My experiences with Coco so far.....

This is a post in reply to a question over in the Newb section...I didn't wanna to derail another s thread...
But
I'm a coco convert

-No more constant pH monitoring like hydro; set your nute pH once after mixing and forget it
-No more TDS/ppm monitoring like Hydro (unless you are recirculating), Coco is "usually" drain to waste, and even with that I'm not noticing much more nute usage because you mix your nutes at a lower strength
-No more f^cking rot!! I'm sure its happened/possible but I took 2-3 plants on death row, used a simple bennie mix and xfered them to coco; voila' no more rot, ever, no sign, no symptoms, no problems
- little to zero chance of over watering vs. soil
- less heat/O2/air issues...coco is more resistant to high temps in that your roots aren't sitting in warm liquid and hence dependent on dissolved O2 in the solution (no more clogged air stones, pumps et et)
- Weed grown in coco allegedly has a more soil taste; I said "allegedly" since I've never even found a difference in soil vs hydro or that much in flushed vs, no flushed et ...judgement withheld

did I miss anything? is anyone else going back to soil or DWC hydro?

Nope, I am convinced that dtw coco will be what I roll with for a long time. I have had no issues other than what I did to myself.

Love the coco.

Peace and Great Grows

Asmallvoice

^ yeah bro I didn't wanna come off all preachy and sanctimonious, its just that I'm sure all of us see newcommers entering this hobby and seems they always jump feet 1st into soil or DWC....
seems to me coco should be the 1st stop, then perhaps try the other methods...
I really would like to promote this growing method as a newbs 1st choice..

JohnnySocko said:

^ yeah bro I didn't wanna come off all preachy and sanctimonious, its just that I'm sure all of us see newcommers entering this hobby and seems they always jump feet 1st into soil or DWC....
seems to me coco should be the 1st stop, then perhaps try the other methods...
I really would like to promote this growing method as a newbs 1st choice..

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I agree, A lot less problematic and actually, quite forgiving in some ways.

Just getting them to understand the importance of ph an the rest will damn near take care of itself.

Peace and Great Grows

Asmallvoice

Thanks for sharing. Can you tell us what type of coco you use? Are the yields similar to DWC?

DTW Coco is stupid easy. I went that way for a while.
If I setup again.. I would DTW Coco, for sure. It's so fucking easy as long as you have a good system for disposing of root balls.
Just let them dry out before disposing and it is a breeze.

MidwesternGro said:

Thanks for sharing. Can you tell us what type of coco you use? Are the yields similar to DWC?

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yield? currently I/we have 4 small grows going, ... as we aren't commercial growers and are only gardeners/hobbyist ...but all are our 1st in coco

I got one of those 5kg bricks, I wanna say Botanicare or GH or sumthin like that (it was a name brand)....shit was cheap as I recall

I pre-soaked mine in a 15G Tote using cal-mag at 1st (more on this later!) later I did both Cal-mag AND a weak nute solution (followed application using lower end of bottle instructions)...If I recall the soak was overnight in about 600pmm ...
I squeezed the liquid out, added 30% perlite and planted...

one of my current grows is 6x Blue OG & 1ea Purple haze, well one older Blue OG and the Purple Haze were planted in mix that was pre-soaked in Cal-mag only....I'm seeing a Mg deficiency and struggling to correct it now 4 weeks into flower
the other plants that was planted in a stronger pre-soak have no issues....

my take away: Purple haze is probably more mg sensitive, I'm guessing you do need to pre-soak in a solution stronger than 200ppm with the brick stuff, and regardless if I had it to do over I'll just skip over all the soaking hub-bub and just cop some B'cuzz or any of the pre-bagged shit....

more unsolicited info:
other than the two aforementioned plants, the rest of the plants look amazing: tight nodes, buds fating up like crazy, nice perfect looking foliage

I've used h3ads formula GH 2pt but the last week I hit em with Canna Coco 2pt just so I could add thier PK booster w/o trying to figure out dosages with the GH.... also adding a lil Epson salts for reasons explained earlier...

...no I'm not one to believe in snake oils past base nutes, but w/o other "Controls" to compare, I'd tenativley say the PK booster "appears" to add weight and frost....

...I'm using drips on times 4x a day for 7 seconds, no run-off using H&G drip clean

if when I figure out a way light the tent for pics I'll post; this grow is looking fantastic!!!

I'm at a crossroads with dwc + coco. Coco is looking so much easier than what I'm doing now. I've got a Blue OG and a couple others in dwc.

"Doesn't matter how you grow"

^ Coco is easier...IMHO, no comparison; I've since shelved my Hanna Gro-check combo, my pH probes, my air pumps, powerheads, digital thermometers, air stones, et et...

but TBH, DWC has its advantages: we did a single blue og in a DWC last grow; Amazing is all I could say; under a single 150 HPS, almost 5oz finally tally for one plant using nothing more than Maxigrow; I'm told the smoke is 8 out of 10 in potency...

I used to think people lied about some of the larger yields until we saw this harvest... I don't think this same yeild would be possible under summer temps tho
...and here is the thing about Coco vs. DWC: temps are not the same mitigating variable...my tent is 78F-82F...not hot but still not ideal conditions for DWC, but a non-issue in coco

Yeah the stuffs amazing , its good for begginers too because its hard to over water and easy tell when itNeeds a water. Much easier than soil , especially in australia where we dont have fox farms soil and you have to make your own,makes things difficult when you have no idea what your doing. Thanks to Coco and house and garden a+b iv had a couple of 1lb plants in 18L pots under 600w

here is my 1st coco grow (pardon HPS lighting)

these are 5 Blue OG, 4 weeks veg in week 7 of flower, 4x4 tent under 600W cheapo apollo bulb...GH H3ads base nutes with a lil PK 13/14 in week 5 (just for shitz and giggles)....anyone take a guess at what the yield might be?

here is a blue OG that was grown in improperly pre-charged coco....it gave me fits with N & mg deficiencies....note the bud lacks any fan leaf

...and here is a normal bud for comparison

and here are 2 green crack, week 7, same nutes, same 6L pots as above but in a 3x2 under 3x 150 Kessil LED's + 2x 60W CFL (again pardon the lighting)

note the growth is a lot more spindly even tho the LED's and CFL were less than 2-3 inches from the foliage....I won't be blooming with these again

Looks great my friend. If you haven't used cannas bagged coco you are in for a treat. Take my advice and splurge on it next time. It's quite literally head and shoulders above bricks. I can't imagine myself ever using the brick stuff again despite the price difference.

Bucees said:

Looks great my friend. If you haven't used cannas bagged coco you are in for a treat. Take my advice and splurge on it next time. It's quite literally head and shoulders above bricks. I can't imagine myself ever using the brick stuff again despite the price difference.

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I got the B'cuzz as all they had was that and some sorta off brand stuff....
but I'll defenitly try the Canna
digressing a lil, but MJ growing is taking off...I went to 3 different hydro stores and they tell me they go through a pallet a week of B'cuzz (its apparently locally VERY popular) ... and again from what they tell me; coco easily being the most popular method of growing mj (with FF soil a close 2nd)...they are fully aware of Amazons prices and tell me most growers pickup their soil & coco locally....

JohnnySocko said:

they are fully aware of Amazons prices and tell me most growers pickup their soil & coco locally....

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I'm a die hard Amazon guy, but yea it's really expensive to ship a heavy ass bag of coco across the country. I have to travel a bit to my shop but always buy it there.

I've never had the opportunity to try the B'Cuzz, but it seems very popular around here as well. People always seem to recommend it or canna so I imagine they are quite similar. I only mentioned it because in your original post you talked about using the 5kg bricks. I started out there as well and damn the bagged stuff is just so much nicer to deal with. It's one of those times spending extra money is actually worth it.

i've been in coco a long time. i started out using the bricks, but it's too much work. i've used canna/b'cuzz/black gold, but mostly b'cuzz. i always rise it, even the rinsed stuff. it seems they all need a bit of rinsing. i keep the ph 5.8 throughout, and feed every day once the plants get established. run-off is key, and i always allow for a good 10-15%. great growth and almost no bug issues. a few fungus gnats every now and then. this last grow, zero bugs... good idea to use coco specific nutes, but i've used pure blend. amended weekly with epsom salt and did fine.

yeah if you look at the value of the crop it seems kinda silly going cheap on the medium...I mean heck a bag of coco fills about 8-10 6L pots, that's 2 grows for me....


I was using Canna at 1st but was having N deficiency so I went h3ads using GH but recently I've been using Botanicare Ripe for these last 2 weeks of flower ...drip clean throughout, no/little run off

I've been having mag issues of late that have been near impossible to solve...
I've tried Epson salts, extra run off, no I got some Dyna Gro Mag Pro but I'm scared to use it as it has extra N & P and I don't wanna fuck up my nute profile anymore than it is

for me, the 10-15% run-off keeps me pretty much issue free. but then some can get by w/o it. i just know it doesn't work for me, lol...

JohnnySocko said:

yeah if you look at the value of the crop it seems kinda silly going cheap on the medium...I mean heck a bag of coco fills about 8-10 6L pots, that's 2 grows for me....


I was using Canna at 1st but was having N deficiency so I went h3ads using GH but recently I've been using Botanicare Ripe for these last 2 weeks of flower ...drip clean throughout, no/little run off

I've been having mag issues of late that have been near impossible to solve...
I've tried Epson salts, extra run off, no I got some Dyna Gro Mag Pro but I'm scared to use it as it has extra N & P and I don't wanna fuck up my nute profile anymore than it is

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It's possible that because you have no run off there is a build up of salts in the coco. One of the elements in the build up of salts could be locking out the mag. Perhaps it would be worth your while investigating the point a little further as it may help you to rectify the problem.