Still rinsing Botanicare CocoGro?

[dramamine]

I think Tr33 is right about this. Last run was my first in coco, using the botanicare bricks. This run I got the loose cocogro instead, just because that's all they had at the store.

I'm about to transplant and I'm not going to rinse it even though the runoff EC is high. I wish the company would post more info on their website regarding this, but the fact that the non-rinsers seem to have sometimes even better results tells me that I may be rinsing something beneficial out of the coco.

Unfortunately, botanicare neither answers e-mails, nor returns phone calls.....

 

[Skidbone]

I gotta throw in my two cents too. I have used two packages of Botanicare Coco, and thankfully now obvious adverse effects. Am I missing signs of problems. I don't know but everything finished up as well as I could expect. It is easy to over think things.

 

[blooper]

i just tried this stuff after the growshop guy assured me it's fine out of the bag. plants are going to shit so i decided to check the ppm of the runoff using distilled water and it's about 250 right out of the bag. seems high for an 'inert' medium. just for a laugh i checked the runoff from the last bag of happy frog i tried and that was well over 1000. starting to see why it's a good idea to know your soil very well before planting.

i'd say always triple rinse your coco with filtered water at least. i don't trust any manufacturer at this point, even soil. fox farm, tupur, bunch of easily marketable garbage that ime is consistently unreliable far as pH and does a fine job killing plants.

 

[Snow Crash]

250 on the runoff doesn't seem that bad to me. My tap water is 250ppm from the get go.

Rinsing coco is always a good idea. As it breaks down it will release elements. Sitting in a bag for who knows how long is a great way to have an inconsistent experience. I rinse all coco even if I don't need to, not like it hurts.

 

[watts]

my botanicare compressed blocks come out around 250ppm, i don't flush them.

 

[blooper]

not sure what the problem is. went from beautiful 6" clones that had been vegging very well to terribly unhappy plants within like 8 hours of transplant. got them out of the unrinsed mix and into straight coco i've rinsed to about 50ppm runoff and they seem to be perking up but i'm used to hydro so this is very frustrating. i have 1 absolutely beautiful maui bubble mother in dwc and a half a tent of plants in need of CPR

i have seed stock and access to clones. it's still early in the season so maybe i could just start fresh while i nurse these ladies back to life. the only reason i haven't scrapped everything is because i've been collecting all of the most beautiful genetics i can find and some are healthy looking selfie seeds that came out of some incredible 'clone only' flower.

 

[Granger2]

Well hell, if you think your coco needs flushing, flush it with the plants in the medium. Don't put them thru another transplant. How did the 1st transplant go? Were the roots mostly undisturbed?

Botanicare comes precharged. That's the EC you get in the runoff. Good luck. -granger

 

[blooper]

yeah the transplant went fine, they came out virtually undisturbed and look a little happier in the rinsed coco. guess i'll just wait it out and hope they bounce back

 

[Dr.King]

I've been using Botanicare Coco since 2004 and never rinse. There is no need to...it sits out in the Arizona sun and Monsoons for over 18months and has no salt build up, there is no need to buffer it either.
I use the compressed 5kg blocks and not the loose crappy bags, those suck, the reason for the high EC in the bags are the additives, not the coco.
Botanicare coco is clean.

I thought so too until recently. I purchased 4 Botanicare Coco 5kg blocks. I used RO water(my RO water is 15 ppm) on all 5 blocks, they all ran over 800 PPM when flushing. I had to run 3 gallons of RO water through each of the 5 gallon smart pots I had to rid them of the salts. Ended up being 35 ppm at the end of flushing. Took 36 RO gallons to flush 12 5 gallon smart pots.

 

[stoned40yrs]

i just tried this stuff after the growshop guy assured me it's fine out of the bag. plants are going to shit so i decided to check the ppm of the runoff using distilled water and it's about 250 right out of the bag. seems high for an 'inert' medium. just for a laugh i checked the runoff from the last bag of happy frog i tried and that was well over 1000. starting to see why it's a good idea to know your soil very well before planting.

i'd say always triple rinse your coco with filtered water at least. i don't trust any manufacturer at this point, even soil. fox farm, tupur, bunch of easily marketable garbage that ime is consistently unreliable far as pH and does a fine job killing plants.

Coco is NOT a inert medium. That's a common myth. 250ppm right out of the bag is probably the minimum you want to see. It tells you the coco has been buffered. Rinsing it with distilled water strips the buffer. Don't do this! Even if you then add your feed the buffer won't be completely replaced and your plants may go whack.

 

[stoned40yrs]

not sure what the problem is. went from beautiful 6" clones that had been vegging very well to terribly unhappy plants within like 8 hours of transplant. got them out of the unrinsed mix and into straight coco i've rinsed to about 50ppm runoff and they seem to be perking up but i'm used to hydro so this is very frustrating. i have 1 absolutely beautiful maui bubble mother in dwc and a half a tent of plants in need of CPR

i have seed stock and access to clones. it's still early in the season so maybe i could just start fresh while i nurse these ladies back to life. the only reason i haven't scrapped everything is because i've been collecting all of the most beautiful genetics i can find and some are healthy looking selfie seeds that came out of some incredible 'clone only' flower.

I'll bet any money what got you on transplant was not the ec but the amount of moisture in the coco after transplant. Grab a handful of the coco you want to transplant into. Squeeze it as hard as you can till it almost stops dripping- now this is the correct amount of moisture you want to transplant into. Place the plants in this and then don't water for a few days and then after only lightly feed for a week to encourage root growth.