Idiots Guide To Coco Coir

Boneman

Boneman

Well-Known Member
Panta, if your having that many problems maybe its something other than your soil? I've recently grown in soil, p'lite and coco...all with no problems. What nutes are you using?
 
C

cookin

New Member
panta said:
im having problems with my plants for a long time now and i tryed many diferent soil mixes and tap,spring and distiled water and still nothing seems to cut it so now i transplanted a few of m plants in pure coco coir and im watering with 6.3 ,6.4ph here on this site they say u can treat it like soil,i wanted to check this with somebody is it ok

http://www.weedbay.net/overgrow-thebook/SoilandSoiless/1675.htm
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think your ph is a bit too high, i know it says on that site its good up to 7 but i'm pretty sure thats wrong, keep it below 6.2. are you using coco nutes, whats the problem with them defficiencies or ph fluctuations?

also if you are watering with 6.3 then it will rise more as it dries, i never bother with ph, i use canna coco a + b, which are ph buffered
 
panta

panta

Well-Known Member
i tryed 4 types of soil mixed with perlite and coco coir in all cros combinations and i tryed tap water distiled and botteled spring water ph at 6.5 now im trying 6.3 as i got some advice that its maybe gonna help, so now im trying pure coco coir just in case i wana be sure about the soil couse they start to grow nicely and then after a week or 10 days they stop and start exibiting signs,maybe it has slow releaseing nutes,but its the weakest i can find in my country,thats why i wanted to try something without nutes in it,thats the only option left if this doesnt work then i probably have some desease or a curse in my room
 
D

drifter1978

Guest
DaveTheNewbie said:
bump
any more opinions ?
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hey fellow rollers

i use the canadian express nutes for coco and have for the past 4 year good results great range that you were talking about on page 8 which are ph buffered which makes it easy but your ph will rise over time if your nute tank if it is big and also keep it moving with a pump in the tank because it can seetle and you will get misleading readings from your ppm meter

WARNING- i have found out with disatorous results not to mix different brands of root repair.i ran out of candain express root repair and could not get anymore so replaced it with nu life root repair which killed my planys could have been attributed to ph being to low as well as my meter was giving me false readings.
 
Titania

Titania

Well-Known Member
Great thread. I'm growing in Bio bizz coco coir/peat. I keep reading all about coir, but nothing on coco peat; does the Ph have to be different for this mix of coco or do the same rules apply? I have mixed in about 1/3 perlite and I'm not having as good results as the last 'experimental grow', which was straight coco coir/peat. I read somewhere that perlite can mess up the Ph, is this correct? I have identified a calcium def, and found on icmag that the best absorption for Ca is 5.4 to 5.8 in hydro. My Ph has been more around 6, maybe higher. could that be the cause? Any thoughts appreciated. Much Love.
 
P

peach

Well-Known Member
Panta, get some sulfuric acid (battery acid) and knock the pH down a little. You'll barely need any. 1-2ml will usually do about 50l.

You won't solve the pH issue with different types of water because water is almost always around 7 if it's for human consumption - distilled and RO will be similar if not dead on.

I fluffed my coir by filling a tub with far more water than it needed (coir floating or sunk), left for a few days (churning by hand occasionally), then rinse with pH corrected full strength feed. Squeezed all 75l to dry by hand, added maybe 30% perlite, fluffed. Very nice texture in the pots - it's so loose water will go straight down from the emitters, so it won't waterlog at all.

Feeding on Ionic Coir Grow

I also have some issues with yellowing. A quick feed tank check and my pH had bumped back up from 5.8 to 6.2. Reset. I have a datalogging .01 accurate pHmeter with software, so I might log the pH bouncing and make a pretty graph for the forum and other newbs to pH correction (like me).

I'm interested in the ca / mg / N deal, will have a read. Anyone find supplementing essential?

I also have mine infected with RootGrow mychorrhizal fungi - something you can't do so well with floods / constant flows / aeroponics
 
stilltokin

stilltokin

Well-Known Member
Im new to coco and I find it incredibly hard to get the hang of. My seedlings always look all dry and dont make it past the seedling stage. I water every two days and they always look dry. 50/50 coco and perlite
But I find the best way to water is by putting some water in the dish and letting them suck it up, then empty the rest of the water after a few hours.
 
P

peach

Well-Known Member
stilltokin said:
Im new to coco and I find it incredibly hard to get the hang of. My seedlings always look all dry and dont make it past the seedling stage. I water every two days and they always look dry. 50/50 coco and perlite
But I find the best way to water is by putting some water in the dish and letting them suck it up, then empty the rest of the water after a few hours.
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That'll encourage the roots to run down after the water, which is a good thing.

The coir might not be dense enough to capillary suck lots of water up. And obviously, the top of the coir may look quite dry even though it's damp down near the roots. It's really easy to over water basing it only on how dry the top layer of soil / coir is.

So long as they're growing, I think you'll be good.

It'd only be a problem if you had them under a lamp and they were wilting, then you'd know for sure that you needed to extra water / less heat.
 
Boneman

Boneman

Well-Known Member
50/50 is a mix that is impossible to overwater using coco unless there is no drainage holes. My coco doesnt have that much p'lite mixed in and i couldnt overwater it if i tried.
 
DaveTheNewbie

DaveTheNewbie

Well-Known Member
my man down at the shop (uh huh) said that if you recirc coco it will go up by 0.2 ph (approx) every water, and thats why they run to waste in coco.
 
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DR. VonDankenstine

Well-Known Member
I like the BLACK GOLD COCO BLEND---50/50- peat and coco-----with/earthworm/castings/yucca extract(helps hold water in coco plus stimulates beneficials and myo fungi growth)--perlite/dolomite lime(thanks to BIGBLUEBALLS for the correction)-lol. The PH is 5.5 to 5.8 which is great for germination-seedling---and vegetative growth---I add (1 tbs/gallon-soil) of dolomite lime to raise the PH to 6.2 to 6.5 in flowering---I also add (1/2tbs/gallon-soil) of Indonesian Bat Gauno--0.5--12--0.2. With the lime and guano it costs 5.40 per cubic feet or 10.80 a large bag. I have had great results from this 50/50 coco blend.
 
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DR. VonDankenstine

Well-Known Member
You need to go back to school man!!!---You missed the perlite/dolomite lime---that's 350% not 250%--come-on-man-----get with the program!!!:-P:-P:-P---lol...
 
J

Joesmoma

Active Member
From what i read about coco it seems to like to hold on to some of the calcium and magnesium so most coco nutes just have slightly higher amounts of calcium and magnesium to make up for it.

Just buy some additives like cal-mag or use epsom salt.

Adding a layer of hydroton to the top helps avoid algae/mold problems.

If useing a 100% coco (fine potting mix with husk hairs) fluff it well and water slowly to avoid compacting.

When i say potting mix i mean the coco is broken down to a small size that resembles normal potting mix with husk hairs. Most bricks become this.

Coco comes in different grades from bark dust size to a fine potting soils with husk hairs make sure the person your takeing advice from is useing a similar grade as the size will effect the ability to hold air and moisture


Im not an expert on coco so if anything i said is wrong please point it out.
 
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