Afternoon folks, I don't have a 'dog-in-the-fight' about in depth knowledge with coco coir, so may I just give a quick snapshot of what I've learned reading the entire topic? Still not sure about how to apply the products to bring down my ph readings from coir from Shrilanka. My ph meter is pegged to max, my ec reading in a slush in my garden room sink is 2350 ec, actually caused me to jerk back in disbelief. Not quite to panic point yet, the girls that I've put in previous bags are surviving, just not thriving. They 'look' good, I just prefer the 'gorilla' look, more aggressive :O) I water/feed when bag tells me by it's weight. Maybe every third day, so if I'm reading right, the consensus is to soak in ph bal water, plant, and correct the ph and ec issues with the water used to feed/water? Hmm so maybe I dodged the 'bullet' by transferring the way I do. The coco is about the open res on grate, I flood the bag...I'm cheap, I use Fred Meyers shopping bags by EarthWise and they coast $.89 <eg>...'till there is saturation to the top, lower my new girl into the watered coir, remove the water hose and the clone, due to quick drainage, is almost vacuumed into it's new medium :O) Pls let me know if I way too far afield here, but this ph thing has got me spooked. Virt
I'm sorry organic gifts, but this is just a load of shit. You're putting stuff forward as fact which is anything but. You ran 100 gallons of water through pots because the coco was at 6.3ph?? That is just a stupid waste of time. There's no truth to the notion that you need to be near dead on 5.8 for your plants to get the best start. I fluctuate between 5.5 and 6.3 and you can check my results in my beginners guide thread. I'd be surprised if you can make weed grow much quicker than that. Coco is a simple medium to work with, and stuff like this just needlessly complicates it, and with no benefit.
My last post is a bit harsh I know. But this post above highlights why a lot of coco users get frustrated with the misinformation bandied about. Listen, to any new grower, be very careful not to make jumps ahead of yourself. I've got to say this; I'd be very surprised if the issues people are encountering are genuinely to do with ph and sediment barriers. Generally people look at all number of things which are almost always two steps ahead of where they should be focusing. It's like walking with your eyes focused on the distant horizon, and falling straight into a hole. We're lucky. Coco is a commercial medium now, years ago that wasn't the case and maybe the quality wasn't always there. But it's different now and articles like these are just scaremongering. There's no need to get a bag of coco and not know what's inside it. There are so many reputable brands out there that you can just buy a bag of the stuff and be near enough guaranteed every time to get good results. And if you've got hard or soft water? There's a nute for that too. If people are having problems, it's likely to be something much more basic, and nothing to do with sediment barriers, ph, cation exchange... Obviously there are exceptions, but believe me, they make up a tiny percentage. It's very highly likely you are not one of those. Before you try adjusting cation balances etc etc.... get the most basic plant feed dialed in, and make sure it's the right one for your water supply. As with any problem, you've got to minimise the variables, and in today's market of a thousand different bottles of magic, that almost always starts with the nutes. A simple 4-3-4 (or thereabouts) bottle of starter feed is the only thing most growers will ever need to make sure their plant gets off to a healthy start in life. Get a good brand of coco, get a good bottle of starter/baby feed, know whether your water supply is soft or hard, and keep it simple. After that just stick your plant in a pot and water it. What you put in should be based on the plant, not what comes out the bottom of its pot. It's a totally arse backwards approach to growing. Learn to read the plants, not the run off.
In coco, I don't bother reading the runoff myself..It's what goes in that matters to me and my girls.. And yeah, like most girls, they'll scream at you when something ain't right... m2cents..
Nice! Thank you Watcher, creepy part to me is that I'd already begun to adopt your premise on growing just from what I was seeing my girls were telling me. The F'n love coco! The root development in the clones alone is stunningly beautiful. I'll have to send along a pic soon. Now I have noticed that in coco coir I make the feed 5.0-6.0, lower than what I'd used in perlite mixtures**gods I love no perlite in any room of my grow!!! sry personal quirk about that white crunch stuff, hate it** I did add a BluLab truncheon and I can now use the run off (drain to waste here) to make all my house plants loverly! Orchids luv da stuff :O) I am rethinking my water method now, I keep seeing 'feed' every 2 days. Not sure if it is that I am cheap, I am, I want the best medicine I can grow though. I've never 'fed' that often, not sure I need to either. I do give cal/mag'd ph bal water in between 'feedings'. Ha, here I am, looking at more tweeking of my method but that is the GanjaFarmers life huh! Virt out
Coco is flexible. you can treat it like hydro or soil. it's probably the best thing about it; its biggest selling point. You can follow a wet/dry cycle and just water when it's needed, or you can auto water it, or hand water daily. It's up to you. Personally I just water them when they need doing. No need to let your water stand overnight either, that's another myth. Chlorine is actually a micro nutrient.
lol darn and I sooo luv sticking my full face in the deep sink full of water, some myths are harder to give up :O) Chlorine as a nutrient, now there is hours of research for me. Appreciate the forum and the thread, good knowledge around har! Virt out
It's just one of many little tiny things the plant eats up. No need to supplement, no need to take it away. Best research you can do is hands on and it's nothing to do with nutes. Training is where it's at. That's something you can plough hours into and actually make a difference. Scrogs, canopies, verticals... it's a beautiful thing.
Watcher, the videos I've watched about that seem really complex. One fellow had created an amazing U shape, in about-to-be-harvested bloom and he was still forming it! Bit more involved than where I'm at, right now anyway. On training though, something that I've been working with is giving some really interesting results to the ones that I have tagged. I first F.I.M them, then 2-3 nodes later, top them. Three times, lovely full full plants so far, oh and I start about 3 wks in for a 6-8 wk veg. :O) I was wondering others opinions about FIMing. Virt out
It's as complex or simple as you want it to be. I'd always advise people to leave all the nutrient science and keep the feeds simple, and develop your hands on skills. Fimming? it's ok. Sometimes a bit hit and miss. For that reason I prefer just straight topping. Whatever works for you though, but developing your plants and forming them is going to always add more to your garden than almost anything you can do nute wise. Keep that bit simple, and concentrate on the training. That's proper gardening
I think that is main reason I use H&G Simplicity in action Leaves me with time to experiment with new soil/soilless types. H&G made both of my grow rooms a place to really enjoy and smoke my azzzz off in Virt out
wow i missed a little bit here...damn you didnt need to be so harsh on organic gifts...he was partially correct that sri lanka coco you got there could have been like one package i picked up....i dont think their rinsing and cleaning of the coco was very good, and since it sits in piles on sand next to salt water, and often rinsed in salt water to clean major dirt off of it...the coco that comes from there and places like that has the chance to be loaded with sediments and salts. that would cause that ph and ec spike...but you would notice that the moment you took the coco out of the package...and yes running 100's of gallons of clean water through it is the only way to utilize that coco. it should have been done wherever they packed it, but since they didnt, i did...and maybe you need to as well. as far as the rest of the stuff...listen to watcher, he is spot on. coco really is the best, i now use it in a variety of applications in various percentages. best soil amendment you can think of (besides worms of course)... simple thing i like to do (probably overkill though) when my coco starts going up in ph....which happens every other month or so if the plant isnt in heavy growth mode...correct me if im wrong watcher, but i believe that this is happening from unused ferts that have dried out and mineralized in the medium, sometimes even seeing tiny crystals if you look close enough. to fix it, i would take these bottles i have saved just for this...a bunch of 2 liter milk bottles...fill it with lukewarm water and put a few drops to a capful of hydrogen peroxide (h2o2) in each. in those same bottles i would also put a few drops of superthrive as well...anytime i add water via a bottle, i always use the superthrive...i would then flush with the bottles then fresh water straight from a hose running just enough to keep soaking the coco and not enough to run over the sides...after many gallons ran through, i would prepare another bottle or 2 of nute solution along with a couple extra drops of superthrive and flush with those (my solution was always 6.0) this would bring me back to normal until the next time it was needed...i dont have these issues anymore as i utilize numerous methods that help keep everything in balance so there is next to nothing for ongoing maintenance good luck with your grow!
Vitalink coco coir hard water.....worked wondefully...stopped using ph testers entirely with that in that grow