Ideal for coco is around 5.8 in veg and 6 - 6.2 in bloom. It’s good to let it swing about a bit but try to keep it in range. Coco is somewhere in between soil and an inert medium like rock wool but it is still full hydro, the only nutrients available are what you put in. I love the stuff and wont go back to having dirt inside the house 
2 Likes
Sounds like you know your coco.
I’ve been using it for about 3 years.
Getting better with each grow.
Feeding low but often works great.
Never grown in soil. That might change if I keep hanging around the OG Octopot farmers.
Have you seen DJM method?
1 Like
Coco college…worth a peek.
1 Like
awesome!! Now one more question and I’m sorry to be a bug because I know i could find these answers surfing the web but I trust our community more than that. So for dwc I start my seeds in rockwool. Can I still do that and just plant the cube in the coco or do I directly plant in the coco
1 Like
thanks!! @GramTorino ill give it a read… @Hydrlizr I’m not trying to hijack your thread my friend
2 Likes
You can start them in rockwool or root riot cubes etc but these days i just start them between wet paper towels them plant them straight into a starter pot of pre fed coco. Try to use the best coco you can get it’ll save you a load of hassle later.
BTW nearly all coco guides will tell you to feed to at least 20% runoff each time. I don’t because i don’t overfeed them so i dont need to flush them through to remove excess nutrient. You can do this if you want to waste loads of nutrient and possibly get unhealthy plants too cos the coco is totally over saturated all the time. This is a big problem when the plants are too small to use it.
It’s especially bad when you have very small plants in big containers btw
1 Like
Awesome!! Thanks for all the info. Im excited to give coco a shot. Hoping to get my kit within the next couple weeks and get started on some new ones
1 Like
Seems Ph pens are most needed by non-soil growers. And less experienced growers.
Here’s my grow log. Glad to talk coco any time.
2 Likes
Awesome. Like I said i plan on getting my new gear within the next couple weeks so I can get started in coco and of course still run my dwc. Just like anything else it can be intimidating trying something new. I’m just glad we have such a kickass community
2 Likes
A good way treat coco is think of a plant growing in soil/compost when it has used up all of the nutrients in the compost and you have to feed it a mild nutrient mix every watering. Plants in compost don’t like being over watered either so you wouldn’t flush them to runoff every day or they would curl up and die on you. Coco is a bit more forgiving but the same process applies.
The main difference is nutrients bind to compost and release them over time to the plant. Coco is more like rockwool so you need to add in nutrients all the way through until the finishing flush. Good luck dude!
2 Likes
Anyway back to ph pens, they are a pain in the arse 
3 Likes
thanks!! I’ll be adding the pla ts I do in coco to my grow diary called joboos bullpen. I’m only running two plants in dwc right now but im excited about trying a new medium. Are there certain brands of coco you recommend? And do you run standard 70/30 coco/perlite? I saw this mother earth pre mixed coco and perlite figured I’d give it a go. Geez I keep having questions 
a bag of 50liters of mix how many 5 gallon fabric pots would that cover? I feel dumb with all this
2 Likes
lol no prob with me dude, i like to help folk get the best out of this game, and it’s not my post 
The brand thing, well it depends a lot on where you live. I’m in Scotland so it’s the Euro market which has some good brands. I went off canna cos plants often struggle a bit at first until they are established so i’m now using plagron supreme. Biobizz coco mix is very good too and both are cheaper than canna. The premium versions are more expensive but they are better prepared, well rinsed of salts and left to partially compost then pre buffered. They also often contain goodies like micos that you wont get in cheap versions.
All coco has to be buffered so if you buy cheap stuff you’ll need to do that yourself. I cant be bothered lol. There’s roughly 4 litres in a gallon depending again on where you live so you’ll need around 20 litres for each 5 gallon pot. BTW i use 3 gallon air pots and they can get massive in those so you might want to use smaller pots. Last night i visited a friend, he has a 6 foot auto growing in a one gallon bucket of coco. He ran out of bigger pots and didn’t bother until it was too far into bloom anyway. It’ll only yield around 4oz dry but it was an afterthought anyway, he usually grows regs. He has stopped feeding to runoff now at my insistence and his plants are healthier and yields have shot up. That auto looks dam good in it’s wee bucket 
btw don’t mix your coco with anything, especially if you have splashed out on the best available 
2 Likes
Awesome. Yeah I’m in the states so I’ll just do some research for the best brands and all that good stuff. Thanks again my friend. Drop by joboos bullpen thread here in the next month or so. I’m hoping to have the tent up and going with coco. The kit comes with 5 gallon pots but I can always under fill them id imagine or just buy some 3 gallon air pots. Im feeling more confident about it now tho yall. Sorry for hijacking your thread @Hydrlizr
2 Likes
@Joboo Hey man, that’s what the thread is for, spark conversation, said my peace at the top
Useful info, made me go hmm and the thread is rolling, good stuff.
Almost went for the Dr Ph pen, well the rebrand, same look, but it was 79€, too much, got some more seeds instead.
2 Likes
well regardless its a lot of useful information so its not like we were talking trading baseball cards blowi g up the topic right lol
2 Likes
All business!
Well…almost. Lol
Don’t try this at home.
Freebie coco starter kit from local hydro hut. Circa 2017. Sealed.
Will trade for seeds. Jkjkjk.
I used drops for a few years while trying one cheap meter after the other. Good brand drops are close enough and still have them as backup but it are sometimes annoying when there is some tint to the nutes, so in the end i just paid the price for a bluelab handheld meter more than 5 years ago and is still operating great rarely needs calibration. How you store the probe is key, they have a warning in the catalog “If it dries, it dies!” so i use a plastic coffee container cut the lid just right for the meter to fit in and fill some ferts from my res at 5.6-5.8 ph. When it slowed down in getting to the reading i contacted the customer service and they were kind to advise me to clean the probe with a soft toothbrush and mild dish soap recalibrate. It worked better than i thought, meter was back like new. Its quality surpassed my expectations especially after all the past fails. EC meter on the other hand is easier to maintain i still use the cheaper 20-30$ ones and they last a few years.
2 Likes
I have a cheapo amazon pH tester.
It works and has been working for awhile.
I know that my tap water comes out at 7 and climbs to 7.6 after it has sat a day.
I use these markers as a makeshift test.
Drops all day.
Hangover piss yellow for active hydro.
Ever so slightly greenish piss yellow for soilless.
Greenish-yellow for soil.
Never fail, never break, never go bad, never need calibrated. I bought a pint of the reagent and it may be a lifetime supply. I use a glass test tube to test water, feel like a scientist. It takes me all of 10 seconds to test water, unless you had a big automated setup I really can’t imagine using digital.
5 Likes