want to learn how to grow in coir

when i buy new coir i want to make sure all the salt is out?and what i need to do to it so it is ready to grow i know about cal mag but how much?

You will get better help here..

moved to drain to waste section


if you buy canna or botanicair brand of coco you will
not have to prep it.

but other brands you will.
1st check ppm of your water if its bellow 250 the mix a batch
of water with cal-mag to get a target ppm of 250. Then use
this water to rinse the new coco coir with. From there your
ready for use. The amount of cal-mag will depend on your ppm
of your stock water. If your water is already above 250 then
your good.

hellraizer30 said:

You will get better help here..

moved to drain to waste section


if you buy canna or botanicair brand of coco you will
not have to prep it.

but other brands you will.
1st check ppm of your water if its bellow 250 the mix a batch
of water with cal-mag to get a target ppm of 250. Then use
this water to rinse the new coco coir with. From there your
ready for use. The amount of cal-mag will depend on your ppm
of your stock water. If your water is already above 250 then
your good.

Click to expand...

This rule is not always true. My water runs between 450 & 500 ppm tds and it has NO cal or mag in it. But in areas where you're living on limestone formations then most of your tds will be from cal. In my case with no cal in the water, I prep the coco in a mix that is 10 to 20ml cal-mag per gal of water, depending upon the brand of coco.

WattSaver said:

This rule is not always true. My water runs between 450 & 500 ppm tds and it has NO cal or mag in it. But in areas where you're living on limestone formations then most of your tds will be from cal. In my case with no cal in the water, I prep the coco in a mix that is 10 to 20ml cal-mag per gal of water, depending upon the brand of coco.

Click to expand...

Makes sense wattsaver didnt know that

At least in Canada you can usually look up water content reports that are done every couple of years, they have the mineral content, in ppm too. Check it out, maybe your county/city has something similar?

Not sure if you have all the equipment needed, how about keeping it simple.

BUy trusted coco. Give it a good flush. Mix up your nutes, add to flushed coco, get some good run off. And continue as normal.

I like to gradually bring nute level back up directly after the flush, future feedings and run off brings it back to where it ahould b. Usually an extra feeding the day after a flush even if not rwally needed just to get nutes back up to proper levels. Remember the pot will b free of nutes and heavy with water. If you replace only half the water volume with nute water it is still only half strength. Run off helps

If your coco is from a dubious source, use warm water to flush it initially, as it's more effective at dissolving and removing salts than cold water. Coco bricks (the type that need hydrating and expanding) generally have a lot of salt in them.

Otherwise, use a quality coco (like Canna etc) that is already flushed and pre-buffered. I don't cal-mag my coco because my water is already calcium rich (limestone ground source). Most dedicated coco nutrients are also heavier on the cal-mag. Very rarely, I will use epsom salts as a magnesium supplement (some strains are Mg hogs), but generally I don't have a problem with brand-name coco and nutrients.

With good coco, all you really need to do is flush/pre-buffer it with a good coco nutrient solution and start growing. That's what I do.

Coco gets better with age so re-use it! Double dose of canna zyme for 48hr and your good.
plants love it.

^ Just don't forget to flush out all the excess salts before you reuse it. Warm water, I says . . .

Prawn Connery said:

^ Just don't forget to flush out all the excess salts before you reuse it. Warm water, I says . . .

Click to expand...

I 2nd the flush part !

I would be careful about pre-charging your coco with cal-mag. If you have enough cal-mag in your nutrient formula, you can cause an abundance and end up locking out other nutrients by using extra cal-mag in your initial rinse. H3AD's formula, if used with Epsom, does not need pre-charged coco, and pre-charging it can cause issues. Settle on a nutrient feeding, and then decided if you want to pre-charge your coco or not.

That said, invest in a damn good PH meter. I have seen so many growers buy $120 worth of seeds, but an $8 PH meter, then have deficiencies, not realizing they simply locked something out. Calibrate it every damn feeding if you have to.