Buffering of coco coir

[Bc032]

Hello all,

 

I have recently prepared my coco for pots and instantly wished I had bought pre pepared coco coir. The hydrating process, rinsing and buffering and mixing with perlite took me hours of labour intensive work and it did make a rather large mess!

 

I didn’t have time or space to leave the media to soak in a cal mag buffer solution for 8hrs per pot, I soaked it for probably half an hour per pot, constantly agitating. 
 

will this be enough  and am I going to be ok. I have a sinking feeling in the back of my mind telling me I’m doomed.

 

after much deliberation I decided to place my seedlings straight into their final pots (30l fabric pots) in a 70/30 mix of coco and perlite. 
 

Things are looking good so far and no sign of any calcium or magnesium deficiencies yet.

 

it has been around 4 days and have been watered twice daily with ph 6.0 water at 21degrees c, with only cal mag, a wetting agent and some roots exelurator.

 

growing under a Mars hydro tsw2000 light.

 

it is my very first attempt so any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

seedlings only have 1 pair of single point leaves and are around 3 inches tall. (About 11 days old)

 

 

[BushDoctoR]

Fir what it's worth I did a few large grows some 15 odd years ago with coco bricks (may have been bio nova iirc) and we simply soaked the blocks in pHed water  until they swelled and had no major issues that I can remember.

 

You'll hopefully be fine mate, but I'd defo recommend getting pre-treated bagged  stuff next time.

[sweettooth]

buffering??? am I missing something? I buy canna coco, use it pure and don't pre soak or anything else. I always give it a light push down and I do pre soak my root riot cubes in a light root stim solution but no more than that. I always use cal mag at 5ml per litre as well as my base A&B and root stim. should I be doing something else? I keep it simples and never had issues and always great results. ive had mates in the past that seem to try and do all sorts with their stuff and I think why. plus theirs always looked like a dogs just pissed on it LOL.

[McHazy]

Cheap ass coco bricks here soaked in plain tap water till they expand an break down is about it only issue i have is the cold at the moment

[sweettooth]

ah...... a quick Google and.....

 

CANNA Coco Professional Plus is a pure, organic product with a homogeneous structure and has had a full buffering, eliminating the side effects of growing on coir, as coir could consume some of the nutrients.

 

I'm ok then plus I've learnt something I never knew

[sweettooth]

Just now, McHazy said:

Cheap ass coco bricks here soaked in plain tap water till they expand an break down is about it only issue i have is the cold at the moment

its fffffffreezing..... heaters set to max 

[McHazy]

@sweettooth Gas central heating wi the leccy blanket helping

Root temps is my issue more than air temps

 

[sweettooth]

what i am interested on is re using coco...... do you have to remove the old roots or just break it all up. I use fresh new coco every grow and go through bags of the stuff.

Edited December 6, 2020 by sweettooth
roots

[sweettooth]

@McHazy ill have to test mine, I always assume as the temp recorded on the thermometer on the floor is 23, that my roots will be warm enough

[McHazy]

Riddle the roots out then flush the coco through wi water usually does fine just make sure ye remember to flush it  

I have a couple o diaries where ye can see the results o forgetting

 

[McHazy]

1 minute ago, sweettooth said:

@McHazy ill have to test mine, I always assume as the temp recorded on the thermometer on the floor is 23, that my roots will be warm enough

I have had so many issues wi cold ower the years that the signs are easy to spot now

 

E2A always seems to be a surge in the "whats wrong wi my plants" threads at this time o year

Edited December 6, 2020 by McHazy

[sweettooth]

2 minutes ago, McHazy said:

I have had so many issues wi cold ower the years that the signs are easy to spot now

 

E2A always seems to be a surge in the "whats wrong wi my plants" threads at this time o year

I had a slight issue the other day as recorded in my first diary but have taken actions and they've lost the purpley stem colour and look decent again. yeah... sick plants is always mainly down to cold 

[McHazy]

1 minute ago, sweettooth said:

 sick plants is always mainly down to cold 

At this time o the year it can be an issue aye  less so in the summer

[Bc032]

42 minutes ago, sweettooth said:

buffering??? am I missing something? I buy canna coco, use it pure and don't pre soak or anything else. I always give it a light push down and I do pre soak my root riot cubes in a light root stim solution but no more than that. I always use cal mag at 5ml per litre as well as my base A&B and root stim. should I be doing something else? I keep it simples and never had issues and always great results. ive had mates in the past that seem to try and do all sorts with their stuff and I think why. plus theirs always looked like a dogs just pissed on it LOL.

https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/how-to-prepare-and-buffer-coco-coir/

 

here’s one of many links explaining how to buffer and why dude, think next time I’ll just go for pre mixed pre buffered stuff and about £15 /50L. I use cal mag at 1ml per litre as per bottle (shogun) and so far everything seems fine plants are only around 12 days old but looking healthy and growing fast. No signs of deficiencies or any problems as of yet. But as mentioned it’s my first attempt. Keeping a detailed diary will hopefully help me in the future 

[Bc032]

17 minutes ago, McHazy said:

At this time o the year it can be an issue aye  less so in the summer

I run a Waterbutt with aquarium heater in there and a cooking thermometer constantly checking temp it’s set at 22deg and reads 23 so think that will help with temp consistency. Also use a thermostat controlled electric heater set at 28deg outside tent and this keeps my grow tent temp at around 25deg. Humidifier in there set at 60rh and fans to keep everything circulating. So far so good.