Should I buffer my coco?

[Lil Dab]

Hey guys not sure if this is the right place for this question. I have some botanicare cocogro my buddy bought and want try for my next run. My questions is should I buffer it? The bag says it’s prebuffered. But online says it may need to be amended to achieve the right consistency for plant. How do I know if it buffered enough? Can I add to much cal mag? This will be my first attempt at coco. I just popped some beans in towel last night so any advice sooner then later would be appreciated thanks.

 

[Olderfart]

I am not familiar with the coco you mention, but the comment about adjusting the "consistency" may not be referring to buffering, it may be referring to aeration/texture. If the latter, then the stuff may be adequately buffered.

However, if in doubt, and if the product is actually straight coco, (not all media with the coco name are, some are a mix of some sort) I would buffer it again. Extra is unlikely to harm, improper buffering can be hard to fix later. Bottom line is that coco can be a bitch if not buffered, so you need to be sure about it before you develop issues. It is also a good idea to make sure you are using a nute package that is specifically designed for coco and well reviewed by coco growers. Coco is hydroponics, not soil, and not organic. Confuse these, and you are headed for trouble.

Good luck with it.

 

[Lil Dab]

I am not familiar with the coco you mention, but the comment about adjusting the "consistency" may not be referring to buffering, it may be referring to aeration/texture. If the latter, then the stuff may be adequately buffered.

However, if in doubt, and if the product is actually straight coco, (not all media with the coco name are, some are a mix of some sort) I would buffer it again. Extra is unlikely to harm, improper buffering can be hard to fix later. Bottom line is that coco can be a bitch if not buffered, so you need to be sure about it before you develop issues. It is also a good idea to make sure you are using a nute package that is specifically designed for coco and well reviewed by coco growers. Coco is hydroponics, not soil, and not organic. Confuse these, and you are headed for trouble.

Good luck with it.

 

[Lil Dab]

I am not familiar with the coco you mention, but the comment about adjusting the "consistency" may not be referring to buffering, it may be referring to aeration/texture. If the latter, then the stuff may be adequately buffered.

However, if in doubt, and if the product is actually straight coco, (not all media with the coco name are, some are a mix of some sort) I would buffer it again. Extra is unlikely to harm, improper buffering can be hard to fix later. Bottom line is that coco can be a bitch if not buffered, so you need to be sure about it before you develop issues. It is also a good idea to make sure you are using a nute package that is specifically designed for coco and well reviewed by coco growers. Coco is hydroponics, not soil, and not organic. Confuse these, and you are headed for trouble.

Good luck with it.

Thanks. Yeah after I thought about the amending for consistency I was wondering if that meant perlite. And yes it is 100% coco and I added 25-30% perlite. I am using megacrop nutes. I have all three megacrop, sweet candy, and bud explosion. Which from my understanding works well in coco. Not sure if I should use sweet candy. I read how to buffer but ailttle confused. Do I actually let it sit in a bucket of cal mag water then drain off or just run cal mag water through it in the pot?

 

[Olderfart]

Thanks. Yeah after I thought about the amending for consistency I was wondering if that meant perlite. And yes it is 100% coco and I added 25-30% perlite. I am using megacrop nutes. I have all three megacrop, sweet candy, and bud explosion. Which from my understanding works well in coco. Not sure if I should use sweet candy. I read how to buffer but ailttle confused. Do I actually let it sit in a bucket of cal mag water then drain off or just run cal mag water through it in the pot?

What I did was mix up a batch of double strength cal mag, mix it into the coco until it was seriously flooded in a watertight tote (as in you can stir the slurry), leave it overnight before straining it to remove the excess cal mag, and then potting it before giving it a good rinse with the dilute nute mix you intend to start with. In straight coco, you need nutes from the get go.

The Megacrop works in coco, but keep your dose under control, and be careful with the additions. Quite a few grows with MegaCrop run into nute balance/overload issues later in the grow.

Good luck with it.

 

[Lil Dab]

What I did was mix up a batch of double strength cal mag, mix it into the coco until it was seriously flooded in a watertight tote (as in you can stir the slurry), leave it overnight before straining it to remove the excess cal mag, and then potting it before giving it a good rinse with the dilute nute mix you intend to start with. In straight coco, you need nutes from the get go.

The Megacrop works in coco, but keep your dose under control, and be careful with the additions. Quite a few grows with MegaCrop run into nute balance/overload issues later in the grow.

Good luck with it.

Ok perfect. Thank you for the quick and detailed answer. Probably get annoyed with my questions but I have more lol. Is 100ppm to much MC to start? How do I prevent the balance / overload from happening?

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

@Daledenton84 Welcome to AFNI am a hydro grower in rockwool. I use and have done extensive testing with Green Leaf Mega Crop. I use the 2 part system and that is what I recommend. Always fertigate coco to 20% run-off by the end of the day. Start your fertigation 2 hours after lights on and finish 2 hours prior to lights out.

The biggest problem with mixing too low a PPM with MC or any nutrient line is that the "Balance of the nutrients does not fall in line until about 1200 PPM for most lines I have tested. So In this regard you need to mix full strength nutrients and then dilute it with water to the desired PPMs

Read this about always fertigating with "Balanced" nutrients:

Tutorial - A word on Nutrients

The proper use of “salt” based fertilizer to grow Auto Flowering Cannabis. Salts: Natural and man made any chemical compound formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, with all or part of the hydrogen of the acid replaced by a metal or other cation. Learning how to use salt based...

www.autoflower.org

This is the schedule I am running now and it looks to be spot on so far.

The current week is highlighted in yellow.

As you can see the balance of the nutrients is in the green for all of the major components;

 

[Lil Dab]

@Daledenton84 Welcome to AFNI am a hydro grower in rockwool. I use and have done extensive testing with Green Leaf Mega Crop. I use the 2 part system and that is what I recommend. Always fertigate coco to 20% run-off by the end of the day. Start your fertigation 2 hours after lights on and finish 2 hours prior to lights out.

The biggest problem with mixing too low a PPM with MC or any nutrient line is that the "Balance of the nutrients does not fall in line until about 1200 PPM for most lines I have tested. So In this regard you need to mix full strength nutrients and then dilute it with water to the desired PPMs

Read this about always fertigating with "Balanced" nutrients:

Tutorial - A word on Nutrients

The proper use of “salt” based fertilizer to grow Auto Flowering Cannabis. Salts: Natural and man made any chemical compound formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, with all or part of the hydrogen of the acid replaced by a metal or other cation. Learning how to use salt based...

www.autoflower.org

This is the schedule I am running now and it looks to be spot on so far.

View attachment 1381793

The current week is highlighted in yellow.

As you can see the balance of the nutrients is in the green for all of the major components;

View attachment 1381795


View attachment 1381794

@Daledenton84 Welcome to AFNI am a hydro grower in rockwool. I use and have done extensive testing with Green Leaf Mega Crop. I use the 2 part system and that is what I recommend. Always fertigate coco to 20% run-off by the end of the day. Start your fertigation 2 hours after lights on and finish 2 hours prior to lights out.

The biggest problem with mixing too low a PPM with MC or any nutrient line is that the "Balance of the nutrients does not fall in line until about 1200 PPM for most lines I have tested. So In this regard you need to mix full strength nutrients and then dilute it with water to the desired PPMs

Read this about always fertigating with "Balanced" nutrients:

Tutorial - A word on Nutrients

The proper use of “salt” based fertilizer to grow Auto Flowering Cannabis. Salts: Natural and man made any chemical compound formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, with all or part of the hydrogen of the acid replaced by a metal or other cation. Learning how to use salt based...

www.autoflower.org

This is the schedule I am running now and it looks to be spot on so far.

View attachment 1381793

The current week is highlighted in yellow.

As you can see the balance of the nutrients is in the green for all of the major components;

View attachment 1381795


View attachment 1381794

Oh man I think I’m in over my head. I was hoping you would chime in. I have the 1 part MC, sweet candy ,bud explosion ,some calmag, and recharge. Do think I can get it done with just those things if so any idea how I should feed or is it gonna be a trial and error kind of thing? Thank you for the extremely detailed response. I’m very new and still getting the hang of growing.

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Oh man I think I’m in over my head. I was hoping you would chime in. I have the 1 part MC, sweet candy ,bud explosion ,some calmag, and recharge. Do think I can get it done with just those things if so any idea how I should feed or is it gonna be a trial and error kind of thing? Thank you for the extremely detailed response. I’m very new and still getting the hang of growing.

Yes you can grow with the one part but forget all of the stuff you have accept the one part and some Epsom Salt.

Which version of the Mega Crop do you have?

What is your starting water source and PPM? If you are on municipal water get the water quality report from online. We want to know the information in the "Hardness section" and "Sanitation Section". we are looking rot the calcium, magnesium and ammonia components.

 

[Ryno_nuggs]

Oh man I think I’m in over my head. I was hoping you would chime in. I have the 1 part MC, sweet candy ,bud explosion ,some calmag, and recharge. Do think I can get it done with just those things if so any idea how I should feed or is it gonna be a trial and error kind of thing? Thank you for the extremely detailed response. I’m very new and still getting the hang of growing.

Hey! I contacted greenleaf and asked about bud explosion and sweet candy in coco. Their reply was, you do not need it. But use bud explosion in coco and hydro. The sweet candy is for soil.

I use the 2 part mega crop in mother earth coco. I have to add additional calmag with mine or I get calcium deficiencies. I do have very soft water though. I tried running without it twice. You might want to have some handy if you go with coco. It is easy to correct if you need to add some.

Coco is a lot of fun though and I like it!