Coco coir

Chronic11

Chronic11

Active Member
Hey all, I’m about to start my second grow and am gonna go with coco instead of soil. I have just a few questions I hope can be answered.

1. What brand of coco brick do you guys like and trust? I bought one brick of thunder acres a while back that I still haven’t hydrated, not sure if I should buy more of those or go with another brand. The only bagged coco available near me is cultivation nation by fox farm. Not sure if it’s trustworthy, but hey if anyone has used it chime in!

2. Is perlite necessary? I plan to be hand watering/feeding only once per day.

3. Is the information on cocoforcannabis trustworthy? I’ve read somewhere it contains misinformation, bummer if so as I was hoping to use their methods as a guide.

4. Pot size. I plan to start in solos. Currently I have 2gal fabric pots and 5gal fabrics. I’m hoping to go solo-2gal-5gal making the switch to 5 gal a week or so before flower. Should I modify this plan?

5. Calmag. I plan to use dynagro nutrients as I already have lots of their nutes from my last grow. I will also be using tap water with approximately 50ppm. Is calmag necessary?

Thank you to anyone that has advice for me!
 
DankZs

DankZs

Well-Known Member
I use bags instead of bricks as you don't have to wash or prep them with nutes. Perlite is not necessary but anytime I go over 1 gallon pots I used 70 coco 30 perlite premixed bags. I think multiple watering a day with smaller pots produces more hydro like growth as opposed to soil like growth. Both work. Cal mag is necessary for coco unless you get enough for nutes currently which have a good chunk already. If they aren't coco geared I'd add cal mag but in late flower cal mag has n so keep that in mind. I've had single gallon pots that produced 2 zips but 2 gallon is my sweet spot for my size grow. I use solo cups then go to 2 gallon pots. I only go bigger when I flower my mother's. I keep those in 2-3 gallons until I flip to flower for moms. You'd be surprised how huge plants get in small pots as long as you make sure they have adequate water. Also make sure you have run off every watering to avoid salt buildup
 
Chronic11

Chronic11

Active Member
DankZs said:
I use bags instead of bricks as you don't have to wash or prep them with nutes. Perlite is not necessary but anytime I go over 1 gallon pots I used 70 coco 30 perlite premixed bags. I think multiple watering a day with smaller pots produces more hydro like growth as opposed to soil like growth. Both work. Cal mag is necessary for coco unless you get enough for nutes currently which have a good chunk already. If they aren't coco geared I'd add cal mag but in late flower cal mag has n so keep that in mind. I've had single gallon pots that produced 2 zips but 2 gallon is my sweet spot for my size grow. I use solo cups then go to 2 gallon pots. I only go bigger when I flower my mother's. I keep those in 2-3 gallons until I flip to flower for moms. You'd be surprised how huge plants get in small pots as long as you make sure they have adequate water. Also make sure you have run off every watering to avoid salt buildup
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Thanks for the advice!
 
Chronic11

Chronic11

Active Member
Billy the Mountain said:
All good advice above

This one of the few examples where CalMag is actually warranted. If you're using Dynagro with .1ec water, you may indeed need some CalMag using coco since Dynago only has 2% Ca, .5% Mg, substantially lower than most other nutes.
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Gotcha. Given that I’m assuming it should be added every watering along with my other nutes?
 
T

Treesomewanted77

Well-Known Member
I use coco perlite mix 50/50 and have great results hand watering to runoff once daily. But I don’t use anything bigger than 3.5 gal because your just wasting a lot of coco if your not growing giant trees. I even grow some pretty big ones in those 3.5 gallon pots. I do use cal/mag and Epsom every feed Try to keep your runoff within a few hundred ppm above the input feed. If it gets way higher just keep putting more feed through it till it levels out then resume normal feeds

here is a pic of part of one I just finished up using this method. I also turned a buddy onto the coco perlite mix and he has now stopped using soil and does only this coco perlite DTW setup and he is having great results too.
 

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Rurumo

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Coco varies greatly by brand in terms of uniformity and fiber length. Canna makes a very good coco, but it's milled/sifted very fine to mimic peat, so it makes a great candidate for added perlite. I don't like mixing perlite though, it's just not needed. I like the Hydrofarm Grow!T brand for use without perlite-it's well buffered and very uniform with slightly longer fiber length than canna. Botanicare coco uses a wide variety of fiber lengths and has excellent drainage. In some cases, you'll get a different product when you order a brick than a loose bag from the same company , so you might try a couple of brands if you want to try out bricks to see what you like best. When I used to grow more plants I used bricks, and diligently washed, sieved out dust, and charged it myself with calmag-but now I just buy it in bags, more expensive but they do a better job of preparing it than I did. With seedlings, allow the media to get slightly dry before watering-this might take several days. Wait until you have a developed root system before you start watering to runoff daily-if you do that, you don't need perlite. Good luck!
 
Chronic11

Chronic11

Active Member
Rurumo said:
Coco varies greatly by brand in terms of uniformity and fiber length. Canna makes a very good coco, but it's milled/sifted very fine to mimic peat, so it makes a great candidate for added perlite. I don't like mixing perlite though, it's just not needed. I like the Hydrofarm Grow!T brand for use without perlite-it's well buffered and very uniform with slightly longer fiber length than canna. Botanicare coco uses a wide variety of fiber lengths and has excellent drainage. In some cases, you'll get a different product when you order a brick than a loose bag from the same company , so you might try a couple of brands if you want to try out bricks to see what you like best. When I used to grow more plants I used bricks, and diligently washed, sieved out dust, and charged it myself with calmag-but now I just buy it in bags, more expensive but they do a better job of preparing it than I did. With seedlings, allow the media to get slightly dry before watering-this might take several days. Wait until you have a developed root system before you start watering to runoff daily-if you do that, you don't need perlite. Good luck!
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Thanks! Is this the coco you’re referring to?

 
Chronic11

Chronic11

Active Member
Rurumo said:
Coco varies greatly by brand in terms of uniformity and fiber length. Canna makes a very good coco, but it's milled/sifted very fine to mimic peat, so it makes a great candidate for added perlite. I don't like mixing perlite though, it's just not needed. I like the Hydrofarm Grow!T brand for use without perlite-it's well buffered and very uniform with slightly longer fiber length than canna. Botanicare coco uses a wide variety of fiber lengths and has excellent drainage. In some cases, you'll get a different product when you order a brick than a loose bag from the same company , so you might try a couple of brands if you want to try out bricks to see what you like best. When I used to grow more plants I used bricks, and diligently washed, sieved out dust, and charged it myself with calmag-but now I just buy it in bags, more expensive but they do a better job of preparing it than I did. With seedlings, allow the media to get slightly dry before watering-this might take several days. Wait until you have a developed root system before you start watering to runoff daily-if you do that, you don't need perlite. Good luck!
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Or this one? Not sure what the difference is in the two aside from the price. I like the idea of not adding perlite and wanna go that route and not get coco that’s too fine and causes me to overwater.
 
Chronic11

Chronic11

Active Member
Billy the Mountain said:
The bricks are a better value

I put the brick in a large tote, soak w/ mild CalMg solution

Remove coco from tote with a pasta strainer or similar; the super-fine particles and silt gets left behind.

You can re-use your coco by repeating the above.
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What bricks do you use? & does the brand really matter if you prep it that way? I was gonna get the botanicare but for whatever reason Amazon won’t ship it to my address.
 
Billy the Mountain

Billy the Mountain

Well-Known Member
Chronic11 said:
What bricks do you use? & does the brand really matter if you prep it that way? I was gonna get the botanicare but for whatever reason Amazon won’t ship it to my address.
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I've used Canna, more recently Root Organics, both seem equivalent, I buy whatever my local store carries

As you mentioned, brand doesn't really matter if you prep it properly
 
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