# salt build up in coco



## stangsmoker (Mar 13, 2009)

I am going to be running about 50% ff happy frog mix, 30% coco, and 20% worm castings. *When growing outside do i have to worry about salt build up in the coco when it gets dry* or is there not enough coco in the mix to matter? I just know when growing in straight coco you have to keep it moist so salt doesnt build up.


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## stangsmoker (Mar 17, 2009)

Anybody? I know theirs something with coco bc my buddies have always told me to watch for build up when they grow in striaght coco.


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## easygrinder (Mar 17, 2009)

coco needs to be flushed regularly because it builds up nutrient salts, have to flush it when it needs it, if the run off is stronger than what your putting in, then you got salt build up


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## peach (Mar 18, 2009)

I'm not sure at the percentages your using, but running coco with about 30% nutrient in it I find it helps to flush once a week. I started doing it with tap water, and then rinsed through the ph / nute but, after checking my run off after a ph / nute flush, I found it was miles too high, up near neutral. I'd only started flushing about half way through the flowering cycle and had been using drip emitters (which were allowing the media to dry out - now using drip rings, problem solved). I had to pound the pH back down with huge amounts of low pH water, a good amount of it was around pH 2. I'd think about it more in terms of media mass. Whenever you're growing in a pot, there's always a huge amount of material stored up in the media, a flush seems to freshen things up a lot. I'd flush. Make sure you use pH'ed water at least and check the run off. If they're outside and nearby, flushing should be easy. If the media dries out, the first lots of water through might not shift much because it needs to dissolve it out. It's best to flush once, then wait a few minutes and do it again. -like my reply, pls vote in my bulb poll (sig)-


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## M Blaze (Mar 18, 2009)

I flood my plants to flush them every week. Basically I put the hose on them for about 5 minutes to flush the coco, but I grow in coco only.


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## stangsmoker (Mar 18, 2009)

[thanks for the reply fellas! I was going to use drippers this year to and i was afraid of them not watering every area that has coco, but im sure ill be alright. Like you said run clear ph'd water about once a week.


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## peach (Mar 19, 2009)

Don't bother with those stake type drippers, they're a pain in the ass. Sometimes they don't drip, the rates are hard to control and they only ever drip in one place, so the media won't be uniformly damp. When you pull them out to flush the container, the big stake hole will disappear and you can cut through other roots putting them back in. Go for drip rings, !loads! better. The guys that sell the drip emitters also do tiny clip on stakes for holding the thinner tubing. Make some rings with that (I used about 7 1.5mm holes) and prop them up with the clip on stakes (which you can poke into the coir at the sides of the pot, where you won't hit roots). I started out flushing with tap water thinking it'd be fine once I poured some low pH / nut feed through. Measuring the run off, it wasn't. The feed had done next to nothing to the pH, which was now near 7. Rinsing with tap water will raise the pH of the coir and it takes quite a lot of acidic rinsing to get it back down. If it's left high, the nutrient uptake will slow down. -like my reply? pls vote in my bulb poll (sig)-


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## UserFriendly (Mar 19, 2009)

Everything is subject to salt build-up. Coco is no more or less susceptible, it's just that it has such a high potassium content that salt ratios get unbalanced, hence the need for a cal-mag supplement.


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## nickfury510 (Mar 19, 2009)

UserFriendly said:


> Everything is subject to salt build-up. Coco is no more or less susceptible, it's just that it has such a high potassium content that salt ratios get unbalanced, hence the need for a cal-mag supplement.


 so high potassium can cause mg deficiency?


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## UserFriendly (Mar 19, 2009)

nickfury510 said:


> so high potassium can cause mg deficiency?


I do believe K to be related to calcium, but in coco... it's the calcium and magnesium that are the first to show..... big cal-mag hog there. If it's only a 30% coi mix, you wouldn't need so much, but it's something to plan for, especially based on the quality of the coco. Tap water might be enough.


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## nickfury510 (Mar 19, 2009)

UserFriendly said:


> I do believe K to be related to calcium, but in coco... it's the calcium and magnesium that are the first to show..... big cal-mag hog there. If it's only a 30% coi mix, you wouldn't need so much, but it's something to plan for, especially based on the quality of the coco. Tap water might be enough.


 that could make sense...i use 100% canna coco in bio pots with canna nutes...my last grow I went an extra week with the pk13/14 than it suggests and an mg deficiency poped up soon after. things were cool before the pk and after i refreshed my res. and added some epsom to the mix i never saw it again on any new growth. but the old growth stayed the same.


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## UserFriendly (Mar 19, 2009)

nickfury510 said:


> that could make sense...i use 100% canna coco in bio pots with canna nutes...my last grow I went an extra week with the pk13/14 than it suggests and an mg deficiency poped up soon after. things were cool before the pk and after i refreshed my res. and added some epsom to the mix i never saw it again on any new growth. but the old growth stayed the same.


I don't know if it works that way with magnesium. I do know that mag is one of the most used micronutrients and coco's cation exchange dealy requires mass calcium and magnesium before it will give it up to the plant. That's why you gotta keep it buffered 24/7 or it'll wreck your plants.

I use guanos in coco, because they are naturally low in potassium.


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## nickfury510 (Mar 19, 2009)

UserFriendly said:


> I use guanos in coco, because they are naturally low in potassium.


 im going to see how this round goes and only use the pk for a week like suggested. the reason i went with canna nutes is that they were supposed to balanced to not create an mg def. and no need for cal/mag supplement, but all these companys talk alot of shit


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## UserFriendly (Mar 19, 2009)

Apparently too much calcium (& chlorine or ammonium) will lock out magnesium. 

Yeah, coco is a tight-rope act for sure.


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## nickfury510 (Mar 19, 2009)

UserFriendly said:


> Apparently too much calcium (& chlorine or ammonium) will lock out magnesium.
> 
> Yeah, coco is a tight-rope act for sure.


 well i used to be a dirt warrior and decided to try some hydro after seeing all these juciy super fat buds come off these flood tables. so im still trying to get this thing down before i switch completly.my rooms are in soil but i build a cab in the garage with a flood table in it so i can get my mix down.after that im all about tables and garbage cans full of nutrient solutions


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## UserFriendly (Mar 19, 2009)

nickfury510 said:


> well i used to be a dirt warrior and decided to try some hydro after seeing all these juciy super fat buds come off these flood tables. so im still trying to get this thing down before i switch completly.my rooms are in soil but i build a cab in the garage with a flood table in it so i can get my mix down.after that im all about tables and garbage cans full of nutrient solutions


No shit? Another hydro enthusiast eh. You going to flood some coco or you ever think about dripping? I flood hydroton on an E&F table and it beats the shit out of coco. About the only thing I haven't done is aero and I haven't flowered anything in DWC. Bro, if you want to flood, you should seriously consider hydroton.


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## nickfury510 (Mar 19, 2009)

the coco seems to like the flood..at the end i was flooding 6x a day with my ppm at 1200 on a tri meter.


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## UserFriendly (Mar 19, 2009)

That'll do!


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## nickfury510 (Mar 19, 2009)

heres the pic i was looking for....i would flood them for 15mins.


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## UserFriendly (Mar 19, 2009)

Are those coco-pots?


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## nickfury510 (Mar 19, 2009)

yeah...im reusing them now. i washed them out and soaked them in hydrogen peroxide and water for a day and them let them dry out. the whole combo is supposed to let the roots breath real easy even when soaking the shit out of them.


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## UserFriendly (Mar 19, 2009)

I like the idea of air-pruning roots too. How often you flood?


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## nickfury510 (Mar 19, 2009)

right now im coming to the end of the third week and i flood 4 times. 25min, 20 min, 20min, and 25min. tommorrow im going to bump up to 5x. the reason i run the first and last flood a little longer is because they are dry by the first and give a good soaking for the last before lights out. i start an hour before lights on and an hour before lights off.


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## nickfury510 (Mar 19, 2009)

i double stack the pots..this is when i peeled the first layer off. that bottom clump was a thck ass root cake


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## UserFriendly (Mar 19, 2009)

How many times do you reused them? Where's your grow journal bro? You doing it in Growroom Design?


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## sittinherebored (Mar 19, 2009)

i have white residue on the top of my compressed medium(i think its coco) in my pots. is that salt residue?


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## UserFriendly (Mar 19, 2009)

sittinherebored said:


> i have white residue on the top of my compressed medium(i think its coco) in my pots. is that salt residue?


Could be salt or beneficials... or malevolent microorganisms.


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## nickfury510 (Mar 19, 2009)

UserFriendly said:


> How many times do you reused them?


 this is only the second time. but by the condition of them after i washed and soaked them i should get a third. they arent that expensive and they are biodegradable when you are finished with them. i thought about rewashing the coco but i still have a big ass bag of it so i threw it into my vegetable plot outside and turned it through.........


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## nickfury510 (Mar 19, 2009)

no journal for the hydro. i do have a half assed one in grow design of a room i just put together but that is my dirt room. ive got some more pics though of the flood cab. ill go throw them up in the grow journal section real quick so i can quit hijacking this guys thread...give me about 5 mins.


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## nickfury510 (Mar 19, 2009)

im sorry..i do have another half assed journal for the hydro in grow design...i just put some more pics in it.


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## UserFriendly (Mar 19, 2009)

Not going to do a proper journal? At least put a link your sig.


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## nickfury510 (Mar 19, 2009)

UserFriendly said:


> Not going to do a proper journal? At least put a link your sig.


 ive got some shiva skunk and some church in there right now with about 5 weeks left. after that im planning on doing a scrog in the flood ill be doing a journal on that. I was going to do one this time but i droped the ball


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## cannaman2.5 (Mar 20, 2009)

I personally would reccomend using coco outdoors


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## M Blaze (Mar 20, 2009)

This thread has made for some interesting reading


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## cannaman2.5 (Mar 20, 2009)

actually i meant that i wouldn't reccomend using coco outdoors...think i had a brain fart


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## UserFriendly (Mar 20, 2009)

cannaman2.5 said:


> actually i meant that i wouldn't reccomend using coco outdoors...think i had a brain fart


Yeah, it dries out really fast.


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## holmes (Mar 23, 2009)

i had no idea you could reuse the coco pots, they look so flimsy.
im going for the smart pot, same principle, reusable.


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