HoBrah808
Well-Known Member
Aloha GTH! Looks like you are well on your way, but I thought I would throw some of my recent coco experiences your way.Water:
Nutrients:
- I PH to 6.5 for soil and 5.8-6.2 for coco. I’m new to Coco, but am having better results at 6.2 than the recommended 5.8.
PPM:
- I’ve recently gotten my hands on the GH Flora series, I’ve heard nothing but great things and can’t wait to experiment.
Watering Frequency:
- For Coco, I’m learning as I go. I tried the recommended 0ppm for first two weeks, but had to feed after the plant showed obvious deficiencies. I tried 250ppm and it did nothing, I upped to 550ppm and it fixed it. Coco is not soil folks. Next time I’m preloading it with 500ppm base veg nutes. I find that the coco wants to maintain a consistent environment, and it eats the nutes as they come, so gotta keep feedin the same thing to assure what is eaten is resupplied at the correct ratios. They go pale quick.
Runoff:
- Coco: was having some trouble, better now, but still cautious. I started the waterings just like soil. Now I’m up to every day. Accidentally over saturated her, the coco doesn’t dry too quick, need her a little bigger. Trying different things, right now doing light waterings every day, then every 2-4 days i water until runoff to rebalance nutes, kinda like a rez change in hydro. I want to water to runoff every time, but I don’t have big enough roots, seems like it’s the best way to maintain consistent root environment.
- Coco: it ran at like 180 PPM, crazy. I add nutes, PH goes up, and runoff PPM goes down. I was kinda skeptical of runoff readings until this. Every time i water until runoff i know i’m effectively performing the equivalent of a res change, i may not know exactly what ratios the plant eats at, but i know there is consistency in what is available for the plant’s roots, and I know I’m responsible for all the nutes, so no chance of the plant eating through something it really likes and running out.
I use GH Flora series with Rapid Start, Floralicious Plus and Cal Mg. My house has an RO system, so got to add the Cal Mg! My pH is in the 5.5-5.8 range in veg and 6.0-6.3 in bloom. Definitely feed these gals right away. Your tap may have enough calcium in it already, but be on the lookout magnesium deficiencies as you progress.
Feeding the plants daily and keeping the coco moist at all times is no problem. The coco holds the moisture while the perlite provides aeration at the same time. Perfect combo! If you water by hand, stir up the nutrient water a bit to get some oxygen bubbles in there. Your plants will thank you!
Oh boy, the old pH/ppm in the runoff! This was the most confusing thing about coco. My readings were all whacked out, figured I was killing my plants for sure. Then I read on one of these threads that runoff readings weren't that important, which made me relax and just read the plant, instead of the calculator. Been great ever since.
Anyway, I don't want to come off as a know-it-all, but I definitely experienced a learning curve (going from soil to coco) and figured I would pass some info along. Hope it helps.
Pomaika'i!