the Hand Watering coco thread

[nzcocobro]

EC levels in "pre buffered" coco

EC levels in "pre buffered" coco

Hey team so i have read and researched coco extensively and i have probably read about this already but after reading so much some information leaks out. here's my question and concern.

so i have a large cheap coir brick im going to be using for my grow later in bigger pots. in the mean time i purchased an extra small sized premium brick by nulife for my propagation pots. it claims to be "pre charged" and pre buffered". when i washed it in water to expand it i tested the runoff EC and it came out at 1.0 EC now this concerned me because high EC means high salt ie poor preparation or washing prior to packaging? i actually flushed it heavily with PH'd water until the EC came out at about 0.6 no nutrients. once i transplanted my jiffy seedlings i gave a light nutrient feed. so it's got nutrients in it now and the plants are doing just fine.


but did i do something wrong by flushing it. should pre charged coco have a high EC? is this trace elements like calmag that's been added during prep. because i read people saying," DON'T EVER FLUSH A PRE CHARGED BRICK IT RUINS THE CATION EXCHANGE AND BUFFER". but then i also read people talking about flushing cheap bricks because they have lots of salt and a high EC. so im a bit confused. basically i don't trust canna or nulife and their claims that you don't need to treat the brick at all just add water when the EC comes out so high. isn't the high base EC an issue. could any experts here offer some information here? thanks so much. always learning.

 

[Cocolores]

Cheap not pre charged coco comes with a seawater EC. If you read an EC of 1 than that is ok.
Imagine that not everyone want to start their seedlings or cuttings in coco, some people use it for repotting older plants or after using rockwool in the early stage.
What you did was probably an unnecessary game, removing salts and than adding salts again.
EC 1 isnt high enough to harm your seedlings, they may slow down a little bit but thats it.

 

[GrimyGreasy]

The issue is the ‘cheap’ unbuffered coco’s EC is made up largely of sodium from sea water, so not all EC readings are equal so to speak. I use cheap brick coco- rehydrate it in a bucket of tap water, strain the coco out, wash once more, then soak over night in a bucket of water with 2mL of cal-mag per L. Strain and it’s ready to use.

 

[Captain_Kresh]

hey B-OG, I'm fairly new to growing but love it so much but just cant get it right. my plants don't look vibrant and alert. They don't seem to be getting very high. Although getting very bushy. I don't understand why. Some times when l feed them I feed in at 6.0 ph and sometimes drops to like 5-5.4. Why does this happen. Its driving me nuts. Its happened in all of my grows. caant figure it out.

 

[Wickedowl]

When a seedling is developing its roots in coco, you need to let it dry out between waterings. Once the root is established then the coco should never be dry. And depending on plantsize, rootsize/container size, and other factors, by the end of flower you should be feeding multiple times a day... Otherwise there is no point to use coco instead of soil. And you dont need to water to runoff either if you are feeding multiple times a day. You gotta dial it in to how much the plant is eating and transpiring compared to how much the root mass and medium can hold per feed. No runoff needed, but you have to make sure you are keeping the coco moist to prevent any salt build and to keep the oxygen through the moisture more readily absorbed.

Thank you. Perfect

 

[Mountainkush]

Thank you to everyone that contributed to this thread. I read it twice start to finish before switching from soil and I’m loving the explosive growth in flower. Bagged/buffered coco and canna coco a&b have made this the easiest grow I’ve ever done. Seems most people on here having issues are trying to use non coco specific nutes. They may want to take the OP advice and save some headaches.

 

[Cocolores]

When a seedling is developing its roots in coco, you need to let it dry out between waterings. Once the root is established then the coco should never be dry. And depending on plantsize, rootsize/container size, and other factors, by the end of flower you should be feeding multiple times a day... Otherwise there is no point to use coco instead of soil. And you dont need to water to runoff either if you are feeding multiple times a day. You gotta dial it in to how much the plant is eating and transpiring compared to how much the root mass and medium can hold per feed. No runoff needed, but you have to make sure you are keeping the coco moist to prevent any salt build and to keep the oxygen through the moisture more readily absorbed.

Wrong advice.
Never let the coco dry out, doesnt matter if its a clone or a seedling.
In a turbo cloner, in an aero flo system or in a DWC system roots never get a dry out phase.
Why should that be different in coco when it is treated like a hydro grow? There is no reason for letting the coco dry. The seedling or clone will thrive even under a constant running trip watering. You build a hydro root system which is different to a root system that requires a wet/dry cycle and that starts right at the beginning.
You run into problems when you start to water multiple times a wet/dry root system and also when you let a hydro root sytem dry out.

 

[HalfArsedFarmer]

Grown in CoCo that was let get to a moist state not totally dry as no plant should be let dry out but not sodden either...

 

[Cocolores]

When i said dry i meant it in the sense of harmless and useful dry. The way it sould be in a soil grow.
In a hydro grow however you keep the state of a sodden and saturated media from beginning to the end.
Btw its a safe way bc underwatering and overwatering is impossible to happen.

 

[HalfArsedFarmer]

In a drip system with Clay pepples you only start with little feedings once twice a day so not sodden in that hydro system.



The same as NFT you only run the pump once or twice a day untill the root system is there in the matt to take being sodden.


DWC is best to hand water the plants at the start again until the root system is out from the bottom of the net & can take sitting in the water.


Just my opinion and 20 years plus of doing this & never loosing a plant to my medium being too wet.

 

[Alexphillips]

thanx for the tips
it is easy to re-use coco if you do not want to buy it again. do not through coco. add them into the soil to increase the water holding capacity of soil.

i have 4 pots full of half soil and half coco, nice combination

 

[NzGreenWhanau]

Nice thread

 

[710slickxx]

I love this thread. Im about 5 weeks into flower, what should my ppm runoff be? It was reallly high earlier (3500ish) and i dropped her down to 1700ish... i flushed using 1/3rd strengh nutes

 

[packerfan79]

How often do you guys water during the flush?

I have been having to flush for almost 3 weeks before I got any fade.

I am in 1 gallon hempys. Handwatered almost every day. I am using Veg & Bloom. It's high in n nitrogen. I am going to switch nutes next round.

 

[sk8rdad]

I can’t believe I finally read all 196 pages of this thread and I get to be the 1958th comment for my first post on this site. I was directed here from someone on reddit, really glad cause I finally found a place to get real info and not feel like 80% or better of the “tips” are trolls.
So to start I need to say thank you to bonecarver_OG for coming up with the idea to make this thread for handwatering coco. Then I want to thank everyone who asked anything over the years and more importantly ALL those who contributed opinions. Even though there is controversial items on the agenda in regards to having a transplant and watering schedule, I feel most people in this thread agreed on better practices based on certain situations. And everyone has always seemed to be willing to help even those who had just found the information themselves and not sure but wanting to spread what knowledge they thought they could.
I feel confident moving forward on my first ever grow (for cannabis and as a gardener in general) using coco as my medium. Even after learning of ph and EC readings (had no idea EC had both 500 and 700 reading measurements �� always just thought .5=500ppm and 1.0 was 1000ppm) I still feel the whole thing is a little daunting but I’m happy I haven’t jumped the gun and germinated any seedlings without my ph/EC meters. I’m gonna try to figure out how to make a thread here to get help finalizing my grow space and determining best nutrient choices based off what’s in my local hydroponic shop for ease of mind when I need more ��
After the last few weeks reading this thread I feel like I am ready and thirsty for more knowledge and would appreciate a nudge in the direction of the next best thread to check out for a new cannabis gardener/new to gardening in general.

Ps. I am new to the idea of everything but have been constantly researching plant life cycles and needs and spent time on sites like www.growweedeasy.com so basic understanding is there and I’ve focused on attaining knowledge on training and how to be ready. But you can honestly never know enough and never stop learning


Really bummed I haven’t seen mgk or bonecarver in the 2019 posts, but then again with all this knowledge is there really much else to add here for handwatering?

 

[kamyo]

I can’t believe I finally read all 196 pages of this thread and I get to be the 1958th comment for my first post on this site. I was directed here from someone on reddit, really glad cause I finally found a place to get real info and not feel like 80% or better of the “tips” are trolls.

Hi, friend. Also on reddit (/r/microgrowery, but not super active). IC has over a decade of the best cannabis-related information you can find. Welcome to the site and enjoy the hours of reading you'll do.

On the topic of hand-watering coco, that's what I'll be doing soon. Waiting for this round of hand watering light warrior/perlite and then it'll be coco. I knew I wanted to bottle feed and thought a peat based mix would be okay, but it just holds too much water for me. Will be sure to throw in my experience when the time comes.

 

[sk8rdad]

I do enjoy browsing microgrowery to see how different experiments are going, my first run has begun and I read he3d’s 6/9 formula so gonna use that. Handwater to waste with simple nutes to mix makes it easy for myself and for my plant sitters cause I have a holiday happening soon. The coco thread, he3d’s thread and this have given me so much knowledge. I’m off to find more

 

[420bears]

i hand water my coco once a day its a pain in the ass but its working im keeping my ppms to about 600 im in flower its looking good week 3 flower under 2 315w cmh 3100k bulbs in 5 gallon grow bags

 

[Slashemup]

Hard to beat a fresh feed every day.

 

[infrasound70]

Hi guys. I am a grower here in the Philippines and I grow in coco/pumice/perlite. I do not have an autowatering system yet and I hand water two times a day.