Confused with coco

Alright I am very new to coco and have looked everywhere on the internet but just can't find an answer to my question. How do you water coco? Ive read that you can water it non stop as long as you have proper drainage which I definitely have. But my little seedling is only a week old and i thought if the coco is constantly wet or moist, how can the seedlings roots search for water? Dont the roots stay in a ball if they keep getting a supply of water?
Please help me out, oh yea and the brand is canna coco and I used this 100% in my pot, didnt add anything else. So how much water do they need and how can i tell when its time for them to get water?
peace

Have you seen the 3 part introduction to growing in coco on Youtube?

Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsJXJED0qD4
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbqF2HANJBA
Part 3 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SMPNg1DCGE

yea i got that dvd when i bought my bag of canna coco. Dosnt really answer my question though(i might have missed something in the dvd), no offense. That dvd is more commercial than anything else. Any help is apreciated.....
thanks alot

you can get cocco bricks at pet stores...1 brick=9liters when wet....$6

Kushcrosser said:

you can get cocco bricks at pet stores...1 brick=9liters when wet....$6

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yea ok thanks for that info but a little of topic....any one out there??

I start mine in pk3/4 bags of coco. Mind you Im growing clones. But If I were going to grow from seeds I would probably sprout the seeds in rockwool cubes, then after roots appear, put them into PK3/4 grow bags until the root ball formed, then transplant into the big pots for vegetative growth. While theyre in the small bags Id just be watering them based on the weight of the bag.

With coco most of the moisture will be at the bottom on a diminishing scale starting at the top. So roots will want to grow down toward the most moisture.

Same thing happens with the slabs or drip feeding in large pots.

I dont drip feed though but a few others on here do. I just water as one would with soil.

alright ok, so your saying I should water it like soil? So let it dry out completely before giving it a heavy watering? Or is there something I missed?
thanks alot

If its only a week old I would pop it into a 3/4 planter bag with coco and water it with pH balanced water and Rhizotonic till it fills out the planter bag. With coco it is easy to assess the moisture content, the weight will give it away. If it is light then it is almost dry. Dont let it dry out, like anything, dry roots and you get a dead plant real quick.

But because coco is so light you will get to judge the moisture content by feeling the weight dry and then after you add water.

Once the root ball is hanging out of the planter bag then transplant into your pot. By that time you will have a better idea of how much differentiation there is in weight between low and high moisture levels.

Some other coco growers I know do things a little differently, I hope some of them in here can offer other methods as well.

Too much water in the bottom will cause the roots to ball up in the upper half of your pot. Keeping an even moisture from just moist at the top to wet at the bottom will encourage roots to go deep looking for moisture.

Every now and then I pop a bit more moisture in as well so that there is runoff. I use the run off to test pH and also as a semi flush function to flush out any salt buildups down the bottom.

EC meter is a must with coco. Getting the EC wrong in the past resulted in a few plants with badly smoked fan leaves. No probs there for me now that I made the investment.

As for the comparison between letting soil dry out and letting coco dry out, soil may seem like it has dried out but if you put a probe in there would still be moisture 3/4 of the way down the pot. You cant let coco dry right out. Just go by the weight. It feels just like a bucket of water.

If the bucket is half full of water it feels different than if it had say half a liter of water in the bottom. Coco feels that way too, the weight differentiation is that obvious.

ok thank you so much for that info. However it is still not entirely clear to me but I know that I will get it right after some time. I have already got the seedling in its main big pot so i cant transplant it anymore-sorry. I have been giving the coco 2 litres of water a day. Dont know the size of the pot but its 23 centimetres high and its a round pot with drainage holes in the bottom. The drainage is then caught by an alluminium tray which i empty once it gets full(the tray is below the pot, the pot is not in the tray lol). Dos this sound ok?
peace (its a fem ppp by the way)

Probably back off the amount of water so that there is no run off. Its probably better to water more often and with less water than drenching the coco with litres of water and less often.

What nutrients and additives do you intend to use?

are you sure? ive seen posts were ppl have said that you should water untill there is 10 % runoff. My nutrients are only available at my hydro shop as they make these themselves, ive got some veg nutes and flowering and then ive also got a bud booster which is also from the shop. So yea sorry cant tell you much bout the nutes.
peace

The 10% runoff is fine once youre plant is pumping out leaves and drinking nutes like crack. But as this thread started out, its about encouraging the roots to dig deep. Usually the idea behind the 10% runoff theory is that eventually the roots which would occupy most of the pot, would use up the moisture in the pot then wick the 10% runoff up and use that up too.

But if your plant is still a seedling and only occupying the top 20% of your pot then the wicking affect doesnt really work that well. In the meantime if there is so much moisture in the top half of the pot, then the roots will accumulate there and not go deep into the coco.

Probably after about 2 weeks of vegetative growth you will notice you are adding more and more water/nutrient as the root ball grows. The trick then is to water more regularly rather than using the run off thing. Some growers on here I talked with, were in flowering stage and were watering twice in the 12 hour lights on period.

Up to you though, run off watering works fine when the root ball is fully developed as a wicking system to extend the period between watering. I use huge pots smallest is 15 litre, biggest is 50 litre, so one good watering after lights on seems to be enough for my plants, but others are using less water per watering and watering more often, different strokes for different folks I suppose.

Jonus said:

The 10% runoff is fine once youre plant is pumping out leaves and drinking nutes like crack. But as this thread started out, its about encouraging the roots to dig deep. Usually the idea behind the 10% runoff theory is that eventually the roots which would occupy most of the pot, would use up the moisture in the pot then wick the 10% runoff up and use that up too.

But if your plant is still a seedling and only occupying the top 20% of your pot then the wicking affect doesnt really work that well. In the meantime if there is so much moisture in the top half of the pot, then the roots will accumulate there and not go deep into the coco.

Probably after about 2 weeks of vegetative growth you will notice you are adding more and more water/nutrient as the root ball grows. The trick then is to water more regularly rather than using the run off thing. Some growers on here I talked with, were in flowering stage and were watering twice in the 12 hour lights on period.

Up to you though, run off watering works fine when the root ball is fully developed as a wicking system to extend the period between watering. I use huge pots smallest is 15 litre, biggest is 50 litre, so one good watering after lights on seems to be enough for my plants, but others are using less water per watering and watering more often, different strokes for different folks I suppose.

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ill post a reply tommorow on your post as Im just too fuking baked right now.
laters

coco is a really good hydro medium. you can put seeds/seedlings/clones, right into it and start growing. i keep the ph at 5.8 from start to finish. i "always" allow 10-15% run-off. the reason for run-off is to keep nutes from accumulating in the coco. every time you feed, you're in essence doing a flush. coco is best used with run to waste. that means 100% availability to all required nutes, all the time. no other grow method accomplishes this. some folks recirculate from a rez, but i think you get better results with run to waste. early on i feed once a day. but once the plant gets established, i feed 2 times a day. i hand water, but i've read that coco responds better to numerous small feedings. you do not want your coco drying up! to properly check ph, you take samples of coco from the root-zone, not bychecking run-off. here' some info. from "integral hydroponics."

COCO COIR
is a product derived from the husks of the coconut.
Visually it looks like peat.
It's air capacity is about 30%.
Coir is most suited as a run to waste medium.
Coir can become saturated and it is not truly inert medium.
This means that the nutrient will change over a short period (due to the nutrient collecting micro and macro elements as it passes through the coir.
Coir tends to release potassium and to withold calcium.
For this reason it is desirable to use a nutrient that is blended specifically for coir.
Coir has a remarkable capacity to protect the plants root system in times of heat.
It also tends to promote vigorous and healthy root development.
Plant growth tends to be very consistant with coir.
Coir is very tolerant of over and under watering, which makes it a very forgiving growing medium.
Coir has a very strong cation exchange ability, which means it can hold and release nutrient elements based on the plants needs.
Coir tends to retain nutrient salts. because of this, less nutrient (lower ec) is required.
On a less positive note, coir can also contain high levels of sodium (salt)....
If your growing in coir be aware that this can be a potential problem.
Either purchase a pre-flushed coir product or flush ph (5.5-6.0) stabilised water through the coir prior to use.
Measure the ec of the water and then measure the ec of the run off.
When they are the same, it is ready for use.
Large amounts of potassium are naturally present in coir.
Potassium competes with calcium and magnesium... buffering and plant nutrition needs to compensate for this!!
For this reason there are several nutrients that are specifically formulated with the coco coir's unique characteristics in mind.
By using a nutrient specifically formulated for the coir based system, you are ensuring that your plants are receiving the best possible nutritient package.

thanks alot guys! I really apreciate your help and am starting to learn the ways of coco lol.
thanks again

Me personally with a unestablished seedling/plant i would use a rooting additive like AU60.

just my 2 cents

DeViLWIZARD said:

Me personally with a unestablished seedling/plant i would use a rooting additive like AU60.

just my 2 cents

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yea i think that might work well, I am however tight on money at the moment so I probably cant afford it yet.
peace

i hand water, but i've read that coco responds better to numerous small feedings.

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Yup sure does.

Me personally with a unestablished seedling/plant i would use a rooting additive like AU60.

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If you can get your hands on Rhizotonic your seedlings and clones will love you for it.

As for the fertilizer, it is preferred to use one balanced for growing in Coco.

The other odd thing, well, with the Canna range of nutes, is that there is one A & B Coco nutrient that is used from start to finish. The only difference when switching to flower is the EC rating. There is no veg and flowering sets of nutrients. Go figure. Not sure whether it is the same for other brands like Canadian Xpress Coco A&B or Advanced Nutrients Monkey Juice.

Jonus said:

Yup sure does.



If you can get your hands on Rhizotonic your seedlings and clones will love you for it.

As for the fertilizer, it is preferred to use one balanced for growing in Coco.

The other odd thing, well, with the Canna range of nutes, is that there is one A & B Coco nutrient that is used from start to finish. The only difference when switching to flower is the EC rating. There is no veg and flowering sets of nutrients. Go figure. Not sure whether it is the same for other brands like Canadian Xpress Coco A&B or Advanced Nutrients Monkey Juice.

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Ok ill try and get my hands on some rhizotonic or something similar. Im gonna also swap my nutes for the canna A&B nutes as they look more professional than mine. Are they any good?
peace

They work well for me. Mind you there isn't a huge variety in our stores that we have to choose from so I can't give you a comparison.