How to sterilize coco, is it needed? tried searching...

[1love1earth]

So I tried a search and didn't see anything, I've got some coco, and am seriously considering a 100% coco medium grow. I picked up a 20lb bale from a local place, and there's no branding whatsoever, just a shrink wrapped 20lb brick of coco. They had them just sitting outside, and I'm wondering if it wouldn't be best to sterilize this before growing in it, just to be safe. I've done this with all my dirt that I have my seedlings in currently by baking the dirt in the oven for 1hr or so.

My question is, should I sterilize the coco? If so, what is the easiest/best way to go about doing it? I can think of a few ways, none of which seem extremely easy.

#1. would be to get a helluva lot of boiling water, and just pour it over the dry coco. The problem is that this would involve ALOT of boiling water. Not that I need to sterilize all 20 lbs at once by any means...

#2. would be to hydrate the coco, and then bake it in the oven. A few concerns arise here, #1 is that if the coco dried out quickly, I could start a fire, #2, I don't want to damage the coco, and I'm not sure how well this is going to work.

Do folks here like to sterilize coco? How would you go about doing it?

Finally, lets say for flowering indoors, I'll use 5 gallon pots, how much "dry coco" does it take to fill up one 5 gallon pot? Lets assume that the dry coco will be hydrated, then placed in the pot.

Very last, I've got the intention of growing in a bunch of keg cups, I have 80 seedlings that will end up going to three different places (and there will be 4 fem strains with 2-4 seedlings each added):
#1. plants that don't make the "cut" will be placed outdoors, hence the large seedling population
#2. best looking female plants will be clone mothers for outdoor 2008 grow
#3. the good looking females will be used to flower indoors, likely 1-2 per strain, across 5-8 different strains... these will be transplanted into 5 gallon pots and grown in pure coco indoors.

So while I've got a bunch of keg cups, should I grow in soil, or coco? I'm going to guess that soil will be easier, and a whole lot less work, the plants might take over a coco keg cup waaaay too quickly, and make my window harder to hit. If folks have used 18 oz keg cups with coco, how does it go?

 

[Guest 18340]

I personally use Botanicare brand Coco. I dont sterilize, i just give it a good rinse. I would venture to say that if you buy some no name Coco, then wash the hell out of it. Just like with soil, you get what you pay for.
As for whether soil is easier than Coco, if you dont mind frequent watering then Coco is just as easy as soil. But for all the watering i do i get some amazing growth. I've read on other forums that growth is on par with some hydro systems and i beleive it.
In the pic, the brick size fills a 2 and a half gallon bucket and the big bale fills 4 5gallon buckets. Hope that helps


(thats the mrs in the background stirring ravioli's )

 

[PharmaCan]

One of the problems with no-name coir is that it is taken from areas near the coast and has a high salt content. Honestly, it isn't worth screwing with. A 50 liter bag of Canna or Botanicare is under $20. Considering the value of what you are growing...

I saw a photo one time where a guy did a SOG in 18 oz cups with coco. The grow was one of those strains that grows into a single cola, and he had like 3' colas coming out of each cup. It was awesome! Anyway, it has been done, but I haven't a clue how. Maybe if you search thru the grow logs you can find someone who has grown that way.

Good luck!

PC

 

[smoke1sun]

Ive seen a a mico sog thread, and the person used cut 20oz bottles with soil, and with the root growth in coco i think the 18oz cups should be fine. Try it with a few in different size pots and see what yeilds you get, should be fun. Ohh and save me the hassle post your results here

 

[1love1earth]

mmmm was hoping that wasn't the case, but this is for sure "no name" coco. I wouldn't trust the hydro store anyways if they told me otherwise.

Regardless, price and all, I might just pick up a some canna coco.

Just so I can do the math and figure out what I need...

A 50 liter bag will cover exactly how many "pot" gallons when hydrated?


I guess I should have thought it through with the coco and done my research first, consider this my first mistake, though $20 for 20lbs of coco isn't as bad as it could have been. It'll likely make its way into a garden somewhere and grow some very very nice tomatos this summer, and the summer after that, and so forth.

 

[smoke1sun]

i dont think you should toss it, you will just have to do more work to get it ready. If it were me i would just flush the hell out of it with ph adjusted water. Or if you have a ppm meter(I dont) you could ph the water. Test it then test the runoff to see were you are at.

 

[1love1earth]

i dont think you should toss it, you will just have to do more work to get it ready. If it were me i would just flush the hell out of it with ph adjusted water. Or if you have a ppm meter(I dont) you could ph the water. Test it then test the runoff to see were you are at.

well, I know my tap water is pretty decent, so I flushed it a loooong time with cold running water, like for an hour or two, just for a large strainers worth.

Then I hit it with a bunch of boiling water, and flushed it with cold water again.

 

[riverrat7]

I use canna coco and dont rinse. No problems so far. I also recycle it after a simple flush with cold water. It works fine the second and third times and probably more. Never needed to sterilize as my plants have always been healthy. Coco's simple as if you buy a good brand.

 

[1love1earth]

yeah, so I transplanted 12 plants into keg cups with coco.

After rinsing the coco, I just mixed some olivia's root juice and mollasses in a big bowl with about a gallon of water and watered that into the mass of coco, then I poured a little more water to be safe, and started making my cups.

The one thing I will ask, how tight to folks pack in the coco? How much do you pack it in to your container?

Only because I noticed the coco drains like no other.

 

[Guest 18340]

Sounds like you rinsed pretty well, should'nt have any problems. I pack mine in as if i were packing dirt <-Sounds perverted.) And yeah, coco drains very well. So well, infact, that its almost impossible to overwater. Almost. Very close to impossible, if i were a betting man.
One thing i saw alot of people here do and that i recommend is to put some rocks or hydroton in the bottom of the pots. Eventually, the rocks on the bottom help stop the coco from running out the holes when you water.
I'm new to Coco as you are, i just followed some sound advise given here in this forum, and i have yet to have ANY issues. A testament to some very knowledgable growers here and coco is awesome shit.

 

[smoke1sun]

followed some sound advise given here in this forum, and i have yet to have ANY issues. A testament to some very knowledgable growers here and coco is awesome shit.

I agree with you on this very hard to lose a plant in coco. its very forgiving. Roots love it. So do I. All hail coco

 

[Greyskull]

Glad you were able to figure out what to do with the coco you had on hand. I use Canna straight out of the bag myself, and must say I like it way better than rockwool & soil.

BTW, a 50l bag packs 12 1G containers for me...

Curious how that no name coco works for you....

 

[1love1earth]

I wasn't too sure about it, so I picked up some canna coco. It was much finer, much more ground up, the other coco was spoungy but had mostly chips and large fiber.

So I replaced what I could in the ones I transplanted with canna coco, and transplanted the other plants into canna. The other coco seems interesting though, it is much more "loose", and less dense, even when packing it.

The canna is much more moist and fluffy, whereas the no-name was super compressed and dry in a brick.

I do wonder what would happen if you ground up the no-name a bit in a blender or grinder.

Regardless, don't have time to mess around with all that. I'm going to need another bag however. Started some seeds directly in coco keg cups today, much easier than going from dirt in little cells and transplanting.

Fed the transplanted guys with a little rhizotonic and hygrozyme, I think 1/4 the dosage on the bottle per gallon.

 

[Guest 18340]

You could try a side x side comparrison with the no name coco and the Canna Coco.
Canna is probably the best quality Coco out their, imo
Good luck and do post some pics

 

[1love1earth]

I could, but one big concern I have with the noname, is that it drains alot quicker, it is much less dense, and not nearly as fine.

Might be real real good for hydro or a drip system of sorts.

The material does hold water, and is spoungy.

I'm thinking about just taking the rest of it and using it to grow tomatos.

 

[1love1earth]

planted directly into coco:

3 mandala #1, 3 lemon skunk, 3 "the church", 3 AMS, 2 more Big Bang (a few of the BB's I have already aren't looking so hot, first set of true leaves is yellow/dying, but new growth seems ok, the plants were just transplanted, and were perhaps a tiny bit underwatered, but will likely be ok),

all of those are fem, and I also planted another 2 hashberry, just for kicks.

That was yesterday, so they should come up soon, most had shown taproots after 24 hrs in paper towels.

 

[tngreen]

good call on the switch, i like the fine coco much better! the coarse coco just doesnt do well in a smaller pot environment. i can see it doing well outdoors though. you are gonna love coco, i know im hooked. get some pics up!

 

[Guest 18340]

I grew Hashberry in dirt last year and let me tell you, they are VIGOROUS growers. I can only imagine how well their gonna do in coco. Infact, i got a few of them seeds left, i may have to go ahead and put them in coco. Would love to see pics of yours when they come up

 

[smoke1sun]

evlme2 i grew hashberry in coco with cns-17 no additives opps 1 additive hydrogaurd and they love very easy to grow roots growing up out of the coco, in high heat.

 

[knna]

For young plants with small root systems (seedling and clones), try to use a safe medium, or chances of getting an infection are high.

Apart of it, you can use the compressed brick perfectly, just mix it with the cannacoco.

The most practical way of avoiding infections when using coco is adding trichodermas, its a benefical fungui wich protects roots. You can add it directly to the media, or adding it through the watering. One early inoculation is enough. Cannacoco already have tricodermas in it, but i still add tricodermas to it.