Coco Loco Is An Amended Coco Coir Soil

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locoforcoco

Well-Known Member
Hi. First time poster. First time grower. And, Hey! It's my birthday!

So, I got really pumped on growing in coco coir, so I go to the local mom and pop garden shop and find Bush Dr. Coco Loco. Of course, being ignorant, and not knowing exactly how ignorant I am I thought, "okay, Coco is Coco". Spoiler! It's not. This stuff is an amended mixture which is to be used as a soil, not like Coco Coir.

The problem is that I bought nutrient/fertilizers which are hydroponic. Specifically Canna Coco A&B. (I bought the whole system (Coco A&B, CalMag, Cannazym, PK 13-14, Boost and Rhizotonic)).

I'm not sure what to do.

Should I mix everything as directed and then water them daily with with 1/3 of the water I normally would for regular Coco Coir? Or water them every 3 days with a stronger concentration?

Normal Coco Coir is, for all intents and purposes a hydroponic medium. The water is used up by the plant and filtered through the medium very quickly - making daily watering a necessity, but because the Coco Loco is to be treated as a soil, daily watering would not be necessary.

I've read a few posts on this forum about other people making a similar mistake, but not necessarily the same dilemma I'm in.

I'd love to know if anyone has any advice that would help me. I'm mostly concerned about the plants getting the proper nutrition.

I know I've made an error... can I make this work?
 
The Coco Loco has mycorizome's and I enjoy it. Using it for 3 Frosted Skywalker auto's now, they just popped thru the media. I also use Canna 1-2 with Power Si, and Agritech cal/mag Fuel. No problems with this media so far & I am going to order more today. I also mix Loco with Canna bagged coco coir, $$ buying both, $50 a 2 L bag here. SS grower I water it daily, it holds moisture a little better but it drains in my 3 gal material bag setup hand watering. Chill, just watch your grow until you can relax.
 
I haven't actually started the grow yet. I like the idea of the Coco Loco, but I don't know if I should return the 2cu bag of Coco Loco and get a smaller bag and then get a larger bag of the 100% Coco Coir. I think that I would like to mix them maybe with a 50/50 or 60/40 mixture Coco Coir/Coco Loco and then transplant then into a 80/20 or non-mixture mixture of the Coco Coir. I think the Coco Loco would be a good medium to start seedlings in, but I'm not sure how it would fair with the nutrients that I already have.
 
Treat it as coco; the watering you'll have to judge for yourself
I sometimes use a bit of potting soil/perlite mixed into coco for seedlings/cuttings but after that just A/B pH 5.8 works fine
 
Mine was sort of the opposite.

I grew using Dutch Pro Soil in Coco Peat and worked great. Didn’t Ph - went in at about 6.4 each time.
Switched to DP Coco/Hydro and caused nightmares until I Ph’d to 5.8.

My 2c’s - first time grower, keep it simple. Return the Coco Loco. Get the Coir to match the nutes. Ph it to 5.8 on the way in.

Bonus steps:

Smallest bag of potting soil for seedlings you’ll not need more than 1cu/“ per plant. You don’t want to be putting seedlings straight into coco.

You’ll be watering to run off in Coir by about week three. Twice a day by mid flower. You have to push it through the medium or the Ph will rise as it sits there.

To replace the mycos in the Coco Loco buy some @DYNOMYCO to mix in with your coco at each up pot. Its worth the expense.

Happy growing! I guess I’m subbed!

Nick
 
locoforcoco said:
I'm not sure if I should add perlite to the Coco or not. Most people say that perlite is helpful. I'm getting conflicting information about the draining property of Coco coir.
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It depends on the coco. The big coir, like woodchips retains the least moisture and has high aeration. Perlite can help retain moisture for longer. Coco Peat is finer and retains a bit more moisture so we use to assist aeration and drainage by using Coco Peat that comes with 10% perlite. Then we put 3-4 layers of perlite in as extra. A riff on @Bill284 ‘s method.

Nick
 
NickHardy said:
It depends on the coco. The big coir, like woodchips retains the least moisture and has high aeration. Perlite can help retain moisture for longer. Coco Peat is finer and retains a bit more moisture so we use to assist aeration and drainage by using Coco Peat that comes with 10% perlite. Then we put 3-4 layers of perlite in as extra. A riff on @Bill284 ‘s method.

Nick
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Load your coco with perlite.
Check my pictorial

VIVOHUT Bill284's New Grow Facility: Featuring VIVOSUN & Herbies Seeds

Good morning Billstar :) I actually think these are your best plants yet!
www.420magazine.com
Coco, perlite, bokashi, frass , DYNOMYCO. :thumb:
Let me know if you have any questions.




#VIVOSUN #Love What You Grow
Bill284 😎
 
locoforcoco said:
Should I mix everything as directed and then water them daily with with 1/3 of the water I normally would for regular Coco Coir? Or water them every 3 days with a stronger concentration?
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The Coco Loco is a basic soil potting soil but using coco coir instead of peat moss. It has dolomite lime and oyster shell added but no Calcium or Magnesium. The soil out of the bag is supposed to be running between 6/3 and a 6.8 pH.

locoforcoco said:
The problem is that I bought nutrient/fertilizers which are hydroponic. Specifically Canna Coco A&B. (I bought the whole system (Coco A&B, CalMag, Cannazym, PK 13-14, Boost and Rhizotonic)).
Click to expand...
If the fertilizer bottles or bags have a recommended dose for soil then I think that you would use that.

Or, since the Coco Loco is part of the Bush Doctor line of grow products made by Fox Farm you could call them at the number on the Fox Farm website and ask your questions. Still time today (Saturday) but I believe they open at 8 am (California time) on Monday. You are not the first person to have these questions so most likely the person that answers the phone will be able to help you out without having to transfer the call. Or eMail them and you should get the answer in a couple of days.

Since they did not add Calcium or Magnesium you are going to have to add a weekly or biweekly dose of Cal-Mag before long. Something else to ask them.
 
Update:

I got my seeds today! They are germinating in a cup of water in a cupboard.

My coco is buffering in a CalMag+ solution at 7.5ml to 1gal of RO water. I used airstones for about an hour before submerging the Coco. The pH was 5.85 and the EC was 585 the PPM was 295 which kind of seemed low. I heard that it was supposed to be up to 1200, but they were using more than twice the amount of CalMag I used.

I hope my numbers are good. I'm going to let that sit for about 8 hours and then strain it and put it in my nursery pots.
 
Have you thought about starting them in a little potting soil? I generally give them 4-5 days until they get their second set of “true leaves” Starting direct into coco always failed for me. They get a little nute boost from the (extra cal mag charged) potting soil/peat. Especially of you’re not letting them tap out that first root in paper.

Just some ideas for you.

Exciting times!

Nick
 
I want to avoid soil all together. I'm really really interested in the hydroponic like aspects of coco coir, and I feel like soil would retain too much water, and I've read and heard that whatever you choose to start the seedlings in, you should maintain throughout the entire grow. I'm using the Canna Coco A&B and they are designed for Coco Coir and formulated with Coco's inert properties in mind, so I feel soil would potentially mess up the numbers and give more nutrients than would be desirable.

Following the advice of the people in this group I decided to add about 35-40% perlite to Coco. I think this will be helpful for drainage. So thanks for the advice guys!
 
locoforcoco said:
I want to avoid soil all together. I'm really really interested in the hydroponic like aspects of coco coir, and I feel like soil would retain too much water, and I've read and heard that whatever you choose to start the seedlings in, you should maintain throughout the entire grow. I'm using the Canna Coco A&B and they are designed for Coco Coir and formulated with Coco's inert properties in mind, so I feel soil would potentially mess up the numbers and give more nutrients than would be desirable.

Following the advice of the people in this group I decided to add about 35-40% perlite to Coco. I think this will be helpful for drainage. So thanks for the advice guys!
Click to expand...
Canna Coco now has pre-buffered slabs, you would not need to cal/mag soak those. Check tose "Slabs" out. I saw a video where they were used commercially. SS grower
 
I let the coir sit in the solution a little less than 6 hours and then mixed in the perlite. I lined the bottom of the pots with about a 1/2" of just perlite, and now I'm just waiting for the seeds to tap.

A couple pictures. The lights aren't on now, but they're 36" away from the pots.

I'm using a Vivosun 4x4 kit. I don't like to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty happy with my cable management. 😍 toot toot

I'm still waiting on the ducting.

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SSgrower said:
Canna Coco now has pre-buffered slabs, you would not need to cal/mag soak those. Check tose "Slabs" out. I saw a video where they were used commercially. SS grower
Click to expand...
I contacted Canna about the Pro Plus coco and they said it didn't need to be buffered, but I've heard a few people say it's worth buffering anyway. I figure it couldn't hurt, but I'll keep those slabs in mind for future grows.
 
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