Buffering coco in layman's terms?

[Star Dog]

I've got a brick of coco to try I need to know how do I go about preparing it to use, I read coco requires buffering what is I do I do in gardening terms?

I don't mean to sound ungrateful but there's no point in posting links the science is to complicated I can't get my head around it, I remember now why I've just bought canna previously
Now i'm looking to prepare my own any help with that would be great?

 

[WintersBones]

Coco Coir Bricks - How to Prepare and Buffer Coco Coir - Coco For Cannabis

This tutorial covers the process of selecting, preparing & buffering coco coir. Includes perlite ratios & tips to make coco the best media for cannabis

www.cocoforcannabis.com

Read through this site and learn much.

 

[Beehive]

Hydrate the brick and rinse the dust out. Until the runoff is fairly clear. It doesn't have to be super pure looking.


Then soak it in water that's had 15ml of Cal-Mag per gallon added. Tap or RO. Doesn't matter.

Soak it for at least a day. 24 hours. I soak mine for a couple of days. I don't rinse it after the Cal-Mag treatment. Let dry a bit until it's ready to planted.

 

[lusidghost]

Just rinse them really really well and then PH them with fairly strong calmag'd water. Or Recharge if that's your thing.

I put the coco in a fabric laundry bag. It drains easy.

 

[Star Dog]

Coco Coir Bricks - How to Prepare and Buffer Coco Coir - Coco For Cannabis

This tutorial covers the process of selecting, preparing & buffering coco coir. Includes perlite ratios & tips to make coco the best media for cannabis

www.cocoforcannabis.com

Read through this site and learn much.

Just had a quick peek it looks very informative, thanks very much.

 

[WintersBones]

Just had a quick peek it looks very informative, thanks very much.

Cheers. Learnt most of what I know about coco from that site. And there's tons of other good articles and info on other topics as well.
the other posters summarized the process fairly well however. rinse, soak with CalMag, drain, basically the whole process.

 

[lusidghost]

Hydrate the brick and rinse the dust out. Until the runoff is fairly clear. It doesn't have to be super pure looking.


Then soak it in water that's had 15ml of Cal-Mag per gallon added. Tap or RO. Doesn't matter.

Soak it for at least a day. 24 hours. I soak mine for a couple of days. I don't rinse it after the Cal-Mag treatment. Let dry a bit until it's ready to planted.

It's a good idea to put the coco into the pots and let them dry out for about a day. If you keep it all together in a bin, the bottom will be way wetter than the top, later causing the pots' moisture levels will be inconsistent.

 

[Beehive]

It's a good idea to put the coco into the pots and let them dry out for about a day. If you keep it all together in a bin, the bottom will be way wetter than the top, later causing the pots' moisture levels will be inconsistent.

After the hydrate and wash. Then filled fabric pots. I stick the entire pot in an ice chest. Fill it with the Cal-Mag water and walk off for a couple days.

After the soak I pull the pots out the chest and let them drain. Long enough to where there's no water dripping carrying it to grow room. (I don't want to have to clean it up.) A soggy 5 gallon pot is kinda heavy.

 

[lusidghost]

After the hydrate and wash. Using filled fabric pots. I stick the entire pot in an ice chest. Fill it with the Cal-Mag water and walk off for a couple days.

After the soak I pull the pots out the soak and let them drain. Long enough to where there's no water dripping carrying it to grow room. I don't don't want to have to clean it up. A soggy 5 gallon pot is kinda heavy.

Damn, that's next level shit.

 

[Beehive]

Damn, that's next level shit.

I left out mixing some perlite into the coco after its hydrated. The first rinse also washes the perlite dust out. You can mix coco to perlite 70/30 or 50/50. There's growers on here that grow in 100% coco. I haven't.

Other then bricks. I got lazy and started using the premixed Roots brand. It goes through the same process as if it was a brick. Saves the labor of mixing perlite into the coco.

 

[lusidghost]

I left out mixing some perlite into the coco after its hydrated. The first rinse also washes the perlite dust out. You can mix coco to perlite 70/30 or 50/50. There's growers on here that grow in 100% coco. I haven't.

Other then bricks. I got lazy and started using the premixed Roots brand. It goes through the same process as if it was a brick. Saves the labor of mixing perlite into the coco.

I've always used pure coco. Now I bypass all of the headaches and use these.

GroEzy™ 6" Coco Grow Cubes

GroEzy™ Cultivation Blocks Size: 6" x 6" x 6" Volume: Approx 1.5 Gallon Packing: 32 units per case Pallet: 54 cases per pallet Coco Grow Cubes, the perfect foundation for growing strong, colorful plants, you may enhance your gardening experience. Made from high-quality coconut coir fibers, these...

www.thecocodepot.com

 

[Star Dog]

I left out mixing some perlite into the coco after its hydrated. The first rinse also washes the perlite dust out. You can mix coco to perlite 70/30 or 50/50. There's growers on here that grow in 100% coco. I haven't.

Other then bricks. I got lazy and started using the premixed Roots brand. It goes through the same process as if it was a brick. Saves the labor of mixing perlite into the coco.

I like a bit of perlite 30/35% in canna that's all I've used previously.
That said I didn't know just how airy the coco brick is, canna pro+ is what describe as quite fine imo it benifits from perlite.
I'm not saying the brick won't but it's a much lighter/airyer product I think it would be fine without.

 

[MickFoster]

I find there's a lot of dust in the brick.
I hydrate it with weak nutes, then rinse in a 5 gallon bucket.........scoop out what floats and the sludge will sink to the bottom.

 

[Gemtree]

I only use bricks for shrooms lol

 

[twentyeight.threefive]

Hydrate the brick and rinse the dust out. Until the runoff is fairly clear. It doesn't have to be super pure looking.


Then soak it in water that's had 15ml of Cal-Mag per gallon added. Tap or RO. Doesn't matter.

Soak it for at least a day. 24 hours. I soak mine for a couple of days. I don't rinse it after the Cal-Mag treatment. Let dry a bit until it's ready to planted.

15 ml/gal of CalMag? That seems excessive, although I buy bags of Canna Coco so I don't know about bricks. I run a low 0.4 EC feed of nutrients through my coco, removes fines and preps the coco for seedlings.

 

[twentyeight.threefive]

I like a bit of perlite 30/35% in canna that's all I've used previously.
That said I didn't know just how airy the coco brick is, canna pro+ is what describe as quite fine imo it benifits from perlite.
I'm not saying the brick won't but it's a much lighter/airyer product I think it would be fine without.

Comparing my current two girls I'll probably never used perlite again. There's no visual difference between the plants and the pure coco pot drains the feed way faster. You'd think the coco/perlite pot would drain faster.

 

[Star Dog]

I'm fairly sure this buffering business is the reason I've seen a low ec in the run off and it's been asked about a number of times in posts, usually disputed.
I could be wrong but I've learned a couple of things tonight that has lead me to this conclusion.

The coco is empty in a sense the nutrient goes through it and any cm, mg, p, k gets drawn out of the nutrient leaving a weak solution to run off.

Those of you that prep your own might not be aware of this but it's a thing if you use coco from the bag without feeding/buffering/charging it whatever lol.

I've run 1.0 nutrient through a 1 ltr pot and the run off was 0.2

 

[Beehive]

15 ml/gal of CalMag? That seems excessive, although I buy bags of Canna Coco so I don't know about bricks. I run a low 0.4 EC feed of nutrients through my coco, removes fines and preps the coco for seedlings.

15ml of Cal-Mag per gallon. I'm sure.

I gotta dry trim in the morning and I'm not looking forward to it. Jars have been cleaned(26 jars) and I think I grew ~way~ to much.

 

[Star Dog]

Comparing my current two girls I'll probably never used perlite again. There's no visual difference between the plants and the pure coco pot drains the feed way faster. You'd think the coco/perlite pot would drain faster.

I wasn't going to say it until I tested them lol but I'm 90% sure that coco drains quicker than my canna+perlite mix, I will test it

 

[twentyeight.threefive]

I'm fairly sure this buffering business is the reason I've seen a low ec in the run off and it's been asked about a number of times in posts, usually disputed.
I could be wrong but I've learned a couple of things tonight that has lead me to this conclusion.

The coco is empty in a sense the nutrient goes through it and any cm, mg, p, k gets drawn out of the nutrient leaving a weak solution to run off.

Those of you that prep your own might not be aware of this but it's a thing if you use coco from the bag without feeding/buffering/charging it whatever lol.

I've run 1.0 nutrient through a 1 ltr pot and the run off was 0.2

I'm still confused on how that's even possible. I can't comprehend how it's possible unless you aren't watering to enough runoff. Eventually the output had to equal the input.