First time using coco, how do you get it ready?

[totemtoke]

What the best way to treat a 70% coco 30% perlite mix before planting?

 

[Smoking Frog]

Wich brand you got?
Some coco doesn't need to be buffer....

 

[Arthur]

Check ppm of the coco. If it is low, chances are it's been flushed. Precharge with pH'd water and cal/mg. Never let coco dry out, feed every time. PH and ppm are your guide when running coco.

Brick coco will more than likely need a complete washing. This is where the low cost of brick coco shows... it's a ton of work. Most washed coco is washed where it was harvested... with salt water. Salt and coco seriously mess with the availability of nutrients.

 

[Olderfart]

What the best way to treat a 70% coco 30% perlite mix before planting?

If it is not pre buffered, you need to rinse and buffer it. if it is the brick stuff, you definitely need to buffer it yourself. Good instructions are available on Cocoforcannabis.com. Briefly, it needs to be soaked in a ~2x strength mix of cal mag for hours, preferably overnight, and once that is done, it needs to be rinsed very thoroughly with phed water, and once rinsed, pre-charged with the nute/calmag mix you want to use with the new seed/seedling. If you buffer it yourself, before you plant in it, nute mix must drain through it without significant change in either EC or pH. I ended up going through the whole process twice with my cheap brick stuff, and I still screwed up the results on one plant. Fortunately, the plant seems to be back on track without significant issue, so I got lucky.

You have probably read this already, but coco is not soil, it is more like hydroponics, and you must treat it accordingly or you will end up with problems. Whether it is pre buffered or not, you should make sure that you have cal mag in your kit, you will need it, and you need to be using hydroponic type nutrients, not the more generalized stuff which will not work well. Finally, your target pH will be lower than soil, somewhere ~5.8-6.2 which is more acid than typical for soil grows. Some growers get away without pH and EC/ppm meters, but for anyone other than an expert, I think both are a very good if not absolutely necessary idea.

Good luck with the setup and grow, Lots of help available here.

 

[Rwg111]

What the best way to treat a 70% coco 30% perlite mix before planting?

Will you be using bottled nutes or dry amendments?