Layin out the knowledge, thank you Horse!
Gonna rinse some coco this afternoon, so it’s ready when I am, hopefully in the next week or two!
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It keeps well even moist. 
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So remember when I said I was colorblind? I meant it haha, so help me out here. Are these purple, or just really dark green?
PCB X NWHP
PBC X A5HT
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Top pic purple. Second pic not so much
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Awesome, thank you. I was unsure of that one. And there is a limit of how many weed related things I can ask the wife before I feel like a broken record haha. Smell my fingers etc haha
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So, observations from the basement.
- Rinsing coco is for the fucking birds lol. I’m sure I’ll find more ergonomic ways of doing it, but my deep ass slop sink isn’t it. Seeing all those fines going down feels a lot like washing mud down the drain haha. Got a little mesh filter thing to avoid having the roto rooter guy come out (I hope)
- The texture of this stuff is gorgeous, but I’m still probably gonna mix like 25% perlite. Rinsing that is for the fucking birds too though haha.
- I’m gonna go ahead and buffer it, cause I have the bottle of cal mag right on the shelf at eye level as much as anything else.
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Dang, in the sink? I just assumed everyone has a backyard. Hope you’re not on a septic system 
Do you really need to rinse the perlite? I do about 25%, and have never rinsed it.
I have never used cal/mag in coco, nor do I plan to. I do use a soluble Ca in all my feeds, and some Epsom Salts once in great while if I see interveinal yellowing.
Ca and Mg are antagonistic, so I never got putting them in the same bottle? I think most Ca/Mg problems in coco are from pH imbalance. 5.8 is right on the edge of optimal for both. That’s where I try to keep it, and it seems to work.
I use RO water, too, no Ca or Mg in there either.
I was lucky, and had some great mentors to get me out of the mud.
Have you got your nutes figured out yet?
I found a good pH pen, and a ppm/ec meter are indispensable for coco, too.
Am I helping yet? 
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I do have a backyard, and in the future will probably do the rinsing out there, now that I know how much there is to rinse out haha! Nah, I’m on sewer, but really it is a super fine mesh I put over the drain, so it really shouldn’t be an issue. It’s so fine even water slows way down going through it. I don’t know that I “need” to rinse the perlite, but there is so much dust that comes out when I do that I’m just going to keep doing it. If you rinse like 1 gallon on perlite you get like 1/4 inch of sludge/dust in the bottom of the bucket.
Yeah, I’m gonna use the cal/mag to buffer, just because I have it and it seems like the most recommended way to buffer. My plan is to use Maxibloom and soluble gypsum, and Epsom if needed for mag. This way my calcium isn’t tied to nitrogen. I mean, it’ll be tied to sulfur, but I haven’t seen a sulfur excess yet, and I have seen nitrogen excess.
I do own a nice ph pen and ec pen, got those when I started with the hempies. Just gotta get back in the habit of using them haha, same as the run off. I know better, believe it or not lol.
I’m gonna try to avoid getting an ro system, but can and will if I need to.
And yeah, you are helping. I can read as much as I want about this stuff, doesn’t replace talking it out and having a voice of experience behind you.
That link is broken, or at least it is for me haha.
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Except for that maxibloom crap, sounds like you’re good to go, lol! Drain to waste? Do you have a way to deal with the waste?
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No love for the maxibloom? Have you had bad experiences with it, or …?
In the warmer months I toss the runoff on the flower beds, in the winter I have just left it in the trays to evaporate, it gets super dry here in the winter so I’ve always been happy for the extra moisture. That was with hempys though, so unless the tray fills up past the drain hole it was fine, gonna have to put the fabric pots up on risers maybe, obviously don’t want them to just sit in the runoff. What do you with your runoff?
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I use maxigro/maxibloom without issues in hempys. Going to use a weak mix to supplement my soil grow after she yanks out all the nutrients.
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Not a fan of Scott’s/Hawthorn… I have a hard time trusting a company that puts rat poison in their bird seed, promotes over fertilizing lawns, and shills roundup.
I suck up the runoff with a shop vac that fits on a sheetrock bucket, then chuck that on the closest flowers and shrubs.
I use airpots now, but I used to use fabric pots. I made risers out of slices of pvc pipe or scraps of rigid foam board. Some folks do let their coco pots suck up the runoff, but that seems like eating your own poop to me 
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Didn’t know Scott’s owned GH. Admittedly when I started using salts I just kind of held my nose and bought without looking too deep into it. Anyone make a 1 part dry nute that isn’t owned by they devil? I’ve got a pound or so of the Maxi left, so no urgent need to switch, prolly last me till next summer haha.
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It’s hard not to buy something Scott’s/Hawthorne doesn’t make, own, or shill, but I think it’s worth it to try!
I use 1 part Megacrop… the less complicated, the better for me
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Now that is super interesting.
Good thing they’re out of the small bag, or there would already be a bag on the way for me haha. I’m gonna keep my eyes peeled for the restock.
And yeah, the less parts the better. There are few things that make me feel dumber than putting a spoon of something in the mix and realizing you already did that step.
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Don’t bother… they don’t actually restock 1kg bags, as far as I can tell. When I first heard they offered free samples of a 1-part nutrient mix, I signed up to get an e-mail when they got back in stock because I was curious about trying a tiny hydro setup but don’t want to spend money on it yet; that was over a year ago. No e-mail yet. If you want it enough to buy it, just buy the 2.5kg bag. A good sign that they haven’t, and probably never will, restock the 1kg bags - the 2.5kg is triple the nominal price tag of the 1kg bag. 
If they actually sold it, it’d probably work out to be a better deal buying one 2.5kg bag than three 1kg bags, unless they’re stupid enough to want to spend more money on packaging than they have to. They haven’t updated the price for well over a year because it’s irrelevant, though.
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I must have gotten lucky. I got a sample bag, which was more than enough to show me I liked it, then they changed the formula! I asked if I could get the 1st iteration, and they sent me a sample bag of the new stuff.
It is better. I’m just about to the end of my 2nd 11K bag, and going to get another. The last bag has lasted about 2 years, in a small perpetual.
Maybe ask if they have samples? Otherwise just get the bigger bag, it’s still inexpensive… way less than the Canna Coco AnB, or H&G 1 part I was using.
Jack’s is another choice, but everything I’ve seen says you need to add cal/mag… MC doesn’t really need anything extra.
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Yeah, it is inexpensive, but I’m a mega cheapskate haha. If I can buy the little bag and it works, I’ll buy a bunch. I just imagine myself with a 11kg bag sitting forever with a cup taken out of it if I fuck up haha. I just emailed them asking about a restock/begging, we’ll see if they get back to me.
I’ve seen a lot of people using jacks, but I also feel like I see a lot of fiddle fucking around with ratios, and different parts, and different feed schedules, eh, it’s not for me haha. I want as few moving pieces as possible.
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Trippin’ over a dime to pick up a nickle, lol!
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And then the nickel turns out to be the tab knocked out of an junction box haha.
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