One Coco plant Experiment and results!!!

I prefer soil, and have miserably failed everytime with hydro. Decided to try one coco girl as a medium. Used 70/30 fox farm coco preamended mix. Nutrients were a coco A and B, and calmag plus, feeding every other watering initially, and then every watering late veg thru bloom. Wow, surprised how much faster she took off over soil girls. While only in a 3 gallon, flowers were as massive and plentiful as in a 5 gallon. Stayed lush and green until gradual final fading weeks 5-9. Yeild nearly double over soil plants. The only thing I didnt know about coco was frequency of watering. I simply let her dry out like soil between and rehydrated fully. May have gotten better results with more frequent watering. Do some people mix coco and soil 50/50? I like the medium of coco, and may do it exclusively now over soil.

Any time water goes into the plant, nutrients should be in the water. Doing a water/feed protocol places osmotic stress on the plant because it has to constantly go back and forth between manufacturing sugars (to handle the high EC of the water) and then converting to starches (to handle the low EC of the water), and that energy could be used toward growth if the EC is kept consistent.

Don't do drybacks in coco - the coco should be kept to at least 90% saturation to get the most from what coco offers. At the very least, it should be fertigated at lights on every single day.

There are mixes that are 50/50 soil/coco, but the coco is used for its aeration properties and the entire medium would be treated like soil. Most of us who grow in coco consider putting soil in the mix it to be contaminating the medium.

ec121 said:

Any time water goes into the plant, nutrients should be in the water. Doing a water/feed protocol places osmotic stress on the plant because it has to constantly go back and forth between manufacturing sugars (to handle the high EC of the water) and then converting to starches (to handle the low EC of the water), and that energy could be used toward growth if the EC is kept consistent.

Don't do drybacks in coco - the coco should be kept to at least 90% saturation to get the most from what coco offers. At the very least, it should be fertigated at lights on every single day.

There are mixes that are 50/50 soil/coco, but the coco is used for its aeration properties and the entire medium would be treated like soil. Most of us who grow in coco consider putting soil in the mix it to be contaminating the medium.

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Great tips thank you! I was surprised how well things went without the daily watering, but see now how the medium should be treated. Yes she ate up the nutrients in every watering with no sign of burn throughout flowering. During veg she had no problem with full strength nutrients and cal mag, but I was scared of burn, hence my back and forth plain watering like soil. What are the advantages of coco? So far seems accelerated growth with better aeration, yeild seems better, not yet sure about overall quality of meds.

Smokenpassout said:

Great tips thank you! I was surprised how well things went without the daily watering, but see now how the medium should be treated. Yes she ate up the nutrients in every watering with no sign of burn throughout flowering. During veg she had no problem with full strength nutrients and cal mag, but I was scared of burn, hence my back and forth plain watering like soil. What are the advantages of coco? So far seems accelerated growth with better aeration, yeild seems better, not yet sure about overall quality of meds.

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The main advantage of coco is the air:water ratio. Even at field capacity (full saturation), there is enough oxygen present, so you can feed several times per day. Once buffered, there is no interplay between the soil and the roots with regard to nutrition; the coco is sterile - you control what the plant gets, which allows for precision fertilization.

A couple of other things...

Most nutrient lines are dosed for common plants (e.g., tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant), as most people will be growing those, so a full strength dose would be for those kinds of plants. Tomatoes can take up to 5.0 EC, so that would fry cannabis and is why people running General Hydroponics, for example, will start with 1/4 dose.

However, if you're using a line specifically made for cannabis, then a full dose will be less than half the dose of another nutrient line that isn't cannabis specific. Because of this, when discussing nutrients, terms like "full strength" and the like are ambiguous terms, so we like to speak in EC because EC is EC no matter the nutrient line.

If you don't have an EC pen, you should get one. This will allow you to measure the nutrient strength of the mix going into the pot but will also allow you to measure the runoff to know what the salinity is in the rootzone.

Always fertigate until at least 10% runoff. Drybacks cause the EC to spike due to the salts crystalizing out of solution and even if you keep the coco at 90% saturation, there is 10% that is drying and causing the EC to rise and by fertigating to at least 10%, you are able to keep the EC in the rootzone consistent.

As for does coco, organic, DWC, etc., make the best tasting smoke, if one wants to assert that synthetic nutrients cause a chemical taste to the buds, then wtf does batshit make the buds taste like?

I planted some bio tomatoes they where crazy expensive in the shop but using kratky and masterblend i got a 3 meter tall plant with tiny tomatoes but tastiest i ever had.
Same goes with weed in dwc everybody tells me it smells and tastes good. Nobody ever said cemicals....

ec121 said:

The main advantage of coco is the air:water ratio. Even at field capacity (full saturation), there is enough oxygen present, so you can feed several times per day. Once buffered, there is no interplay between the soil and the roots with regard to nutrition; the coco is sterile - you control what the plant gets, which allows for precision fertilization.

A couple of other things...

Most nutrient lines are dosed for common plants (e.g., tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant), as most people will be growing those, so a full strength dose would be for those kinds of plants. Tomatoes can take up to 5.0 EC, so that would fry cannabis and is why people running General Hydroponics, for example, will start with 1/4 dose.

However, if you're using a line specifically made for cannabis, then a full dose will be less than half the dose of another nutrient line that isn't cannabis specific. Because of this, when discussing nutrients, terms like "full strength" and the like are ambiguous terms, so we like to speak in EC because EC is EC no matter the nutrient line.

If you don't have an EC pen, you should get one. This will allow you to measure the nutrient strength of the mix going into the pot but will also allow you to measure the runoff to know what the salinity is in the rootzone.

Always fertigate until at least 10% runoff. Drybacks cause the EC to spike due to the salts crystalizing out of solution and even if you keep the coco at 90% saturation, there is 10% that is drying and causing the EC to rise and by fertigating to at least 10%, you are able to keep the EC in the rootzone consistent.

As for does coco, organic, DWC, etc., make the best tasting smoke, if one wants to assert that synthetic nutrients cause a chemical taste to the buds, then wtf does batshit make the buds taste like?

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So if coco should be watered to 10% runoff daily, should they be allowed to wick up the runoff? I ask because I sustained my one coco experiment almost 2 weeks leaving town by fully saturating and leaving it sitting in one of those 5 gallon (totally filled) wicking bases in a fabric pot. When I came back she was standing up praying just fine like alll the soil girls. Still can’t get why she did so well knowing the water demands of coco are supposed to be so much higher than soil.

Smokenpassout said:

So if coco should be watered to 10% runoff daily, should they be allowed to wick up the runoff? I ask because I sustained my one coco experiment almost 2 weeks leaving town by fully saturating and leaving it sitting in one of those 5 gallon (totally filled) wicking bases in a fabric pot. When I came back she was standing up praying just fine like alll the soil girls. Still can’t get why she did so well knowing the water demands of coco are supposed to be so much higher than soil.

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The best way to handle runoff is to use a system that drains the runoff away from the pots as it leaves the pots. People use Drain Away trays or flood tables, etc. Last resort is to manually remove runoff by emptying runoff saucers or using a wet vac.

You don't want the pots sitting in runoff because fertigating to runoff is used to push salts out of the medium and you don't want the plant to reuptake that, the pH of runoff is usually a full point or more higher than your feed, fully saturated coco is different than coco sitting in a pool of water (i.e., could develop root issues), and stagnant water attracts pests.

The water demands of coco isn't higher than soil. Coco holds onto water better than most soil types. Many people, suboptimally, treat coco like soil and only water once or twice a week. Those people should just use soil because if you want explosive growth that is possible from coco while not having to do any mid-grow flushes, you will use a high-frequency fertigation protocol.

So the short answer to your question is just because you noticed no negative effects by having the plants sit in runoff for two weeks doesn't mean it's a good long-term strategy because the plants will take a shit somewhere during the grow if you do.

Smokenpassout said:

I prefer soil, and have miserably failed everytime with hydro. Decided to try one coco girl as a medium. Used 70/30 fox farm coco preamended mix. Nutrients were a coco A and B, and calmag plus, feeding every other watering initially, and then every watering late veg thru bloom. Wow, surprised how much faster she took off over soil girls. While only in a 3 gallon, flowers were as massive and plentiful as in a 5 gallon. Stayed lush and green until gradual final fading weeks 5-9. Yeild nearly double over soil plants. The only thing I didnt know about coco was frequency of watering. I simply let her dry out like soil between and rehydrated fully. May have gotten better results with more frequent watering. Do some people mix coco and soil 50/50? I like the medium of coco, and may do it exclusively now over soil.

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I use a coco/Perlite, 75/25, during mid veg I am doing 6 to 8 nutrient solution cycles, during flower, doing 4 to 6 cycles.
I use 1/4 recommended nutes, not motter which nutes I use, using GH Flora series now.
Never let coco dry out, needs to be kept hydrated for optimal growth.

ec121 said:

The best way to handle runoff is to use a system that drains the runoff away from the pots as it leaves the pots. People use Drain Away trays or flood tables, etc. Last resort is to manually remove runoff by emptying runoff saucers or using a wet vac.

You don't want the pots sitting in runoff because fertigating to runoff is used to push salts out of the medium and you don't want the plant to reuptake that, the pH of runoff is usually a full point or more higher than your feed, fully saturated coco is different than coco sitting in a pool of water (i.e., could develop root issues), and stagnant water attracts pests.

The water demands of coco isn't higher than soil. Coco holds onto water better than most soil types. Many people, suboptimally, treat coco like soil and only water once or twice a week. Those people should just use soil because if you want explosive growth that is possible from coco while not having to do any mid-grow flushes, you will use a high-frequency fertigation protocol.

So the short answer to your question is just because you noticed no negative effects by having the plants sit in runoff for two weeks doesn't mean it's a good long-term strategy because the plants will take a shit somewhere during the grow if you do.

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Thank you. yes I agree you. I had to leave 4 two weeks, so I saturated the plant, and then filled the wicking base with fresh water. Purely as a one time survival method. I guess my biggest question is more why she did so well watering once a week like soil. Also how I should approach water coco in the future. Do you suggest each and every day. Seems excessive. I could up to every other day. Also should it be fed every watering, seems like it would burn watering at that frequency.

Smokenpassout said:

I guess my biggest question is more why she did so well watering once a week like soil.

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Coco holds onto water better than most soil types. That's why people can get away with watering once or twice a week. That doesn't mean it's the optimal way of using coco. Just use soil if you want to do that.

Smokenpassout said:

Also how I should approach water coco in the future. Do you suggest each and every day. Seems excessive. I could up to every other day.

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Yes, feed with nutrients every single day. It's not excessive (unless you're talking about it being excessive on you). Are you familiar with DWC? The plant is submersed in nutrient water 24/7. You have to think of coco as hydroponics with the coco being used to just keep the plant upright.

If you can't be bothered with feeding at least once a day or setting up an auto system, then just grow in peat moss.

Smokenpassout said:

Also should it be fed every watering, seems like it would burn watering at that frequency.

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Never give plain water. The plant takes in water and nutrients through separate mechanisms in the roots, and not like sucking it through a straw.

The plant takes in water through osmosis. Osmosis is where water travels from lower TDS (total dissolved solids) to higher TDS to reach an equilibrium of TDS. There is water inside the roots with a TDS and water outside of the roots (the water you put in the coco) with a TDS.

When the TDS is higher outside of the roots (you just fed), the plant will manufacture sugars to increase the TDS inside the roots so that it doesn't get water pulled from the roots and fry. But when the TDS is lower outside of the roots (you just gave plain water), the plant will then have to convert those sugars to starches so that it doesn't take in too much water and drown.

The manufacturing of sugars and starches takes energy, so if you go feed/water/feed/water, the plant has to constantly go from manufacturing sugars (when feeding) and then converting to starches (when given plain water). That's energy that can go towards growth.

When you drill in the EC of your feed consistently (only making small increases as the plant grows), the plant knows what EC to expect and can place as much energy as it can toward growth instead of allotting some of it to the yoyoing of sugars/starches.