Alright guys so here is what Truu knows about CoCo. I've done many hours of research and have had a little experience thus far. I wont go in to the details like how coco is made, or the different types, how to set your coco up and all that. What I want to discuss is growing styles with coco as I feel thats the most important.
One thing I would like to say is, before you put any plant in coco, always flush it thoughroughly and "pre soak" the coco with a light mixture of fresh water and cal-mag.
Hand watering-
Basically this is the "soil" side to growing with coco. You will be watering just like you would water soil. Being that coco is alot more fiberous than soil, and that it doesnt compact, it will take alot less to water coco than soil. Coco has the great ability to distribute water evenly throughout the container. I've even watered 1 spot before and eventually the whole pot will become soaked.
Coco will generally hold about 20% oxygen when fully saturated. Mixing your coco with additional aeration products is a good idea. Products such as perlite, and hydroton will help greatly in increasing the drying time of the medium. Also, keep in mind that adding these will also decrease the time between watering due to your medium drying out. Its also a good idea to put a layer of perlite or hydroton at the bottom of the pot to increase aeration and give those roots a good place to breathe.
Hand watering times will vary depending on the mixture you use for your medium. When starting seedlings in coco, it is recommended that you water every other day - or daily, depending on how fast your medium is drying out. You really want to let the coco dry out some so that the roots will go in search of water. One important thing to remember is that the top if coco will almost always be dry, this is not an indicator as to how wet/dry belowe the surface will be. As your plants get older, slowly work your way up to watering once a day, or more if you have the time to do so. As they begin to flower and start drinking tons of water, your plants may force you to water more than once a day. Always use the "lift & weigh" method to judge weather or not the plant needs to be watered.
Drip system-
OK guys, this is the type of growing that ol' Truu recommends. This is the type of coco growing that will get you those good "hydro" results. A drip system requires that you have a resevior with a pump that will pump nutrients to your plant at set times through a dripper, or a drip ring that sits on top of the soil. As the coco gets saturated it will begin to drip the water out of the bottom of the pot, now this is your choice as to what you do with it. You can either use "drain to waste" - wich is discarding the wasted water once you are finished with it. Or use the not so popular method of - recirculation. I personally recirculate mine because of the ease of use.
Using a drip system will make growing easier for you, and also easier for the plant. Being on a set schedule allows the plant to feed multiple times a day. As the water runs from the top of the soil through the container and out the bottom, the water is drawing in oxygen past the roots. The roots will thrive on this, and if you do it multiple times a day, well then you are helping the plant achieve a greater growing enviornment! When watering you will want to achieve about 10-20% runoff. This allows the coco to become fully saturated, and so that the coco gets a good flush to rinse out previous feedings.
It should be mentioned that drip systems, or any type of growing with a resevior, do not work so well with organic nutrients. Drip systems will also require that an additive such as "house and gardens - drip clean" must be used to keep the drip lines clean. It also helps prevent salt build up in the coco. You will want to keep some kind of aeration in your resevior, such as a air stone, or even a pump on a timer to keep the water moving. And your plants will also need to sit on a table that will allow the runoff to drain properly away from the pots so they dont sit in water.
Additional information-
One important thing to know about CoCo is that the coconut fibers do not hold calcium very well. Cal-mag, or any type of calcium suppliment will be required to achieve a happy level for your plants.
You must use a PH pen to measure the PH of your solution. PH is very important in the coco world just like hydro. Because coco is so closely related to hydro, the PH in coco must be kept at a gernaly ph of 5.8. I normally keep mine to around 5.9-6.0 just to give a buffer area incase anything were to go wrong. Gernally coco will work fine in any range of 5.6-6.4. But that range is also depending on the plant.
Pot size is also a good thing to consider. Because coco can breathe so well, and may require multiple waterings daily, smaller pots will actually increase your yeild. Having a pot that is smaller will decrease the time it takes for the medium to dry out. Having a pot that is bigger may be better for those wanting to hand water. But for those wanting a hydro experience, I would suggest going with something around 1-3 gallon pot. Remember that your plant will get much bigger with coco than with soil, so if space is an issue try starting out smaller.
I will go ahead and quote this from someone on another forum. I felt that this short post alone gave me the most information out of all the ones I read. He has pictures on his post that are just awesome.
"Coco is different from soil and it should not be treated like soil, coco is a hydroponic medium (soilless medium), some like to call it 'semi-hydroponic' because it is more forgiving than full hydro. The thing is, you can water coco like you water soil, every day or 2 and you will get soil results but if you water coco a few times per day you will really reap the rewards of hydroponic results in a more stable medium. When dialing the watering schedule it's important to take into consideration the size of pot that your using and the size of your root mass, for example if you pot up some freshly rooted clones into 6.5Ltr pots and start watering them 3x per day you will run into some problems. People like to say that you can't overwater in coco, I agree with them to a certain extent but you can overwater if you give them too much when they don't have a well developed root system, that's why it's important to harden off the roots and let 'em go hunting for nutrients at the beginning, this will help to build the root system. When I pot up a freshly rooted cut I let it have wet-dry cycles for a few days then I slowly up my watering, at the end of week one I'm watering once per day, I aim to be watering 3x per day by the end of week 2. Once the root system is developed it is very very hard to overwater, they will take all you can throw at 'em and ask for more.
I also think it's important to mention that coco doesn't require the same size of a pot compared to soil, I have grown plants at 9.25oz in a 6.5Ltr pot. Less is more, unless your looking trees, don't go over 6.5Ltrs, there really is no need plus if you have a pot that's too big you could run into overwatering problems and possibly root rot. I like to add hydroton at the base of my pots, this assists in drainage, I also add layer of hydroton at the top of the coco to help slow down evaporation. I'd highly advise you to do them 2 things for an extra 'kick'.
Once you water 3x per day your plants will start to grow super fast, FAT stalks, branching growing like crazy, it really is fun seeing the explosive growth rate. I feed 3 x per day right up until flower stretch is over then I bang up the waterings to 5x per day just as the buds switch into swelling mode, the plants react great. You see, when you feed a plant you aren't just giving it fresh nutrients, you are also giving fresh oxygen to the roots, the nutrient solution saturates the medium and pushes out the stale O2, as the solution works its way down the medium it draws in fresh oxygen from the top, this is one of the reasons why I think multi feeds works so well with coco. Your giving your plants access to more fresh oxygen.
Now one of the huge advantages to growing with coco DTW is the fact that you are watering to you get a little run off each time, which goes to a waste tray/rez to be dumped later. That little bit of run off ensures that each and every time you water your plants (3-5x per day) your also washing away excess salts, salt build up can be a problem in coco and you often have to flush it out to get rid of all the excess salts. Once you get that little bit of waste run-off from each watering you are effectively flushing it out every time you water, this means that you don't have to do a manual flush until the end of flower when you do the 'final flush'. If you don't already use it then I can highly recommend you check out a product from House & Garden called, Drip Clean, I'll not go into the science behind it because all that information is easily accessed on the internet but this product will ensure that excess salts are washed away, Drip Clean attracts salts and other build up, it helps to purge them from your medium, and it also does a great job keeping your drippers clear.
Another thing that I've noticed about growing in Coco DTW with multi feeds per day is that it's much better to feed 'little but often' just like how a bodybuilder or an athlete breaks their dailly caloric intake into 6-8 meals a day to keep their metabolism in peak working order, well from my experience the same applies to plants grown in coco, instead of watering your plants at a high EC/ppm once every few days, break it up into 3-5 smaller strength feeds each day and watch how your plants react but remember to have a developed root system before you use the multi-feeding. Once I start the multi-feeding I like to keep the EC at 1.3/650ppm (that's including 0.4EC tap water), I let the run-off tell me if the plants require more or less feed. If the waste EC rises by a point or 2 then I know they are getting too much so I adjust my EC accordingly and vice versa."
Well thats about all I can think on for right now guys. I know there is TONS of info that I left out, and tonight when I smoke for a while my mind will become more creative and I will try and modify or post some more information for y'all. If you have any questions please feel free to ask and I'll be glad to help. I'm in love with CoCo no doubt about it now.
:smokebuds:
