Buffering coco doubt...

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Iceman8700

Active Member
If I buffer my coco with calmag @ 15ml/gal (roughly 800-900ppm) is it safe then to use it for germination and seedlings? A little afraid babies would get fried...
 
Rurumo

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Test your runoff and see how high it is. Once the coco dries, the EC skyrockets, so you might be dealing with an even higher EC than that. If so, run through plenty of solution dialed in at 200-300 ppm until you lower the overall level. YES you absolutely can kill seedlings with coco that has been buffered too high. Make sure you keep them moist at all times, which helps keep the EC diluted.
 
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Iceman8700

Active Member
Rurumo said:
Test your runoff and see how high it is. Once the coco dries, the EC skyrockets, so you might be dealing with an even higher EC than that. If so, un through plenty of solution dialed in at 200-300 ppm until you lower the overall level. YES you absolutely can kill seedlings with coco that has been buffered too high. Make sure you keep them moist at all times, which helps keep the EC diluted.
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Hey..thanks Rurumo for the quick reply..
So once I buffered with the said ratio, I should make sure it doesn't dry out and run through the coco with 200-300ppms until the runoff is? Close to that range?
 
PopAndSonGrows

PopAndSonGrows

Well-Known Member
I do 5ml/gal of cal mag and let the containers drip-drain for about 8 hours, then i plant the seeds. Batting 1.000 so far
 
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Iceman8700

Active Member
MickFoster said:
I pre-charge my coco with a weak bloom solution.
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Thank you for replying...
4 yrs back I read ur coco tutorial thread and got the idea of using maxibloom...but in dwc..insane yeilds! A big thank you to you! Unfortunately I got pythium and it stayed for good...hence the idea to switch to coco/perlite and be in peace...but I love dwc..
I read through your thread again and I noted ur buffering with mb..but then ur using good buffered coco I suppose...I doubt I could do that with the quality I get here..may be calmag deficiencies?
My country produces shit tons of coco only to be exported to urs...since ull have the money to pay...lol..
We use the leftover stuff...and it's not that great..
 
Roy O'Bannon

Roy O'Bannon

Well-Known Member
That strips it clean I guess, then you buffer with your intended nutes. That's how I read it anyway.
If you don't strip it, he is saying that it will always hold onto some of your nutes.
You would have to be doing all this with ro or distilled water.
 
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Iceman8700

Active Member
Roy O'Bannon said:
That strips it clean I guess, then you buffer with your intended nutes. That's how I read it anyway.
If you don't strip it, he is saying that it will always hold onto some of your nutes.
You would have to be doing all this with ro or distilled water.
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Awesome man...thanks for sharing that link..
I'm able to source tetrasodium edta..couldn't have been happier..
So..let's say after washing the coco a few times, how long would I have to soak in calcium nitrate and later tetrasodium edta? 12hrs, 24 hrs? And how much plain water to run through it after the buffering?
And after doing all that, buffer coco with 200-300ppm base nutes? Would this be enough incase I'm gonna use that mix for transplants in a bigger pot?
 
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Roy O'Bannon

Roy O'Bannon

Well-Known Member
No idea, seems like he might be running a pump and circulating everything rdwc style with coco in pots? If he runs the nutes a few days to buffer. I assume the other stuff gets ran though a while as well? Seems like a ton of trouble if you had to extract for days though. I'm going to flush it through a few times and check the runoff and go from there.
I bet the stripping doesn't take a ton of time.
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
Here's what I found buffering coco with calmag, coco out of the block was 0.2ec, as a tester I run 1.0ec through and it run out at 0.2, I then buffered twice with calmag 15ml gallon, after the first soak in calmag 1.0 run out at 0.7 after the 2nd buffer the ec run out the same strength as it went in.
I've been using for about 10 days and everything looks fine.
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Some lst, low stress tape :-)
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