Few pointers

[Dogsdogsdogs]

I’m after some basic pointers to get me started with coco, never used before....done few soil grows.

 

Once seed sprouts do you put straight in coco ?

 

i was going to get canna a + b nutes and calmag do I need anything else? 

 

Any pointer will help.

Thanks

[InMyPocket]

You will only need calmag based on your water or if you use LED.

 

I soak the seed in water then straight into a small pot of damp coco. They are only ever in coco.

 

You will need to pH, as the coco won't buffer like soil does.  An E.C. meter for nute strength helps too but isn't essential

[Guest]

Using led doesn't mean you need calmag.  It's all down to your tap water.  If you're in a hard water area you most likely don't need it.  You can get a report from your waterboard online. Ideal ratio is 3:1.

If you get the right nutrients for your water you don't need to pH either, I don't. 

I'd say an ec meter is essential for your first couple of coco grows. 

I'd advise using ecothrive charge added to your coco, it has a little feed to help get you started.  Plain coco is inert so you feed from the get go.  With charge you can feed a little less. 

[Lemons&Diesel]

Yes, pop the seed straight into coco when it breaks its shell.

 

Canna Coco is designed to work with water with a base e.c of 0.4. If your water is below roughly 0.6 e.c, youll probably need the calmag, above that and you shouldnt need it. You really should buy an ec meter and a ph meter and keep them both under control. Coco is a lot less forgiving than soil imho, and changes happen much more quickly, so you want everything dialled in from the start for the best results.

 

I personally start at 0.2e.c tap water. I use 0.2ml/l calmag to bring me to 0.4e.c, and 1ml/l a&b to bring that up to 0.5. It stays at that for about a week then I start increasing e.c by 0.2-0.3 every week during veg, until I get to 2e.c, or the plants start to show signs of being overfed. I usually veg for 6 weeks, then in the first week of flower I drop the e.c back to 1.4 for 2 weeks, or until they start to ask for stronger feed. Then it goes back up by 0.2e.c every week until it hits 2. It sits here until I have 4 weeks left of flower when I then drop it by 0.5e.c a week until im at 0.5e.c, which I feed at for the last week or 10 days. I do have my tent dialled in perfectly, and have 1800w of led in there over a proper scrog, but this feeding regime has me averaging about 12 oz per plant of the most crystal covered shit ive ever seen in an 8x4 tent. 1 clone every 2 weeks keeps me and my brothers smoking all year round.

 

Best of luck.

Edited July 13, 2021 by Lemons&Diesel

[Dogsdogsdogs]

Brilliant, thank you for your detailed replies.

Ive just bought a blue lab ph meter as I had a couple of those yellow ones playing up. With regards to buying an ec meter what you using or would you recommend?

[SmokeTester]

4 minutes ago, Dogsdogsdogs said:

Brilliant, thank you for your detailed replies.

Ive just bought a blue lab ph meter as I had a couple of those yellow ones playing up. With regards to buying an ec meter what you using or would you recommend?

 

For EC, Blue lab or Hanna. Hanna are a bit cheaper and is my preference, they are smaller than the truncheon, which i like and show mS/cm to two decimal places. You wouldn't go wrong with either.

Edited July 13, 2021 by SmokeTester

[mysticriver]

On 13/07/2021 at 6:41 PM, fatboy77 said:

Ideal ratio is 3:1.

im currently trying to ascertain the contents of my tap water supply.

what does 3:1 ratio mean?

 

 

mysticriver 

[Guest]

Just now, mysticriver said:

 

what does 3:1 ratio mean?

3 parts calcium to 1 part magnesium. 

[Diddy]

 my tap water is about 10:1 ....pretty hard down here. You kind of notice that when you can't see through the water when poured into a clear glass, Actually puts you off drinking the stuff down here. It's got to the stage where I water from cheap bottled water for 2 weeks from seed until there is a bit of growth and they look hardy enough to stand the shit from our tap.

[badbillybob]

bluelab for the ec meter, its simple to read and reliable as a german car

[greengal]

Coco coir is almost completely inert but nutrients can build up in it, so it's usual to water/feed to the point where you get a good run off of 20% or so.

 

I grow in coco and water by hand. I use Hydrocrop powder nutes which I buy on ebay - Great value and excellent in my experience. They have a good feed chart on their website (I believe the 'normal' chart is intended for photoperiod plants and the 'light' for autoflowering). I think you could follow their chart without an EC meter but you should check pH.

 

It's best practice to check EC and pH of your feed run off, because it gives a better indication of what is going on in the pot, but I have not found this to be necessary. I have not had any problems with over or under feeding.

 

Many growers say you should buffer coco with calmag before use, but the stuff you find in hydro shops these days is pre-buffered by the producer. Again, I do not and I have not experienced any problems. Sal
 

[Newcouch]

Hi,

 

Thanks for thread, also on first coco grow. The whole expansion and dryness thing shocked me!!!

 

So i am worrying a little about calcium and magnesium, or maybe i am trying to put it to bed.

 

It seems that like in a lot of things we are overly influenced by the yanks. we shouldnt expect their situation to reflect ours.  It seems most of their water is soft. Much of ours, esp London, chalk and limestone is hard. They commonly need calmag - there are many places where we dont.

 

My local water analysis; (everyone uses different units which is always annoying)

 

Alkalinity as CaCO3: 232 mg/l
Carbonate as CO3: 139.2 mg/l

Calcium: ~98 mg/l
Magnesium: 2.8 mg/l
Sodium: 8.2 mg/l
Sulphate: 10.4 mg/l
Chloride: 21.6 mg/l

PH: 8.23

 

I find my tap water is TDS 260 (ec 0.4 /0.5 - a far from exact science), pH 8 which is probably about right. I use citric to ph 6, this drops tds to about 210, then i add nuets with trace elements to around 400ppm or maybe 0.8EC, feeding every water in coco coir and perlite. There is about 20% soil there to, which buffers the bugger up all the time, as does the water.

 

My water buffers up about 1/2 pH a day, so i make it one day, readjust the next and bang it in. I feed every two days, so i reckon i am slding between ph6 and ph7 - not much i can do about that, but seems reasonable. the alternative would be going pH 5 and it would still probably buffer to 7, so i am avoinding the swings.

 

so questions please;

1)  I guess i have enough calcium always.

2) the magnesium seems low nd the ratiio way of the 3:1 earlier. Is this a problem?

3) Am i right that the alkalinity of my water is constantly trying to buffer back to above 7? Is so, do i really have to try several days to get it stable, or it is ok as i am doing?

4) linked to q2 - Epsom salts = magnesium sulphate - is this the miracle stuff to restore a healthy amount of Mg and the correct ratio - in which case - how to dose it please?

 

Plants look totally happy, which should be enough, but you always worry about next time - when i am definietely not having any soil at all,, but will still have my danged hard water.

 

Cheers

 

Newc

[Guest]

@Oldbear nother water question for the guru, never had to do it so it's above my pay grade. 

[Oldbear]

1 hour ago, Newcouch said:

Calcium: ~98 mg/l
Magnesium: 2.8 mg/l

 

 

Hard or soft is one thing, the ratio required for good nutrient uptake is essential. The ideal range for calcium to magnesium is 2.5 : 1 to 3 : 1 

 

 

Your current ratio is 35 : 1 which needs correcting. 

 

A simple fix is Cana mono magnesium, 0.5 ml per litre of water and your golden. 

 

Good luck mate and cheers for the heads up @fatboy77

[Newcouch]

Cheers Oldbear and fatbooy for passing it on.

 

Those ratios do look mental- is that normal? I am on chalk.

 

Trouble with Canna mono mag is that is have a 25kg bag of epsom salts sitting in the shed!! Do oyu possibly have the numbers for epsom salts pls?

 

All the best

 

Newcouch