Unofficial Coco Coir Growers Thread

[gaiusmarius]

Hi acidblue

Hi acidblue

Good question about the drippers, I like to know myself.
Thinking of switching to coco and a drip system.
My local hydrostore caries the Grotek coco fro Gh, which
i hear is ok stuff, just needs to be flushed.

when you have a table full of new coco slabs or pots of new coco, then you water them for the first time with ph adjusted tap water until the medium is saturated and starts to run out the bottom. once all the coco is fully soaked with pure water, then measure the return ec. if it's not higher then 1.4 you are ok to start with the ferts. if the ec is way high, which some coco can be, then just keep flushing water through until the return goes down.

Right now im doing some durban in an ebb & flow setup
with rapid rooters in netcups surrounded with clay pebbles.
Can I use coco in an ebb & flow?

coco is not a good medium for ebb and flow systems.

Can I put the coco in the
netcups and place them in the flood table on top clay rocks?
or would a drip system be better?

you could use the coco for your net cups, but it will not stay in the net pots well due to it's consistency, which is like earth. but i don't think the small amount of coco in the net pots would really make a difference.

in the end the best way to run coco, is to use it in it's pure form with a dripper set up. coco just seems to love drippers.

I have a 159 gph pump i can use it's adjustable so i can raise or
lower to my needs or is that too much for 4 plants?
and what kind of timers are you guys using?
What are your drip times?

basically i let the pump run for 3 or 4 minutes at a time, because that's all it takes to get the water running out the bottom again. from the day i plant them on the coco slabs i set my digital timer to run 4 times a day for 3 minutes each time. as i have my tank under the table drain all the return water gets collected and recirculated. if you are talking about 4 big plants then i'd give each plant 3 or 4 drippers and make a bed of coco for them to grow in. or big pots. any digital timer will do it.

some Sour Diesel v3, i'm enjoying at the moment. a superb tasting pheno. you will not believe how tasty she is...

 

[acidblue]

Ok thanks..
Its a drip system then--a trip to the hydro store yippie!
I have a digital timer i'm using for my ebb & flow i'll i got
at home De Pot. i just need to get some drip line and some pots
Gonna grap one of those drip manfolds i saw at the other hardware
stoe , OSH i think. my local Home De Pot dosn't carry them.
Would 2 gal pots be big enough?
Would like to do bato buckets or somthing simular

 

[gaiusmarius]

sure 2 gallon pots should be good, coco doesn't need such large amounts of medium. so you can grow some large plants in 2 gal pots.

 

[stikky budz]

gaiusmarius : Is it safe to assume you dont get any bits of coco fibres being released through the drain holes of your slabs,,and so with the water being recirculated there's no risk of blocked drippers or lines??

 

[gaiusmarius]

no that's not a safe assumption lol. i have a stocking clamped to my drain pipe, this collects the lose coco that comes out of the bottom of my slabs at the beginning. i also have a particle filter after the pump, so any tiny bits that might get through the stocking will get stopped by the filter before it can block the dripper lines. like that your drippers will run. control your drippers between harvests.

 

[stikky budz]

ah right. :smile:

Hmmm,,,,,i might do a recirculating dripper set -up the first time i use my drippers on a N.F.T tray 'n res ~ i s'pose the slabs sat on spreader mat should take care of any loose particles ~ what do you think?

 

[gaiusmarius]

yes spreader mat is a great idea. been meaning to try this myself, it will keep the table looking like new too, lol.

 

[jimjay]

Is a e.c. of 1.8 o.k. for white widow in its first week of flower? Should i go any higher then this?

 

[Guest]

I use a burlap cloth to line the bottom of my pots. avail at home depot its about 10 bux for a big roll. I line the bottom of the pots and put a layer of hydroton, then the coco mix. I don't get any particles comin out of the pots.

 

[gaiusmarius]

Jimjay, if i went to 1.8 with my WW clone, i'd be in big trouble. my particular ww is a very low feeder. but dps ww feeds pretty normally. in the end it depends on how your plants are reacting up to now, if you feel they look good, not too dark leaves, then you should continue as you have been. the plants will either have gotten used to it or they will show you their displeasure. just remember that the fan leaves should have a healthy green color, not too dark green, nor too light. pics would make it much easier to advise.

GroNut, that's another nice tip for folks growing in pots this time. in the end it doesn't matter how you stop the coco crumbs landing back in the tank, as long as you do, lol. my stocking system has the added advantage that there is a lump of coco in the stocking in the tank and the micro life can cultivate that space increasing the beneficials in my tank. it also stops the water making a dripping noise when it drops back into the tank.

 

[jimjay]

Thanks. I will try and get pics up tonight. They are pretty dark though.

 

[jimjay]

Night time

I have only seen this on a couple leves around the bottom. Also a couple leaves were completely rolled up around the bottom.

 

[gaiusmarius]

your plants look well fed, but not actually overfed. so they have no excuse not to do well, eh?

when it comes to my ww, i can feed her up to only ec 1.4 in the first 2 weeks of 12/12, then i have to take the ec down to 1.1 for 14 days, then i slowly work my way up to 1.3 and leave it there till it's time to flush. but like i say my ww is a very strange plant it will not grow decent duds if you don't do it my way. but i have seen dp's ww being grown superbly well with very high ec levels. MoS for example used to shock me with his ec levels of 3.5 and even 4.0 in his aero flow and he got massive buds. so watch your plants and keep them happy. new growers often do too much and end up harming the yield instead of increasing it.

happy holidays

 

[gaiusmarius]

a bit of damage on the lowest leaves, is nothing to worry about as long as the top parts look the way they should. coco seems to do well with not too much ferts.

 

[bonecarver_OG]

gaius

im going to setup a coco slab system with drippers - recirculating. i thought of having 3-4 trays setup close together with one big collecting tray with the pump - pumping it up to the slabs. im going to try to find a big as possible container for the rez.

its going to be fun

if u have any tips on the slabs and drippers id be very happy for some more info what size tubes do u use, the pump potency and freqencies of watering.

im most likelly not going to use more than 600 - 1200w in flowering.

even if its not going to be extremely solid buds it should cover my needs for a while forward

i count on around 30 + females from seed if everything goes well + a number of clones yet to decide.

 

[gaiusmarius]

you need a pump that goes with the drippers you buy.

in my setup i work with the fine spagetty drippers, i use 2.5cm LDPE pipe for my main water line, i punch holes and stick one end of the dripper line in that hole. the ldpe hose is made of a material that shrinks the holes water tight after you stick the spagetti line in. the other important thing is to have a very good quality particle filter after the pump so no coco debry ends up blocking the drippers. it's also best to have a stocking on your return, so the run off coco gets collected in the stocking and the tank stays clean.

 

[-VT-]

What size holes do you punch?

 

[gaiusmarius]

there is a special hole puncher that they sell, but you can use a normal hole puncher, its the smallest or second smallest thingy that makes the right hole size. but even a nail will do it if you can stop it going right through and making another hole in the bottom side of the pipe. this ldpe hose is cool in that it shrinks the holes tight. all within reason of course. in the end it will depend what system your supplyer has. there are quite a few systems. the cool thing about the spagetti system is that there is no valve so a normal sump pump will do the trick with quite a nice size system, where as the systems that use a valve between the pipe and the dripper require you to use the bigger pumps with 4 bar. which are much louder then the sump pump.

 

[bonecarver_OG]

there are hole punchers that come with the drippers.

i have a small pump but im thinking of getting a bigger one to make sure there is enough pressure all the way.

the debris filter on the run of is a really good idea. i have used before a fine stocking from my gf for filter - it has worked very well this far

i was thinking of not using dripper heads on the tubes - and just run the tubes directly to the slabs - the drippers are a bit of a P.I.A so i want to work my way around them.

is it necesary to have drip tubes close to each plant - or is it enough to have a few in each?

peace

 

[bonecarver_OG]

the pressure equalizing drippers need a lot more force than a normal small pond pump will give. when i swapped them i lost most of the pressure problems last time.

but this time it seems i will have maybe 3-4 x the amount of tubes.

the more i think about it im forced to get a bigger pump for sure. not a huge one - just a bigger model of the pond pumps.

peace