Growing with Coco: Questions, Answers & Scuttlebutt

Setting Sun said:
I'm using CRF nutes, so I just water with, ummmmmmmmm, water ;).

and cal/mag
Click to expand...

Funny Guy ,Any ways must be hard to control whats going on with that stuff.What i meant was once ec levels are up then can you alternate feed once a week like soil and water in between or feed everytime ? I don,t know may be a dumb question i can figure out on my own.:peace:
 
No, it's a great question, and I had the same one about CRF nutes.

These fertilizers are designed to be applied once at the beginning of a grow, and that's it.

You mix them into the medium, and they keep the EC levels correct automatically through osmosis.

They give your plants only what they need so there is no risk of burning.

You can use water only, or you can alternate water with a liquid fertilizer, but the CRF's seem to work quite well all by themselves.
 
BC grow said:
must be hard to control whats going on with that stuff.What i meant was once ec levels are up then can you alternate feed once a week like soil and water in between or feed everytime ?
Click to expand...
whats to control?
CRF = Controlled Release Fertilizer.
Thousands of farmers, grow tons of great food without obsessing over their EC or PH every day. -Pot farmers shouldn't have to either...and thanks to rebels like DocBud, we dont have to any more.
 
Setting Sun said:
No, it's a great question, and I had the same one about CRF nutes.

These fertilizers are designed to be applied once at the beginning of a grow, and that's it.

You mix them into the medium, and they keep the EC levels correct automatically through osmosis.

They give your plants only what they need so there is no risk of burning.

You can use water only, or you can alternate water with a liquid fertilizer, but the CRF's seem to work quite well all by themselves.
Click to expand...

:thanks: Now i know bout CRF :welldone:
 
I agree that re-use of the runoff is better for other plants. I mean coco is made to hold salts, that's what it did for the coconut. Runoff is to get rid of the salts so wouldn't re-use be counterproductive? The uptake time the plants lose while your fixing the media has gotta outweigh the recycle benefit. Feeding light and often is best cause that way they can always eat as much as possible.

However the CRF just add water thing appeals to me greatly. You mean I'd never have to mix nutes again? It's fun and all but.... My next run I'm considering doing a coco Super Soil a la Subcool's SuperSoil, basically a really hot mix at the bottom of the pot for the roots to grow into the nutes. Heres a recipe im gonna use as a base line to work with:

(lifted from another site, not my original)

Some other guy.... said:
Here's my current coco mix recipe: (2 gal formula):
6 qt - coco
2 qt - perlite
1.5 oz - blood meal
1.5 oz - bone meal
1.5 oz - kelp meal
1.5 oz - green sand
1 oz - epsom salt
2 oz - dolomite
1 oz - cottonseed meal (NPK slow release)
1 oz - dry molasses (bacteria food)
2 oz - mycorrhizae fungi
* all of these amendments have micro nutrient


When I flip tp 12/12, I transplant from 1 gal to 5 gal using the same mix except no blood meal. This will provide another 3-4 weeks of food.

This mix BY FAR is the best I have tried, I've been tweaking this one for months. Kelp meal was the only hard item to find.

Let this mix 'cook' for a few weeks if you can by letting it sit around after it's mixed, but it's not necessary really. At least I have no issues using it right away.

Good luck man, let me know how this works out!
Click to expand...

:grinjoint:
 
Hi D Mc Nugg . every one's heard of the lucas method any ways he never changes the res Just tops off with water or adds more nutes if needed through out the whole grow. So thats kinda what i was thinking I have a 60/40 mix coco perlite drains fast so salts flush thru with every fertigation.So i feed with fresh nutes save runoff check it then next day adjust if needed then run it thru roots again .So far the plants are loving it. Save runoff again and feed to houseplants or give to clones as now its quite a mild mix.Any ways time will tell.I like your mix for the coco i would like to try that outdoor,in big ass pots..:smokin: BC
 
Hey BC, never done lucas or hydro for that matter but I see what your thinkin. My thoughts are that the EC coming out should be just slightly higher than what went in. The change should come from the flushed salts. Coco will just keep grabbing salts if the EC going in is higher than whats already there (to a point). After a time the coco will hold so much it'll become toxic and you'll have to flush and fix the media, meaning downtime in optimal nutrient uptake. Coco as I understand it(keep in mind im hydro ignorant), is like hydro in that you can fertigate almost as often, but unlike it in that the highest EC the plant can take isn't the best way to go cause you spend time fixing the media. You basically flush everytime you feed if done at the right strength, and because coco gets such good air in it you can feed with close to hydro frequency. Its real hard to over water. So you can feed just as much over a week you just have to spread it more. the slight rise in EC tells you your in the right spot

So instead of: NUTES-NUTES-WATER
(in 3 days)

Go for:

nutes-nutes-nutes-nutes-nutes-nutes-nutes-nutes-nutes

(3 'small' feedings a day no flush or nutrient uptake down time)

I actually think coco would be closer to aero than hydro in that you get the root hairs and staying right on the sweetspot is the game name.

Random quotes of other people on other boards that probably explain this better than I am:
Random Heads Gardening in other Beds said:
"Consider Coco as needing to be 'led' along with the plants. Once the medium establishes a buffer, which it will do based on the nutrients it sees right or wrong; the grower can wipe this out by applying plain water to the medium. The medium hangs on to nothing and will readily flush away its nutrients; then the plant will suffer until the buffer is restored. Always use fertilizer when you water coco that a plant is actively growing in, at least at about EC=0.6 mS/cm3. This will hold the balance or ratio of the nutrients to each other and insure that the plant gets exactly what it needs."

"I have an EC meter, but use the ppm (not sure on the conversion - .5?, it's a Hanna though). Normally I don't go over 800-900ppm tops, if they are hungrier than that I feed more frequently. Only if that doesn't work is when I hit 'em harder than that."

"I've tried a few different nutes for blooming including Fox Farms Tiger Bloom (with Big Bloom) and the Botanicare's CNS17 for coco series (Bloom, Ripe, CalMag, Sweet, etc.).

They all work well though both needed calcium supplementing beyond the CalMag in my case. Each plant can have it's own feed schedule. I had a Cali Hash that would devour anything I threw at her, she required nutes every watering at about 900ppm.

My LSD on the otherhand would tox up at 600ppm if I feed her every watering, so she was alternating between waterings. She was fed a little heavy going into flower and I gave her straight water for 2 weeks before she was ready to feed again for example. I chose that over flushing just to see how much nutes coco could store. With a light feeder it's quite a bit.

Lately I've been using organics. My mix requires nothing more than water until mid flowering, at which point I add a top dressing of some bone meal, bat guano, lime, greensand, and kelp meal. This provides a major blast of phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron and micro nutrients. So far I have one plant about to harvest with this feed (Super Lemon Haze - buds are really fat and triched out), and I have 4 other plants that are 5-10 weeks into flower using this. So far they all LOVE it (prettiest plants yet) except one very stubborn sativa."
Click to expand...

I hope this helps more than confuses....
 
DocBud is the grower who introduced the idea of using controlled release fertilizers for growing cannabis, but I jumped on the bandwagon early on because what he said made sense, and the simplicity, labor savings, and cost savings were very attractive.

Basically, CRF's like Osmocote Plus are complete nutes, including micros, encapsulated in little resin balls called prills. The prills release nutes according to temperature and/or moisture levels in a controlled manner so they won't burn your plants, yet deliver everything the plants needs to grow from a seedling to harvest.

You can supplement CRF's with other nutes or supplements, but if they are complete like OC+ and Dynamite, they can stand alone and all you need to do is just add water.

Here's a good thread to learn more about them, and also DocBud's journals contain a lot of good info on CRF's and many other things pertaining to growing this wondrous herb.

Osmocote Plus Plant Food - Discuss Its Use With Cannabis Here!
 
Thought i'd throw a pic up of my coco girlz before 12/12..:morenutes: BC
DSC_0664.JPG
 
Hogs asked so I'm saying.

I treat my coco coir as if it were dirt, as much as I can.

I feed to runoff every day. 3 weeks into flower I have to start twice a day feedings.

Using mostly organics and Cal/mag I don't use PPM or EC readings before appling. I feed at about half strength per label instructions.

Checking the EC of the runoff is a must if you can't read the plants.

PH is kept at 6.3 most feedings.
5.8 to 6.3 is ok.

KISS method!

:peace: cocoJoe

Disclaimer: I don't know anything. I'm a liar. I don't grow any cannabis!
I live in a backward police state that is filled with corruption and injustice.
Stay safe please and don't mess with the law. You will not win.
 
I found this in Bandit420's journal... nothing like a nice pictorial.

He added this:

"Here's how I prep my coco!

No I dont rinse the coco with a hose or anything like that. I just pour the two buckets of the mild precharge solution into the tub to bring the coco back to life.
After it's all fluffy I get down and break it all up and mix it. You have to be thorough when blending it so there's no clumps of dry stuff and to make sure the coir is blended good with the chips.
Then I let it sit for a day to marinate in the precharge solution.
When it comes time to use it I get big double hand fulls out of the tub and sqeeze it to drain excess solution off. After I sqeeze it like a big wet sponge I put it in a 5 gallon bucket to take into the grow room and pot up the clones.

Your local hydroshop should be able to get the block of coco chips. If they can get Hydrofarm gear they can get the chips. It's probably just a matter of time. "

:peace:
 
kailpot said:
Cheers for the info Setting Sun, they sound like good low maintenance method, but personally I do like hand feeding, mixing up nutes, taking measurements....all part of the fun of growing for me. But when I want an easier life, this looks like the way! :peace:
Click to expand...


well, as it turns out, since I'm unable to use my tap water and have to add cal-mag to either RO or rainwater, my "just add water" way of growing didn't pan out.

If I have to add *anything*, it's not much more work to add other things to my water also.

The nutes I've been using recently with great success are GH's Maxigro and Maxibloom, which are dry powdered nutes, PH buffered, and way cheaper than even CRF's.

PH'ing my solution is the biggest hassle, and the maxi nutes do a great job of buffering, plants are happy, I'm happy ;)
 
Setting Sun said:
well, as it turns out, since I'm unable to use my tap water and have to add cal-mag to either RO or rainwater, my "just add water" way of growing didn't pan out.

If I have to add *anything*, it's not much more work to add other things to my water also.

The nutes I've been using recently with great success are GH's Maxigro and Maxibloom, which are dry powdered nutes, PH buffered, and way cheaper than even CRF's.

PH'ing my solution is the biggest hassle, and the maxi nutes do a great job of buffering, plants are happy, I'm happy ;)
Click to expand...

:thumb: good stuff SS
 
I'm new to growing and am just wondering if any one could recommend some liquid ferts that are good for hand watering in coco. Any information will be greatly appreciated as I am a complete noob thanks in advance.
 
Smooth1 said:
I'm new to growing and am just wondering if any one could recommend some liquid ferts that are good for hand watering in coco. Any information will be greatly appreciated as I am a complete noob thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

High Smooth1, I use the GH maxi dry stuff, no experience with liquid nutes, but Hempy uses Canna A & B.

You may want to look through some of Bandit420's threads, I think he uses some liquid things. :morenutes:
 
Ok i'm now more confused then before I read this thread (which is a good thing cuz I thought I had a clue about how to use coco correctly ... clearly I do not) lol

Anyways, my question is regarding CANNA coco, and I havn't seen an answer in the thread, so if it has been answered and I missed it .. sorry for the repeat.

I'd like to know what your experiences are with it (I have bagged CANNA coco)?

Do I really need to flush it? Or is this canna coco good enough out of the bag? Or would it just be a good idea to flush it to equilibriate my tap waters dissolved minerals to that in the coco?

What are these 'buffer' products from Canna for their coco? Do they simple stabilize pH? or do they add deficient minerals (Ca/Mg)? If they just stabilize pH it seems pointless to me as i'd have done that already during the rinsing does it not?

Do I need to add dolomite ... or gypsum? I've read both in this thread. Does this bagged Canna coco already have calcium and/or magnesium added to it so I can skip this altogether? I havn't heard mention of Epson Salt (Magnesium Sulfate ... MgSO4), would adding some be helpful in preventing Mg deficiency? Or is there something related to Magnesium lockout that I don't understand (namely that I don't understand what causes magnesium lockout :p)

This bag of canna coir I have is pretty old (but never used), will this adversly affect its performance? salt levels? pH buffering capacity?

Is it helpful at all to add vermic or perlite, or is this coco already plenty porous?

I'm sorry for the ridiculous slew of questions, but it should be clear to you by now that I am very much obviously confused about the use of this substrate lol, so any advice would be so greatly appreciated (I also have a list of questions regarding growing from seed in coco ... but I think the above list is enough for now haha)
 

Similar threads

Sir Digby
Pure coco and nutrient lineup questions
Replies
13
Views
775
Sir Digby
Sir Digby
M
Multiple feeds for coco?
2
Replies
21
Views
2K
mastergreenerey
M
C
Cocos to DWC?
Replies
4
Views
334
bluter
bluter
T
What pH do you use with coco?
Replies
10
Views
59K
Dogwash
Dogwash
M
Few questions about growing in Atami Wilma vs soil, Wilma-specific questions and few generic questions
Replies
1
Views
3K
Old Salt
Old Salt
Back
Top Bottom