Coco Growers Unite!

yeah man those kind of ph downs are good because they keep the ph at the desired range for longer, for examle I was using viniger to lower my ph for my coco, little did i know that when i brought the ph from 7 to 5.8 it was only staying at 5.8 for like an hour then it climbed back up to 7.

so buying the good stuff will ensure that when you water your coco with your ph'ed nute mix of 5.8, the wet coco will stay at 5.8 for the lenth of time it takes for the roots to absorb the moister and nutes.

hope this helps,

interesting i should give the ph down a try.

aeviaanah said:

so when growing in coco is it the same as growing in soil? do i need to do anything different? other than feed with hydro nutes. in your opinion what makes coco better than soil? i definitely need a ppm reader for coco right?

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I am in week two of 12/12 in coco coir and other than the nutes, I use it just like I would with soil. The advantages are the control over the nutes the plants are receiving and the way it absorbs water evenly. It holds water like a sponge.

RockstarEnergy said:

i just looked at the Fox Farms website and i guess all i'd need to do is get some Grow Big Hydro and i can still use the big bloom and tiger bloom

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hey what up man. dude if you are using COCO, then only use COCO SPECIFIC nutes. especially with the Canna Coco. because they better quality coco is already cleaned and buffered to bond to the nutes in a certian way. so it needs to be a nute designed for coco use only. just my opinion.


PEACE!!!
-ZEN-

ZEN MASTER said:

hey what up man. dude if you are using COCO, then only use COCO SPECIFIC nutes. especially with the Canna Coco. because they better quality coco is already cleaned and buffered to bond to the nutes in a certian way. so it needs to be a nute designed for coco use only. just my opinion.


PEACE!!!
-ZEN-

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I've done quite a bit of research to try and figure out the difference between coco nutes and regular hydroponic nutrients.

Major differences I found were;
1. Added Calcium & Magnesium
2. Often Contain Fulvic/Humic Acid
3. NPK ratio is slightly different on some brands sometimes favoring a bit more potassium

Other than that there is not much difference and my plants grow really well with my combo of Ionic, Cal-Mag, and Humic Acid. Sometimes I add a little boost to the mix if they look like they need the extra potassium.

aeviaanah said:

so when growing in coco is it the same as growing in soil? do i need to do anything different? other than feed with hydro nutes. in your opinion what makes coco better than soil? i definitely need a ppm reader for coco right?

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i would water much more often than with soil and allow more run off than with soil....

with coco you get all the benefits of hydro (more feedings, precise feedings, fast growth) BUT you also get the benefits of soil (the biggest benefit is the "beneficial bacteria" have a place to colonize, and possibly improved taste)

growbuddy said:

I am growing some clones I cut in COCO, They have been in 4 inch pots for about a week and there are little dark green patches on the coco? kind of like a thin spread , not easy to even notice, anyway I put a small breeze on the pots hoping to dry out the top of the coco I also cultivated the top soil of the small pots, and sprayed the top soil with a neem oil mixture?


anything else I can do??

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It sounds like some type of mold...I had something similar. Let the top dry out and skip a watering or two..if it is mold when it dries out it should die. When I had a green patch on the top of one of my pots, I scrapped it off and let it dry out..it didn't come back. just my 2 cents

yea zen is right... algae im sure........... soggy coco?

yep soggy coco, my clone room needed more air circulation

NewGrowth said:

I've done quite a bit of research to try and figure out the difference between coco nutes and regular hydroponic nutrients.

Major differences I found were;
1. Added Calcium & Magnesium
2. Often Contain Fulvic/Humic Acid
3. NPK ratio is slightly different on some brands sometimes favoring a bit more potassium

Other than that there is not much difference and my plants grow really well with my combo of Ionic, Cal-Mag, and Humic Acid. Sometimes I add a little boost to the mix if they look like they need the extra potassium.

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that's all good. like i tell anyone if it's working run with it. i just like the ease of it. equal measurements, and BAM i'm done. plus that is what countless coco growers, distributors, and manufacturers not only suggest, but highly recommend. but that's just me. i can't say i'd NEVER use anythig else for my coco, but i just feel like it would take too much tweeking. so i probably never will. but that's just me.


PEACE!!!
-ZEN-

growbuddy said:

I am growing some clones I cut in COCO, They have been in 4 inch pots for about a week and there are little dark green patches on the coco? kind of like a thin spread , not easy to even notice, anyway I put a small breeze on the pots hoping to dry out the top of the coco I also cultivated the top soil of the small pots, and sprayed the top soil with a neem oil mixture?


anything else I can do??

Click to expand...

it's probably just a wee bit too much moisture on the surface of your pot. hey IT"S NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT, trust me. don't try to do anything to it while its dry, because it will flake away and just pick back up again where you took it off at (my experience). what i would do is the next time you water your plants get a credit card or something and scape the top layer of the surface taking only the alge off. if you do it when its wet you have a better chance of getting most of it. and just do it like that until its not a problem.
oh yea did those clones survive. again sorry about the incomplete info.


PEACE!!!
-ZEN-

Guys I need help here! I am a coco newbie and I haven't grown in a decade. I just put my seeds between paper towel to germ added water. I have my coco ready to go but the pieces and fibers are on the larger side, do you think it would be ok to drop my seeds directly in the coco when I see them break the shell or should I put them in soil then transplant. I live in the middle of nowhere so buying rockwoll or anything else isn't an option I would have to get it on the net which could take days.

Of course any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

yeah just let the tap root grow out about an inch, know what I mean?, the seed will push out the first root after a few days of the paper towel treatment. when you see the tap root poke out, let it get like an inch long or longer. Then put the tap root strait down in the coco.

you also have time why, don't you just grind up a couple pounds of coco, dig a small hole in the center of each coco filled pot and fill the small hole with the ground up coco. Then when your seeds are ready put the in the ground filled holes......

growbuddy your name says at all! your simple common sense ideas will be an easy fix... Kinda freaked out there for a minute, feelin much more relaxed now, thanks

I've heard that I need to buffer my coir. What exactly does this procedure entail?

It's Botanicare cocogro brick. I hand water to waste; no recirculation (though I'd love to be able to do that). My tap water has pH of 7. So, I'm assuming that I'll need to use pH down after I mix nutrient solutions. Is this right?

Yep you want it about 5.8. If you hand watering only about half streangth nuets and dont over water! every 3 days in a 7.5 liter pot (coco loves to get dry) And buffering is done v easy just feed the coco once with your feed before planting shud do it altho i only ever use canna coco and nuets as its pre buffered.

im starting to get light green on all of my plants except for the one that is in soil. this sounds like nitrogen deficiency... maybe a ph fluctuation is causing nute lockout? does this sound about right?

eyeco said:

Yep you want it about 5.8. If you hand watering only about half streangth nuets and dont over water! every 3 days in a 7.5 liter pot (coco loves to get dry) And buffering is done v easy just feed the coco once with your feed before planting shud do it altho i only ever use canna coco and nuets as its pre buffered.

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No need to "buffer" any name brand coco (Botanicare, GH, Canna, B'cuzz. I use Botanicare straight outta the bag. Fill my pot with it, run water thoroughly to soak it, plant my cutting, water again only this time with nuted water, done. Don't know where people are coming up with these notions.
Also, coco may love to get dry but your plants' roots' don't.
Coco has to stay moist. Once roots appear in coco, you water with nutes EVERY DAY to slight runoff. Growers are doignno runoff with great success.
I use Lucas's formula and anything older than 3 weeks from seed gets fed full ratio and I never get burns.
I've been growing in coco for a few years now.