Grow Mediums Trying Coco After Soil

[draxcel]

Hi guys.My belt has 4 successful grows in soil with "organic" biobizz nutrients and of course soil.I use drops to test pH and have an EC low budget Meter that works.
I use tap water that Is 200ish ppm from tap with good calcium and magnesium ratings already.
I wanted to switch and/or try One Coco run among soil cause lately I failed all my soil plants due to my Stupid watering and fertigating impulse.I have lot of time to give to my plants and thought I might end up Better with Coco that needs more waterings and I do not risk overwatering like I do in soil+perlite.Always.So,what Is a fooloproof nutrient and Coco substrate brand I can give One try without killing my budget?
Thank you in Advance.

 

[Olderfart]

Hi guys.My belt has 4 successful grows in soil with "organic" biobizz nutrients and of course soil.I use drops to test pH and have an EC low budget Meter that works.
I use tap water that Is 200ish ppm from tap with good calcium and magnesium ratings already.
I wanted to switch and/or try One Coco run among soil cause lately I failed all my soil plants due to my Stupid watering and fertigating impulse.I have lot of time to give to my plants and thought I might end up Better with Coco that needs more waterings and I do not risk overwatering like I do in soil+perlite.Always.So,what Is a fooloproof nutrient and Coco substrate brand I can give One try without killing my budget?
Thank you in Advance.

If I were you, I would try Megacrop. It's cheap, and lots of growers here get great results with it. If you go with the two part version, @Mañ'O'Green has put together and tested a schedule for it when growing autos. You can keep it simple and just use Megacrop, or you can add a few other supplements as MOG does.

If you haven't already done so, study the information on Cocoforcannabis.com. You need to understand how coco differs from soil. Coco is not soil. Coco is not soil.....

Coco is hydroponics with root support, and unlike other hydroponic setups, it has unique behaviour with cations including Ca, Mg, Na, and K. If you treat coco like soil, or miss the issue with cations, you are headed for trouble.

Good luck with it.

 

[Olderfart]

Oops forgot about your question re. brand of coco. I just use the generic bricks that I get from the local garden center. If you go this route though, you must rinse and buffer it yourself. I have never tried the ready to use coco. It is expensive, not available locally, and shipping cost for an individual purchase is prohibitive. The brick stuff works just fine as long as you rinse and buffer it yourself. Info. on this is on Cocoforcannabis.com.

 

[draxcel]

If I were you, I would try Megacrop. It's cheap, and lots of growers here get great results with it. If you go with the two part version, @Mañ'O'Green has put together and tested a schedule for it when growing autos. You can keep it simple and just use Megacrop, or you can add a few other supplements as MOG does.

If you haven't already done so, study the information on Cocoforcannabis.com. You need to understand how coco differs from soil. Coco is not soil. Coco is not soil.....

Coco is hydroponics with root support, and unlike other hydroponic setups, it has unique behaviour with cations including Ca, Mg, Na, and K. If you treat coco like soil, or miss the issue with cations, you are headed for trouble.

Good luck with it.

Thank you @Olderfart ❤
I have a general idea atm.I also tested my cheap EC Meter and the bottled water label differs only by 3 to 10 ppm max from my measurements.I think I Need only a good pH Meter and to choose between CANNA and Megacrop.Yes I am Reading cocoforcannabis a lot

 

[MIAutomatic]

I have been using canna coco and the canna coco nutrients for years. Mega crop is a great product, but I would opt for a nutrient line mixed for coco, especially as a first time coco grower. Your tap water won’t have quite enough calmag for coco so with Mega crop you will probably need to tinker with additional calmag to get it just right.

Canna coco A & B have added calmag and with a water source of about 200 ppm, like your tap water, this puts you in a perfect range to use Canna A & B without needing to add any additional calmag.

You can get great results using pretty much any nutrients with coco as long as you understand the cation exchange and calmag demands as mentioned by Olderfart. When growing in coco it is just as important to understand the why as the how and the information on cocoforcannabis will get you on the right track. There are also lots of great articles on the Canna website.

As far as coco media, I have tried several products and not found one better than Canna coco bricks or bags. They do cost more than the garden store bricks, but it takes quite a bit of calmag, water and effort to rinse and buffer it yourself, and my time and calmag cost money also.

Good luck!

 

[draxcel]

I have been using canna coco and the canna coco nutrients for years. Mega crop is a great product, but I would opt for a nutrient line mixed for coco, especially as a first time coco grower. Your tap water won’t have quite enough calmag for coco so with Mega crop you will probably need to tinker with additional calmag to get it just right.

Canna coco A & B have added calmag and with a water source of about 200 ppm, like your tap water, this puts you in a perfect range to use Canna A & B without needing to add any additional calmag.

You can get great results using pretty much any nutrients with coco as long as you understand the cation exchange and calmag demands as mentioned by Olderfart. When growing in coco it is just as important to understand the why as the how and the information on cocoforcannabis will get you on the right track. There are also lots of great articles on the Canna website.

As far as coco media, I have tried several products and not found one better than Canna coco bricks or bags. They do cost more than the garden store bricks, but it takes quite a bit of calmag, water and effort to rinse and buffer it yourself, and my time and calmag cost money also.

Good luck!

Thank you friend.I Just placed the order minutes ago,I Hope to be good enough to make It with Coco.I took pH Meter,Coco professional plus which Is buffered,canna A&B.I have to Dial in the schedule and the waterings/Fertigating Sorry* for the Autoflower seeds.

 

[DCLXVI]

Hey friend,

I am a recent coco convert myself. Brand wise I know the canna coco pro gets high praise here from quite a few top guys. The pre buffered is easier to start with for sure

Thread here:

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/canna-coco-professional.83669/

I've been using Cyco Pearl as it's available locally. It's gone great. I would advise a good pH pen as you will need to be accurate and consistent with your fertigation. It is also a tool that will last you many grows in the future.

With your tap water, I would advise cutting it 50/50 with distilled water from the store. Most nutrient lines have plenty of Ca/Mg already, even for coco and especially the coco specific.

Keep pH to 5.8-6.2 and water to runoff everytime. It will take some adjustments to find out how much volume is needed to saturate and then start getting outflow. This amount will change as the plant grows.

You may find that watering once a day works in the beginning but later you may have to do twice or thrice.

I like to catch, measure, and test my runoff. I measure volume to ensure adequate outflow amounts and test the EC/ppm.

Ex: If I put in 800ml at 550ppm I expect at least 160ml runoff and early on low ppm but later no more than 300ppm over the input strength. In this case if I am fertigating 550ppm and out flow is 800-900, that's fine. If it goes over 1000 I would increase volume to bring down the salt build up. Probably wise to decrease Nute strength as well if the plant is not using what's going in.

 

[MIAutomatic]

You could cut you tap water, but it’s not necessary Coco A & B work fine in a rage between .2-.6 EC (100-300 ppm). Their feeding chart has preset options that reflect this. It would only be an additional step to mix your water with distilled or RO.

You will want to use lower feed levels anyway. I almost never exceed an inflow EC of 1.5, and try to keep the fertigation to within .2 EC of the nutrient solution. If it creeps up much higher than that then you are overfeeding.

I could talk about growing in coco all day! It’s easy to learn the basics, but their is so much nuisance to it, just like most mediums, that allows for a lot of flexibility and experimentation.

 

[GreenBean]

I use the Mother Earth 11 lb coco bales. They cost around $12-$13 shipped and once they expand, they fill quite a few 5 gallon fabric pots. Never counted but probably about 6 pots or so. I rinse and then puff it up with some cal/mag water.

I do mix the coco with about 20% perlite, 10% vermiculite and then to that I add about 15% or so soil for a little retention.

I don't do anything really special other than that. I use FloraFlex nutes currently as they are local. And really like it. My smallest auto last run yielded about 10 oz.

Be careful with super cheap EC/PPM meters though. I had one that would shoot to 1000+ PPM whenever my nute bucket went over 300 and there was no way to calibrate it. I ended up buying one of these, and it works flawlessly for the past couple years:

Amazon product

 

[draxcel]

Guys you are being tremendously helpful.Shit I Will germinate a seed in paper towel so when my package Is delivered It Is ready to be planted and I Will Ask here for some Little help at the beginning.
Much love to all of you @GreenBean @MIAutomatic @DCLXVI for the complete answer to a complete Coco noob.The reason I spent a hundred € today Is recently I get overwatering in soil,lost lot of seeds every time.Maybe It Is not my style,I could be wrong though.But I like to use meters and knowing what Is in and out.I like It a lot,I can't di It with organic soil