Quick help on preparing coco for seedlings, please!

[highonthechroni]

Ahoy, I'll be trying coco for my first time properly. Really keen to get things going NOW so I need to know how I should go about preparing my coco for seedlings. Don't want to screw them up

I have the coco bought as a brick. I hear coco can be quite salty at times, so I'll make sure that it gets flushed several times. Should I add any dolomite lime now? Or can I add that at a later stage if I have any pH problems? How much would I use?

We have good water here. I'll start using very weak nutes when the cotyledons start yellowing. What nutrients should I use, I have Biobizz as well as GH Flora.

Many thanks in advance!

Peace

 

[Ono Nadagin]

Just flush your coco real good with tap water for 20-30 min to be on the safe side.... I also would not know what to tell you about adding the lime as I have never used it other than in soil.. not sure how it would react with the coco

After you flush with tap water... I run about .5-1 gallon of plain PH'd water through it(@5.8ph and I add calmag as I use RO water) I then drop in my sprouting seeds about an inch and loosly cover them and then keep the coco moist by misting with PH'd water and LK... I find the LK is more than enough N to get the seeds going until they are adding true leaves.. then I start feeding a light nute regime.

also your coco looks fairly fine, I would make sure it is in a container that drains well... its hard to over water(not over feed) in coco but I think you will get better root growth if the coco drains off well

 

[highonthechroni]

Thanks for that Ono Nadagin

What you guys think about nutes? Biobizz or GH Flora?

 

[gaiusmarius]

hi highonthechroni

you really could find the answers to your questions all over. a great start can be made by reading the sticky threads.

this section has all the answers to basic coco growing they just have to be found.

prep'ing a brick of coco is different to using a bag of canna coco. your brick needs to be expanded, use warm water at ph5.8. once the coco feels like good earth, you fill your pots and start to flush the coco, ideally with ph 5.8 to ph 6.0, if the ec is some crazy number above 1.5, then you flush some more till you get it down to below 1.0 at this point you can plant the seed and water it with a bit of water only, only just bury it, ideally you pre crack them in a jar of water and plant them tail down with the seed 3mm under the surface. as soon as they pop the surface and show the baby leaves you can water with rhizotonic, after the first serrated leaves you add A+B to ec 0.7 to the rhizo and slowly up the ec, as the plant develops.

 

[highonthechroni]

Thanks man, appreciated

Wish I had coco nutes in South Africa. I've got GH Flora and Biobizz... What should I go for GM?

 

[bonecarver_OG]

its dificult to say - i have personally not tried any of those in coco. neither do i ever ad dolomite lime to anything. sorry mate

if u can try to order some coco specific nutes over the net?

peace and good luck

 

[Guest]

Well, just saw where gaiusmarius snuck a post in while I was getting this one ready. Whatever he recommends is the way you need to go. He's the resident authority on coco and I don't know of anyone else that knows more about the medium. May be one or two that know as much (doubt it, but possibly, hehe), but not more, imo.

Edit
Damn, BoneCarver snuck in there ahead of me too. He's another that's good with coco, hehe. Fuck, I'm going to have to either shorten my replies or learn to type quicker.
End of edit

Ono Nadagin, I've started using the water my dehumidifier collects to water with. Basically RO as the ec is 0.02. Question for you if ya don't mind, dude. How much Cal-Mag+ are you using to compensate for the trace mineral deficit. I've been putting in about 6mL per gallon the last few feedings and haven't notice a problem yet. That's not as much as the bottle recommends though and I'm wondering if I'm putting in enough. Stopped using 50/50 RO/tap water cause I got tired of wondering just what in my tap water was making up the ec I had before nutes. And dude, you're right on with the drainage thing. Make damned sure the coco drains well and use it. Drainage is one of the lifelines coco throws to you. Got a problem? Flush by running water at a couple or three times the size of the pot through the coco and you just washed your problem away.

Anyway here's what I wrote before I saw his post.



hotc, can you tell us what brand/type of coco your using. Not all is high in salt. I use Canna coco and no flush is necessary with it and I think B'cuzz might be ok according to their printed material. Here's what B'cuzz's advertising says about their product:

Atami ships compressed coir to the Netherlands where it undergoes rigid batch testing and treatment. Because Atami owns its own facility in Sri Lanka they are able to guarantee the quality of the original untreated/raw product (age and origin). Atami coir is sourced from coir that is grown 50km’s (or more) inland from the coast meaning the original coir source is low in sodium chloride. Furthermore, the coir is under two years old which means the coirs composition is ideal for use as a hydroponic media.

Atami utilizes a unique steaming and buffering process for the coir at its facilities in the Netherlands and then ships it around the world. Atami is the only company in the world that uses this steaming process to flush impurities from the media.

In this process, the coir is initially saturated with calcium and magnesium solutions. After this, the coir is steamed to 900 C and then flushed with large amounts of water; the combination of these two processes ensures that impurities are efficiently and effectively flushed from the media. After this B’cuzz coir is lightly fertilized to achieve optimized nutritional balance within the media.
Because of Atami’s rigid standards, B’cuzz coir is the largest selling coir in the European retail hydroponics market.

Due to the fact that I have to get Canna shipped half way across the country, I'm probably going to have to go with B'cuzz next time I buy.

As far as nutes are concerned, I use canna nutes too. They're perfect for the coco, in my opinion. Worked extremely well for me. Probably go with B'cuzz nutes next time for the same reason as above. Nobody within a thousand miles of me fucking sells Canna. Last time I bought Canna I found a great buy on A+B and PK 13/14 so I stocked up on those two.

Both Ono Nadagin and gaius had good info on nutes. I'd stay away from the lime. Not necessary in coco if it's prepared correctly by flushing adequately, either by the manufacturer or you. An ec meter should tell you when you've flushed enough if you measure the ec in the run off water. Don't know if it's possible to drown roots in straight coco so I always water till I just start to get some run off. Don't need much run off with Canna or maybe B'cuzz but some of the other cheaper brands my build up salt quicker, don't really know.

Here's a link to my thread for my first grow if you want to take some time to read it. Good info and suggestions from others in there.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=48054

Can't say this enough - TRUST WHAT GAIUSMARIUS TELLS YOU!!! Go with anything he says over what I say any time mine suggestions are different from his. He pretty much taught me all I know so there shouldn't be much variation, lol.

Good luck and holler at me if ya need to. I'll tell you what I know and I'm willing to help you find an answer if I'm not sure.

Peace bro

 

[Guest]

hotc, too funny dude! Saw this thread and responded before I checked out mine. See ya found it already, lol. I'll help you any way I can. Just give a shout.

 

[highonthechroni]

Hey mojo, thanks for popping in!

I'm using some no-name brand coco from South Africa. Probably 'B-grade' since all the 'A-grade' stuff gets shipped to the first world countries! Heh. Looks decent enough though.

Don't have any fancy EC/pH measuring equipment so when I prepare the coco I'll just make sure I flush it well. The reason I ask about adding lime is so that it acts as a cal/mag buffer. We don't get liquid cal/mag formulas here etc. I will check the hydro shop just to make sure though.

Take care!

 

[bonecarver_OG]

i dont know if this will help - but maybe it will guide yo a bit?

i have succesfully been growing in coco all the time without an EC-meter. - it only means u have to pay more atencion to the signals ur plants will give off. so - basicly a EC meter is not necesary. learn to know ur plants.

but i definetly think a way to control PH is a must for coco growing. if not its very very dificult to make sure the plants have the apropiate PH.

But its not necesary with a fancy PH meter either. the PH-test drops that work with a colour scale are very exact and helpfull - actually i prefeer them to the digital ones since i never need to calibrate the drops

ph drop test kits for acuariums/fishtanks work very well if u cant get specific drops in a growshop

instead of calmag - i have used chelated iron and magnesium (readilly available in all gardencenters) once at week 4 of flowering - and i use tapwater with a good amount of lime (cal) mixed with distilled water to bring down the ec. why ad something i allready have? check ur water quality - it might have what u need. water quality can be checked in farmacies etc.

if ur water is very hard u can allways add some osmosis or distilled water to lower the salt levels and the EC.

good luck mate

 

[highonthechroni]

Thanks a lot for that, bonecarver_OG. I have a GH pH test kit so I'll take some readings.

I found this information on my local (Cape Town) average tap water: Magnesium 2 - 5p.p.m., Calcium 9 - 15p.p.m.

Can the guru's tell me what this means for me? I hope it's a good thing since we have the 3rd best tap water in the world

Ciao

 

[bonecarver_OG]

whats up bru!

well - u dont need a RO unit nor distilled water. u got VERY GOOD water quality!! im jeallous hehe thats going to work to ur benefit in more than one way!

im looking forward to see how it goes - with water like that ..

i use the GH-kit too. keep the colour of it yellow (6.0)- with a minimal hint of orange later in flowering (~5.7).

ah so u live in the cape nice one! heard the mountians u got just next to the city are awesome for trekking. sure u got good water - its one of the better wine regions of the world.

my friends who stayed in capetown used to live in the outskirts - they normally went up the hill (tabletop-mountain?) to smoke their spliffs in the nature

so are u going to plant any local sativas? the best southern african sat i tried was propably the malawi gold

this far i got to say the pure sats seems to love coco in small pots this is a mozambiquean in a 1 liter pot



peace

 

[highonthechroni]

Ola BC!

Howzit?

Glad I've got nice water. Definately something to keep me confident for my first time on coco (I'm a bit nervous to be honest!). I'll go to the nursery and get some chelated iron and magnesium, they should have it. With my water, how often do you think I will have to add lime? Also, how much would I add per litre of water (or how ever else you work it out)?

I took two pH tests now, both came out the same.



That is a good pH to have for coco, eh?

Here is a pic of my coco/perlite mix. I've flushed it several times now.



Yeah man, the Cape is my home! So lucky to live here with nature right on our doorsteps. I regularly go for walks etc in the many forests, plantations and protected areas

I'm glad your friend has been here! I hope he encourages you to come have a taste of Cape Town ASAP!

I won't be planting any local sativa strans, the only good ones you have to buy I'm going to be growing some of the strains that have been gifted to me over some time now. Strains include Green House White Rhino fem'd, Green House The Church, Black Label Jack Herer and a couple others.

Love the plant in the tiny pot, LOL!

 

[stevr59]

hey man check out this thread he's using flornova nutes and i am fixing to use em to at lest for the test run till i can get the money to order some canna nutes.
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=46612

 

[highonthechroni]

Thanks stevr59, unfortunately I've got the 3-part Flora, not the 2-part Floranova.

The packaging that my brand of coco comes in talks about using its own range of hydro nutes with the coco... I think I should be OK, just gonna wait and see if anyone knows before I try myself.

 

[stevr59]

no worries man there is a thread got the 3 part as well

 

[highonthechroni]

Could you give me the link please?

 

[stevr59]

ok here it is sorry it taking so long but i think the aussies just got out of bed the net has slowed to a crawl lol http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=51936

 

[highonthechroni]

Excellent stevr59! That is a great thread, going through it now.

Many thanks

 

[bonecarver_OG]

Ola BC!

Howzit?

Glad I've got nice water. Definately something to keep me confident for my first time on coco (I'm a bit nervous to be honest!). I'll go to the nursery and get some chelated iron and magnesium, they should have it. With my water, how often do you think I will have to add lime? Also, how much would I add per litre of water (or how ever else you work it out)?

I took two pH tests now, both came out the same.



That is a good pH to have for coco, eh?

Here is a pic of my coco/perlite mix. I've flushed it several times now.



Yeah man, the Cape is my home! So lucky to live here with nature right on our doorsteps. I regularly go for walks etc in the many forests, plantations and protected areas

I'm glad your friend has been here! I hope he encourages you to come have a taste of Cape Town ASAP!

I won't be planting any local sativa strans, the only good ones you have to buy I'm going to be growing some of the strains that have been gifted to me over some time now. Strains include Green House White Rhino fem'd, Green House The Church, Black Label Jack Herer and a couple others.

Love the plant in the tiny pot, LOL!

hi mate
the colour on the tube is telling me the water is a bit above 6.2

u will need to add a little bit of acid to get the green tone out of the ph-test

try to ad 1ml of acid (nitric or phosforic acid) per 10 liters and see if thats enough to get it a slight bit more yellow tone

i cant say how often u should add lime - since it seems to me u are going to feed enough in the water.

cal-mag is a nute to add in ur water - only if u are using mostly RO-water as far as i can tell. in normal tap-water there is a quite a bit of lime (cal) and i cant see it beeing necesary at all.

i would personally not add any cal.

ah - dont discard the african sativas they can give very good results if grown in good condicions - and if u are lucky

quite a few of my friends and family have passed thru capetown - it beeing a very popular spot for travellers me myself have travelled elsewhere i did though smoke a lot of the buds they brought along back home some nice DP, malawi, etc - and the first pants i grew about 15 years ago were of those genetics

i bet the jackherrer will get nice

peace