Canna coco brick vs bag

[Rgd]

I bought a pile of coarse Jiffy slabs a decade ago

.the first few I bought from different place did not need charging

the pile I bought for cheap gave my test plants the serious “uglies”.. until charged them

with 200 ppm cal nit..then its fine..I still use it..

 

[Rgd]

I would have smashed it with a hammer then put it back in the water over night

I smashed it with a larger than hammer and it just made it worse..

after trying several more times I chucked it

 

[cfl...KING]

Have 120L of coco bricks soaking now. I truly do love my new custom pots only have to fill up to 8in an they are 3gal food grade plastic. going to switch to 18 3gal pots. Fits perfectly under each hood, 3x3 foot print

 

[mean mr.mustard]

Regarding CALMAG - this is an old grower's trope.
No informed cannabis grower should be using calmag in 2023. If your nutrient line can't provide enough calcium and magnesium in their 2 part system, they're just milking you for a 3rd bottle.

Regarding charging your coco- just use your regular nutrient solution at an EC of 1.8-2. At a commercial scale we would get sling bags of coco/perlite, dump a bunch into a bin and wet it down with fertilizer solution. Next, we'd do all of our transplants then feed each pot to runoff. Thats it, works like a charm. At home with the compressed blocks, I use 4-5 gallons of nutrient solution at EC of 2 for expanding the block. After all transplants are done, feed each pot to runoff.

I use salts in a one part so I guess my calmag is the second part.

They are made by two different companies so I don't think that I am a victim of being milked for the extra dime.

I don't use calmag and I see less favorable results than when I do use calmag.

I guess I am just old, but thanks for trying... I'm sorry if I offend anyone but I will continue to use calmag.

To the point of topic, I have never bought bagged coco. The bricks aren't rocket science and the compressed size is much easier to move than the bagged coco.

 

[Ca++]

Coco bricks are a nice fall back for me. Bagged coco works out about 27p per litre as opposed to 17p for bricks. But factoring in soaking time and buying calmag - my water is 3:1 and 0.5ec so don’t need it for growing day to day - it’s just not worth the aggro. But nice to have a couple standing by.

We get them now do we? We didn't when I last looked.
Just clean water they say. They're already buffered. It's the cogr slabs, need the special attention.


If they go hydrophobic, you could try a wetting agent. They may never take on water until you do

 

[mean mr.mustard]

Oh I totally missed the name brand part of the title

Don't mind me... I'm high.

If I couldn't get bricks I would probably switch mediums altogether...

Good luck out there!

 

[Lumpy-Gravy]

We get them now do we? We didn't when I last looked.
Just clean water they say. They're already buffered. It's the cogr slabs, need the special attention.


If they go hydrophobic, you could try a wetting agent. They may never take on water until you do

It’s the salty bricks full of coco ‘peat’. They definitely need washing and buffering. I don’t use them anyway anymore. Too much pissing about. I didn’t even know Canna did bricks. Just the slabs that I assume are pretreated like the loose bagged stuff.

 

[LostTribe]

Whatever I’m feeding with. Usually 5.9ish
If I was to make up solution just for hydrating bucks I’d use 5.6 as it’ll rise in the coco as it drys once planted.
And the 2 gallons is per 20l envelope. With 2 gallons it’ll be nice and fluffy, not soggy or too dry.

Gotta remember this. You feeding tap or RO and how much calmag to wet them?

 

[sohung21]

I've been playing with the Canna-Coco bricks for a year now... One thing I noticed is 5pH runoff. I've ran canna-coco fiber under hot tap water for 3-4 minutes, still the coco remains 5 pH. It is too acidic. It works, but it is not "perfect" or ideal for that matter. I water with Jacks 321 which is usually 6.0-6.5 pH in the reservoir. I have added products like calcium carbonate and soft rock phosphorus to increase pH. That can quickly become a problem without the correct calculation for Ca per gallon of coco. I will accidentally have a coco fiber at 8 pH because I added too much calcium carbonate. yay...

My current recipe is one brick at 20 Liters about 6 gallons fluffed-expanded requires no more than 3 grams of soft rock phosphorus. How you choose to mix this small amount of Calcium into the coco is up to you. I like to add gypsum at 40 grams per gallon, that's about 240 grams gypsum per brick. Seems to be easiest to put the small amount of soft rock phosphorus into the same bowl of gypsum. I will dry my coco on a carboard box. This makes it easier to dust the coco with the calcium. The other option is to "inject" it into the coco. Take the brick and get it soaked in a big bucket, and then water in the calcium, slosh the mixture around like a brownie batter, finally drain the coco for use.

Gypsum WON'T RAISE OR LOWER pH.

I hate top dressing or top watering Calcium because it remains stuck at the top of the coco pots. It's counter productive because the calcium will build up at the top, without ever reaching the rootzone. DO NOT ADD ANY CALCIUM TO HYDRO OR DRIP FEED. All calcium builds up on surfaces over time, very quickly.

If you wanna convert the coco into a semi organic medium without adding manure, get some Aurora Roots Terp Tea. Pink Bag 3-7-4. Add 10 grams of Terp Tea per gallon, for a coco mix that is pH 6.0-6.4. Don't add Soft Rock Phosphorus if using Terp Tea. Terp Tea already has Soft Rock Phosphorus in the ingredients. DON'T TOP DRESS, mix into the coco fiber before any planting for real results. I like Terp Tea because it has Beneficial Bacteria and Mycorrhizae for quick root growth.

I hope that helps, let me know what you guys think.