Coco Coir Questions

[Jgutta420]

So this is my first time attempting a grow with coco so I’m hoping someone with experience will chime in here. I’ve been scouring the internet and I’m getting very conflicting information. The reason I chose coco was because from my understanding it’s like growing in hydro and no bugs but it’s starting to become a headache. I’ve read that it needs to be watered to runoff everyday and I’ve also read that you should not water every day buy every other day. So I’ve decided to water everyday for 3 days as an experiment and I feel like it’s staying too wet. I’m in 3 gallon fabric pots and am starting to get mold on the top of the coco and when I feel the sides of the pots they’re pretty wet. When I dig down a few inches it’s still pretty wet too and it’s been 3 days since I last watered. It’s a 70/30 coco/perlite mix. Temps are 79.6 and humidity is 60% constantly and airflow is superb. Plants are about a month old. From what I’ve been able to gather the mold is harmless but I don’t want it on my plants. I dug it out and sprayed with a 50/50 mix of h2o2 and water for now. I need advice from a coco expert please. Thanks in advance.

 

[WeedHopper]

I attempted to grow in coco once and changed over to soil. Was to big a pain in the ass. Good luck.

 

[Flower]

Treat it like soil.
Lift the pot.
If it feels light, water it.
If it feels heavy, let it be.

 

[Jgutta420]

I attempted to grow in coco once and changed over to soil. Was to big a pain in the ass. Good luck.

Haha thanks

 

[Jgutta420]

Treat it like soil.
Lift the pot.
If it feels light, water it.
If it feels heavy, let it be.

And see that’s the thing that confusing. Every article says it’s not soil so don’t treat it like soil. I have lifted them however and they are definitely noticeably lighter but the media is still clearly pretty saturated and the sides of the fabric pots are pretty wet as well and my girls don’t seem thirsty. They say to never ever let it dry out completely and keep it at least 80-90% wet at all time because even though it seems wet the available water is not enough for your plants. Idk man I’m so over it…first & last time in coco.

 

[yarddog]

i use chunked coco. i water every day, and save the runoff. goes back into a 30 gallon trash can. every two or three weeks i changed that water out. topping off with fresh water every couple days to maintain 30 gallons. i love my setup. does really well with an automatic watering system too.

 

[Jgutta420]

i use chunked coco. i water every day, and save the runoff. goes back into a 30 gallon trash can. every two or three weeks i changed that water out. topping off with fresh water every couple days to maintain 30 gallons. i love my setup. does really well with an automatic watering system too.

So since you water every single day your media stays pretty saturated. You never see any mold on the surface? That’s my biggest issue and I just don’t want it to become a problem later down the line. Maybe it’s the brand I’m using idk. I did go with a premixed and pre buffered mix off amazon.

 

[yarddog]

So since you water every single day your media stays pretty saturated. You never see any mold on the surface? That’s my biggest issue and I just don’t want it to become a problem later down the line. Maybe it’s the brand I’m using idk. I did go with a premixed and pre buffered mix off amazon.

sometimes i don't water each day in veg. but when they move to flower they are large enough to water everyday. i adjust the soaking duration to adjust the amount of saturation they get. are you in chunk or the fine style coco? mie sty somewhat wet all the time but the coc is loose enough to still provide the roots with oxygen.

 

[Jgutta420]

sometimes i don't water each day in veg. but when they move to flower they are large enough to water everyday. i adjust the soaking duration to adjust the amount of saturation they get. are you in chunk or the fine style coco? mie sty somewhat wet all the time but the coc is loose enough to still provide the roots with oxygen.

I’m using a premixed fine style coco. I’ll cut it back I think. This is day 4 since water and it still feels pretty well saturated after 3 straight days of watering until runoff.

 

[yarddog]

I’m using a premixed fine style coco. I’ll cut it back I think. This is day 4 since water and it still feels pretty well saturated after 3 straight days of watering until runoff.

i never used the fine stuff. i love the chunky style though

 

[Jgutta420]

i never used the fine stuff. i love the chunky style though

I may give it a shot for the next grow but I doubt it. This experience may have ruined coco for me. Probably just go back to dwc.

 

[zem]

If your coco is fine try 50/50with pertile. Drainage must be complete. Also i treat coco and wash it a lot before use. When compared to my automated recycling ebb and flow it did not hold as a system. I do use it for smaller plants in some cases and i am planning to add about 15% to my ebb and flow medium just to be able to put soil amendments in there and not have them washed away from the porous rocks. Dwc is quite limiting because you cannot breed beneficial bacteria to the levels needed since they need a medium to hold on to so you are limited to a sterile system which is not as good as good living bacteria.

 

[yarddog]

I may give it a shot for the next grow but I doubt it. This experience may have ruined coco for me. Probably just go back to dwc.

never quit on the first try. i always trat the first try as a test. any shy of absolute failure is considered a success as long as i learned from my mistakes.
i could see the fine stuff holding water. the chuck aint holding but a certain amount. myself, failed miserably in dirt for months before i swapped to coco and i'll never change to anything else as long as i can get my GH 3 part and chunk coco. if i did change, i would go further into hydroponics. i didn't like the whole do something then wait and see how the plants respond. in water based you'll find out the next day!!

 

[RosterMan]

Water it everyday until runoff throw runoff away
Never let coco dry out

 

[Jgutta420]

If your coco is fine try 50/50with pertile. Drainage must be complete. Also i treat coco and wash it a lot before use. When compared to my automated recycling ebb and flow it did not hold as a system. I do use it for smaller plants in some cases and i am planning to add about 15% to my ebb and flow medium just to be able to put soil amendments in there and not have them washed away from the porous rocks. Dwc is quite limiting because you cannot breed beneficial bacteria to the levels needed since they need a medium to hold on to so you are limited to a sterile system which is not as good as good living bacteria.

I did wash it and soak it overnight in calmag even though it was supposedly pre buffered. And it’s too late to add more perlite as it’s in its forever home and I don’t want to re-pot but I’ll take it for future advise if I decide on using this medium again. But as far as dwc, out of all of my grows in different mediums dwc has absolutely without a shadow of a doubt been the most successful for me. Even in coco which is supposed to be hydro-like I’m not getting the absolute explosive growth I get with dwc. When I use dwc my plants dwarf any other method both in size and yield.

 

[Jgutta420]

never quit on the first try. i always trat the first try as a test. any shy of absolute failure is considered a success as long as i learned from my mistakes.
i could see the fine stuff holding water. the chuck aint holding but a certain amount. myself, failed miserably in dirt for months before i swapped to coco and i'll never change to anything else as long as i can get my GH 3 part and chunk coco. if i did change, i would go further into hydroponics. i didn't like the whole do something then wait and see how the plants respond. in water based you'll find out the next day!!

Yea dirt is trash, I’ll never use that again. Poor drainage even with amendments, nasty taste, and bugs! But I get excellent results with dwc but a buddy of mine told me to try coco. He said it was similar to dwc but it seems more akin to dirt if I’m being honest. He said I’d get a similar harvest if not the same but based on the size of my plant and how old it is I call **. Growth rate is pretty slow and like you said it takes days to see any noticeable results after changing something. If I was in dwc it’d be 3x this size right now. These seeds are pretty expensive and I don’t want to keep wasting them so I’ll probably just stick to what I know in the future. I’ll get these to harvest (hopefully) and maybe I’ll try coco again in the future with some free or bag seeds.

 

[RosterMan]

I added 1/3 pearlite to 2/3 coco after washed and loaded
It drain really nicely
hence neve let it dry out.
Would be hard to add if you have plants growing in it , but if just in pots I would dump them out and do the mix

 

[WeedHopper]

I may give it a shot for the next grow but I doubt it. This experience may have ruined coco for me. Probably just go back to dwc.

I used to love growing in DWC but temps were a problem. I had to use frozen water bottles to keep my solution below 70 degrees. So now I grow in soil. Texas heat is a killer.

 

[Jgutta420]

I used to love growing in DWC but temps were a problem. I had to use frozen water bottles to keep my solution below 70 degrees. So now I grow in soil. Texas heat is a killer.

Gotta grow enough over the winter to last the entire summer

 

[Witchking]

Coco rocks. I have tried switching back to soil and that lasted one cycle..lol

I have been in coco since 2008ish , the secret is to not over complicate it. I hear you about the overwhelming amount of Info on coco that is often contrary from one article to the next.
I have done coco in both auto feed and "Handroponics" to quote the guy who's one post gave me the blueprint for sucess..Conbread Ricky. I do Handroponics personally.
Some tips for success:
-Buy high quality coco..Cheap coco , especially in blocks will need to be charged...NO THANKS. Buy baged coco, so much easier and consistent to work with.
-Coco specific nutes. Trust me, used to think it was Bulls.hit, it's not. Once I quit being stubborn , broke down and bought coco specific nutes...cleared up a whole lot of issues I had been having..Personally I recommend Advanced Nutrients Ph perfect coco nutes...getting amazing results with little stress. Never looked back.
-As previously stated by another person, Gauge watering by pot weight, believe me with coco, you will Know when they need water, especially once you have an established root ball.
-Flush well at the end. Coco is a breeze to flush...

Coco will work you. It's not like soil in that regard. Which is why a lot of people go with auto watering systems..If you don't spend much time in the growroom, stick with soil..
Growing in coco is like a part time job. So theres that. Its like driving a very fast car, compared to soil, better know what your next move is. It takes a crop or two to get used to it, but if you are like me, you'll go with coco, and never look back. you'll be addicted to the growth rate.

Hope this helps.