my coco doesnt look like everybody else's

[Guest]

well i bought a bag, and its somewhat larger that what i see on here.. will it still work?

here's what i'm using.. http://www.htgsupply.com/productdetail.asp?productID=514

using botanicare pro grow and i've recently switched to using rain water, no more ph worries. it's always in the range of 5.8 - 6.1.

 

[Guest]

that'll work fine. I'd like to see a pic of the actual product if you have one, the description says chunky, so I'm thinking you might get better aeration than regular coir fiber.

As with all coco, if you aren't sure how well they cleaned it of excess salt at the factory, flush it well.

 

[Ono Nadagin]

sunleaves is great stuff but needs to be thuroughly flushed to remove a high salt content... I mix coarse coco such as sunleaves 50/50 with a finer grind and enjoy it ..

Also be careful with rainwater and always test it.. it will not always be the correct PH...

Oldpeculiar... it is about the same grind as Atamis Bcuzz Bounce blosks that I use

Atamis Bcuzz Bounce coco(coarse)

Botanicares coco(fine)

Both mixed 50/50

 

[Guest]

picture 1--> http://www.hidebehind.com/F2B9A7F0
picture 2--> http://www.hidebehind.com/B3837AC0



thats a number two pencil for size comparison.. seems like it should be fine, I've done tests, flood it and see how long it takes to dry.. seems alright.

i started my seed in their super plugs (http://www.sunleaves.com/detail.asp?sku=SSSP355#) so we'll see how it goes. test dummy.

 

[Guest]

How do you plan on watering?

 

[Guest]

Hand watering for now. possibly a drip system in my flowering box.

 

[Ono Nadagin]

I would mix it well.... have you emptied the bag out fully... is there finer coco at the bottom? if not I would buy a 5kilo block of botanicare cocogro coco and mix em together

 

[Guest]

yeah its all the same. i dumped it all out and flushed it in a large container until it stopped bleading a redish runoff.

 

[Guest]

looks like it's be perfect for drip, see a lot of growers using coco croutons in drip which is a slightly larger chunk than what you have there. Think I'd mix it with a finer grade like Ono said for hand water to waste

 

[Ono Nadagin]

Yeah it will owrk just as is... not much diff in size from straight Hydrotron... the plants will still get a strong footing in it ... but I am glad I mixed the two as the coarse pot dries out much faster than the mixed coco... if you are hand watering this can really bite you and your plants in the ass fast causing lock out

 

[SEEDYNONO]

yep yep yep i don't like the all chunk approach myself..

go get the botanicare or even the regular sunleaves block and mix it in!

 

[Ono Nadagin]

yeah I have tried to tell my hydroshop that sunleaves makes a coarse coco but they keep grabbin small bricks and smug looks then tell me 'Nah its a fine grind... just like botanicare'.

 

[thc43]

canna coco if you want consistancy..

Bcuzz isnt bad but what ive used doesnt look like Bcuzz above..



Just make sure you flush your coarse coco well, maby sive out the huge particals and run canna buffer through it once your getting alow ec reading or has been flushed for an hour or so. Roots wont go anywhere near the big chunks of husk and likley that your coco hasnt been flushed enough to use straight away.. The only cocos ive found that can be used straight from bag are canna bcuzz(fine steamed) and hygen with neem. richgrow, growth tech, dutch master all had quite high ec and not something id like to start clones or seedlings in,.

 

[Ono Nadagin]

Bcuzz bounce is diff than reg Bcuzz coco by Atami... Bounce is a 8"8" square block about 3-4 inches think and is fairly coarse... and imo we should just be telling everyone that coco needs to be thuroughly flushed to remove salts ... this will solve sooo many ppls problems before they arise

 

[gaiusmarius]

indeed ono nadagin. the initial flush is a must in salty coco, and you can't measure the salt till its soaked and running water out the bottom. so no coco slab will get used without first getting saturated with ph 6.0 tap water on my table, lol.

 

[aeric]

The problem with the chunks isn't that they dry out too quick IMO but that they don't absorb water quickly enough, so handwatering is problematic, and salts accumulate easier, also due to its' structure. Adding even 1/3 or as much as 1/2 fiber coco gives it more time to absorb. Agreed B'cuzz is probably the best treated to use straight out of the bag. But the fine stuff is too fine, better mixed with coarse. Botanicare's and sunleaves regular is in between, with plenty of longer fibers.

I wouldn't try to flush straight chunks for the same reasons as stated above, but rather soak a few hours to a day and then drain them, then repeat that a few times.

It looks like this coco thing is catching on I'm glad to say. Finally the shops are wising up where even a year ago I got alot of confused looks.

 

[rabid]

I bet nobody's coco looks like this...

I bet nobody's coco looks like this...

Here's some Thai coco from the local nursery. Don't know if it came from the coastal area or up-country (less salt)??? Both the pith coir and super-chunks were ~3.5-5 EC before soaking with 6.3 Ph well-water.

The top pic is chunks in a 20 gallon tub. Bottom pic is a 25 kilo bag.

After a 10 day soak the EC was down to < 0.2 and Ph bang on 6.0

This stuff costs around $2 for 25 kilos...

I'll do a side-by-side run with Botanicare CocoGrow next week and see how it turns out

 

[notjonesinNEmor]

Profit disk coco. Seems to be a mix of fine and coarse. Much better than the coffee ground looking Sunleaves brick I tried a couple of years ago.