You cannot overwater coco

and lockout when adding nutes later

Joshjgreen said:

So it's conclusive then? You can water a well established plant in Coco as much as wanted but it drowns baby plants. Makes sense...

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In most cases yes because the roots will absorb excess moisture and prevent oxygen deprivation. When no roots are present and you are constantly watering the medium it will promote pathogens and provide lower than ideal oxygen levels.

It’s no different than rapid rooters. Having them constantly moist is ideal, however, there is a big difference between moist and saturated.

Coco is much more forgiving than most mediums but it’s still not bulletproof and takes common sense.

anyone ever put a seed in a cup of water at the start of germination and have root formation? if so why wouldn't if continue to grow? (minus support for plant mass)

Aero cloners???

dtcharneski said:

anyone ever put a seed in a cup of water at the start of germination and have root formation? if so why wouldn't if continue to grow? (minus support for plant mass)

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Water contains dissolved oxygen and the levels will diminish over time from the roots absorbing it causing the root system to be deprived of oxygen and anaerobic bacteria to take over. Hence why DWC or aero cloners can grow a plant full-cycle due to the addition of oxygen.

Yes but with coco the only way to over water is to water too frequently, too much fertigation equals to much nutes, or drowned roots, but if you watered 2 gallons of coco with with 6 gallons of water once a day it would be the same as watering with how much ever the coco could absorb, all extra water would be run off

but also each new fertigation equals more o2

Another variable.

"If the growing media has to many fine particles within it, the fine particles will fill up the spaces between the larger particles and thus root rot may occur."

How sterile is your coco? I like to run H2O2 through coco before planing in it. You never know what could be festering in there. Perlite could just be providing the extra air needed to fight damping off.

I just recently started using rice hulls in my coco instead of perlite, but I tend to reuse my coco too, so the perlite will be part of my mix for a while still. I got a 50 lb bag of rice hulls at my local feed and seed for $10. I can't believe I haven't done this sooner. I just put a Wedding Cake in a 5-gal hempy pot for outdoor using ricehulls/perlite in the hempy res, then coco/perlite/rice hulls mixed for the root zone.

Another dust reference.

"Un-rinsed coco is laden with “coco peat”, which are small dust sized particles. The coco peat does not retain air like the larger coco fibers do and as a result, you can run into problems with drowning your roots if you grow in coco with a lot of coco peat."

When I start seeds I start them in 3 litre air pots and coco perlite 75%-25%.

I use 0.5ml per 1 litre of magnecal+, 1 ml per litre of cx regen-a-root and 5ml per 1litre of formulex. I feed the pot that and get a decent amount of run off. Then a day later after they have drained overnight, I plant the seed and put a plastic cup over it. I do like to leave it almost a week until they get fed again. EC is 0.8 from go for me. I find the plastic cup stops the surface getting dry, so I have no need to feed it again at that stage. As soon as the seed pops and has it 1st leaves I remove the cup. When I remove the cups I also switch off the extraction for 24-48 hours to keep humidity up, whilst leaving the vents and tent door open. Works great.

Anyway, feeding every day at this stage is just pointless. Lots of work for no reason. The roots also do need to search a bit, I just don't let the coco dry out as it messes with the ph big time. I hand water, so am no expert on dripper systems etc

"You cannot over water coco" is a generalization much like "water only organic grow". Technically speaking, they're both lies that are stated daily, everywhere.

Gonna do an actual water only organic grow next? I'd like to see that failure as well.

TintEastwood said:

Another variable.

"If the growing media has to many fine particles within it, the fine particles will fill up the spaces between the larger particles and thus root rot may occur."

https://www.californiasubstrates.com/blog/root-rot/

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Not all coco is the same either. I typically use Botanicare which is a pretty good quality coco that's been double washed and has minimal fine particles. One time I thought I'd save a few bucks and ordered some cheaper stuff off of Amazon. It was half dust once I rehydrated it. Recently I found some of those small bricks of coco from Burpee seeds so I grabbed a few. It was decent coco with very little dust as well.

As above there's coco and there's coco, if i put a handful of one brand onto a sieve it goes through with little fuss, if I try another brand some goes through but I'm left with a lot of husk and fibre?

after a half dozen taps on the sieve.

It doesn't take a genius to work out which holds most air.
Canna has very little in the way of fibre, it wouldn't surprise me to find neat canna isn't the best medium for seedlings when coupled with multiple feeds daily.

Yeah the coco is of inferior quality - brick type - from Amazon. I had to wash it manually, then buffer it afterwards and rinse again. The tapwater is of good quality for plants - just about right in Ca + S, very little Na Cl, I add Epsom a bit gradually later. Run several tests with RO, too, or with fertilizer. Tested so much more, I mean it's so quick to do and a week waiting your just much wiser... watered sprouts with RO, Tap, RO+CalMag, Tap+CalMag, or with min. fertilizer up to EC 2.5 - IT DOESN'T MATTER - all seeds will grow fine (*) with said water or fert solution.

The minerals in my tap are not fully bio-ready, plus the cocos inherent ability to steal that. An over-fert in that not really thinkably, plus I have tested how high one can go with additional mineralic CalMag, and there's quite some tolerance for these initial feeds. You have to realize a young sprout is fully loaded with growth hormones and absorbs to grow - esp. the non-retranslocatably Ca, which it needs constant passive supply.

Used H2O2 on the last rinse, a day before the plant, only on the shown hydro/soilless tray.

Few years ago had a bag of Biobizz Cocos and it was no dusty at all, the particles bigger, and ready-to-use. So you all think it's the space in between the individual coco's scraps which should offer the roots some space to breath? And that the plant first needs to swallow some of the freshly replenished water in order for atmospheric O2 to return? Then it would be not much different principally than soil.

Yeah I've tested how swift these seeds die when being sprouted under water - very quick - the nut doesn't even open fully it's already dead - drowned from lack of gas exchange. Some opened right after 30mins but how long it took for them to drown I can't say. Think hours. Most plant roots cannot tolerate a full soak too long - although there ARE special plants - take rice for an example, rice roots embedd lots of Silica in their outer cellwalls and this shields them from the rot. But cannabis doesn't belong to this category of plants.

edit:
better: at least, not die

Kassiopeija said:

Yeah the coco is of inferior quality - brick type - from Amazon. I had to wash it manually, then buffer it afterwards and rinse again. The tapwater is of good quality for plants - just about right in Ca + S, very little Na Cl, I add Epsom a bit gradually later. Run several tests with RO, too, or with fertilizer. Tested so much more, I mean it's so quick to do and a week waiting your just much wiser... watered sprouts with RO, Tap, RO+CalMag, Tap+CalMag, or with min. fertilizer up to EC 2.5 - IT DOESN'T MATTER - all seeds will grow fine (*) with said water or fert solution.

The minerals in my tap are not fully bio-ready, plus the cocos inherent ability to steal that. An over-fert in that not really thinkably, plus I have tested how high one can go with additional mineralic CalMag, and there's quite some tolerance for these initial feeds. You have to realize a young sprout is fully loaded with growth hormones and absorbs to grow - esp. the non-retranslocatably Ca, which it needs constant passive supply.

Used H2O2 on the last rinse, a day before the plant, only on the shown hydro/soilless tray.

Few years ago had a bag of Biobizz Cocos and it was no dusty at all, the particles bigger, and ready-to-use. So you all think it's the space in between the individual coco's scraps which should offer the roots some space to breath? And that the plant first needs to swallow some of the freshly replenished water in order for atmospheric O2 to return? Then it would be not much different principally than soil.

Yeah I've tested how swift these seeds die when being sprouted under water - very quick - the nut doesn't even open fully it's already dead - drowned from lack of gas exchange. Some opened right after 30mins but how long it took for them to drown I can't say. Think hours. Most plant roots cannot tolerate a full soak too long - although there ARE special plants - take rice for an example, rice roots embedd lots of Silica in their outer cellwalls and this shields them from the rot. But cannabis doesn't belong to this category of plants.

edit:
better: at least, not die

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There is nothing wrong with quality bricked coco. But there is some inferior quality stuff out there. I've used many different brands and have found Botanicare to be one of the best quality. Double washed, pre-buffered. Just rehydrate in 1/4-1/2 strength nutrient solution and use. No rinsing needed. I never do anymore.

I've filled two pots of coco, one is a well known brand the other is cheaper brick coco from ebay.
I've tried my best to do everything equally.
Two pots filled evenly...


After soaking both evenly to run off, pot #1

And what was washed out

The other brand after the same treatment pot #2

And what washed out the holes.


Total weight after sitting 5 minutes.
pot #1 632 grams

Pot #2 455 grams
Anyone wanting to take a stab at which is the premium priced one?

Is there more to it than just structure or is that the price of convenience, the difference in price and structure quality are bit insulating, or are they?
One's blatantly shite looking?

Pot #1?

Pot #2 is my kinda coco. Less fines and dust.

TintEastwood said:

Pot #1?

Pot #2 is my kinda coco. Less fines and dust.

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Me to #2 but yes your right it's pot #1 that's the premium, I can't understand how it's the premium that has that dusty/muddy stuff it's the opposite of what I've read makes good coco?

Star Dog said:

Me to #2 but yes your right it's pot #1 that's the premium, I can't understand how it's the premium that has that dusty/muddy stuff it's the opposite of what I've read makes good coco?

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Thats what I've learned by trial and error.
I recently used Gold label coco. Horribly muddy when wet.

Trying this brand. But I still use a screen to remove much of the fines and dust before using it.

On the down side, may require feeding more often to prevent excessive dryback.


I wanted to try California substrates coco, but I can't find it local.