Coconut coir should I ?

Buddernugs

Well-Known Member
If you use tap water and your coco is buffered, you most likely won't need a calmag supplement.........I never have to use it.
Never do a just water feed.........ever.
that comment should be LAW to any Coco grower ….never give plain water………can confirm on the cal mag……haven’t turned my ro on in a while now. Tap water with cocotek and sensi grow coco formula I have ran into cal mag issues every grow with tap water and not Sup cal mag…….flora nova grow and bloom on the other hand is saveing me money because I have not used so much at a drop of cal mag in the last 2 grows……flora is the bees knees
 

Auntie Janes Nursery

Well-Known Member
Coco is a great balance in between soil and hydro. But that doesn't mean it is for everyone. I personally love it but it can be a pain in the butt sometimes. Underwater and you'll get ph swings. Buffering as Mick put is important but sometimes you still will wind up with issues in the medium from imbalance. Granted it is not as finicky as hydro is but not as stable as soil. Easier to correct any deficiencies or excess than soil though. Depending on how you use your hydroton, coco is probably one of the most cost effective mediums since you don't need to use much to get larger plants. But also it is inert so requires more nutrients than soil. Wont waste as much nutrients/water as hydro but you will water to run off and most do to waste so there is some waste.

All that off the top of my head and I will say I still love coco. Just something about it that makes it seem easier than hydro but cleaner than soil. But that is all personal preference and personal outcome desired.

Best wishes on your choice!!
 

Severed Tongue

Well-Known Member
I use Miracle-Gro moisture control potting mix 0.18-0.10-0.10.

It's a mix of sphagnum peat moss, coco coir, aged bark fines & perlite.

I get blasted for it because it's not expensive, isn't marketed to cannabis growers, and is owned by a company that many despise (owned by, not run by) but the only opinion I care about is how the plants I'm growing respond, and they have no complaints now on my 5th run using it for Cannabis.
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
I use Miracle-Gro moisture control potting mix 0.18-0.10-0.10.

It's a mix of sphagnum peat moss, coco coir, aged bark fines & perlite.

I get blasted for it because it's not expensive, isn't marketed to cannabis growers, and is owned by a company that many despise (owned by, not run by) but the only opinion I care about is how the plants I'm growing respond, and they have no complaints now on my 5th run using it for Cannabis.
if it works for you, it works for you. my concern with it would be that coco is an inert medium, best kept sterile. (not the only way to go, some use benes, but i tried and found it to be a huge mess thats very hard to keep stable) coco has a ph of 6-6.2ish....peat is also inert, but it has a ph of 4-4.5...the aged bark fines are probably fairly stable, but they will start to decay, making it much harder to keep things sterile. that's three different materials with three different ph ranges...seems like it's unnecessarily complicating things
 

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
I use Miracle-Gro moisture control potting mix 0.18-0.10-0.10.

It's a mix of sphagnum peat moss, coco coir, aged bark fines & perlite.

I get blasted for it because it's not expensive, isn't marketed to cannabis growers, and is owned by a company that many despise (owned by, not run by) but the only opinion I care about is how the plants I'm growing respond, and they have no complaints now on my 5th run using it for Cannabis.
I did 4 plants in Miracle Gro Organic. Needed perlite. Was not hot in the least and it was available at the grocery store. Plants did fine in it.
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
get some blumats and you only have to hand water once a week, to rinse out old salts...
I'm slowly sidling towards trying coco with blumats...right now doing soil but even early on a friend who's pro said 'you know, you've got pretty much everything in your setup to do hydro pretty easily." And my concern was the daily care component. With soil I could bail for a long weekend in the mountains or a quick trip to the beach for a few days, and I'm eyeballing a blumat rig for the spring when I hope to go away for 10 days or so...so maybe it'll be time to think about a coco/blumat setup.
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
I'm slowly sidling towards trying coco with blumats...right now doing soil but even early on a friend who's pro said 'you know, you've got pretty much everything in your setup to do hydro pretty easily." And my concern was the daily care component. With soil I could bail for a long weekend in the mountains or a quick trip to the beach for a few days, and I'm eyeballing a blumat rig for the spring when I hope to go away for 10 days or so...so maybe it'll be time to think about a coco/blumat setup.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094YSLZSK?ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details&th=1

i use 3 gallon buckets, but these are good up to 5 gallons each, if you go bigger than 5 you may have to double up...but 125 bucks with the shipping, to not have to hand water but once a week? well worth it
 

speedwell68

Well-Known Member
I use Miracle-Gro moisture control potting mix 0.18-0.10-0.10.

It's a mix of sphagnum peat moss, coco coir, aged bark fines & perlite.

I get blasted for it because it's not expensive, isn't marketed to cannabis growers, and is owned by a company that many despise (owned by, not run by) but the only opinion I care about is how the plants I'm growing respond, and they have no complaints now on my 5th run using it for Cannabis.
I use Tomorite tomato feed and my medium is off the shelf compost mixed with composted farm manure and perlite. All I found was I got a little Mg deficiency, so I added some Epsom Salt once a week and all is well.

I had to use that because in the Covid lockdown I couldn't get my usual Jack's Magic soil and Plant Magic nutes. So I used what the Wife uses in her veg garden.

My weed grow worked just as well and I am saving a fortune. I am on my third run with this and I am mostly of the opinion that these "cannabis" nutes are largely snake oil designed to remove money from growers wallets, certainly with soil grows. I can't speak about coco and hydro as I can't be bothered with all the faff.

Well done for daring to be different.
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
I use Tomorite tomato feed and my medium is off the shelf compost mixed with composted farm manure and perlite. All I found was I got a little Mg deficiency, so I added some Epsom Salt once a week and all is well.

I had to use that because in the Covid lockdown I couldn't get my usual Jack's Magic soil and Plant Magic nutes. So I used what the Wife uses in her veg garden.

My weed grow worked just as well and I am saving a fortune. I am on my third run with this and I am mostly of the opinion that these "cannabis" nutes are largely snake oil designed to remove money from growers wallets, certainly with soil grows. I can't speak about coco and hydro as I can't be bothered with all the faff.

Well done for daring to be different.
i use the jacks 321 "system", found that it works really well (diluted to about 25%) for almost all vegetables, just have to boost the calcium a little for tomatoes and peppers
 

LeastExpectedGrower

Well-Known Member
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094YSLZSK?ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details&th=1

i use 3 gallon buckets, but these are good up to 5 gallons each, if you go bigger than 5 you may have to double up...but 125 bucks with the shipping, to not have to hand water but once a week? well worth it
Yeah, that's the set I was looking at for my 'vacation savior'...So I'll keep it on the list. Would give me a good experience on my soil grow for now and help me decide if a coco grow will be next up. I've been doing 4x5 gallon bags for soil, so doing a bunch of 3 wouldn't be onerous and maybe I'd do something like 6 plants at a time in the future.

I'd been avoiding the whole hydro thing for not wanting to deal with all the infrastructure to pump/drain etc. but the Blumat stuff seems like it would be an easy and solid way to have it work and avoid the hassle of all the other stuff.
 

GrassBurner

Well-Known Member
The post is titled "Coconut Coir should I" , not "Tell me about coco", or "New to Coco, help me out". Seems to me like he's asking if he should switch from soil to coco. How does bringing up positives about soil make one a "soil jerkoff"?
Does growing with coco make your skin thin or your feelings extra sensitive? Why is everyone on here more worried about being a good grower than being a good person? We are overflowing with assholes here, leave your personal problems at the door bongsmilie
To the op, stick with soil, and get some sips. Excellent growth, perfect watering, none of the hassle of hydro :blsmoke:
 

Severed Tongue

Well-Known Member
The post is titled "Coconut Coir should I" , not "Tell me about coco", or "New to Coco, help me out". Seems to me like he's asking if he should switch from soil to coco. How does bringing up positives about soil make one a "soil jerkoff"?
Does growing with coco make your skin thin or your feelings extra sensitive? Why is everyone on here more worried about being a good grower than being a good person? We are overflowing with assholes here, leave your personal problems at the door bongsmilie
To the op, stick with soil, and get some sips. Excellent growth, perfect watering, none of the hassle of hydro :blsmoke:
The entire point of my reply was that the medium I use is mostly coco coir, but is considered "soil."

And as such I treat it like a soil grow.
 

twentyeight.threefive

Well-Known Member
Why is everyone on here more worried about being a good grower than being a good person?
This is just a guess... But this is a growing forum not a self help forum.

The post is titled "Coconut Coir should I" , not "Tell me about coco", or "New to Coco, help me out".
If read any of his follow up posts you'd realize he knows nothing at all about coco. So the alternate titles you suggested would have been perfect too.

He also specifically asked for any tips or tricks or "anything at all about coco" in the original post.
 
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