Hello all my o g friends I am new to coco after running d w c For many years had to change due to a nasty outbreak of algae I could Not get under control.
So this is my set up.
1 block 650 g core.
1 block 650 g Coco chip.
~20% Perlight
I believe the first mistake Was buying cheap coco.
I didn’t necessarily understand Preloading coco with extremely high levels of calmag before planting.
I am mixing nutrients using the ironhead formula.
At first mixing to an extremely high level of ppm I have since backed off
To PPM of 600 & PH of 5.8. I am using tap water with a starting PPM of ~250
I seem to be finding conflicting evidence online about measuring run off.
My PH has steadily drifted upwards in runoff to 6.5
But I have been able to bring my p p m down to 600 in run off. Yet PH is still 6.5 in run off.
plants have started rebounding from what I believe was a Calcium magnesium deficiency. And nutrient burn. Yet a few of them still look lime green. And others with what I believe is still a bit of Calcium magnesium efficiency.
So I guess what I am asking is the ph. Run off important and if so, how do I lower ph to the correct runoff level of 5.8?
If this is already been posted somewhere else, please redirect me. Thanks for all your help.
It is much appreciated.
6.5 is still o.k. for runoff. 5.8 is a bit low input. They say 6.0-6.5 is good. Cannabis likes it only slightly acidic.
You are going to cherish these plants so why not give them the best coco you can find. I would use the best coco with a good balanced fert. program on the low side E.C.-wise. Let the coco dry out a bit between waterings to concentrate the EC value in the media.
Okay, so as long as my PPM run off is staying around 600 to 700. And my PH run off stays around 6.5. Using General Hydroponics trio, but obviously only using micro and Bloom and cal-mag as per iron head. I should be doing okay? Relatively speaking.
For further purchases of Coco down-the-line any. suggestions on the best type of Coco found on amazon?
5.8 is the PH I use for passive hydro hempy system. you can increase or descrease slightly to see if the cultivar likes that deviation. Most strains will perform best under this with hydro. Remember that this is not live media this is similar to rocks with better water retention.
The run off ec/ppm is dependant on what ec you’re putting in, if you use 1.2/1.4ec you want the run off to be that at least, it’s generally a bit higher than your target nutrient.
If you test the run off and its higher than your input ec use more run off, or you can lower the input nutrient.
If run off is lower than the input nutrient you need to raise the ec.
i dont measure run off always been told its not important for coco. canna coco or mother earth 70/30 are my favs but cant find canna local now so i use mother earth 70/30 exclusivly.
add a little epsom salt to get them the c mag the coco sucked out
Cheap coco can have a very high Ec right out of the gate. Coconuts are grown near the ocean.
Do yourself a favor and leach the coco then buffer your coco in a strong Cal-Mag solution when you first get it.
I also feed a weak Cal-Mag solution in coco as cheap insurance.
I’m not sure what PPM scale your using so I’ll just use Ec.
I do drain to waste and shoot for a 20% runoff on each feeding with an Ec of about 1.2 to 1.4 and a target PH of 5.8
If you start seeing tip burn leach the coco once a week.
Have you tried a dryback in veg? Some growers suggest to always keep coco damp to avoid ph swings. I always test a dryback when the plants are getting established to see how the plant reacts. If it responds well - most weeks in veg, I skip a day of feeding. Usually I feed 6 out of 7, but adjust by strain. In flower I feed at least once a day and sometimes multiple times depending on how big the pots are. The nice thing about Coco is it’s easy to flush and start over. You also see changes you make quick in comparison to soil or dwc. If i have an unhappy plant in soil or dwc, I’ll usually move it to coco to get it back in shape. I’ve used grow it coco, cocobliss, and burpee lately. I find grow it to be the best of the 3, but all work.
do not measure your drain water
never
just feed as advised by the manufacturer, stayin between 5.5 to 6.5 pH, with around 20% of the total volume in runoff
discard the runoff, do not recirculate
A ph of 5.8 is good, drain to waste is good too. Dont measure the drain’s ph.
Give calmag even if you skip the ferts (Don’t forget there’s nitrogen in the calmag too) and then stop that in time for harvest. The older the plants, the more calmag they need…raise it slowly.
Don’t let the coco dry out. If you want to save money on the fertiliser check the outgoing ec not to waste it.
It’s worth it to check your tab water analysis report to know how much calmag to use.
Hey! Lotta good answers here. When I tended plants grown in coco on the commercial side of things, they fed 5.5 pH. It seemed to work really well for almost everything. We allowed good dry backs between drenchings. Sort of drench, light water, leave it for dry back and repeat. They fed 1.5-2.5 ec depending on size and age of the plant. That ec is high for me, personally, but they used RO and it worked really well for them.
Your runoff PH should go up naturally based on the chemistry of whats happening in the root zone. When plants uptake nutrient ions from the substrate they exude hydrogen ions back which will naturally raise your PH. So a raised PH in runoff is actually what you would expect. Here is a video explaining the concept by Dr Daniel Fernandez.
I agree
There are no absolute truths like don’t do this or always do this.
I don’t personally let my coco dry between watering and or check my runoff unless something strange starts to happen with the plants.
I have found that when things are fully operational and growing that my ec levels in runoff are lower than the nutrient going in.
Newest data from Dr Bruce Bugbee states 6.5 pH is the target for ALL media. Soil, coco, DWC whatever. He said 6.5 should always be the target, since then that’s what I’ve been doing. Haven’t noticed any difference, but, I adjust my feeds less often now
I’ve been running 6.5 consistently in coco for months now. At least two full runs seed to chop, only one overfed plant but I chalk that up to me not paying attention to it.
