Grow Mediums Tips for 1st time coco grower?

[NorthernLights_420]

Lesson 1 I already learned. Dont feed in coco too fast. Slow watering til 20 percent run off

 

[Trichome farmer]

Sounds like maybe I better put my seatbelt on. Lol what did I get myself into? Now your all making me think why I didnt buy soil instead. Lol

dont worry the adventure is fun i barely know what im doing half the time and look what i can do
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[Fitzy]

I just tried to find if that coco is washed and precharged and the only thing it says:

Mother Earth® Coco is pre-buffered and pH adjusted to promote strong root growth.

The Coco + perlite says nothing? Are we to assume that it is?

I honestly don't ever believe any company I always washed mine and charged myself as the bricks I got where not consistent ever over multiple brands.

 

[Waira]

Every detail right on the money @Waira, in my admittedly limited experience. Mind you, I have run into every bloody one of your mentioned issues, maybe even a few more already...

I might argue a bit about SS#4 as soilless though. It seems to me to be a lot more like soil than coco is - more like a less predictable compromise between soil and coco in my opinion. It runs out of nutes eventually, but what you are left with, how that will interact with your nute mix, and when that happens, is a hell of a lot more of a crap shoot than with coco, again, in my limited experience. I doubt that I will be using SS#4 again after this grow. OTOH, others seem to grow with the stuff. No question that I have lots to learn.

Well, peat based soilless is more like true soil in some regards, mainly because it's CEC/AEC is quite different... Coco is superior for "breathing" hands down!
But the tale I tell is that all soilless media is barren really, by design! (Note the ingredients of Sunshine #4, same as ProMix) ...Like coco though, feeds need to start pretty much right away, many I know actually pre-charge soiilless media with some weak nutes just to cover butts...
Coco does have native K in it (Na too when fresh/raw), but I honestly don't know how much remains after the Ca++ and Mg++ buffering happens- (note to others, this isn't referring to pH) .... As double charged ions, they bind very strongly, Ca++ especially, and will kick off weaker 1+charged ions like K+.... This is part of the tangle peep's get caught in when the nute ion balance and/or CEC goes sideways in coco! Coco is far more bitchy than peat, so far as I've seen in Sick Bay over the years...

 

[St. Tom]

heres a question for you tom when your feeding your air pot to run off what sort of e.c are looking for in the run off so for example im feeding in at 1.6-1.7 e.c and it comes out around 1.4 e.c does that sound about right slightly under the input what do you shoot for
anyone else with some thoughts please chime in

Hi bro I checked mine today and i mustn't of been feeding her enough to run of as mine was 1.4 ec going in and 2.0 coming out in my airpot and so I've gave her an extra few jugs and will carry on with a more aggressive watering and slightly lower ec by a point or so but she looked slightly pale in places so I'm glad I checked

 

[Trichome farmer]

Hi bro I checked mine today and i mustn't of been feeding her enough to run of as mine was 1.4 ec going in and 2.0 coming out in my airpot and so I've gave her an extra few jugs and will carry on with a more aggressive watering and slightly lower ec by a point or so but she looked slightly pale in places so I'm glad I checkedView attachment 1273472View attachment 1273473

what would you have been happy with .1 or .2 under the input

 

[St. Tom]

what would you have been happy with .1 or .2 under the input

Yes bro but your plants look proper healthy and I'd only worry if you see lockouts also if I could suggest one thing in some of pics your coco looks dry and I know that can leave air pockets. also your a inspirational grower and I look up to you so don't be questioning yourself

 

[Trichome farmer]

Yes bro but your plants look proper healthy and I'd only worry if you see lockouts also if I could suggest one thing in some of pics your coco looks dry and I know that can leave air pockets. also your a inspirational grower and I look up to you so don't be questioning yourself

thats just the layer of clay balls on top to stop the coco from drying out and some evaporation from happening the coco underneath never drys out i started doing it when i got fungus gnats havnt had any since then but that might not be the reason since iv been trying to follow the 20% rule iv been supersized how little i need to water in the first few weeks of flower once budding starts properly they seem to drink a bit more
for example yesterday i watered all the plants with 1 liter 8 liters in total the run off was around 2300ml which is 25% ish i think maths may as well be a different language to me
thanks for the kinds words i appreciate it im just wired to focus on the negatives of what i do

 

[NorthernLights_420]

My grow bags on the tent floor so I'll have to train my plants to keep em short so I can remove them from the tent when feeding. 2nd thing I learned. I dont want sll that run off on my tent floor. I dont water til run off in soil but I give them a good watering every time and soak the pot good. Maybe a lil runoff occasionally but my dehumidifier cleans it up and keeps temps up and humidity right in the tent since its winter. I have nothing under my pots cuz I wasnt sure what to use for cheap. Lol

 

[St. Tom]

My grow bags on the tent floor so I'll have to train my plants to keep em short so I can remove them from the tent when feeding. 2nd thing I learned. I dont want sll that run off on my tent floor. I dont water til run off in soil but I give them a good watering every time and soak the pot good. Maybe a lil runoff occasionally but my dehumidifier cleans it up and keeps temps up and humidity right in the tent since its winter. I have nothing under my pots cuz I wasnt sure what to use for cheap. Lol

cant you graft a wooden pallet or something like that from somewhere also I've got a small greenhouse heater for getting rid of the run off its dry in no time