Soil is good, but coco is better

[Guywithoutajeep]

not all coco is good straight out of the bag

its caused a lot of us issues in the coco section, the coco i have requires some pretty annoying prep work...wash, soak in nutes for a day, rewash in ph'd water, ugh

 

[B. Friendly]

done both but hated coco, it needed to be constantly wetted for me and needed more maintenance. But if you know your room really well and don't water til saturation soil is as good as coco. Coco is better for beginners i believe because it is harder to over water. Promix hp is the best substrait i have ever used, extra perlite.

 

[humble1]

coco is inert correct? meaning there are 0 nutrients in it and you would need to add all of your supplements before you use it?

inert doesn't just mean 0 nutrients. it also means that the medium itself is nonreactive. therefore coco cannot be accurately called inert.
coco degrades and then there's the whole cation exchange business.
coco can support beneficial bacteria and fungi. whether it can truly support nematodes is debatable. i've heard of growers using 2x-4x dose of nematodes in coco successfully, but this is not firsthand so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[GrnMtnGrwr]

...
nevermind
...

 

[Norkali]

Coco just gave me my first case of root aphids...aka phylloxera.

Yeah, it was the growers fault who I got it from, but damn it makes me hate coco.

 

[organizedcrime]

done both but hated coco, it needed to be constantly wetted for me and needed more maintenance. But if you know your room really well and don't water til saturation soil is as good as coco. Coco is better for beginners i believe because it is harder to over water. Promix hp is the best substrait i have ever used, extra perlite.

i havent used coco but promix hp + 30% more perlite is a dream to work with. Except for the big heavy bales. and dust. and cleaning up after. lol.

 

[southpaw]

For anyone new to coco planning on switching, do yourself a big favor and grab one of these.

I half-assed my pH readings for over a year, and it was not a good move. Coco is great, but you absolutely must have a grip on the pH of your nute solution. It's very easy coming from an organic soil perspective to underestimate how important this is in unamended coir or coir/ perlite.