Coco Coir. Who can utilize it?

[Gjourney101]

Hey guys. So I want to use Coco Coir as my medium this coming grow. I understand nutrients do not get held by the Coco so I'd need to administer it all. Is it easy to over feed or underfeed considering she can't take it when she wants it?

[Tersky]

Not sure what you are asking. The coco holds the water that the nutes are in so technically it does hold on to nutes. If you mean amended like with dry nutes, im sure its possible as Coco Loco is an amended coco mix from Fox Farms. Coco does not have any nutrients in it by its self so yes you have to administer it. One mistake i made when starting out with coco was not buffering the coco before planting and that can cause stunting and efficiencies. Cal mag is your friend in coco. I use GH Trio in coco and follow the schedule on GWE main site as a guide. I feed every water once root system is established and only water when pot is light and water to 10 -20% runoff. I tried the plain water every other watering and ran into deficiencies but that was my experience and know that others have had success doing it that way.

If you want to amend the coco into a coco mix like Coco Loco, i would not water to runoff as that will wash the nutes out of the mix. I personally have not done an amended coco mix grow and just use salt based nutes. Remember, coco is more akin to hydro than soil but it is kinda a mix of both.

[Gjourney101]

Sorry about that. I wasn't fully awake yet. Is anyone capable of managing Coco without prior experience is what I meant to say. I've never used it and plan to start soon.

[Walty]

I just ran my first coco coir run using General Hydroponics Flora Series. It’s old school and super easy. I followed their schedule exactly at 50 percent of recommended dosages, along with 5ml/gallon of CalMag. The only deficiency I encountered with that approach was one calcium deficiency. Make sure to get runoff with each feeding, ph your water to 5.8. It was a breeze. The only downside to growing in coco is the daily water frequency for me.

[Gjourney101]

I assume I can't use the 1" down technique for watering. Maybe I should weigh the pot when it's completely dry and calculate when by that?

[Walty]

Watering coco is completely different. I watered once daily with 20 percent runoff each time to flush the salts out and keep the PPM at the root zone under 1100. I would generally feed 800 ppm solution and the resulting runoff was about 1100 ppm. (From the residual salts)

[gbauto]

Coco is considered an 'inert' media once it has been buffered.
After that, you can treat it just like a hydro system.
The media promotes aeration and stability but doesn't add ANY nutrients to the plant.
You have to feed them as you would any hydro system.