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Coco coir - should I make it or buy it?

E

eatyourhartout

New member
I grew with soil previously but for my third grow I think I'm going to try coco.

I'm planning on using General Hydroponics FloraNova nutrients. I like having just one nutrient bottle for the vegetative stage and a different one for flowering, instead of having to use little bits from a lot of bottles when adding nutrients to the water. I haven't tried FloraNova yet, and I know some growers think it's too thick, but I've seen people getting results as good as the regular General Hydroponics trio, and I want to capture some of that magic in a simpler option.

My question is, what's your favorite coco?

I've seen GWE recommend premade 70% coco with 30% perlite mixes like Mother Earth and Cultivation Nation 70/30. I've also seen they recommend making your own with up to 50% perlite. They said the more perlite, the more often you water, since perlite holds less water.

I'm thinking for my first attempt, I'll go with 30% perlite. I plan to get auto watering pots so that I only need to water once a week once they get bigger, and the coco will take care of wicking the water from the reservoir to the roots. I think I have "keeping them alive" down. I want to keep it simple enough I actually do what I need to do, so I can focus more on bending and tent coverage.

For the coco growers out there, do you buy premade coco mix or make your own?

Is there any advantage to buying premade? How much cheaper is it to make your own by putting coco bricks in a bucket with boiling water and adding perlite?

I'm leaning buying a done-for-you coco mix for my first coco grow, just in case they do some kind of magic with their mix. But I do see at Amazon they sell 10 lb "Coco Bliss" coco bricks for $30 plus 24 quarts of perlite for another $30. Or about $60 on total.

If I mixed those directly together, would that DIY mix be the right proportions for growing weed? And how much coco potting mix would it actually make? If i made extra, can I store it or do I have to use it right away?

I saw 2 cubic feet of premade Cultivation Nation 70/30 mix is $40. How many gallons is that?

I'm struggling to understand how many cubic feet I will need. I'm thinking I'll do 3 x 5-gallon fabric pots, so I need a total of 15-16+ gallons (it's nice to always have a little extra).

Any insight from coco growers highly appreciated!
 
Been there, done that. Bricks are less money but take a lot more time and effort to make them usable. Rehydrate, no need to boil the water, rinse 3 times to remove salt, remove sand, buffer with calmag, very important!, mix in perlite. A day long operation requiring large tubs to mix in. Then if you mis-calculate what you need, your pots are short and start over again to make more. My time is worth more that the $ I could save buying bricks vs pre-prepped coco/p. I use mother earth 70/30. Even the prepared coco/p should be buffered before using even if they claim it has already been done. So It depends on the value of your time vs value of your money. One bag of ME coco/p will fill about 3.25 x 3 gallon pots.
 
Thanks for sharing the actual gallon amount you can fill!

So if one bag makes about 9 gallons of pots, then 2 bags should be plenty to fill 3 x 5-gallon pots. So $82 for the coco, $31 for FloraNova duo nutrients, $7 for fabric pots. That's only $120 for everything. But the auto watering pot bases are $60 for 4. So that would bring it up to $180 but I wouldn't have to buy the bases again. I'm thinking I might go that way.

I've heard if I have some coco left over, I can store it and use it later. Has that been your experience?
 
eatyourhartout said:
I've heard if I have some coco left over, I can store it and use it later. Has that been your experience?
Click to expand...
If you are talking about rehydrated bricks, yes it can be stored. I would recommend letting it mostly dry out to prevent mold growth. It needs to be checked before use that mold has not taken hold. If you mean a partial bag of ME, just roll the top closed tight.
 
I've tried using a few different brands of coco. I have shied away from the brick because of the mess as @Ckbrew mentioned. I use a 5050 blend of coco/perlite in 5 gallon cloth pots. I grow using the autopot system with a reservoir. I have mixed my own blend every time. If you do your own mix buy #3 perlite. I use Mother Earth coco mainly because it is readily available and inexpensive. I mix by volume with a coffee can, 1 can of perlite for every can of coco. Easy Peasy. Coco can be recycled but it needs to be dried, washed, rinsed, and buffered. It's worth the effort but can take a while.
 
golfnrl said:
Coco can be recycled but it needs to be dried, washed, rinsed, and buffered. It's worth the effort but can take a while.
Click to expand...
Just curious, do you know of any tutorials on how to reuse Coco? I couldn't seem to find anything about it on growweedeasy.com, but it might be within a page and I missed it.

I was curious how much coco can be reused vs how much gets used up in the grow process. I know when I grew with soil it all became a giant root ball that was almost solid. I wanted to reuse the soil, but there was only a tiny bit of loose soil left so I ended up just tossing the whole root ball after harvest.

Is coco easier to shake off the roots?
 
Coco can be reused indefinitely so long as it doesn't crumble into powder. If you can get it out of the giant root ball. Coco is inert, has no nutrient value so there is nothing to use up. It only has what you give it. Imo my time is more valuable than the used coco so I toss it when done with it.
 
eatyourhartout said:
Just curious, do you know of any tutorials on how to reuse Coco? I couldn't seem to find anything about it on growweedeasy.com, but it might be within a page and I missed it.

I was curious how much coco can be reused vs how much gets used up in the grow process. I know when I grew with soil it all became a giant root ball that was almost solid. I wanted to reuse the soil, but there was only a tiny bit of loose soil left so I ended up just tossing the whole root ball after harvest.

Is coco easier to shake off the roots?
Click to expand...
I used the info at this link and some vids on youtube. I was surprised at how much can be reused. Really don't lose much during the process. Yes, coco is easier to shake from the roots.

www.cocoforcannabis.com

How to Reuse/Recycle Coco Coir - Coco For Cannabis - Video Tutorial

Coco coir is good for more than one cannabis grow! Learn how to recycle used coco back into a superior medium for your next cannabis crop. Video Tutorial!
www.cocoforcannabis.com www.cocoforcannabis.com
 
Lots of valuable coco stuff here! I swear by it. Here is my experience.
I have 12 x 7 gallon fabric pots needing 84 gallons of grow medium.
(BTW, your phone's calculator likely has a measurement conversion feature. One cubic foot = 7.48 gal.)

Anyway, I bought enough coco brick and perlite , 50/50, for the job. The coco easily hydrated within minutes in my wheelbarrow. Was super simple to use one gallon garden pots to mix with perlite (wear mask) and transfer to the fabric pots.
Note: I'm a greenhouse grower with outdoors garden space to do this in. If I were growing in a tent, I'd buy it. I don't think 70/30 or 50/50 makes a difference, since both are inert and just provide root and plant support and aeration.

Yes! Coco/perlite is reusable. I do it every year. After harvest, I let pots dry out and rehab the c/p before the next grow by taking a hand gardening fork to remove old roots then throughly fluff up. I don't wash it or do anything special. I simply transplant new seedlings into it from 4" or one gallon pots, water, fertilize, and off to the races.
I mix 26 gallons of nute solution and pH'd water every week, using GH Flora Trio and some CalMag. I find it simple to mix using a 3 ml disposable plastic pipette (cheap). I use a grocery store wine six pack carrier to haul around the bottles, pH down, pH pen, pipettes and GWE mixing printout.
 
Buy the bags.

Flush it with a calmag mixture pH6.0 till it runs clear.

Done.

Add perlite if growing autos for a quick start
. If vegging for 60 days or more I wouldnt add perlite but some do. You dont need it for photos.
 
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