Coco question

I have a brick of coco. Should I adjust the ph of the water used to soak said brick? Add Cal/Mag? My tap water sits at 7.1 ph and .63EC.

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You should buffer it if it’s not already been treated.

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Then you are all set to check the quality of that brand. :+1:

These guys are supposed to wash to coir and get the salt out before packaging.
Some do it OK, some don’t even try.
It would be interesting to see what you get. I’ll bet there are folks around here that could tell you what the results mean.

Cheers
G

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What brand is the brick?

Some info I like to reference.

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The brand is Cyco. And thanks a lot for the link!!

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Looks to be high quality.

https://www.bghydro.com/cyco-coco-coir-brick-5-kg.html

No need to do the double buffering IMO.

Your brand says its been washed and ph stabilized, but just in case, here is my procedure.
Take brick, soak, check the runoff waters PPM/EC, it will be sky high if the coco hasn’t been pre treated.
Most cheap brick has to be washed with water quite a few times.
When the PPM/EC doesn’t go up much anymore, start adding ph down into the slurry until you reach ~ph6. Leave it for a while, check again.
When you have clean ph stabilized coco, pour off water and squeeze a bit, add nutrient solution.
Cheap blocks take quite a bit of work.

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I use Cyco 70/30 Coco perilite, and I run into issues if I don’t buffer and charge it. I also follow the coco for cannabis website directions on how to buffer coco. Got about 5 gal worth of Cyco charging right now actually.

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@SeymourGreen Here is what I don’t understand. I read the link for Coco for Cannabis. I have washed my brick and am ready to charge it. He states that for seedlings should start with an EC of .4 or a PPM of 400. My tap water is close to that, so if I flush the coco down to .4, won’t I be flushing all the cal/mag I just charged with, out of the coco? Little confused on that part.

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Looks like a lot of work just to get things going in coco, and I thought rockwool was bad.

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I think 400 ppm is closer to .8, but I get what you’re saying. It’s my understanding that charging is to fill the cations sites with Ca, and Mg so it doesn’t steal it away from your feed, and thus the plants. From what I gather, we are only flushing the excess out, and not the Ca, and Mg that has been used to fill the cation sites. Make sense?

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It’s not that bad really. More of a pain if you have to rinse and strain bricks, but the better the brand usually the less hassle. I buy pre washed, loose, coco, but I still have to charge it or I get pH, and Ca issues.

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Mistakes happen! :tropical_drink:

Thought I was good…
Prepping a sack of canna coco.
I rinsed out the fines and soaked it in about 800ppm calmag water.

Stirring…mixing every few hours. Left it to soak overnight. All good!
.
.
.
Nope. Dummy me. Forgot to PH my calmag water. Coco was jacked up around ph 7 !!! Doh

Used it in the outside gardens.

Went down and bought a new sack of coco and started over.

:baby_bottle:

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This brick was all I could find. Definitely going to buy a bag not a brick next time. That makes sense @SeymourGreen. Thank you.

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400ppm tap water, yikes, wonder whats in the water causing that. Maybe you have Cal-Mag for free from the tap.
Used to live in a place with 1000ppm tap water, didn’t kill the garden but didn’t grow well either, had to get an RO-filter, ~100$.

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I followed the directions from Coco for Cannabis. Flushed until my PH was 6 and 400 ppm. Can I now plant my seed or do I need to let it dry out some?

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I always start seeds in peat pucks, then transfer to 16 oz party cups of coco after roots start developing. Coco needs to be kept pretty moist, and roots need for the medium to dry a little so they search for water, and thus grow. Once the roots are more developed they go in the party cups, and get a good low feed/watering. Then I don’t water for another day or two until I feel the cups getting lighter.

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Once they get a good root system going, you can water them daily, or more even. That’s when you’ll see them really take off.

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