[ChaosCatalunya]

A friend recently told me about his situation, very similar, while very low EC Tapwater sounds like fantastic news, especially in a place where most have to use RO as the tap is undrinkable...

But, it appears that most nutrients are made for waters with more Calcium, so he adds CalMag and since has no problems.

[drudown420]

Any luck in how they are growing?

[Rondon]

0.2 to 0.4 EC of mostly calcium , magnesium, and a touch of iron is the sweet spot of start water with most coco coir specific base nutrients to be added onto for all but the cal/mag hungriest of strains. At least in my experience. Some grow spots ive been at are too low with start water so I add. But its usually never the case. Here in town..start water is damn near perfect. But outside of town its usually too hard. If you want to make a carbonate heavy water (0.5 - 0.6 EC) perfect for coco coir...and not need a cal/mag...try adding a quality fulvic acid and and an amino acid (plant protein hydrolysate) supplement to the start water and let it sit for a day. Mix well. Then add base nutes. The fulvic and amino acids will chelate the cal..mag carbonates and iron into something the plant can use and take up. Your basically turning your start water into the calmag. Just make sure that hard water is actually comprised largely of calmag carbonates and iron. And not alot of chlorine and sodium.

[truck]

Let your medium fully dry, then flush your medium with Calcium. I like Age Old Calcium 1 tbs per gallon. Do not use Calcium Chloride derived calcium, only use that foliar, there are other acidic forms of calcium out there too. Calcium Carbonate is what you are wanting here, or you can flush with solution grade gypsum for similar results. It flushes your soil and brings it back to balance, while also allowing better uptake of what ever is still left in the soil after the flush. By flush I just mean run 2L to a Gallon tell you get some decent run off, no need to go crazy and compact your soil at this stage. YOu can also flush then Transplant as soon at the medium is dry enough to keep the rootball together and that almost always helps struggling plants.

[Dank_kiwi]

Originally Posted by TanzanianMagic

Also, all dried media need to be hydrated before use. That includes worm castings, bagged soil and compost, and coco too. Just put coco in a tub of pH adjusted water for a day or so. Put perlite in a tub and add warm water until the perlite floats. About 10 minutes later, scoop up everything that floats, and disregard the rest. Put Growrocks in water and rince to get rid of the dust. Again let it sit in water for at least a day. Reason: If you don't, the medium will kill all the small roothairs and suck the moisture right out of any plant - which shows up as signs of underwatering - yellowing plants, poor nutrient uptake.

I made an account literally to comment against this advice written in bold..

Canna Coco does not need to be hydrated or soaked in water for 1 day at all.
It's pre buffered,washed,steamed ready to go.. If you buy cheap inferior products then yes you might need to wash your medium in a bathtub for a day or so.. o_0

[Rondon]

Canna has a dry brick coco out now. That obviously has to be rehydrated. Its what I use. Same exact qualtiy as the loose premoist bag but cheaper because its easier to ship. One gallon of decent pH adjusted warm tap water for me. (0.2 EC 6.0 pH) per 10 liter dry brick gets it done. I also been adding 30% perlite lately just cause I have it around. 3 gallon fabric pots. The fabric pots like Smart Pots and the cheap grey Aurora pots are not a true 3 gallon. Especailly Aurora. More like 2 and some change. Anyways..water in all healthy transplants (nice well rooted 10 to 15 inch bushes)with a 1.0 EC solution. Off and running. So easy.

[Dank_kiwi]

Didn't realise only 1 gallon water would do a 10liter brick, thats handy to know. Will buy a few and test it out, could be well worth it, Canna is expensive here but well worth it.

I don't even have to bother testing ph, ppm anything anymore . I use 6.5 litre pots of Canna and do a half strength feed (20ml a+b + full lineup of additives except boost) while young clones/early veg then once established straight away onto 40ml per 10ml + additives + boost.
Never have runoff, just do 250ml per plant in early veg then 500ml per plant per day through to early flower, then 1.5 litre per day divided into 3x500ml feeds from week 3 onwards..
Flush last 10-14 days with tap water (new zealand clean tap water) until 5-10% runoff.

No problems ever really, the odd thrip here or there but all this testing of ph and stuff i see people do with coco is a bit un-necessary if you use Canna Coco and there products and there products only..
When you fix yourself on a set ph of say 5.8 or 6.0 your always making them nutrients availiable whereas its better for the ph to fluctuate and coco will do this naturally which allows a spectrum of nutrients to be uptaken rather than just the ones in your ph range whichever that may be.

Plant roots will excrete a substance that will adjust the ph of the coco to make availiable the nutrients it needs - constantly fighting against this is counter-productive imo/ime unless you have bad water.

[Dank_kiwi]

40ml a+b per 10litre water ***** Dont know how to edit

[TanzanianMagic]

Originally Posted by Dank_kiwi

I made an account literally to comment against this advice written in bold..

Canna Coco does not need to be hydrated or soaked in water for 1 day at all. It's pre buffered,washed,steamed ready to go.. If you buy cheap inferior products then yes you might need to wash your medium in a bathtub for a day or so.. o_0

Well you are wrong. If you plant in coco without giving it time to soak up water, you will have a lot of nutrient deficiencies showing up. It has nothing to do with flushing out salts, it has to do with having been in a bag for a prolonged period of time.

Even grow rocks have to stand in water. Here is how you know. Submerge your grow rocks in a tub. Then put your ear close to it and listen - you will hear a crackling sound. Come back a day later, and you will still hear that crackling sound, because the rocks are still in the process of soaking up water.

Third of all - it's very nice that you opened an account just to comment on my post. Just remember I've been posting to this forum for over a decade.

[Mikell]

Ehh I transplant dry with bagged Canna and haven't had issue. Certainly doesn't bring a host of deficiencies or stunting.

Not sure what you mean by how long it has been in the bag playing a role.