My organic coco recipe

[MrDank]

IMHO organic and natural nutrients provide the best flavors in cannabis. I recently switched to growing in coco, and when I made the switch I decided that I wanted to grow using natural and organic nutrients. The recipe I am going to provide you is what I have been using so far and I have been getting great results.

Keep in mind that my plants get 50-65w per sq/ft and that I hand water every 2-4 days, therefore my plants can handle a strong mixture so adjust accordingly




For Vegetative growth I start with this exact base mixture:

Per ONE Gallon water:
1.5 teaspoon Age Old Grow 12-6-6
1 teaspoon Age Old Kelp
1/2 teaspoon EJ Bloom
1/2 teaspoon EJ Catalyst
1 teaspoon Botanicare CalMag ***NOT ORGANIC***

Young transplants get diluted with 1/3-1/2 water



Flowering plants are hand watered in 5-gallon containers every 2-4 days. For flowering I use the following mixture:


Flowering
Per ONE Gallon water:
1.5 teaspoons Age Old Bloom 5-10-5
1 teaspoon Age Old Kelp
1 teaspoon EJ Bloom 0-3-1
1 teaspoon EJ Catalyst
1 teaspoon AN Sweet Leaf
1 teaspoon Botanicare CalMag ***NOT ORGANIC***


As we all know growing in coco you need to provide plenty of calcium to your plants. My plants grow very large, therefore i need to supplement plenty of calcium, and i find that Botanicare CalMag is a very effective way to prevent calcium or mg deficiencies. I did recently find that Botanicare has released an organic Calcium and an organic mg and I am going to replace the Calmag with those 2 new organic products, then making my feeding 99% organic.

I was told that you cant get as good flavor with coco like you can in soil. Well, I am here to say that the flavor is just as tasty. I use good organic nutes for my feeding, and I also flush well and find that flushing is a snap in coco since it is so porous and not near the build up occurs as it does in soil.

Here are some pics of some (mostly) organic coco from my first ever run with coco


OG Kush

 

[Highfromthelou]

I want to do coco but wanted it to be all organic and was told it would be hard. Looks like you have it figured out I wll def make note of this. is there a taste dif between coco and soil? I think all the plants I've seen grown in coco look so much better. I'm going to hand water myself so this will be great. great job brother.

 

[Brain]

Awesome I have been looking forward to this there. I'm Shmokin btw. You are obviously killing it so I feel you are the man to ask when it comes to organics and coco.

I have several questions:

What ph do you feed at?

Do you feed every watering?

What type of coco are you using? Are ther any amendments in it?

Have you noticed faster growth rates in coco?

I have over a years worth of experience with coco but have been using floranova and some organic supplements. I was all organic in rich soil mixes before that and I'd like to get back to it. I am in the planning process of a coco bed grow in mendo mix w/ some added perlite.

Thanks!!!!

 

[C21H30O2]

you are treating your coco like soil, which is fine but have you tried watering multiple times a day. Most people say this is when coco really shows her growth and yielding power. Many say its practically impossible to drown your plants in coco. I just set up a coco grow with a drip feed. I am gunna start them out at twice a week then every other day, every day, and depending on how they seem to tolerate it multiple times a day. keep in mind I amended my soil with EWC dolomite lime, blood meal, and kelp meal but in minimal quantities so that they would not hold onto to much water allowing for more watering.

 

[Dee9]

beautiful buds!

I could not get good results using organics in coco so i switched to inorganic fertilizers.

but you showed me it is possible - well done!

 

[MrDank]

the thing about most orgainc ferts is that they are not complete with all the micronutrients and good stuff. That's why I have lots of different additives. I think the CalMag and the Kelp goes a long long long ways in helping the plants

Highfromthelou - yes it's very possible to get good results. I think since it can be flushed out better, I feel that the coco tastes slightly cleaner but not quite as complex as the soil grown. But I am not complaining at all. Flavor is good and clean and very tasty. I am not switching back to soil. I have though tasted inorganic coco buds and I was not impressed with the flavor at all, the buds were faint and somewhat bland, they weren't bad by any means, just not impressive.

Brain -Thanks bro! sorry it took me so long to post this thread. I use Botanicare CocoGrow from the 5kg compressed bricks. I feed every watering, and do so when the coco loses half it's weight. They grow 2-3x faster than my previous soil methods, and it's been nearly 10 years since I have done hydro so I cant say there

C21H30O2 - I understand your point about watering more, but in my situation it is not really possible. I probably have 15 different strains flowering at all times, and they are all at different stages so it would probably not give me the best results to have all plants getting the same thing. Also, I don't know what my yields "should" be, but I will say that considering I run a lot of OG Kush's and other low yielding "elites" and they are all diff stages, I still am pulling easily 2#per K. Please do us a favor and keep us posted on how your next experiment works. Keep it up

Dee9 - time to switch back

 

[Thundurkel]

Yea I love Coco I grow under CFL's and using Coco has doubled my yield and the organic based nutes have given more flavor as well...

 

[Brain]

What's your thought behind the EJ bloom in a veg and flower? Lower ph? bump the PK levels?

thanks

 

[sound healer]

Yeah I'm wondering about going back to coco from a brief affair with soil...But I don't want to use home and garden a b if I do... I'd too like to just use my earth juice grow, bloom, catalyst, microblast line up. Will ph be alright? I never have to check it in soil...

 

[astartes]

Wow, thanks for posting this up Mr. Dank! I just switched to coco for a few runs with basic GH nutes. I've been looking to test the waters of organics and this looks well thought out.

I just have a couple quick questions for ya if you don't mind. Are you still mixing 4 gallons of nutes in a 5 gallon bucket, so the mix is only 80% strength?

Also, what does your early flower feeding schedule look like (ie, what week into flower do you drop the nitrogen-based for potassium-based ferts)?

And last but not least, how lean on nutes do you go during early flower on the OGs? The nodes don't look stretched at all, like on most OGs!

Thanks again for posting your recipe, as it looks to be a great place to start on the right track for organic coco.

astartes

 

[tribeca]

It appears you are getting stellar results with your first round at organic coco.I notice a few members have ask you about what ph your feeding these lovely girls.I was under the impression that organic nutes does not read on a ph/ec meters but I could be wrong.

 

[Brain]

PH is read easily, it makes no difference whether its organics or chem. EC does not show true strength with organics.

 

[Highfromthelou]

what kind of coco do you prefer and buy? yeah im definitely making the switch and will have to get some OG cause your killin it with that nute mix and the ladies are beautiful.

 

[forty]

looks nice! thanks for sharing your recipe.

 

[MrDank]

Brain - yes and yes, and I also use it to enhance flavor and boost yields

sound healer - you must bubble your mix to get the ph to 5.8. ph is so very important with coco

astartes - i mix my nutes to exactly 5 gallons instead of the 4 I used with soil. As far as the OG Kush being not as stretchy, I flower under approx 65w per sq/ft so that helps control the stretch. After 3 weeks of flower I increase the p and k by using the EJ bloom. With some strains towards the last week of feeding I start to dilute my mixture 1/3 because of decreased feeding.

Highfromthelou - Botanicare cocogrow

 

[swampdank]

I am at my first attempt at organic coco as well. So far so good in my book. I noticed that less medium is more and watering every day is key. I never thought to water more than once per day. Im game. I plan to set up a homemade drip system. I have to cutom make one to handle the larger particles found in my compost tea. I dont own a ph meter and never have. Thought about getting one but for now I am letting the microherd take care of everything. I was under the impression that as long as the coco doesnt dry out, salt buildup will not be a problem. Is this so?

My line-up is somewhat similar to yours Mr. Dank. Not quite as complete.
EJ Bloom, Grow, Microblast and Meta-K.
Plus, A kelp supplement and molasses.
Cal-Mag.
Also ammended with mushroom compost.

My history with my garden had been as organic as possible. Usually Sunshine mix and ammendments. I am treating the coco like soilless mix except watering with a dilute compost tea every day. Seems to be working so far and in about two weeks I will be able to judge the final product.

Can you make any suggestions that might prevent mishaps for me? I am loving the healthy green ladies and I think they are happy with the life they are living. Later today they will be placed under a 1k MH and I hope to see some quick growth from them.

Thanks for posting this thread. I hope you dont mind me using this as a homebase for my questions and results. I dont know if there is an organic coco thread yet. I havent looked into it yet. But we need one. I dont see myself doing well with refined nutrients and want to take advantage of the coco power.

Keep those pics and results,advice,expiriences coming please!!!!

SD

 

[Brain]

Awesome, Mr. D. I'll be converting my homemade table to a bed in the new year and using your recipe. I'm going to use a little mendo mix and a lot of basement mix. If you aren't familiar with these they have organic amendments and perlite added. I'll be bubbling the mix in my res.

Do you think mixing up 50 gal batches that take a while to use up will work? will it go bad?

 

[C21H30O2]

I am at my first attempt at organic coco as well. So far so good in my book. I noticed that less medium is more and watering every day is key. I never thought to water more than once per day. Im game. I plan to set up a homemade drip system. I have to cutom make one to handle the larger particles found in my compost tea. I dont own a ph meter and never have. Thought about getting one but for now I am letting the microherd take care of everything. I was under the impression that as long as the coco doesnt dry out, salt buildup will not be a problem. Is this so?

My line-up is somewhat similar to yours Mr. Dank. Not quite as complete.
EJ Bloom, Grow, Microblast and Meta-K.
Plus, A kelp supplement and molasses.
Cal-Mag.
Also ammended with mushroom compost.

My history with my garden had been as organic as possible. Usually Sunshine mix and ammendments. I am treating the coco like soilless mix except watering with a dilute compost tea every day. Seems to be working so far and in about two weeks I will be able to judge the final product.

Can you make any suggestions that might prevent mishaps for me? I am loving the healthy green ladies and I think they are happy with the life they are living. Later today they will be placed under a 1k MH and I hope to see some quick growth from them.

Thanks for posting this thread. I hope you dont mind me using this as a homebase for my questions and results. I dont know if there is an organic coco thread yet. I havent looked into it yet. But we need one. I dont see myself doing well with refined nutrients and want to take advantage of the coco power.

Keep those pics and results,advice,expiriences coming please!!!!

SD

there is a organic coco thread in the organic soil forum. I have a thread detailing my no bottle organic coco drip feed grow. The girls were showing nitrogen def. for a week or so but after getting my tea recipe right they are greening up super fast. Very happy with my new tea and the results. i water everyday drip to waste with organic teas every couple of days. Just started this setup but am very happy with the results. My next grow will be even better im sure. Amazing growth rates and no chem... got to love it.

 

[Brain]

Whats the difference between EJ Catalyst and AN sweetleaf?

 

[charlesweedmore]

can i use biobizz nutes with coco ? what must i add to coco to use biobizz organic nutes ?