SOIL vs COCO?

hazyfontazy: How do you use your coir (ie: in what setup)? Really could use a mentor *wink wink*. I've been at it for 18 months with 4 successful harvests, but each time i try something different which is just 4-first times for me First was soil, second was 5gallon bubblers, third was soiless/soil combo and the fourth were in 1 gallon paint can bubblers (hehe). The more I think I know about this plant the more I realize I don't Now I'm trying to get this passive setup to work, so I can just keep it simple and mind my PH and nutes I just got a PH/EC/TDS/Temp pen the other day and man that was the best thing I've done.

coco rocks

coco rocks

I have been using coco for around two years and won't switch back to hydro.
I only water them when neccessary. I have everything set up on dripers and just turn the resivoir pump on whent they need to be watered, its definately better than hand watering. I don't mix anything with the canna coco in fact they recomend that you don't. They do say that is great to mix into soil if you are a soil grower because coco does not compress when watered like soil alone. This naturally alows more oxygen to the roots. I get huge yields and the plants seem more resilient to possible mistakes in the PH and PPM areas. The rhizotonic is like a magic elixir and will basically cure any nute burn, ph burn, or deficiency. Just water the plants with RO water and rhizotonic for a few days and the plants are on the comeback trail. I just got done harvesting my coco NYCD bitches.
The 24 plants were all about 2 ft tall with monster colas.
My only problem was the heat we have been experiencing in socal and my bigger colas got some bud rot the last couple of days and the buds got a little airy and dry in the cure.





I am staying with the canna coco.
GM

Sound nice greenmagic,
But what nutes do you use on the canna coco. I was thinking of switching to it, and was wondering about their coco nutes

**The reason I ask is because I have a plant in coir/perlite mix and every time I've tried to sit it in a passive resevoir the plants starts to show signs of stress. **

would i be roight in assuming its because youve get her feet in a passive res and not aerating it?

Negative The res aerated as I stated earlier.

Coco as a grow medium provides excellent results...

Coco as a grow medium provides excellent results...

I just finished a succesful grow using Floranova one part nutrient exclusively (no additives) in 5 gallon/20 liter hand watered run to waste buckets with a 70/30 coco/perlite mix with very satisfying results.
Imho, I think that Coco medium is the wave of the future, as people try this stuff and like the ease of use and the end results and they tend to not look back.




[The following is digested from the book "Integral Hydroponics".
If your going to buy one book this year, let this be it. Highly imformative.]


COCO COIR is a product derived from the husks of the coconut.
Visually it looks like peat.It's air capacity is about 30%.

Coir is most suited as a run to waste medium.

Coir can become saturated and it is not truly inert medium.
This means that the nutrient will change over a short period (due to the nutrient collecting micro and macro elements as it passes through the coir.)

Coir tends to release potassium and to withold calcium.
For this reason it is desirable to use a nutrient that is blended specifically for coir.

Coir has a remarkable capacity to protect the plants root system in times of heat. It also tends to promote vigorous and healthy root development.
Plant growth tends to be very consistant with coir.
Coir is very tolerant of over and under watering, which makes it a very forgiving growing medium.

Coir has a very strong cation exchange ability, which means it can hold and release nutrient elements based on the plants needs.

Coir tends to retain nutrient salts. because of this, less nutrient (lower ec) is required.

On a less positive note, coir can also contain high levels of sodium (salt).
We experienced massive problems with a very big "name brand" of compressed coir slabs. Subsequent testing of this product yielded findings of extreme levels os sodium within the medium. If your growing in coir be aware that this can be a potential problem.

Either purchase a pre-flushed coir product or flush ph (5.5-6.0) stabilised water through the coir prior to use.
Measure the ec of the water and then measure the ec of the run off.
When they are the same, it is ready for use.

Large amounts of potassium are naturally present in coir.
Potassium competes with calcium and magnesium... buffering and plant nutrition needs to compensate for this!!
For this reason there are several nutrients that are specifically formulated with the coco coir's unique characteristics in mind.
By using a nutrient specifically formulated for the coir based system, you are ensuring that your plants are receiving the best possible nutritient package.

...it's also a great stuff out in the veggie garden after it's been used.

[As coco gets old it breaks down and releases P and K.
That's why the coco nutrients are lower in P and K, to allow for the additional nutrients released by the medium.
In the early stages the coco is inert and therefore a "standard" grow formula works well.
As you enter flower It is strongly suggested that one should purchase and use a Coco specific nutrient formula. (for best results.)
A run to waste "runoff" of 10-20% of the volume watered each watering is the most commonl recommendation to avoid salt(s) build-up in the media. IMB ]

Can anyone name some of the nutes specifically for the coco coir??? Peace


F1....

also, who makes the best coco to use?? and do you mix anything with it, like bloodmeal or worm castings?? Thanks


F1...

personnaly, i've been using canna coco (the medium, not the nutes) for a couple of grows and have nothing but praises for it. It works great a keeping water while staying well aerated.. I mix it with perlite and seafood compost (could work with earthworm castings, but i have them liquid so...) 5 part coco, 3 part perlite, 2 part compost... with guano cuz it's the shit... hehe... try it, you wont want to switch back! one thing i also like about coco, it's ecological! Renewable medium, not like sphagnum moss, and you can reuse it for many grows if you stick with organics!!!

what nutes do you use with it kerozen?? Thanks


F1

What do you guys think would be the ideal coco mix?? Sorry so many questions...Peace

F1

Coco sounds pretty nifty.

If it's mixed with hydroton how often should you be watering?

I was reading up on the krusty bucket system and krusty said that he is going to go to a coco/hydroton mix and will be flooding 2/3 times a day.

Coco coir sounds great though, I think I'm going to give it a try myself and see, that's the only real way to find out anyways.

Thanks for the info, keep it coming. ciao

Hello, how often would you say to water the plants ( if i want to handwater them )

there is no set pattern on watering. theres simply to many variables, how hot in your grow room , size of pots or bags, size of plants, humidity level. I use stright coco in 1 gl gro bags, after vegging in beer cups for 1 to 2 weeks I transplant into the grow bags and throw them into flower, I usally water them every other day for 2 to 3 weeks, then onse a day after that, usally about once a week I skip a watering to let things dry out good. all hand watered using canna A&B nutes. with a 2 week flush at the end. I will never go back to soil as long as I can get coco. I also find coco holds nutes very well and you don't need to feed as much as they tell you. twice a week is plenty.

melon said:

Hello, how often would you say to water the plants ( if i want to handwater them )

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You should go to the coco sub-forum and do some reading. There is a lot of info in it.

wow old thread,huh?
hey melon start here handwater coco thread good luck!
coco FTW!

What mix of soil and coco is best? Hmm...
One part coco and...nothing else!

Lol, 3 years ago: "coco seems pretty nifty"

water everyday weather stright coco or coco/perlite mix coco depends on the exchange of oxygen in the medium and only way to achieve this is watering everyday.

later in flower you may need to water twice a day, i water my veggers once a day from 3x3x3 inch squares to 2 liter bottels to even 1 gal bags. but as was mentioned coco section has alot of info

im still new to coco i dont use a ph meter i use GH 3 part flora series






yepper thats correct no ph meter but i understand what my waters ph is and what my ferts do to it and what i must do to obtain desired ph level.

You liked CocoCan, right joesy? That or Bcuzz are the choices around here.. probably gonna end up ordering some Canna nutes from afar.

1 gallon pots sounds like what we'd be doing too.. we're trying to do a SOG type setup, transferring cuts from a 7day veg in a bubbler into the coco, this should be no problem I assume?

would 1 gallon pots be packed side by side or would that be a waste of coco/water? seems like people grow some awful big plants in 2 gallon coco pots.. well the plan here is no LST/etc.

trying to figure out whether drippers or handwatering would be better.. and how important it is to have the runoff freely drain away (versus having the pots sit in it on the ground.. maybe hydroton in the bottom of pots?)
drippers seem like they might use too much water... sourcing any more RO than we currently do would make my head spin.

great thread, glad it was bumped..
thanks for any help

Maj.PotHead said:

yepper thats correct no ph meter but i understand what my waters ph is and what my ferts do to it and what i must do to obtain desired ph level.

Click to expand...

Just get a pH water test kit for aquariums for a couple of bucks.