Charging Coco ?n

[Ryansway]

Hey,

Has any 1 tried to charge Coco ? Beside your typical Cal/mag , I thought about trying to use this free bottle I just got of golden tree, I thought of trying to charge some cheap Coco bricks with this stuff, golden tree apperantly helps sick plant so I figured it won't hurt, but needing some in sight? Keep in mind I've never used coco., Lol.

[buds73]

I've haven't grown in coco so can't answer your question but i think if it was my first time trying coco i would keep things simple and start as others do. Would make it easier to diagnose any problems that may arise rather than wondering whether the golden tree was the cause of the issue or not, but that's just my opinion. Those with experience with growing coco should be able to answer your question.

[Mr.furley]

Very good advice buds73 couldnt have said it better myself.

[gbauto]

I've dipped my toes into the coco pool this spring for my pheno tent.
I bought a 5kg brick of coco-tek from GH and loaded it into a 27 gal tote.
Since I run Jacks 3-2-1dry nutes, I mixed 1 g/gal of Epsom salts and 2 g/gal of 15-0-0 Calcium nitrate(I don't add part A:5-12-26).
This is reduced by about 25% from my normal feed rates(3.6 g 5-12-26, 2.4 g ca nitrate, and 1.2 g Epsom salts).
I soak this for a day and drain the coco, refill with the same nute concentration and let it soak again for a day.
After the second soak, I drain the coco and add about 25% perlite to the mix and store the finished mix in the 27 gal tote.
I've used it for the past six months on various pheno-hunts and it seems to work quite well.
Damn near as impressive as my RDWC grows.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Nebulas got a good tutorial on how to prepare coco, on here.

[Tersky]

I would use cal-mag. The reason you charge coco is because the coco will bond to cal-mag initially which will steal other minerals from your plants. Here is an explanation taken from another site.

Why You Need to Buffer Coco Coir

There are cation exchange sites in coco that will interfere with nutrition until they are buffered. The cation exchange sites in coco naturally come loaded with sodium (Na) and potassium (K) cations. However, the Na and the K are only weakly held to the exchange sites. In the presence of calcium (Ca) or magnesium (Mg), the sites will release their Na or K cations and lock onto the Ca or Mg. These processes are known as “cation exchanges”.

Buffering coco is accomplished by soaking it in Ca and Mg. This allows the cation exchanges to take place prior to adding plants. Simply soak your coco in a solution of Cal/Mag water and the exchange sites will release their K and Na cations and lock onto the Ca and Mg. When the cation exchange sites bond with Ca and Mg rather than Na and K, it is “buffered”. The bonds that hold the Ca and Mg to the sites are very strong and cation exchange will largely stop. This means that all of the nutrients that you add to the water will be available to the plant at the ratios that you provide them.

Growing in Un-Buffered Coco

Many growers are unaware of the need to buffer the coco and they try to grow plants in unbuffered coco. In unbuffered coco, the cation exchange sites will strip the nutrient solution of the Ca and Mg and replace those cations with Na and K. This creates a sub-optimal Nutrient Element Ratio (NER) and renders Ca and Mg unavailable to the plant.

Failing to buffer the coco is why so many growers suffer calcium deficiencies in coco grows. Manufacturers of prepared coco products try to exploit these problems and convince growers that only their proprietary products are suitable for growing. However, it is actually very simple to properly buffer your coco yourself.