Botanicare, wtf?

So, I'm hydrating Botanicare cocogro 5kg bricks today, and it's like WTF!

They state right on the package "less than 0.5 ec" and my previous experience with coco always has shown a natural ph in the middle 6's.

First brick hydrated today is just like the old days, however, with first rinse (ro) showing 1.7ec. Glad I checked... So rinse, rinse, rinse to get "less than 0.5 ec" then charge and put aside, lesson learned?

The second brick hydrated clears my cloud momentarily with an initial ec as advertised, "less than 0.5 ec". But then I get curious and check the PH and wtf it's 4.8! Where'd that come from? Now I'm rinse, rinse, rinse with RO and PHup, and the leachate remains rock steady under ph5, while seemingly absorbing a lethal helping of potassium salts from the PH up. This brick is going to get spread on the lawn...

Just thinking on what a toxic soil I would have assembled, if I had relied on Botanicare quality control.

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prune said:

So, I'm hydrating Botanicare cocogro 5kg bricks today, and it's like WTF!

They state right on the package "less than 0.5 ec" and my previous experience with coco always has shown a natural ph in the middle 6's.

First brick hydrated today is just like the old days, however, with first rinse (ro) showing 1.7ec. Glad I checked... So rinse, rinse, rinse to get "less than 0.5 ec" then charge and put aside, lesson learned?

The second brick hydrated clears my cloud momentarily with an initial ec as advertised, "less than 0.5 ec". But then I get curious and check the PH and wtf it's 4.8! Where'd that come from? Now I'm rinse, rinse, rinse with RO and PHup, and the leachate remains rock steady under ph5, while seemingly absorbing a lethal helping of potassium salts from the PH up. This brick is going to get spread on the lawn...

Just thinking on what a toxic soil I would have assembled, if I had relied on Botanicare quality control.

.

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thanks for the heads up...thats my brand i have bought for years....i got to where i didn't even check it...i will now..thanks..DJXX

Yeah I switched to Roots coco.

Botanicare used to have good coco but not recently anyway.

Botanicare is owned by Scotts Miracle-gro--Monsanto's Roundup shills.

The canna bricks are consistently low e.c.,my favourite by far.

knuckles said:

The canna bricks are consistently low e.c.,my favourite by far.

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Thanks...I'll have to try Canna...are they 5 kilo bricks too..DJXX

Well, today I decided to "hydrate" a couple of bags of Botainicare loose coco to check quality control and I found the same utter lack of quality control. Both bags needed a double-flush of RO water to bring the initial 1.7ec down to the promised "under 0.5ec". SOAB's

You didn't mention it so I have to ask: Have you calibrated your meter lately?

Canna coco has never given me problems.

-Funk

MedFaced said:

Botanicare is owned by Scotts Miracle-gro--Monsanto's Roundup shills.

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hawthorne group

FunkBomb said:

Canna coco has never given me problems.

-Funk

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Jungleboys and Lumpstatus posted a while back about canna coco containing heavy metals and people failing tests in Cali. Canna's response was to switch to rockwool if you grow in cali.

Raho said:

You didn't mention it so I have to ask: Have you calibrated your meter lately?

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Yes, calibrated both new and old pens from two different manufacturers.

Went through the same crap today with another two more bags, it takes 10-15 gallons of RO to bring them down to what they should be on ec.

I've always wondered if just going drain to waste for a few waterings to start would be enough to flush out coco ending the need to fuss about the EC/salt content/pre charged. I use the Botanicare Coco the cheap bricked up stuff. I hydrate with tap water only no rinsing. Now I use the Coco to blend with Pro-Mix at about 30% coir the rest Pro-Mix HP. When I up to a larger pot I just water drain to waste the first 3 waterings using a little extra water to be sure I get a good drain; but nothing crazy 2 gals water to 4gal pot. After the 3 cycles of watering drain to waste I switch over to passive hydro and never drain the runoff water again with no problems whatsoever. I do feed on the low side I'm sure that makes a difference in the passive hydro. I'm not running pure Coir so not exactly what the topic is but just curious how the full on Coco guys would do with just hydrate, then straight to the pots; flush run to waste a few waterings. You'd be flushing the Coir with your feed water so you'll get a charge for the whatever the coir ions need. lol

I also thought that rinsing with RO water especially isn't good for Coco. You rinse with low ppm feed water to get all the charges and cations in the right place and in the correct balance. Where the RO water rinse pulls it all/everything out and now you'll need to replace some of the cations and ions you've rinsed out. Low PPM feed water rinse keeps whats needed and removes what you don't want. This is my understanding of rinsing Coco; I never took chemistry so I could be mistaken. lol

coco can be very forgiving, but my only concern with your theory concerns what actually is the "contamination" that is raising the ec.
If it's sodium, that's fairly toxic and rinsing with ferts is going unbalance the ratios in a bad way and not effectively reduce the salt as much as plain or ro water.

Starting with r/o,I’ll add 250-350ppm of cal/mag,then rinse the coco till I get a reasonable e.c. from the effluent.(same e.c. coming out)