Behind the things : compressed coco coir ^^
Today it’s the second week, the transplants will begin. So i need coco coir ^^
Micro update to share a basic habit about this product than i’m using mainly as medium when i can : the coco bricks. They are pretty usual here, cheap and easy to send discreetly.
The difficulty for me is generally to find bricks without trichodermas, this is pretty trendy here but i don’t specially like that. I prefer to rely on individual roots boosters for different reasons.
So here the twos products than will “enrich” the dry coco brick.
Roots Excellurator (H&G) : A bit pricey but my favorite root booster (until now). The boost is pretty agressive and long lasting, i generally only use it twice in a session. One time per transplant operation.
Not really a rule because the inner rhythm of each crop matter, but a share to understand how i decide it :
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The first drop being when seedlings start to have a true trunk, when their very first peri-derm is “cracking”. You know, this little dry and dead skin. It’s time for me to give them a real pot to colonize.
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The second drop being when i transplant in definitive pots. Depend on the strain, sometimes it’s before the stretch, after the stretch or during the stretch. But always around this stage.
Soil Attack (Aptus) : This is relativly new. The shoebox and its GMO gnats helped me to discover better this product in fact. Partly a preventive measure (it stink very strong) but it have also a very nice effects on the “restart” time of the transplanting operation. It “strenght up” a bit also the main pivots roots of healthy plants in increasing their diameter, and produce more “hairy roots” in young stage.
For a 70 liters brick i use 10 liters of solution (2.64 gal), splitted in 2 x 5 liters.
Spanish like to mix with the water different organic amendment and let the coco suck it : worm casting, fish emulsion etc … but i’m not so in these things.
Uggly pics to show the Roots Excell concentration ^^
So i mix the stuff at these dosages :
- Roots Excell : 0.25 milliliter per liter
- Soil Attack : 0.30 milliliter per liter
Then i shake the twos jerrican like a bartender lol
Let’s dance with the first pass. I use a big plastic container than i can seal when i’ve finished, and than just fit the dimension of the brick i’m using…
I place it in the center.
And i pour on it the first jerrican, slowly and in moving the jerrican to hit all the surface.
It look like that after the first pass. Only the upper part is saturated.
Then i pour the bottom of the container, on each side, with the second jerrican.
And i let it sit closed for a day in a temperate space (not cold, not warm).
The day after, i crunch the brick with the hands (with gloves) to aeate it in pressing the coir in a bucket to remove the excess of solution. Than i recycle the bucket in the watering of seedlings not yet ready for the transplant ^^
See you tomorrow for the transplanting and the update of plants ;o)