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- #41
4Dutchess
Well-Known Member
Im not sure what CoCo is yet but guessing its a fancy dirt? Ive seen bags of CoCo at the grow shop. Can you reuse it? Is it like dirt? Why is it popular?
Im not sure what CoCo is yet but guessing its a fancy dirt? Ive seen bags of CoCo at the grow shop. Can you reuse it? Is it like dirt? Why is it popular?
It is coconut fiber - a byproduct of processing them. It is a soilless medium used more like pure peat or rockwool than "dirt".
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- #43
4Dutchess
Well-Known Member
What are its benefits? Reuse it?
Dunno. I'm not a fan. The one benefit I know of is, it is sustainable.
Any soilless medium can be reused unless/until the structure breaks down.
Coco has terrible CEC, varies quite a bit in texture and purity. From what I understand, it can alter the PH of your nute's if not washed correctly. But again, I don't use it.
415friendly
Well-Known Member
I decided to grow in Coco (Coco Coir) because I'm a horrible gardener who can't keep houseplants alive and was afraid of soil. I decided to grow in Coco for a number of reasons:
1. It is an inert medium so the only nutrients it gets are what you give it.
2. I heard that it was basically hydroponics in a solid media, so thought it might be a good way to learn how to do hydro that was not too far removed from regular soil media. I actually grew in an ebb/flow to automate my watering, but will be doing a drip feeding drain to waste for my next grow.
3. I heard that it is not possible to overwater coco and discovered that this was basically true.
4. Since it's not soil, and it is without a lot of organics, I was under the understanding that pests would not be a concern. I found out you can still have problems with mold/root rot (especially if you overwater), but still shouldn't have as much problem with fungus gnats or pests that reproduce in soil.
5. It is supposed to be reusable, but prepping it for your next grow (removing all of the previous roots and washing out all of the salts from the previous grow) seems like it would take a lot of work. I might reuse it in the future, but I had some minor problems with my last grow that I wanted to distance myself from. I still got a decent yield that was nice and potent, though, so I really believe that I was successful because of good genetics from the strain I grew and because coco is a very forgiving grow medium.
1. It is an inert medium so the only nutrients it gets are what you give it.
2. I heard that it was basically hydroponics in a solid media, so thought it might be a good way to learn how to do hydro that was not too far removed from regular soil media. I actually grew in an ebb/flow to automate my watering, but will be doing a drip feeding drain to waste for my next grow.
3. I heard that it is not possible to overwater coco and discovered that this was basically true.
4. Since it's not soil, and it is without a lot of organics, I was under the understanding that pests would not be a concern. I found out you can still have problems with mold/root rot (especially if you overwater), but still shouldn't have as much problem with fungus gnats or pests that reproduce in soil.
5. It is supposed to be reusable, but prepping it for your next grow (removing all of the previous roots and washing out all of the salts from the previous grow) seems like it would take a lot of work. I might reuse it in the future, but I had some minor problems with my last grow that I wanted to distance myself from. I still got a decent yield that was nice and potent, though, so I really believe that I was successful because of good genetics from the strain I grew and because coco is a very forgiving grow medium.
Coco Coir is the fibrous lining of a coconut. Ever clean a coconut? It's that stringy, hard-to-remove stuff around the nut. It has no nutritional value, only what the farmer puts in it. If farmer didn't put nutes i it, the plant would literally starve. It truly is just a 'medium'. It's not soil.
I used Coco for two indoor cycles. I don't use it any more, I use ProMix which is peat and perlite with micorhezia.
I stopped using Coco for two closely related reasons:
1) It's expensive, and
2) I don't see any incremental benefit.
It basically costs twice as much as ProMix, but I don't get twice the benefit ... so it is too expensive. When I spend $1.00 on a bang, I want $1.10 worth of bang. If I don't get it, with change, I don't come back.
One thing that I like about it is that if you get too much nutes in it, it will wash out IMMEDIATELY. Just turn a hose on it with plain water and all the nutes wash out. First time. Puts the brakes on nute lock RFN. Now, THAT is cool. But since I been ph-ing religiously (hint, hint) I don't have that problem any more anyway.
Cost vs. benefit analysis. See ... that college education was worth something ... mom and dad would be proud. Well, mom would.
~ Auggie ~
I used Coco for two indoor cycles. I don't use it any more, I use ProMix which is peat and perlite with micorhezia.
I stopped using Coco for two closely related reasons:
1) It's expensive, and
2) I don't see any incremental benefit.
It basically costs twice as much as ProMix, but I don't get twice the benefit ... so it is too expensive. When I spend $1.00 on a bang, I want $1.10 worth of bang. If I don't get it, with change, I don't come back.
One thing that I like about it is that if you get too much nutes in it, it will wash out IMMEDIATELY. Just turn a hose on it with plain water and all the nutes wash out. First time. Puts the brakes on nute lock RFN. Now, THAT is cool. But since I been ph-ing religiously (hint, hint) I don't have that problem any more anyway.
Cost vs. benefit analysis. See ... that college education was worth something ... mom and dad would be proud. Well, mom would.
~ Auggie ~
TropicGrow
New Member
I grow in Coco too and without a PH meter I'm screwed. Just google marijuana symptoms and PH is one thing that clearly needs to be checked. Soil does buffering I understand that, Coco does too to a certain degree but not everyone who reads this uses soil.
**In my case coco is very readily available and inexpensive. The country I live in is one of the worlds largest coconut & coconut byproducts producer.
**In my case coco is very readily available and inexpensive. The country I live in is one of the worlds largest coconut & coconut byproducts producer.
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- #48
4Dutchess
Well-Known Member
I surfed around Fox Farms website and they say PH.
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