Burpee coco bricks available at Lowes

[ambertrich]

Just made a run to Lowes to pick up a few things (feels like I live there sometimes )

While there, I noticed burpee now has a line of coco products for seed starting- tray,dome,pellet kits.

The thing that really caught my eye was the Burpee "Concentrated Seed Starting Mix" which is a coco brick
Picked one up to give it a try and see how it does. It would be nice to be able to run up to Lowes or HD or any garden supply shop and be able to get coco.
Would save me a ton of money on shipping and time waiting.

Anyone else use this stuff yet? Give us your impression how it compares to others such as Canna or Botanicare, etc.

 

[Gr33n_Chr0nic]

i bought two bricks today when i was picking up some fish emulsion... im going to try it out

 

[bakelite]

Man I was just at Lowes earlier today, saw all the Burpee stuff and missed the coir bricks. That is good to know. FYI they also carry coco bricks at Petco in the critter bedding area.

-bakelite

 

[Sam the Caveman]

I'm going to lowes to check this out right now, I never thought the day would come, wwooohoooo!!!

edit; heayulll yeeeaaahhhhh! 2.49 a brick, nice, thank you lowes

 

[CottonMouth]

Man I was just at Lowes earlier today, saw all the Burpee stuff and missed the coir bricks. That is good to know. FYI they also carry coco bricks at Petco in the critter bedding area.

-bakelite

Be careful using the pet bedding coco bricks. They are not treated the same way that the ones for growing plants are. They wash them to remove as many salts as they can, however they do not treat them for any bug issues. No kind of heat treatment or anything. I once used them and found a ton of fungus knats decided to have laid eggs in it. That is great for critters I suppose but not for growing. I also emailed the company and they told me that they flush for salts but no other care was taken for anything else. Not to mention it is alot more coarse than the GH bricks that I went to using and it was also more expensive, about $1 a brick.

CM

 

[bakelite]

Be careful using the pet bedding coco bricks. They are not treated the same way that the ones for growing plants are. They wash them to remove as many salts as they can, however they do not treat them for any bug issues. No kind of heat treatment or anything. I once used them and found a ton of fungus knats decided to have laid eggs in it. That is great for critters I suppose but not for growing. I also emailed the company and they told me that they flush for salts but no other care was taken for anything else. Not to mention it is alot more coarse than the GH bricks that I went to using and it was also more expensive, about $1 a brick.

CM

CM, Thanks for the info! I assumed it was the same stuff with different packaging. I bought a 3 pack a few months ago and have used one of the bricks in soil without issue (knock on wood). I always rinse my coir well, usually with very hot water. Maybe I was lucky. I'll probably go mail order or grab some on my next trip to the hydro shop.
-bakelite

 

[CottonMouth]

I guess I should add that I am not telling anyone not to use it, I am just saying that the pet bedding coco is not treated the same way as coco use for growing in.

If all you had access to is the pet version, I would do just what you did. Rinse, Rinse, and Rinse again with scolding hot water. That should take care of any pest they may be present and help with washing away the excess salts.

What Lowes did the OP find the burpee coco at. I went to two lowes local to me and neither one carried it and one of them looked at me like I had two heads when I tried to explain what a brick of coco was. They took me and showed me the pavers and really starting looking at me funny when I asked them how much water it would take to expand one of them. (I had to do that since they showed me paver stones) I even checked at home depot and the two wally worlds, and none of them carried any type of coco other than the premade basket pots made out of coco.

I guess it will be hydro shop only for me, its only 1.5 hours to the closest one.

CM

 

[bicyclebenny]

I found mine at Lowe's in NV. It's in a ~4x4 Burpee seed display in the garden supply section. It's hard to spot in the display-- kinda smaller than I was expecting-- maybe 4x2x8". It's sold as seedling starter medium, so it oughta be rinsed ok, I'd think. I haven't used it yet. It's lots more coarse than my usual b'cuzz that I love!

 

[Castelvetro]

i found theese about 3 months ago and posted it somewere, glad someone is going to find out if they work well, the price looks right.

 

[mosca negra]

Hey all! Been using Burpee coco Super Growing Cubes for several years. These are the best that I have seen and this is what I use for seeds starting & cloning. I will be doing a tutorial in my help desk in the next week. Please be sure to look for it!

Any ways I have cleaned out a few hardware stores that carry the New Burpee coco Bricks. The have not been available before and are a steal for $2.47. But I plan on using these for seeds & cloning only. Much more cost efficient than buying the Super Grow Cubes from Burpee. Please note that the Burpee coco does not need to be rinsed and is super easy to work with (much better than the bonicare or Sunleaves coco).

Let me know if anyone has any specific questions as I would be happy to help!

Mosca

 

[PistilPete]

Nice find. I'll have to check it out as i spend more on shipping than i do on coco.

 

[slappyjack]

Just bought two bricks today because I was short a few gallons.

1 brick is perfect for each 3 gallon container, and it seems to be high quality, which I can usually tell by smell. I did rinse it with hot water for about 5 minutes until runoff was clear.

This is such good news because it'll cut down on my hydro shop trips.

 

[slowandeasy]

Hey all! Been using Burpee coco Super Growing Cubes for several years. These are the best that I have seen and this is what I use for seeds starting & cloning. I will be doing a tutorial in my help desk in the next week. Please be sure to look for it!

Any ways I have cleaned out a few hardware stores that carry the New Burpee coco Bricks. The have not been available before and are a steal for $2.47. But I plan on using these for seeds & cloning only. Much more cost efficient than buying the Super Grow Cubes from Burpee. Please note that the Burpee coco does not need to be rinsed and is super easy to work with (much better than the bonicare or Sunleaves coco).

Let me know if anyone has any specific questions as I would be happy to help!

Mosca

I was wondering your method of seed starting thru veg? Never used Coco, only DWC for 10 years...so any tips are much appreciated!!

 

[ChickenChaser]

Just bought two bricks today because I was short a few gallons.

1 brick is perfect for each 3 gallon container, and it seems to be high quality, which I can usually tell by smell. I did rinse it with hot water for about 5 minutes until runoff was clear.

This is such good news because it'll cut down on my hydro shop trips.

How does quality coco smell? just asking cos I had some that had a strong smell.

 

[slappyjack]

How does quality coco smell? just asking cos I had some that had a strong smell.

IMO, it should smell pleasant, organic and not like gunpowder.

I had one bad batch of compressed coco that smelled very much like raw gunpowder. It had a tendency to kill any plant I put in it.

Anyway, I'm 12 days into flower with the burpee coco and everything is perfect.

 

[mosca negra]

slowandeasy- I use the same method for germing my seeds as well. Super Simple and works Great! Here is the link to my Fly Cloning Thread:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=161782

Cheers,

Mosca

 

[aasin527]

i haven't used these for canna yet, but i germed a flat of tomato seeds in thestarter flats. with 2 leftover peat pucks cause two coco cubes expanded beyond the mesh. anyway, tomatoes can take 7 to 10 days or more to germ. in the coco they were a couple inches out of the coco in less than a week. the two peat pucks had no visible activity at 1 week. it seems great. tons of air space and quick germination, healthy. i'll surely give it a shot with my canna seeds

 

[SocksRock]

Picked up 2 packs the other day; used 1brick of the 4 and seem to have enough medium for a while (mixed with 30% perlite and 10% soil because there was some at the bottom of the tub I used to mix).

Coco: Seems to be soil but without the negatives, AWESOME!

 

[Thundurkel]

So Mosca you'd say this stuff is better than Ready Gro Moisture Formula if I mixed it with some perlite? Also how much cheaper is it? How many bricks make a 1.5 cubic ft bag?

 

[slowandeasy]

Hey Thunder,
Just looked at my Burpee Coco for you. It says one package mixed with 4 1/2 quarts will expand to 8 quarts of Coco. So, about 2 gallons. Each pack is $2.47. This is my first time using coco, but compared to the Botonicare the Burpee is much finer. Almost like Coffee grounds. I does expand alot more than the Botonicare also. Not sure which is better for a full run, but seems to work well so far.

If you plan on buying alot, I will give you an insiders tip on how to save money at Lowe's or HD. Go down to the post office and ask for a few change of address forms. In each package there is a 10 percent off Coupon for Lowes.

Dont you use Smart Pots on some of your plants? Do you like them better? Not sure if they help or not. Good luck.