Coco Choir in a Hydroponic Setup?

Hey all,

Well I am setting up a hydrponic indoor bucket system using hydroton in my pots.

I was lucky to find choco choir locally that are shipped in blocks. (picture attached)

My question is if anyone has a nice little tip on how to use it. What I mean is that Im gonna have my seeds start in coco choir which then will be transported to my pots with hydroton. Since the coco choir is a full block, I will need to cut it into small pieces. Is it a problem to use it in such way? will any of the coco debris leak into my system effecting it in any ways?

does anyone have a nice tip to share? Maybe wrap the small piece with nylon or something?

help is appreciated

I use just hydroton balls. they are reusable and will last a lifetime. They are easy to clean. You can start seeds in little rockwool cubes or rapid rooter plugs made of coco.

Coco has issues of purity and salt buildup.. It looks like that bulk coco could be low quality and questionable.

Anyway, if you mixed coco in to your balls, it would make cleanup hard and just complicate things.

that's just my opinion.

i would like to try mixing it with perlite which im already using in a grow i dont like rinsing hydroton or cleaning/boiling for re-use im gonna dump my perlite in trash bags when im done & start fresh for $23.00 i got enough perlite for 3 grows coco would hold moisture between feedings if i mixed it in i underfed these plants in the beginning but have it figured out now

I use hydroton and will soon be switching to coco croutons. less salt build up plus you get the microbial activity, i just can't seem to find anyone that sells it around here. hydroton is a pain in the dick to clean, it gets old.

your looking at a big mess if you put coco into net pots and bubble the shit out of them. Use rock wool to start in and than into the balls of death (hydroton)

hey man it is possible to use coco in a hydro type setup check out my grow journal to see the breakdown of getting things ready, as for the mess that is associated w th fine coco, i suggest using actual pots or waste baskets or other solid type container, drill lots of holes in the bottom say 10 or more, this is where the fun begins, either way your gonna need window screen, now you can cover the bottom of each pot with screen and attach it w tacks or what i do is have the girls on their table and have the area above the base of the pot and below the leaves covered to discourage algae and where the water drains into the catch-reservoir a double screen filter to catch any small coir that leaves the pots, you will need to clean this every few days at first but as the grow goes on less and less material will leave the containers and the water will stop catching dye form the medium...also you can wash the shit outa the stuff first to avoid the coloring of the water from the coir once you have flowers in it.

There are a lot of benefits to using coco coir. I am currently in the process of a large grow using fine ground coco coir. There have been issues with it begin high in salts, but that was mostly when its use for growing was first introduced. most notably, coco coir is an ideal medium for the promotion of optimal uptake of cations such as Calcium and Magnesium. It also stays relatively aerated, so the coco coir actually holds air pockets well. I buy my coco coir loose, however i believe with the blocks you are supposed to break them up before use. read this article, it may help you better understand the positives and negatives to using coco coir.

http://www.progressive-growth.com/article-coco-coir.php