Hello DGC new and old<
I would like to thank you all for putting out such a solid show. The question I need to ask is about coco. I have bought some of the cheap shit in block form from amazon. I need to know hoe bad this stuff is, what can I expect to happen with this coco? I have been chasing all kinds of problems. I just don’t know if they are from my environment, nutrient plan, or just shitty coco. With full disclosure in mind, I only rehydrated the coco and buffered with cal/mag; I did not rinse the coco before using. I don’t know if this has caused all of my problems or not, but I am using grow bucket inserts(SIP container), coco coir, Grow Dots (125 g. in 5 gal bucket with insert) and Recharge. I water with R.O. water, cal/mag, and also add some micro nutrients(liquid 1/2 dose). I have made a large 1/8″ strainer to wash the next batch of coco, but I have a salt based water softener that supplies the whole house with treated water. Is this a bad source of water to wash/rinse the new coco with? If I go with Fox Farm or Cana Coco do I still wash and buffer the coco?
Thank You all again,
JinxCat
Quality coco comes rinsed and buffered from the factory. Canna Coco is as good as it gets. Do not use water from a water softener (typically sodium salt) to feed your plants in any media. The abundance of sodium will cause all kinds of nutrient antagonism causing lockout.
Hello jmtstro,
Thanks for the input, I only water with RO water(5ml cal mag per gal). Do you think it is ok to rinse the cal mag with my water softener water or do you think that is adding salt to my mix? I believe I will be going to cana coco, or fox farm anyway.
thanks again,
JinxCat
Gotta support my boy Jeremy from BuildaSoil, plus they’re have black friday sales. https://buildasoil.com/products/conibo-organics-fine-grade-coconut-coir-40l?_pos=3&_sid=30eb7de87&_ss=r
That is unbuffered coco, he already is having problems.
Yeah, so starting with a solid base will be a net positive…
Please try to add to a conversion, coming in just to say “you’re wrong” without proper elaboration will never help anyone’s understanding.
I use fox farm coco loco and I do not have to rinse before use. The coco loco is amended with some castings and light nutrition so it is already buffered basically. I have been reusing it as well and have been using my coco for about 2 years now. Before reusing it I make sure to rebuffer it after flushing the media at the end of a cycle. It’s not the best quality Coco from my understanding, but it is good enough to prevent some headaches. Especially if you plan on reusing it, getting the highest quality possible is usually a good choice.
Thank you!
What do you guys think about rinsing the coco with the water softener water? Is there too much salt in the water to do this, or is it ok to rinse the coco but not to feed/water the plants with?
Thanks again,
JinxCat
I do believe that this at least could be contributing to these results, but without proper testing it’s hard to tell for sure. I’ve heard of the sodium building up in the soil with repeated use, but I couldn’t find anything on the internet about specifically rinsing with soft water only. If I’m not mistaken I believe Dude had a problem with his soft water when He moved to Canada, but that was with Him using it regularly. this is my source if you wanted to read along. https://www.canna-uk.com/hard_water_and_soft_water
I would say as long as your EC of your tap water is low than it’s probably better than not rinsing it at all. It would at least lower the amount of sodium available, especially if the coco producers using ocean water to clean the coco fibers before packaging. The sodium in softened water is still probably only about 1% of the total sodium of sea water.
Ideally though, it would be better to use RO or sodium free low EC water to rinse the coco with, but a small amount of sodium can be stored in the plant and be used but it’s not ideal. There is actually a dece amount of sodium in many products growers use such as kelp and crab/lobster meals so it’s not like the plants can’t tolerate a little. It’s just easy for that sodium to accumulate and cause issues when you are trying deliver proper nutrient ratios. So over time watering with the soften water could cause issues and may not be the best long term option, but rinsing with it may not be the worst, but I would still suggest the RO if possible to be the most safe about it.
Cool Cool and thank you all! I will rinse with RO water, hopefully 10 gal of RO water will be enough to get the salt out.
Thanks to all of the listeners cast and crew of the DGC!!!
JinxCat