Coco Questions

[arcane]

Switching from NFT to 'cause as I've dcided NFT is just a pain in the backside to maintain. Having never used pots, does this sound right?

Root riots > 1ltr pot > 6ltr pot > ?

Cheers!

Edited September 26, 2009 by arcane

[Guest peace&quiet]

Sounds good enough to me mate..go for it mate.

Check out my first attempt in coco

p&q

[GreenNinja]

Yup... I don't do hydro because it is a pain in the arse...you'll love coco.

I go from the little 3" pots > 1 ltr > 3.6 ltr > 6.5ltr (sometimes 11l depending) but generally smaller is fine for coco....I get wicked yields off of the 3.6ltr pots for any strain handwatering daily/every other day. I'm just growing some in 11l at the moment to see if my yields go up signficantly, but I expect they won't get close to anywhere near double.

Also, you don't need root riots. Root riots are good but plain coco in a 3" cup works as well, if not better. Root riots useful for higher density in a small propagator but if you've got the room, or don't need to do loads, 3" cups of coco are great.

GN

[arcane]

Check out my first attempt in coco

Already did, lookin' good.

Yup... I don't do hydro because it is a pain in the arse...you'll love coco.

I go from the little 3" pots > 1 ltr > 3.6 ltr > 6.5ltr (sometimes 11l depending) but generally smaller is fine for coco....I get wicked yields off of the 3.6ltr pots for any strain handwatering daily/every other day. I'm just growing some in 11l at the moment to see if my yields go up signficantly, but I expect they won't get close to anywhere near double.

Also, you don't need root riots. Root riots are good but plain coco in a 3" cup works as well, if not better. Root riots useful for higher density in a small propagator but if you've got the room, or don't need to do loads, 3" cups of coco are great.

Ok, guess I'll just get baby 3" pots then as I seem to suffer from what I now know to be damping off with riots anyway.

Cheers!

I've got Ionic nutes (quite a lot from NFT) can I get away with using these with the coco, or do I have to have coco specific nutes?

Edited September 27, 2009 by arcane

[Guest peace&quiet]

Coco specific nutes

p&q

[Grimweeder]

ive been using coco for a couple years jus switched to organic but goin back to coco later for flowering.

i dont usually pot up i jus put straight into 11 litre pots an have no problems compared to smaller pots the yeilds of the 11l are far more than a 6.5 l id say i manage to get over double the yeild providing i give more veg time.

coco defo gives more solid nugs than organic an i even think the taste is better. the only let down is it can be a pain to manage nutes early on as the coco is not prefertlized so it can be tricky getting the levels right at first. but the overall results are far superior to organic or soil.

[GreenNinja]

Ok, guess I'll just get baby 3" pots then as I seem to suffer from what I now know to be damping off with riots anyway.

I've got Ionic nutes (quite a lot from NFT) can I get away with using these with the coco, or do I have to have coco specific nutes?

For rooting clones you can use a non-coco specific for the first few days whilst they root. My 'baby juice' mix is Formulex 5ml/l, Rhizotonic 4ml/l (or H&G RootXL 0.3ml/l) and one drop of superthrive. pH it down to 5.5 and then soak the coco with it, then put your clone in.

If you're still using root riots make sure you don't let excess spray/nutes sit in the bottom of your propagator, otherwise the root riots suck it up and get too wet/not enough air and then damping off can happen. Some people put a layer of perlite in the bottom of their props...helps protect from the heat (if heated) and damp.

Once your clones are rooted it's time to move to a coco-specific nute otherwise you WILL get definciencies - coco needs more magnesium I think, so coco nutes have more in it to cope. You can't go wrong with Canna Coco AB @ £12/litre, although I'm about to try out Bcuzz.

GN

[arcane]

For rooting clones you can use a non-coco specific for the first few days whilst they root. My 'baby juice' mix is Formulex 5ml/l, Rhizotonic 4ml/l (or H&G RootXL 0.3ml/l) and one drop of superthrive. pH it down to 5.5 and then soak the coco with it, then put your clone in.

Once your clones are rooted it's time to move to a coco-specific nute otherwise you WILL get definciencies - coco needs more magnesium I think, so coco nutes have more in it to cope. You can't go wrong with Canna Coco AB @ £12/litre, although I'm about to try out Bcuzz.

I found that pre-soaking rockwool cubes with a small amount of Ionic grow and Nitrozyme at 5ml/ltr worked well. Perhaps I'll try that with the coco to use what I have initially; might try some of that Root XL as well, looked like good shit from your comparisons.

Do you pre-soak the coco mix as with rockwool cubes when starting from seed or do you just water to runoff?

Thanks for everyone elses' input as well, much appreciated.

[GreenNinja]

Do you pre-soak the coco mix as with rockwool cubes when starting from seed or do you just water to runoff?

No need to soak the coco with the mix, just water to run off. The only reason to soak rockwool first is to sort the pH out, but with coco that's not a problem so it's just a case of getting the medium wet with your baby nute solution.

Enjoy

GN

[arcane]

Awesome. Cheers Fella!

[Foggy Notion]

If you live in scotland or any other soft water area you should try an find some soft water specific feed too. I still need to add extra calcium and mg.

The thing I like about the coco is the increase in smell. One strain that was very low odor in organic compost was a real stinker in coco. Be interesting to see how the coco yield compares to nft. Wouldn't be far off with drip feeding.

Edited September 27, 2009 by SuperSilverCheese

[arcane]

Unfortunately my water is very hard. Sometimes over 1.0 ec and a ph of more than 8 straight out the tap.

Stinky plants sounds good though.

[arcane]

Another one.

Can I pop a bean in to a 1ltr pot to start?

Ta!