Recycling coco - tips and experiences

[bonecarver_OG]

Well because of a many reasons recycling is good.. first for my wallet, secondary because its less trips to the grow-shops and it means less exposure..

also when ur local growshop is all out.. what are u going todo?



so following the advice of gaiusmarius - i started today with recycling the coco..

the reason is we have lots of used coco in our greenhouse and now i thought i could use it.. well tomorow i will go get the coco and then i will start with recycling the outdoor coco...

today i took a 25 L pot i have used for 2 moms (also from the greenhoues) wich has been reveging for about a month - i cut it down for clones today - and then i flushed the pots with ph down water and afterwards with nute water and i went straight on to transplanting.

the smalest roots i dont worry about since the atazyme will break it down in time.. i just took away all the root balls and the biggest loose roots i saw laying around.

its going to be interesting to see how it goes - i expect no difference since the flush etc.

THE STEPS:

* REMOVE ROOTBALL
* FLUSH WITH PH WATER
* GO USE IT as u allways used to
now there is a great step to do before all this to make it even more efficient.

* start flushing before flowering
* use enzymes to break down roots and salt build up

 

[Guest]

Hey bonecarver, I posted this in the coco prep thread before; For recycling I just do what I've always done with other hydro mediums. Fill the res up with PH 6.0 water with 5mL/10L of 50% H2O2 then soak the coco a couple of times over a day. Then I pull the main root ball out and tip the pots of Coco into a large trough I have, and let it air for another day or 2. Then I reuse it. Seems to work alright and I'd say that it would kill most organisms.
If I have it sitting in the trough for awhile I hit it with another flush of H2O2 water 3 or 4 days before I plan on potting it up.
Peace.

 

[gaiusmarius]

yes indeed bonecarver, if you spend the last week flushing your coco before harvest, then you can just reuse it once the big roots are out. it helps to use a enzyme product to help break down the fine left over roots. if you guys saw how simple it is to reuse the coco, everyone would do it, at least twice, after that point you can get some problems with gnats and the larva which eat young roots. you can treat against them easily through the water, so even 3 or 4 uses of the same coco is not difficult. i am in fact starting a 4th run in the same coco slabs in the next days. and i didn't do more then cut the rw cubes off from the slab, pulling out the tap root only. i massage the slab and it's ready to take the next rw cubes with a well rooted clone in it. so simple but so effective.

good luck with it, hope the gnats leave you alone. if not the BTi product will take care of them. it will be cool to have a thread with pics showing the coco reused and then showing the plants grow like normal.

peace out

 

[Guest]

Wouldn't the h2o2 kill the beneficials that have built up?

 

[Guest]

It would I'm sure. But since it's a new run I figure start from scratch and let them build up again.
Gaius, my bubblicious is growing in coco I have used 3 times before.

 

[bonecarver_OG]

indica - in coco that would just not matter since u can ad it anyway later

twenty47 - yeah i saw it but thought its a good idea to collect the info in specific threads - because like this searching this forum later on - will give quick and easy to find answers

gaius - im 100% for it

the larvae i have already -its full of gnats - since i took my moms indoors from the greenhouse about a month ago. i will have to spend some of the money i was saving instead - on Bac.thurgensis - but its cheap and seems very effective.

still got a habit of spraying the plants all the way untill very early buddage with natural insecticides - pyrethins, neem etc

flush and go

peace

 

[gaiusmarius]

you know a great method to kill the gnat larva, is to let the coco get dry, to the point just before the plant wilts. i know i always say to keep the coco wet, lol. but doing this once will not cause any problems. the larva can't prosper, unless there is plenty of water in the coco

i have found with the solbac liquid BTi product, that you can't totally eradicate the gnats with it, but you can keep the numbers well under control. by repeating the treatment, 3 or 4 times through out the grow you can keep them critters from having a negative effect on your yield. if you combine the Bti, with sticky traps and nematodes as well as predators for gnat larva and any other soil bugs, then you can take them out.

what i also have heard, even though i'm no great fan of the no pest strip, if you hang one up for a few days in the veg phase, it should in theory kill all your bugs. after a few days pack it up air tight again, as that shit is nasty.

good hunting's

 

[bonecarver_OG]

i think those no-pest strips are fobidden in europe? for being cancerinogenous? i have tried to find them but... cant! if they would be here - i bet ppl would be using them every where. ?

peace

 

[gaiusmarius]

i'm not a fan of that kind of stuff, in a real emergency in the veg phase i might try it for a few days, but there are other solutions to pest troubles.

 

[Guest]

maybe check out these lil guys?
Fungus gnat predator
Stratiolaelaps (Hypoaspis) miles



Soil dwelling predatory mite.

Adult between 0.5 and 1 mm long with females being larger than males.


Target Pests


Fungus gnat larvae in potting mixes, Bradysia spp.
Pupae of Western Flower Thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis

Crops suitable


Greenhouse cut flower, vegetable and nursery crops using potting mixes, soil, rock wool and perlite.

General description


Soil dwelling predatory mite.

How to use


Sprinkle material containing mites on soil around infected plants

Release rates


Preventative treatments:
15,000 per 100-150 square meters of bedding, or
15,000 per 200-300 150 mm pots

Curative treatments here fungus gnats are well established:
Double the above recommendations.

I've been thinking about it. As gnats seem to be the only issue I have with recycling of coco. There maybe other issues further down the path but I've only made it 4 times, on 2 other occasions before tossing.
Peace.

 

[bonecarver_OG]

got to try that too! hehe good tip!

 

[gaiusmarius]

Last year a had a persistant fungus gnat invasion. I fighted them trying to let the medium very dry, but it just works partially (keep the number low, but dont ride out the infestation).

Finally (after 5 months, 2 grows infected) i choosed to try a generic electric insecticide (the typical used againts mosquitos at home), temporized 15min on each hour or each hour and a half, and it did the job in some weeks (i believe it kills the adults before they was capable of reproducing).

Just another option.

that's a good idea man

are you talking about those blue things the butchers have? or that small thing you plug in for mosquitos?

yeah it's not easy to eradicate them totally, but then again, you don't need to, lol. keeping them under control in low numbers will allow you to get a normal type yield, which is all that really matters eh?

but i am definitely gonna try your electric mosquito killer idea, lol. this set of slabs has quite some gnats crawling around, so i was planning to add solbac to the first tank full anyway, but this i must try, great contribution knna, finally i can get my revenge on the gnats, not just the gnat larva, ROFLMAO.

 

[bonecarver_OG]

hehe

im definetly going to get on of those kill paff ones if i find something similar

 

[bonecarver_OG]

ive been flushing coco and transplanting - using recycled coco

i got lots left - and it seems im going to have more than i need excellent - i will save that for later

peace

 

[bonecarver_OG]

i use rhizotonic only

ive used trichoderma before -might get it again though

 

[bonecarver_OG]

well after using 300 liters of recycled coco i got to say - its full of gnats so tomorow or monday i will go to the growshop to get some products

 

[gaiusmarius]

if you go to a garden center it will be much cheaper to buy the stuff you need.

are you gonna use the nematodes and prdators too? i can't wait to see you try the zap paff or what ever it's called, lol.

 

[bonecarver_OG]

predators are not easy to find here at all - they are naturally available outside in nature in summer here though

its not easy to find a good garden center here that also is cheap. most garden centers here are aimed at rich tourist having their villas for vacations here - it means most things are really over priced.. they do sometimes have wicked tropical plants etc thats awesome to watch though . we visit them a lot planning our future garden for the house we are building

the electrical thingy im going to check out today going to a big shopping-mal - let see what they got there they might even have trichoderma and bacc. thurgensis if im lucky

 

[bonecarver_OG]

i have been doing a bit of research on the web - and the effective ingredient in the kill paff is specially design against mosquitos only. i hope these fungus gnats are close enough related to suffer atleast. i have had the thing on for soon 6 hours. acording to a test by a consumer magazine it should kill all mosquitos in 30 minutes. i think in half an hour i will go in carefully and switch of the insecticide and put the vent on again.

according to a mexican test D-alletrine the active ingredient can cause nausea and stuff so better not in hale it too much hey!

peace all

 

[gaiusmarius]

oh shit bone, hope it works on the gnats anyway, they seem very simmilar type organisims.