Hey all, I've caught bits and pieces in regards to recycling coco, but wanted to get as much detail as possible on it. 1. When should you NOT recycle? (males, hermies, etc?) 2. I assume that in any event, you should always rinse the medium extremely well before re-use? 3. Would recycled coco require new amendments? (I assume yes) Thanks in advance!
As I understand recycling coco, you need to use an Enzyme to break down left over dead root mass. This will take 4 to 10 weeks. Then you need to rinse the coco extremely well. To the point of purity in the media. If it had been amended with nutrients then those amendments will need to be replaced. Amendments like perlite can be left in the coco and replaced as they break down and wash away as well. Coco peat can be reused a few times, but not infinitely. Eventually it will break down to a point where it becomes extremely spongy and clumpy, rather than airy. Coco coir can be reused dozens of times as it has stronger, longer fibers, but it too will eventually break down into a spongy mess of peat.
I recycle all of our coco. Only fresh goes in for the MJ girls but i use it elsewhere with extremely good results. I do not let it cook or anything, the root ball for me seems to come out pretty intact so not a whole lot of roots are in there for the next round. So immediate reuse is fine for me. I would not recycle the coco for MJ girls that had any kind of gnats, mites or later hermie/males. If you catch a male or hermie early though then I would not think it would be a problem at all. Outside in the garden though...I recycle it all or give away a lot to others. It depends on the coco on the amendments. Let's say that the plant had been in it for two weeks before it went to shit and had to be taken out...to me, that is new enough not to have to add much amendments back but I might add a bit for good measure. For older ones then of course you will have to redo the amendments. Even though we do not reuse for the MJ, there is no reason why you cannot. Ed just has a love for mites through the years and due to his luck with them we just tend to take an overly cautious approach to the garden (cleaning the pans, new coco, what is used outside is not used inside, change of clothes before going into the garden room, etc). We just run a pretty tight ship so we don't have to deal with those issues. Let me know if I can be of any help.
All excellent points MrsEd. In regards to the mites, I have a potential solution; what if I were to take all of my used coco, throw it 5 gallon buckets and flood it with water and seal. I would imagine that would suffocate anything inside the bucket if left sealed up for a couple days. Of course it would all go through a cleaning process after the soaking (I made a drain bucket lined with screen just for that purpose). The males/hermie thing concerns me though. I know for a fact I have a few male plants sitting in otherwise "good" coco. Not sure what I'll do with it at this point - I have a steady supply of excellent (20 PPM) water, I'd like to believe I could wash the hell out of it and make it good as new.