Buffering Coco

Have some bricks getting here Friday and I’m just curious if buffering with cal nit and Epsom is fine? Never needed bricks when bags were so cheap, but not these days in the sticks. Most CalMag bottles have nitrogen too, but less. Just not sure if there’s some science behind the CEC or whatever that I don’t know. Any help and info is much appreciated!

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From one of the big makers of coco bricks:

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Just use 1tsp per gallon of Cal Mag in your soak for the bricks. Some bricks come buffered. Once buffered never has to be done again. If your not sure the brick is buffered. Doing it again. Does not hurt anything.

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Thanks for the info! I’m guessing the extra nitrogen doesn’t matter. I don’t want to buy a bottle of CalMag for just that. I’ll just make the drive and buy bags of loose next time I need some. The bricks aren’t much cheaper and I never liked the rehydrating and buffering.

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I use this. Bomb. :100:

Growing a cherry tomato cut in nothing but it and I feed nutrients.

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For diy calmag (buffering purposes)

And buffering…

Hope this helps. :slightly_smiling_face::v:t3:

Trying to make calmag with calnit and epsom would (don’t know the chemical term) cause gypsum to form. Try sourcing magnit if possible.

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Also regarding bricks, I hope you end up with a decent batch as some of it is mostly dust with fewer grains.
Make sure to properly wash and buffer your coco.

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Just out of curiosity, what nutrients are you planning on using?
Coco requires it’s decent share of calmag so you would generally require more of these 2 elements up until midway of flower.
Pls read up on cocoforcannabis.com as it’s all coco related and lots of useful info in there as well. :slightly_smiling_face::herb:

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Thanks! I’ve run coco many many times. Have at least 100 lbs of Jacks and 100 lbs of Cal Nit in the garage. Plus, other stuff if I want to get fancy with it. Was just seeing if I could avoid buying a bottle of CalMag. I’m just buffering with the Cal Nit and Epsom and I’m sure it’ll be fine.

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Sweet bro. Then u should be good to go then.
I’m outta likes for the moment and I hope your able to get on with buffering that brick and grow some nice plants. :slightly_smiling_face::green_heart::herb:

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I myself grow in Coco and I am loving Coco,but I use pre-buffered bags because I can’t do the mess or the lady would kill my ass.
Sorry can’t help with It but very nice Infos on calmag recipe @iceman

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Yeah, I don’t know why I bought the bricks. Saving a few bucks is dumb for the hassle. Stupid of me. Haha

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I’ve used bricks nothing wrong with them. I buy them when I don’t need a whole bag.

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Not a bad move,doing something wrong is actually a good thing,you’ll improve and do Better/avoid the error next time
Also I would state that you will learn to buffer It and maybe you’ll save some Money on the long run

You will 100% be fine using the jacks stuff to buffer even the Epsom/cal nit as I know someone who does just this with the canna bricks and Jacks. Stellar grower too. Looking forward too seeing you get going brotha :facepunch:t2:

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Perfect! Exactly what I was wondering. It’s soaking now.

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If you have any dry bat guano and worm castings, mix 10% in your coco it will pay you back in kind. Strike that. I wouldn’t take my advice. Can be tricky. I get overly excited about coco. I sorta make my own version of coco loco.

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I was thinking about doing something like that, but then I figured I’d just knock this out the way I know works and setup soil using coco instead of peat for afterwards.

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I don’t even mix anything. 30 gallon smart pots consist of 1/3 loose buffered premium coco-1/3 Miracle Grow performance organics container mix and 1/3 perlite includes 10% vermiculite. My version of coco loco. Then this year I reused it all and recharged my mix beginning of the season with Performance Organic Edible granules. Mykos Extreme.
I just make sure and start my nutrients very very low and bump slowly. I’m a micro dosing mofo.

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My understanding is that as the coco breaks down, new surface areas of the fibers are exposed, which exposes more cation exchange sites and additional calcium will be required and ensure the coco doesn’t continue to rob calcium from the plant.

I’ve had really good luck with this, it’s the only kind I use, but I’m sure there are many good manufacturers of coco out there (and some bad ones).

I do supplement with Calmag+ periodically, but I’m working on getting away from that with just using bone meal.

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