I've always grown in coco, for no reason other than when I first started out as an over excited amateur, my local grow shop had nothing but coco available that day. I never did much research and so learnt little and thought of it as any other growing medium.

I have always had extemely slow growth through vegging, until I received two cuttings last week that had just rooted into plain soil.

These cuttings are growing fantastic next to the Himalaya Gold in coco.
I even potted up the Him. Gold thinking the slow growth was due to root bound, but after seeing only one new set of leaves the roots are already shooting straight out the bottom of the new pot.

Now I read more about coco, people do seem to praise the good it does for their plants, but I guess I'm doing something drastically wrong and considering swapping over.

What are the key differences when it comes to vegging between coco and soil?
I've been using Hesi Coco feeds since growing in coco.

I'm starting to regret not researching this coco business 3 years ago!

Any help/tips/advice regarding these two is greatly appreciated.

I'm posting this from my phone so fuck knows how it's going to look, or even if it's in the right place.

To be honest, I've always found that plants grow faster in coco than in compost.
There could be a whole host of reasons why you have found different.

Is coco mainly used or intended for use in hydroponic gardens?

I'm going with the old plant pots and hand feeding job here.

thats fine mate , how often you watering in the coco

Whenever it appears dry enough to need it, maybe every few days.

Although I did just read you can't over water coco. Is that right?

Hi collie,

Coco is an inert media.....so you have to consider it as a hydroponic method. You need to pay close attention to the pH and the EC of the feed.

Over the years I've found that coco works best when kept constantly wet - I water every day.
It is very hard to overwater on coco........I've even left them stood in 2-3 inches of run-off when needs must.

ATB

ETA - drippers work very well with coco

Ah right ok, and so effectively coco is totally bare when new, leaving it up to us to ensure all levels are set right?

The himalaya I have is sat in a 4 inch pot right now, would ut be detrimental to the plant to transfer in to soil when I next pot up?

stick with coco , will give better yeilds . id try it one more time

taking care with ec and ph , watering everyday

ive always found it to be much faster than compost

To be totally honest I've not been near a litmus test or played with pH since high school, which is probably why I'm having these troubles.

Could the root bound problem be down to too little watering?

And does soil require less maintenance regarding ph & ec?

Well i'm no expert but, little watering would force the roots to grow faster searching for water, and yes, compost needs no PH altering or ec meters, much simpler and much easier, as far as labor is concerned. I grow in compost and i love the fact that i got to water them every 5 days

im growing hand fed in coco. and i'm feeding every 3 days or so (when the top 2 inches are dry)
what EC and PH were you putting in jiffa when feeding every day ? were you flushing regularly or not at all?

I used Co-co with pealight found it to very forgiving when I was called away for a few days
found air stone under the pot and ph level 5.8 to 6.2 gave me the best crop I ever had
before the police stoped me.
ALso found watering from the top gave a clump of roots at the top of the pot and a few long trails
however when watering from the bottem i found the root more evenly spread thrugh the whole pot
Hope this help
you should only ever need PH down even rain water is to high in PH.

doing my first ever coc grow and so far i cannot fault it

my white russians are growing great watering when the pots are light with ionics coco feed

peppi