I couldn't find a lot on this forum about coco growing and the basic rules but i found some else were and thought i would share: 1. No matter what brand of coco you get I would flush it out as much as humanly possible with HOT water. Hot water will dissolve the sea salts that has built up in the coco and it will leach out of the bottom of whatever container you decide to do the "flushing" in.This decreases your chances of a too saline medium. 2. Coco is best mixed with either hydroton or perlite at a rate of perlite/hydroton to coco of no greater than 50/50. 70/30 or 60/40 coco to perlite/hydroton is the most commonly used method. 3. You MUST buy yourself some epsom salts or a Calcium/ Magnesium supplement! This is IMPORTANT because the coco witholds Ca/Mg and releases (K). 4.Any good fertilizer line will work with coco.(Botanicare, Metanaturals, Fox Farms..ect.) There really isn't a need for coco specific nutrients. 5. Before planting small seedlings or anything into the coco it is suggested that you pre-fertilize with 1/4 strength nutrient solution with some epsom salts/CalMag mixed in as the COCO is barren of all nutrients. 6. Try not to let your COCO completely dry out between waterings. 7. It can be treated like either soil or hydro and has the benefits of both as you can water as much as once to twice a day(treating it like hydro) you can get tremendous growth as the coco ( if mixed with perlite/ hydroton) pretty much can never be overwatered...ever. 8. Or you can treat it like soil and water it every 2-3 days. 9. When mixed with perlite/ hydroton the mix has an almost perfect air/water retention ratio of 50/50. 10. Keep your ph between 5.5 and 6.0 to avoid too many problems if you are using the coco as hydro. 6.5-6.7 if you plan on treating it more like a soil.(i.e. adding amendments and watering on 2-3 day
There's a coco forum under the hydroponics forum. Lots of good info there. I'm on my first grow and just switched during flowering. I'm glad I did and see how awesome coco is. Really, as long as you have a nutrient/fertilizer plan coco is easier than soil IMHO.
either here or in the Coco forms I suggest this get stickied.... the Ten Commandments of Coco ...............
So with coco i can water every day i have been watering every 2/3 but still had ph at 5.8 so really i should water more often
I thought if i waterd every day they would be over waterd i have been watering every 2 to 3 with a ph of 5.8 And what sighns of mag defi is there
Benefit of coco is you really can't over water. Most people see the best growth with 2 waterings per day. Coco is pretty porous so water doesn't "sit" like it does in soil.
Ok thanks but what sighns of mag defi as i think i better get some epson salt what is the doseage in ml of water
If you go to the Sick Plant forum, there's a thread called Plant Abuse chart. In it there's three links to compressive photos and descriptions. HTH Also you have to be carefull with cal/mag since you can overdo it. I've settled on watering with cal/mag 1x/week. Also not needed as much if your using tap water versus RO. Some people use tap water in order to avoid cal/mag issues. I think Mr Ed is one of them.