Fiveleafsleft
Well-Known Member
I've never heard of that brand. Don't know if it's because i'm in europe.. But googling around don't give me much info either. The same brand also sells coco-fiber doormats. Lets hope its not the same fibers they are using for both purposes.. The process of washing out the salts from coco is pretty time consuming. Fibers should be bathing in water for several months etc. Low quality coco can contain pretty much salts... You really should invest in EC-meter it's the only way to tell. But the fact that you burnt your seedlings with seedling-doses of nutrition raises questions, especially since your water is so relatively soft. Maybe you should follow the flushing procedure AK was suggesting after all. I don't think there is any buffering to wash away, anyways.The coco im using is this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003MOD2HY
I have a lot of coarse perlite in there too tho...about 60% coco 40% perlite
Your Coco coir could be just fine, and even if there is some salts you will be fine if you have some runoff. But you won't be able to give them as much nutes - especially not in the beginning.. Canna And Botanicare are top contenders. Ive tried B'cuzz bounce, Canna cogro, and Canna pro plus. The two former ones left salts in runoff, especially b'cuzz. CAnna pro plus is almost totally clean, which is strange considering how powerful the buffering seem to be. It also contains tricoderma. I'm not selling anything here, and like to say that many people prefer botanicare, and that there probably is several good brands out there. Though i do believe that the pre-moistured once, often are better than the compressed ones.
About perlite, it's not really necessary with coco, since coco holds enough air by it self. Not entirely sure about this, but I also do think some perlite will raise PH of your runoff, since it's closer to 7 than than 6.. I don't think it's harmful or anything just somthing to be aware of if you are checking runoff PH..