Coco and dry amendments

I current grow in coco and plan to stay using coco for awhile, at least until I feel like I’ve had a perfect (ish) run from start to finish. I currently use GH flora trio and calimag. I’m looking for recommendations and schedules for feeding dry amendments. Ty for any help pointing me in the right direction

Good luck with that.
You might consider using either peat moss or soil instead of coco.

/eyeroll

No need to give him flack. If you watch YouTube it’s obvious the only way to grow is coco with Gaia green.

But for real op. Don’t do it. The reasons are endless and I don’t have time to get into it now. But honestly have you ever seen canooks plants? Embarrassing….

My first three plants were all done in amended Coco...no issues whatsoever. Pulled five ounces off the first auto, and 12 off the second two.
First plant

Second two

I didn't Treat it any different to a peat mix. 70/30 Coco perlite, nothing but 11:2:14 osmocote prills and cannazym In the first, and the second two had organic 3:1:4 and Neem/kelp...top dressed every two weeks once flower started and watered as usual. That run also used cannazym.

Coco and peat are basically both inert medium bases.. the only difference is their buffering capacity and cation exchange capacity. We used dry amended Coco for years at our nursery and had no issues growing tens of thousands of plants. Most people haven't even realised that most potting mixes have moved from peat to coir for sustainability reasons, and the performance usually increases with the introduction of coir instead of peat.

This black and white "you can't amend Coco" is just juvenile. If I was a straight newbie and I managed fine, it can't be that hard.

Forgot.to mention the second two had compost in with the Coco 40 Coco, 30 compost 30 perlite.

This auto was done In amended Coco and peat mix (40 Coco, 30 peat 30 perlite) as well, and it nearly filled a 2x4, pulling over 7 ounces.


these mediums all acted like any peat based potting mix, albeit regulating pH better as peat is acidic.

VincenzioVonHook said:

it can't be that hard.

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Tell that to the help section. 90% of people who attempt this, fail.
If it's so easy, why haven't you solved all the issues posted there when people try this? There's at least one a month.

Creature1969 said:

Tell that to the help section. 90% of people who attempt this, fail.
If it's so easy, why haven't you solved all the issues posted there when people try this? There's at least one a month.

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That's what I want to know as well. It didn't seem hard at all when I did it repeatedly. I didn't even know the difference between peat and Coco when I started and just used Coco as my potting mix base as it was all they had at the hardware store..

Then I find out I'm apparently magic and noone else has been able to get a plant to harvest in amended Coco. I was like.....how come my nursery has used amended Coco for years? Are they magic too?

I honestly couldn't solve their issues anyway, as I don't even know how I succeeded...it just workwd with minimal issues..

I only know my experience, and it's that I personally haven't found any difference between a peat/compost mix it Coco/compost mix in any way bar pH buffering capacity. The only difference I found was having to add more lime to peat mixes, and more K during flower in Coco mediums..

Amaximus said:

/eyeroll

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Appreciate the eye roll. ‘‘Twas helpful. Sarcasm btw.

Maybe my experience with amended Coco at a nursery for years gave me an advantage..I never considered that. It might have gave me subliminal insight that I was taking for granted, and the nursery work also gave me a general background at reading a plants health. It's the only way I can think that explains me having no issues from day one with amended Coco.

If someone can actually explain to me why it just can't be done that's not "yea but Canucks plants were bad" I'll be appreciative. They are both basic (inert) medium bases albeit with different buffering and cation exchange capacity, hence can both be used easily as a medium base for amendments. However you need to understand the basic pH and nutrient leeching/locking capacities that differ between the two to be successful.

VincenzioVonHook said:

If someone can actually explain to me why it just can't be done that's not "yea but Canucks plants were bad" I'll be appreciative. They are not basic medium bases albeit with different buffering and cation exchange capacity, hence can both be used easily as a medium base for amendments. However you need to understand the basic pH and nutrient leeching/locking capacities that differ between the two to be successful.

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Exactly this. I’d like to know the why it can’t or can be done. An eye roll doesn’t help. Nor does just stating that it can’t be done. Appreciate the info you provided.

VincenzioVonHook said:

Maybe my experience with amended Coco at a nursery for years gave me an advantage..I never considered that. It might have gave me subliminal insight that I was taking for granted, and the nursery work also gave me a general background at reading a plants health. It's the only way I can think that explains me having no issues from day one with amended Coco.

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What is osmocote. Sure doesn’t sound like a dry amendment. And what is organic 3-1-4?

I think the main difference is generating all nutrient needs from dry amendments in coco is an uphill battle. if your supplementing nutrient from slow release prills or any bottles than your talking about two different things here.

Tbh, the only argument I've ever heard was "look at how bad Canucks plants were", every single time this gets brought up. I think Canuck himself was the issue, not the Coco. If I managed four huge autos and 22 ounces in amended Coco easily as a complete newbie to weed growing, I think cancuk was the issue straight up.

BreadmanDan said:

Exactly this. I’d like to know the why it can’t or can be done. An eye roll doesn’t help. Nor does just stating that it can’t be done. Appreciate the info you provided.

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green_machine_two9er said:

What is osmocote. Sure doesn’t sound like a dry amendment. And what is organic 3-1-4?

I think the main difference is generating all nutrient needs from dry amendments in coco is an uphill battle. if your supplementing nutrient from slow release prills or any bottles than your talking about two different things here.

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Osmocote are dry osmotic prills. Here a pic



The organic 3:1:4 are also dry pellet ferts. Looks the same but more like bird shit.

There was Neem/kelp in the others, but I considered those above to be dry amendments but I could be very wrong in that classification and everything I have said is probably wrong. I consider it is dry because it was dry. I'm a simple man.

I think where I'm getting confused is that I considered stiff like Gaia green, the osmocote and the organic 3:1:4 as dry amendments. I just assumed as they were dry, and added before cook and planting, they were dry amendments.

The organic 3:1:4 just looks like powdered bird shit with a few small brown rocks in it.

I just made the immediate assumption that dry powdered or pelletised fertiliser was a dry amendment as it's dry and I amend the soil with it instead of feeding liquid nutrients.

If I am not running dry amended Coco, let me know and I'll stop relplying to dry amended Coco threads lol.

I think the confusion arises at least in part because folks hear "coco with dry amendments" and think it means literally just coco coir and a dry fert blend, nothing else.

You need some sort of microbial thing in there (i.e. compost, ewc, cannazym, etc) to make those nutrients available to plants. Even folks who claim to have success with "coco and dry amendments" are like, "oh yeah, plus I added compost and perlite." At that point it's basically a standard super soil mix with coco as the base instead of peat...

VincenzioVonHook said:

That's what I want to know as well. It didn't seem hard at all when I did it repeatedly. I didn't even know the difference between peat and Coco when I started and just used Coco as my potting mix base as it was all they had at the hardware store..

Then I find out I'm apparently magic and noone else has been able to get a plant to harvest in amended Coco. I was like.....how come my nursery has used amended Coco for years? Are they magic too?

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30% compost in your mix makes it more like soil than soil-less. That's how I grow veggies outside, water only in coco topdressed with yard compost weekly.
Try and repeat it without the compost.

Creature1969 said:

30% compost in your mix makes it more like soil than soil-less. That's how I grow veggies outside, water only in coco topdressed with yard compost weekly.
Try and repeat it without the compost.

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that first one above didn't have any compost and i didn't notice much of a difference tbh . I switched to compost/coco afterwards as the compost was so cheap. 30L coco was costing me $15 as my local didn't have bricks and the others bags of coco were pre fertilized , but i could get 50L compost for $6.

I believe the coco I am using is more of a mix than coco anyhow as I’m using coco loco.
I was at the nursery looking at coast of main soil and decided to just keep doing what I’m doing for now and try to learn all the dos and donts. Thanks for the responses guys.

BreadmanDan said:

I believe the coco I am using is more of a mix than coco anyhow as I’m using coco loco.
I was at the nursery looking at coast of main soil and decided to just keep doing what I’m doing for now and try to learn all the dos and donts. Thanks for the responses guys.

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I wish they'd change the name of that product. Everyone calls it coco but it's really not. Had you mentioned coco loco in the first post you would have received different replies. Though most would likely suggest promix or some such over coco loco, probably cheaper too.

Creature1969 said:

I wish they'd change the name of that product. Everyone calls it coco but it's really not. Had you mentioned coco loco in the first post you would have received different replies. Though most would likely suggest promix or some such over coco loco, probably cheaper too.

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Lol my bad. But it does say coco coir on it. I knew it was more of a mix but figured it was close enough lol hence my asking questions, trying to learn as I go.