Fortifiying COCO with CALMAG soak

FmSwayze

FmSwayze

Well-Known Member
Does anyone soak thier coco in a calmag solution prior to use, specifically if you run dry amendments? Thanks
 
Are you talking dry amendments as in mixing them in like soil? If you are draining to waste, I rinse and buffer my coco with a weak pH'd nutrient solution.
 
I will be using Dr earth with coco medium. Aside from the initial amendment with nutrition are you *charging with calmag only. That's the question
 
FmSwayze said:
I will be using Dr earth with coco medium. Aside from the initial amendment with nutrition are you *charging with calmag only. That's the question
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You don't amend coco and use it like a soil. It is a hydro medium and should be fed daily (multiple times) and done so to considerable runoff.
 
Coco based soil* I should been more specific. I appreciate the quick responses. I love this community for that reason. Looks like an experiment is needed.
 
FmSwayze said:
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That's coco coir. You'll want to do drain to waste with that. Take it from somebody that has tried to use coco as soil. It will work but not well. And then just when the end is in sight, it will become a colossal pain in the dick. You can try it. But if you want to save the headache, either do drain to waste with decent runoff or get soil.
 
FmSwayze said:
Does anyone soak thier coco in a calmag solution prior to use, specifically if you run dry amendments? Thanks
Click to expand...
No I purchase prebuffered coco.

The reason you don't run dry with coco is dry amendments feed every time you water. Coco requires watering at least once to multiple times/day. When the plants are small and they aren't drinking as quickly you'll be fine but soon you'll reach a point where you are having to give them more water so they get too much nutrient and burn OR you let them dry and the salts dry up and burn them that way.

That's why coco and dry nutrients don't work well together. If you want to use dry amendments try a peat based mix that holds water longer. I hope that helps.
 
FmSwayze said:
I will be using Dr earth with coco medium. Aside from the initial amendment with nutrition are you *charging with calmag only. That's the question
Click to expand...
Im using dr earth with coco too. I mix other stuff in too, but the most important is ewc and some kinda microbes. I also mixed in about 20% ffof soil. To give the coco some extra life and nutrients ready for plant, until amendments break down. Theres benefits to growing this way compared to soil, but there's pros and cons to both. Im in sip buckets so i think coco wicks a lil better than soil and is less hydrophobic. Jmo everyone has their way.
 
curious2garden said:
No I purchase prebuffered coco.

The reason you don't run dry with coco is dry amendments feed every time you water. Coco requires watering at least once to multiple times/day. When the plants are small and they aren't drinking as quickly you'll be fine but soon you'll reach a point where you are having to give them more water so they get too much nutrient and burn OR you let them dry and the salts dry up and burn them that way.

That's why coco and dry nutrients don't work well together. If you want to use dry amendments try a peat based mix that holds water longer. I hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Ive never burned plants with dry amendments. 2-3tbs/gallon of soil. And coco and dry amendments work great together. As long as u add microbes and ewc or compost, you should be good. Usually the dr earth tomato veg blend has extra calcium in it, that helps with the cation problems with coco. You can use coco just as you would amend an hp promix, or any neutral soil(no nutes). Coco good, soil good too!!!
 
bgsixxniner said:
Ive never burned plants with dry amendments. 2-3tbs/gallon of soil. And coco and dry amendments work great together. As long as u add microbes and ewc or compost, you should be good. Usually the dr earth tomato veg blend has extra calcium in it, that helps with the cation problems with coco. You can use coco just as you would amend an hp promix, or any neutral soil(no nutes). Coco good, soil good too!!!
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Thanks man. I used a blend of compost, coco, perlite and vermiculite. It's going great, love the dry amendments. I'm testing now on top dressing frequency. 14 or 21 days? We shall see, this is my first go with Dr earth.
 
FmSwayze said:
Thanks man. I used a blend of compost, coco, perlite and vermiculite. It's going great, love the dry amendments. I'm testing now on top dressing frequency. 14 or 21 days? We shall see, this is my first go with Dr earth.
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Yeah i love dry amendments. All ive used is dr. Earth and down to earth. They both work great. For me i usually do every3-4 weeks topdress. And if it gets close to the end, i either mix up some foxfarm big bloom or roots organic terp tea to carry them to the end. Never tried vermiculite. Will have to research it.
 
bgsixxniner said:
Im using dr earth with coco too. I mix other stuff in too, but the most important is ewc and some kinda microbes. I also mixed in about 20% ffof soil. To give the coco some extra life and nutrients ready for plant, until amendments break down. Theres benefits to growing this way compared to soil, but there's pros and cons to both. Im in sip buckets so i think coco wicks a lil better than soil and is less hydrophobic. Jmo everyone has their way.
Click to expand...
What exactly are the benefits of growing with dry amendments in coco?
 
bgsixxniner said:
Ive never burned plants with dry amendments. 2-3tbs/gallon of soil. And coco and dry amendments work great together. As long as u add microbes and ewc or compost, you should be good. Usually the dr earth tomato veg blend has extra calcium in it, that helps with the cation problems with coco. You can use coco just as you would amend an hp promix, or any neutral soil(no nutes). Coco good, soil good too!!!
Click to expand...

Hello
I see you have and experience growing in coco with dry amendments like me, and I'm hoping you could help me under how I can recycle it.

I want to reuse the coco used in the last run, but besides taking majority of the roots out, and adding more nutrients, do I need to do anything else to it ?

Should I heavily rinse to get all the old nutrients out ?

Do I need to re buff the coco ?
Or soak in Calmag solution ?

The amendments I used already had plenty of Cal + Mag in them.

I also add my Veg + Bloom nutrients at the same time.

For 25 L of coco (Half the 50 L bag dumped into a 15 gallon Tub)

I add in

- Perlite - 4 quarts (+/-)
- EWC - 1 quart (+/-)
- Bloom Tea powder - 2 Tablespoons
- Garden Tone Veg - 2 Cups
- Dr. Earth with Mycorrhizae - 2 Cups
- SEA 90 - 1/2 cup
- Epsom Salt - 1/2 Cup
- Cleaned Hydroton Pellets - 1 Gallon
- Mycorrhizae Powder - 1/2 Cup
- Bone Meal - 1 Cup

I mix that all in dry and havnt needed to "cook"
Just water with filtered water and havnt had any deficiencies or issues. I used to PH the water to around 6, but my pen broke and I tried watering without it just fine.

I havnt had to top dress for at least 6 months.
But by that time the plants usually go outside or I am done.

I just really would like to know if I should rinse the cooc out well first before adding the above nutrients AGAIN for a second round.
And if I need to ReBuff the Coco
When I bought it it came Pre Buffed.
But by using it once does it mess that up somehow ?

Anyway I pray your still out there doing what makes you happy and I hope to hear a reply with your advice soon.

✌†
 
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