Test your COCO!!! The B'cuzz I have been using tests at 2000ppm

puff adder · Apr 19, 2012

I've been having issues the last month or 2, and today the mystery is solved!

The B'cuzz coco that I've been using tests right at 2000ppm with 180ppm water poured through the pot. Runoff of 2000ppm's is poison basically.

My fault, I should have continuously tested. In the past, B'cuzz has tested OK, Canna being the best and most consistent.

It's a big deal for me to not have to rinse my medium, and to be able to use it straight out of the bag, but i guess even the more expensive coco still needs to be rinsed.

Moral of the story is I guess always test your coco.

I hear the new House and Garden coco is tested and guaranteed clean, I might take a look at that.

Canna has always tested great over the years.

touringfunkband · Apr 19, 2012

Just curious what ppm range you consider acceptable and do you test the ppm of a slurry of the coco or just by the runoff?

NPK · Apr 19, 2012

I had the same experience with B'Cuzz coco one time too many. The stuff read 2000 PPM right out of the bag--which pissed me off, because I paid a premium specifically so I wouldn't have to rinse it. I haven't used their coco since 2007.

PoopyTeaBags · Apr 19, 2012

hmmm maybe i should check my coco....

FlowerFarmer · Apr 19, 2012

I've heard this from someone else lately as well. My theory is that this atami comes over already bagged/supposedly well-rinsed however due to lack of rain water in Sri Lanka the stuff is now not getting rinsed as well. Fresh water is scarce..and they cant just go dumping it all over their coco.

Odd thing is however that I have been using Atami Bcuzz coco for nearly 6-7 years now right out the bag... never and issue.. never rinsed or tested. It works for me..perhaps because after planting I go right into 6/9 head forumla with some run-off for a few weeks before going on blumats.

Desert Hydro · Apr 19, 2012

yikes. ive never tested my coco and my RO system takes an hour and a half to make 5 gallons so i dont wanna go dumping a shit ton through my coco. ive used the coco tek brick from gen hydro without rinsing and no issues. right now i just picked up some royal gold and the guy at the shop told me its what he uses and never rinses it out of the bag. if i start having issues i guess i'll have to switch to 25$ a bag house and garden coco. the RG is 15$ a bag but its 1.5 cubic feet. the h and g is 25$ but its 2 cubic feet, so i guess its really not much more......and their packaging design on the bags looks really pretty lol

puff adder · Apr 19, 2012

When I tested different cocos, I tested the runoff only, and the good ones tested within a few ppm's of what went in, so something like 180ppm's in, 186ppm runoff.

2000ppm's is just plain poisonous. the solution is easy, rinse rinse rinse. This really sucks because i have to now rinse close to 30 bags worth of coco that I just potted up.

I'll be testing every bag now, regardless of brand. Better safe than sorry.

touringfunkband said:
Just curious what ppm range you consider acceptable and do you test the ppm of a slurry of the coco or just by the runoff?

zor · Apr 19, 2012

good info puff. i have also had issues with the bcuzz stuff having high ppm's out of the bag.

puff adder · Apr 19, 2012

The guys who sold me this coco went and tested a bag at the store and it came out to 650 something, I retested another bag I had and it tested at 1500. Hit and miss, but all bad.

catalyte · Apr 19, 2012

definitely going to stay away from that brand if i buy some Coco!

puff adder · Apr 19, 2012

I would simply check the runoff of any coco I used. Canna coco has always tested perfectly over the years for me. B'cuzz did test good a long time ago, but this has shown me that I need to be more on my game, never take anything for granted. Too much at stake.

I've spent the day so far flushing all my plants in one of my rooms. It took about 6 gallons of PH'd water into each 2 gallon pot to get the PPM's down to 200-300, and then I gave every plant a splash of 500ppm food with some roots excellerator. I'm looking forward to getting back on track.

Shcrews · Apr 21, 2012

that's crazy.. I always had success with B'Cuzz coco, but sometimes you never know...

I want to try the new House&Garden coco, hopefully my local store gets it soon. H&G is the best.

michmedclones · Apr 22, 2012

botanicare gave me a nice 1800 right out of the bag, gold label was a bit better at 1600 but still way too hot. I found that out the hard way unfortunately

puff adder · Apr 22, 2012

Canna is the only coco that has Always tested super good. I'm going to test all the coco brands next time I go the my local hydro store.

I was told the H&G coco has it's conditions written on each bag, PH and PPM's. That's pretty cool. I'm going to check it out for sure.

From all I've read, coco is coco, different grinds and consistencies, but as long as it's free of salts, no one coco is better than another. I find subtle differences, probably from the different grinds, mainly each brand dries out at different rates.

fox mulder · Apr 22, 2012

Pretty sure b'cuzz comes pre-charged with calcium nitrate. Intended for straight coco applications.

For other uses, botanicare has proved best for us.

It's difficult to determine how much of that reading is just calcium nitrate or sodium chloride(salt salt).

Still no company out there offering "no rinse" coco. Somebody could make a lot of money with such a product..

regenerate · Apr 24, 2012

once youve seen where coir get manufactured, its easy to see why the ppm can vary so wildly from batch to batch

Abja Roots · Apr 24, 2012

I never test my coco, but sometimes I have issues. I always wonder what they are as I'm not doing anything out of the norm. Makes me want to just use rockwool.

Mia · Apr 24, 2012

Canna is really nice but expensive and not nice enough to justify the price difference imo. I use botanicare cocogro, works great. The bricks seem to be more problematic. I don't use those.

ScrubNinja · Apr 24, 2012

Canna has always been good to me, never given it an initial flush. Also tried a few very old bags of an Aussie brand recently called Nutrifield, no flush required either (actually pretty good stuff!). I guess it's always a chance you could hit a bad batch though. I use a lot of perlite too so that's gonna lessen the salt content.

Vic Hammer · Apr 24, 2012

Yep

Yep

I've had the same experience with B'cuzz. Testing 2.6-2.9 EC out of the bag on my Bluelab truncheon. pH is ok though.

B'cuzz bags are labeled with a batch #. If I were to continue using B'cuzz I would test one bag out of each batch before potting up.

My question is what does this say about RHP certification? As I understand it this certification should guarantee a consisitent product straight out of the bag. This is certainly not the case.

I just switched to Biobizz coco due to B'cuzz inconsistency. Biobizz prints EC 0.3 and ph 6.1 right on the bag. And it tests this way too. It is not RHP certified but is OMRI and a host of other organic certifications.

B'cuzz is priced at a super premium. But is not at a super premium consistency. Here is it close to $10 more per bag than the Biobizz.

Moral of the story is always check a sample of any fresh bags of coco. I do now and am not afraid to return any bad batches back to the hydro store. Except now that I won't buy any B'cuzz I haven't had to return any coco.

Test your COCO!!! The B'cuzz I have been using tests at 2000ppm

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