Whats your ideal Coco/Salts setup?
- Thread starter DrDukePHD
- Start date
TCH
Well-Known Member
CANNA Coco Brick 40l Expandable Natural Plant Medium Soil Substrate, 40 Liter Expanded - 8 Liter Dry, Reusable (1) https://a.co/d/dLpw1fh
HM Digital COM-80 Electrical Conductivity (EC) and Total Dissolved Solids Hydro Tester, 0-5000 ppm TDS Range, 1 ppm Resolution, 2% Readout Accuracy https://a.co/d/7heckyj
Apera Instruments AI311 Premium Series PH60 Waterproof pH Pocket Tester Kit, Replaceable Probe, ±0.01 pH Accuracy https://a.co/d/a7Hc4Tx
These 3 are what I would recommend for starting out. Along with the proper storage and calibration fluids for the meters. Of course, you can use the drops and strips for ph testing, but I can never tell exactly what color the solution is and I get confused. I like a digital readout. The coco expanded, rinsed and buffered way easier than some cheap stuff I had originally bought. As far as an actual system, I'm a diy kinda guy. I ran blumats for a couple runs and am getting ready to setup a drip system for the next run. I am still piecing that together, but should be fairly inexpensive to finish up.
HM Digital COM-80 Electrical Conductivity (EC) and Total Dissolved Solids Hydro Tester, 0-5000 ppm TDS Range, 1 ppm Resolution, 2% Readout Accuracy https://a.co/d/7heckyj
Apera Instruments AI311 Premium Series PH60 Waterproof pH Pocket Tester Kit, Replaceable Probe, ±0.01 pH Accuracy https://a.co/d/a7Hc4Tx
These 3 are what I would recommend for starting out. Along with the proper storage and calibration fluids for the meters. Of course, you can use the drops and strips for ph testing, but I can never tell exactly what color the solution is and I get confused. I like a digital readout. The coco expanded, rinsed and buffered way easier than some cheap stuff I had originally bought. As far as an actual system, I'm a diy kinda guy. I ran blumats for a couple runs and am getting ready to setup a drip system for the next run. I am still piecing that together, but should be fairly inexpensive to finish up.
MickFoster
Well-Known Member
I use Canna Coco.
GH pH drops........no meter.
I have never owned a ppm meter.
GH pH drops........no meter.
I have never owned a ppm meter.
DrDukePHD
Well-Known Member
Really? So how do you know exactly how much nutrients etc to add? Also what size pot do you grow in.
coreywebster
Well-Known Member
Fangthane
Well-Known Member
I just bought this last week. It was about the lowest priced bag of that size I could find on Amazon. Some brands were up around $50.
My local grow stores have all stopped carrying the Canna Coco I loved. So I've been buying and using this:
www.botanicare.com
It's about 1/2 the price of what I was paying for Canna and works fine.
ReadyGro™ Aeration
Readygro Aeration is a blend of our premium Cocogro coir and perlite at an approximate 55% / 45% ratio plus natural and organic-based ingredients. The Aeration blend is light and porous with a higher…
www.botanicare.com
It's about 1/2 the price of what I was paying for Canna and works fine.
FirstCavApache64
Well-Known Member
@Doug Dawson grows incredible plants with coco and salt nutes. I think he used the GH trio as well until this run where he's trying Jack's. I'd hit him up for his recipe for both brands as a great starting point.
coreywebster
Well-Known Member
Wow.
So somethings definitely seem more expensive your side of the pond.
Mind you I think my electricity is about equal to 35cent per kwh, which last I looked is expensive in comparison
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coreywebster
Well-Known Member
The best method for coco is drain to waste.
Building an automated set up is pretty cheap.
Personally I do Recirculating , but DTW is far more straight forward and recommended.
As for nutrients.. pick one that's cheap.
I own the fancy gadgets but you don't need more than a basic few dollar ph test kit. It will never lie to you.
Unless you need silent operation don't dabble with autopots.
PopAndSonGrows
Well-Known Member
The light
The majority of ANY money i spend, will be on lighting. I use cheap pots, cheap coco, cheap tents, hell even cheap fans and cheap nutrients (General Hydroponics FloraNova). I'll even grow cheap genetics, lol.
Lighting is PARAMOUNT. You can get an "affordable" light, but don't cheap-out on that
The majority of ANY money i spend, will be on lighting. I use cheap pots, cheap coco, cheap tents, hell even cheap fans and cheap nutrients (General Hydroponics FloraNova). I'll even grow cheap genetics, lol.
Lighting is PARAMOUNT. You can get an "affordable" light, but don't cheap-out on that
Arguably the best way to grow in coco is to use a drain to waste setup.
As for coco, you can use cheap brick shit that's loaded to the gills with salt and coco peat (coco dust and coffee grounds sized coco). It just means you'll need to rinse out the salt (doesn't take long) with a garden hose and sift out all the peat and impurities. After you do that, you'll want to do one or two 12-hour soaks in a strong solution of calmag (like 7ml per gallon of water) to buffer it. After that, you'll be left with high quality coco.
The Canna coco bricks he suggest are rinsed and buffered before being compressed into bricks.
Whether you hand water or auto water, you'll want to start out by watering at least once a day. As you get into flower, you'll want to water at least twice a day. This is just the minimal optimal way to grow in coco.
One could use a 5gal pot and water every few days to a week, but that is not taking advantage of the opportunities coco provides and you should just use Pro-Mix or some other peat-based medium if you can't be bothered with feeding frequently.
Pot size does make a difference. Tall and narrow is better than wide and short. The smaller the pot, the more often you'll need to water because it will become rootbound sooner. I use 1g pots.
MickFoster
Well-Known Member
I've been doing it so long that I don't need to measure the EC. I use MaxiBloom.........usually 1/2 tsp. per gallon of tap water.
I use 2.4 gallon air pots.
Although I've never personally used it yet, they sell cheap bricks for reptiles at PetSmart. I just checked - it's a 3-brick pack for $8. The same package sold on Amazon is $30. Makes over 20L.
Flash63
Well-Known Member
Here in Canada it’s $23.00 for a 40ltr compressed brick, including delivery,i love canna products.
crimsonecho
Well-Known Member
probably totally unhelpful to the op but i use coco as a base in my organic mixes and have been using plagron bricks and i got nothing to complain about. so if it somehow makes it easier to stay in budget you can dyor on plagron bricks. again tho not using salts.
secretmicrogrow420
Well-Known Member
i have been reading all the comments and yours is the one i agree with the most!
after growing with my brother for years and doing a couple grows by myself i have realized that lighting is the most important thing also your genetics dictate the smell of your weed so if you have genetics that have crappy terpene profiles your gonna hate life at harvest.
and
i use nutrifield coco i get it in bricks cheap on amazon and i have had great results! i don't use the coco with perlite just the coco in bricks. i hear that if you add perlite into the coco you can feed more frequently but im scared of changing anything because what im doing is currently working!
here is a picture of my plant that i grew with nutrifield coco im pretty proud of how healthy she is <3 ;3
DrDukePHD
Well-Known Member
Yea I've got a couple Mars Hydro FC-4800's & all the stuff for growing in soil. This Coco/Salts is just new to me.
Kola_Kreator
Well-Known Member
The most important part of a coco dtw set up is the auto watering system. You can try and hand water but the results won't even be close to what can be achieved with auto watering. Coco should be watered to run off anywhere from 3 to 12 times a day, everyday, if you want kick ass plants.
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TCH
Well-Known Member
I dont know. I just found the first link with the type I use.