]

I've been growing indoors and out with custom super soil coco based mixes with ACT's for 7 years now. I'd like to try a basic chem nutrient grow in coco that is pretty basic like Head/Lucas with Maxibloom to see how it stacks up. I've got a ton of organic additives laying around and wanted to know if it would be a good or bad idea to add a little rock dust and possibly compost to a coco perlite blend, something like 80% coco, 10% perlite, and 10% compost.

My thoughts are the rock dust will give the plants some nice trace minerals and the compost will add hummus and add a buffering capacity to the medium. I plan to pH my nutrient solution to around 5.8 and will be doing Maxibloom with a little seaweed and possibly humic acid added occasionally.

I am going to use 3 g smarties and a drip to waste from a rez that is aerated and would prefer to only have to feed once a day. My coco mix looks like more of a soil mix and I'm okay with that as long as I see the benefits of a hydro coco grow. Simplicity of hydro drip to waste with the flavors of a organic grow or at least close but with better yields?? Pipe dreamin? Peace.

 

[Zen Medz]

After reading up a bit more on coco grows it looks like people see the best results when they feed multiple times a day. I'd be willing to feed a few times a day if it had a noticeable difference over just watering once a day. Is there any big drawbacks to adding 5-10% compost to coco if running chemical nutes? It looks like Botanicares ReadyGro Moisture formula soil mix is pretty similar to what I want to do. Pros or cons to using a coco based soil mix compared to straight coco or coco with a little perlite, yield differences, feeding differences? Any thoughts?

 

[Gelado`]

I read a study (general agriculture) where they found plants did better with a combination of organics and chems over just one or the other. Of course it depends what you decide to use together, but I think it would work, even if you are using extremely destructive substances that cause eutrophication

 

[Zen Medz]

Man, no love around here! Anyhow, decided to make a mix with 70% coco, 20% perlite, and 10% compost with a little rock dust in the next month or so. Going to do a side by side grow with straight compost teas and organic nutes vs. Maxibloom with seaweed and humic acid added. I'm going to give the Maxibloom fed plants a compost tea once a week also. Curious how these two styles will compare. Peace.

 

[Snow Crash]

Hey man, few thoughts.

Organic coco will not out perform hydroponic coco in growth rates, pretty much ever. It can get close, but if they are both dialed in then the Hydro method is going to offer bigger yields day for day. I have done a lot of organic coco mixes and the bottom line is that it is an AMAZING organic media but it is not superior to soil, or peat, mixes. Pretty much as good as anything else, but with typical organic growth rates.

The people that see the best growth do water multiple times per day, but it's because there is a root system present which can withstand and thrive in the constant state of saturation. A weak, sick, small root system will not benefit from multiple daily feedings. The best thing I find in coco is to allow the plant to completely root into the container it will flower in. As Coco is a hydroponic media, like rockwool, you don't need quite the same amount of volume of media (as you would soil) to support a decent sized plant. I have a couple of 3 footers 4 weeks into flower in 1 gallon smart pots right now that are loving life. My suggestion to you is to scale back the size of the container so that the root ball will fill it just as you flip to flower. During flowering the plant puts much less emphasis on root building so you definitely don't want to transplant from a 2 gallon to a 5 gallon and then water it 3x per day 2 weeks before the 12/12 flip. Get them situated in the 5's early and grow trees or just leave them in the 2's... Really, roots grow the plant, we just try to give the roots what they want.

 

[Chevy cHaze]

Worm castings my friends!

Worm castings my friends!

I found out worm castings are what it takes for an easy living with coco! No need to flush, stable ph and virtually no salt build ups.
I Mix it to: 70%coco and 30% worm castings and buds grow as rapid as on coco, with the flavor of a ol' '68 hippie soil grow. I use blumats too, flushing regularly becomes so 2000. Je l'aime bien!
Also don't flush before harvest, I know everyone thinks you need to flush before harvest, but from a biologist's standpoint it is completely contraproductive. You starve your plant when she needs feeding the most, in full bloom? most nutrients are stored in the roots and fan leaves anyways, the calyxes are designed to use up nutrients very efficiently and convert them to growth aka bud swelling/full bloom/ zenith of flowering.
The levels of nutrients like phosphorus or nitrogen or whatever in the buds will never be as high as anywhere else in the plant. Therefore, to experience any strange burning qualities, or even an altered taste sensation in the dried& cured product you would need to overfeed your plants the 20fold of what they can actually take(without dying).

Jah bless you my friends and keep g(r)oin' !!!

 

[Zen Medz]

Snow Crash and Chevy Chaze, appreciate the comments. I am used to growing in 5 gallon smarties and know I need to downsize to 2-3 g smarties because there's no need for all that medium if using chemical nutes. Good tip though. I'm going to start a journal in the next month comparing hydro vs. organics in coco and am really curious how the yield, potency, and taste will compare. Peace.

 

[dansbuds]

Not dissin chevy chase cuz i don't know him , but snow crash is the man when it comes to coco !!! he helped me tremendously when i first got into it . i do dtw coco in 2 gallon pots fed once a day untill halfway through flower then most times i have to add another feed or the pots dry out .
dunno from organic .... but canna nutes don't mask the taste of your weed like some nutes can do . i've gone through quite a few & i'm back to canna for the ease & taste . Maxi was a bitch to keep circulated in the rez & left a chemmy taste . when i used GH flora .... it was the blandest tasting weed i ever smoked . hydroponics research had a 1 part that was great when it first came out , but he changed a few pruducts in the formula getting it cali certified & i had K falling out of suspension in my rez & fuked a whole run of some nice girls .

canna coco & canna coco nutes ..... its formulated for tap , so if ya use RO ... your gonna need calmag & epsom .
i use straight coco with an inch of perilite in the bottom to help with drainage thats it . no need for the compost or EWC .

 

[Zen Medz]

DB, Good info on Canna producing quality smoke. I'm just getting my feet wet with chemical nutes and hydro growing so Maxibloom or Heads with GH Flora should be just fine. What do you mean Maxi was hard to keep circulated? Did it not mix into solution well? I'll use some hot water in a container to premix it and then add it to my rez. I'm going to add some seaweed, humic acids, and weekly compost teas to give the plants a little more love and hopefully that comes through on the back end with nice tasting smoke. I may drop the compost in the coco mix, that's just the organic side of me that's having a tough time letting go! Cheers.

 

[Chevy cHaze]

That's only fair Dansbuds, was just giving my 5cts...
BTW I used Hesi soil nutes (as soon as you mix coco with worm compost, it needs to be treated like soil rather than hydro).

 

[dansbuds]

Yeah even mixed in hot water ... the Maxi always left a pink sediment on the bottom of the rez & during the winter months when the water was colder .... it was even worse .

 

[Pragma]

Fwiw after running coco for a while and having tried many diff chem nute brands including plagron hesi canna etc.. the best smoke quality was surprisingly from Advanced Nuterients.

Their grow-micro-bloom ph perfect line is what I used. I do get it in bulk at a huge discount tho, else the price would put me off.
Its very simple to use 1:1:1 quantities and you really do not need to pH as its always landing on 5.9 for me when I mix the rez even after additives, so if you are still looking for a brand to use you can check AN.

If you want to add organic additives with organic material into your coco, I would suggest you innoculate your coco first with bacteria that can digest that matter or you might harm your medium with organics that are just sitting there waiting to rot. General Hydroponics has a bacteria line called subculture that is used for organic nutes in hydroponics, so that works great if you want to add it to your coco and I've had good results with it. It also digests dead roots like an enzyme.

Gluck !