So how do you prep your coco

[Ono Nadagin]

I am new to coco, when I packed up my old grow room 3 years ago CoCo was brand new... now that I am back and have read the wealth of info on it I am going to give it a try, but I am a bit confused as how to prep it for use

So I love Botanicaire so I am using their coco blocks... may switch in the future but for now I go with what I bought

So I am wondering how you gusy prep your coco

I have read ppl use clearex(Of which I have none) and others that use Calmag(I have a bottle of calmag plus) when doing an initial drench

I have an R/O system thats damn neer to 7ph and 0 ppm ( I remember using cal mag because I used R/Od water but for the life of me I cant remember why... lol I am an old mana and I forget shit easily... esp after 3 years of not using the knowledge)

I have soaked the bricks I bought in plain R/Od water and then poured off the excess water through a fine screen and them checked the waters ph and ec.... after a 48 soak the ph was 5.9ish but the ppms were 790!!!.. wtf

So I assume it is the nature of the coco to bufferthe ph into this range?
but whats up with such high ppms? will these ppms go down with more flushes and if I use calmag+ wont it cause the base ppms to go even higher


Also what other additives do I need to put in... I assume I need something microbail for the roots... do I need to inocculate the coco with these?


So let me knwo what I need to do and what I am doing wrong


tyia

Ono

 

[gaiusmarius]

there is a thread all about coco prep.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=48669

peace

 

[Ono Nadagin]

ty I have already read that... still have the above question as I see ppll do it so many diff ways ..

the main thing that is bothering me now is that the run off from the 1st soak was almost 800pm.... hopefully the next soaks run off will be lower and ease my worries.

I just dont want to f'it up as I want to plant some seedlings in coco soon and I am worried it might not be prepped right and kil the seedlings.... or clones

 

[gaiusmarius]

if you find the run off has high salt content upon initial watering, then you just have to keep pouring water through (flushing) the coco until the returning ppm/ec is no longer prohibitive, i like to have ec 1.0 or not much more in the slabs to start off with. apparently using warm water will help to flush a bit faster, if the plants are not in there yet, you can even use hot water to wash the salts out. although cold water works too, just might take a few gallons more. use ph corrected tap water only for flushing.

 

[TanzanianMagic]

-- I have soaked the bricks I bought in plain R/Od water and then poured off the excess water through a fine screen and them checked the waters ph and ec.... after a 48 soak the ph was 5.9ish but the ppms were 790!!!.. wtf --


Bricks and slabs have to be soaked in a buffer agent, like Canna COGR Bufferagent.

Coco from a bag doesn't have that requirement.

 

[Lemon]

the main thing that is bothering me now is that the run off from the 1st soak was almost 800pm.... hopefully the next soaks run off will be lower and ease my worries.

Are you measuring the ppm of the water the coco was soaked in? If so, I think a high ppm is a good thing. Thats probably all the stuff thats getting leached into the water that you dont want in your coco. If you soak it a second time for a couple of hours and take a sample of this new water, and its still high.. then.........

(keep in mind I don't actually know much about this and am just throwing out ideas!)

 

[Guest]

I just flush the hell out of it with ph'd water. I don't have a meter for ppm so I flush it pretty much like I would a plant for harvest and just keep pouring it thru. My brother from another nandro swears by profit disks and coco croutons for not needing a flush, and he set me up with some of his special blend prepped coco recently and I have to say it is kicking ass. I'd tell ya what's in it but the bustard wouldn't tell me LOL.

I don't see why you'd need cal-mag, I'd skip the clear-ex and opt for hygrozyme since I've added it to my regimen lately. It really makes the roots explode even more than they already do in coco, and the plants are loving it too, IMO it does stimulate growth too.

 

[Ono Nadagin]

wow ty for all the responses, I am sorry I missed them untill now

Well I now have dedicated a 5 gallon bucket to fluching my Coco, I drilled a bunch of holes in it and just a ton of tap water through it I have gotten my ppms down to 100ish and I will fluch again with PH adjusted before I pot it

I am now using a 50/50% mix of B'cuzz Bounce blocks and Botanicaire CoCo bricks and I like the texture much better now