Coco newb question

inth3shadowz

Well-Known Member
Sup guys, been doing soil for awhile now with great success but I'd like to try a coco run in a new space I have. My question is, in soil, typically I start off in red solos for overwatering purposes. With coco, if I start my seed in a 5 gallon smart pot for instance, how much should I truly water it?
 

Rsawr

Weed Gremlin
Staff member
Can you just start it the way you're used to the first time, and transplant it afterwards? Or are you trying to avoid transplants this run?
 

inth3shadowz

Well-Known Member
Can you just start it the way you're used to the first time, and transplant it afterwards? Or are you trying to avoid transplants this run?
Well, I bought a 5KG brick of Mother's Earth coco coir, when I buffer the medium, can I just store the excess needed in a container? A bit confused about that.
 

Rsawr

Weed Gremlin
Staff member
Well, I bought a 5KG brick of Mother's Earth coco coir, when I buffer the medium, can I just store the excess needed in a container? A bit confused about that.
Yeah, you can store it in the container you are going to transplant in even, just remember to water the pot well when you transplant so the roots don't get shocked by dry coco. I go from solo cups to larger pots in coco, and I also use the cheap mother earth bricks.
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
Well, I bought a 5KG brick of Mother's Earth coco coir, when I buffer the medium, can I just store the excess needed in a container? A bit confused about that.
It's pre-buffered you don't need to do anything. Use it as you need it. I start my seeds in Jiffy Pellets, move to coco in pint pots, then into 2 gallon pots for finishing. Good luck

 

Rsawr

Weed Gremlin
Staff member
It's pre-buffered you don't need to do anything. Use it as you need it. I start my seeds in Jiffy Pellets, move to coco in pint pots, then into 2 gallon pots for finishing. Good luck

They mentioned the compressed bricks when quoting me, they should probably at least soak it, eh?
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
They mentioned the compressed bricks when quoting me, they should probably at least soak it, eh?
You have to wet the compressed bricks or bales to break them down. They are usually pre-washed.

Oh and when I've used compressed I never prebuffered. I use nutrients from early on and they all did fine. As long as it's washed of any potential sodium I believe you should be good
 

Rsawr

Weed Gremlin
Staff member
You have to wet the compressed bricks or bales to break them down. They are usually pre-washed.
Sorry, yes. I was thrown by the verbage "you don't need to do anything." Because you DO need to soak it to hydrate it. I though you were referring to the premixed bags with perlite. sorry!
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
Sorry, yes. I was thrown by the verbage "you don't need to do anything." Because you DO need to soak it to hydrate it. I though you were referring to the premixed bags with perlite. sorry!
Yeah I hadn't seen he posted brick, no worries.
 

Auntie Janes Nursery

Well-Known Member
Sup guys, been doing soil for awhile now with great success but I'd like to try a coco run in a new space I have. My question is, in soil, typically I start off in red solos for overwatering purposes. With coco, if I start my seed in a 5 gallon smart pot for instance, how much should I truly water it?
Red solos all the way with coco. You can really pack the roots in the cups. Coco loves filling out its pots. The rest just store. Coco precharging is just trying to give it extra cal and mag ions so that it stores them and doesn't try to steal it from your nutrient ratio. Eventually it will break down and you will have to keep up with cal mag. The easiest way to explain it is you are basically trying to satisfy the cocos calmag desire on top of your nutrient ratio. I use megacrop which has an ideal nutrient ratio for cannabis so I will add about 1-1.5 ml a gallon of calmag. Depending on what stage my coco may be in.
 

inth3shadowz

Well-Known Member
Red solos all the way with coco. You can really pack the roots in the cups. Coco loves filling out its pots. The rest just store. Coco precharging is just trying to give it extra cal and mag ions so that it stores them and doesn't try to steal it from your nutrient ratio. Eventually it will break down and you will have to keep up with cal mag. The easiest way to explain it is you are basically trying to satisfy the cocos calmag desire on top of your nutrient ratio. I use megacrop which has an ideal nutrient ratio for cannabis so I will add about 1-1.5 ml a gallon of calmag. Depending on what stage my coco may be in.
Am I correct in that basically I'm only going to feed calmag + phd water to the seedling until it gets it's first leaves then start nutes? Im germing in a red solo cup added 30% perlite. I haven't really found any good info on germing with coco. Typically with soil I just spray bottle the top soil for like the first 2 weeks. Can I do the same for coco?
 

Auntie Janes Nursery

Well-Known Member
Am I correct in that basically I'm only going to feed calmag + phd water to the seedling until it gets it's first leaves then start nutes? Im germing in a red solo cup added 30% perlite. I haven't really found any good info on germing with coco. Typically with soil I just spray bottle the top soil for like the first 2 weeks. Can I do the same for coco?
I would add a little bit of nutrients. Coco is very inert. Holds on to not much nutrient.
 

StonedGardener

Well-Known Member
I keep my moit coco in black contruction bag/contaier in dark. l ''ve read, under 50% RH. To avoid mold......... use ioo% cal mag water to moisten when necessary..approx 5 mls per gallon.......
 

Rjt08

Active Member
When you're giving cal mag to new coco you're not feeding the plant it's the coco you're feeding for some reason the coco holds on to the cal mag then the plants are unable to uptake so u need to give the coco enough cal mag then your plants will be able to uptake cal mag. Atleast that the way I understood it. I've been growing successfully in coco for years
 
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