Going to Give Coco Method a Try

[OlderStoner]

Yesterday, I purchased a 13.2 gallon bag of Coco Plus. I'm wanting to try something other than soil, although I have to say that Fox Farm Ocean Forest is doing fine with my clones. I do not plan on buying any expensive drip equipment for the moment, but that may come later. And from what I read so far I will need to take on a different mindset for working in coco.

1. Different postings suggest perlite, some 25%, some 50% and some say don't use it at all.

2. I understand that coco has no nutrient value like soil or potting soil mixes so now it becomes completely dependent on me to provide the right mix of nutes from start to finish. I have the following nutes in my grow room:

Fox Farm Grow Big
Fox Farm Big Bloom
Fox Farm Tiger Bloom
Fox Farm Open Sesame
Fox Farm Cha Ching
Generic Epsom Salts
concentrated ph Down...the tap water here comes out of the faucet anywhere from 8.0 to +9

So what else would one need to get started with coco? I read that CalMag is the best way to start out. I'm worried that I don't really have the correct nutes to grow with coco using the above Fox Farm regime.

3. I flushing once a week really necessary with coco?

4. Is RO water really the only way to go with coco? If it is I think I now understand more why I see certain people filling 5 gallon jugs at the local grocery stores.... The most time consuming part of my weekly maintenance with these plants is preparing 10 gallons of properly ph'ed water. And using the concentrated ph down I found only a few drops can take a big bucket of water down in a big way very quickly.

 

[OlderStoner]

Okay, so today I took the plunge. I took a 1-1/2 gallon pot and mixed 50/50 Coco Plus and Perlite. Then I mixed one gallon of tap water which has been sitting for more than 7 days in an open container and brought it to 5.7 ph. I then mixed in 1/8 tsp of Super Thrive and 1/2 tsp of Cal-Mag. This is 1/2 the recommended strength. I soaked the Coco soil until I saw run off. The run off measured 5.8 ph and had 650 ppm. I then placed a 3" Grodan grow block which contained a White Widow X clone of a clone into the pot. The plant is moved into the veg area where it will get 24/7 fluoro lighting for the first week or two. I will then move it to the 18/6 veg area.

Now, I know this will need food soon. So based on having the Fox Farm regime listed above, what can anyone recommend on what I should do to start properly feeding the clone?

BTW...this coco product was sold as "clean". It did not need a flush as some other product lines recommend. It's very nice looking medium and if it gives me the chance to control things better than soil, this could be a nice amendment to my grow operations.

 

[Perfect Sun LED]

I love calmag plus for my coco. Keep temps good, and use 100-200ppm of calmag every other watering, and you will do well with no magnesium issues (purple stems)

I also like to use Drip Clean every watering. Be sure to not use more than the recommended dose. You use very, very little of this stuff. For 4 gallons of water, only 1.6mL.

 

[OlderStoner]

LEDRF, thanks. I was wondering though what you do to feed the plants? Surely you can't just rely on CalMag+.

 

[BudBGrowin]

Hello OlderStoner, did you ever get your coco plants going good? I see your first post is a little over a month old. I am running coco right now in a hand water hempy bucket with about 25% perlite and my plants are doing great right now. I use coco specific nutrients at every watering and I just make sure that when I do water I get enough runoff and they are doing way better than any soil plants I have had. I will be glad to give you more info on my regiment if you are still interested.

 

[OlderStoner]

Thanks. I'd like to hear about those coco specific nutrients. The two plants I have in coco are stunted right now because I've not been able to attend to them like they need. I'm finishing up the main grow in soil and just haven't had the time to mess with the coco pots like they need. Shame on me, I know. I will get back to tending to these this week.

 

[BudBGrowin]

I am using H&G coco nutrients at similar levels to the feed chart maybe slightly under the normal feeding rate. If you send me a PM I can give more info but I don't want to look like I am promoting a brand or anything and I cant send PM's since I rarely post. I always have nutrients mixed in with my water for my coco plants. I also always check my runoff ppm to make sure everything is fine and there is no build up occurring and my plants have never been happier. I have been hand watering every 2 or 3 days. I have read lots about watering every day in coco because its much harder to get root rot but I actually did get some signs of over watering while the plants were younger. My preferred strategy is to water every 2 days unless it still seems real heavy then I will hold off for the third day. I could see the need to give water every day if your plants are huge and your containers are small. Im not sure how often you are watering your coco plants. I have not done an actual "flush" for my coco plants so far other than what they get for runoff at about 20%. I did not use RO water for the first 6 weeks of veg and I had no problems although my city's water is quite good. I did have a MG deficiency at the start but you could use the Epsom salts to solve that if it ever showed up for you (I use MagiCal). My ppm and ph testers help so much when dealing with coco.

 

[fresh88]

my first grow was with coco and let me tell you, it was kind of a pain lol. but it was my first go at growing so it was all new to me. running soil now tho. GL