Hey HR!!! i hope things are looking ok!!! I was surfing some forums the other day, and i found the great post recently posted by an awesome guy named setting sun. he and I share the same GLH LED pain.... hahaha
here is a copy of his post. i thought it could help others here as well!!!
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ORIGINALLY POSTED BY SETTING SUN>
OK, so we got this new hydro shop in town really close to me,
and I went to check it out and to get some coco.
It's a mid-sized establishment, with the usual assortment of
grow gear, including the ubiquitous wall of AN nutes.
Guy at the counter is youngish and friendly, and I asked him
if he had any coco in stock that would definitely not need to
be rinsed prior to using.
He recommended these two brands:
Black Gold's "Just Coir"
and
Botanicare's "Cocogro"
I asked him which of the two he thought was of higher
quality, and he told me the Black Gold.
I picked up one bag of each, and a few Superoots air pots,
and headed home.
Having experienced problems with a grow a while back with
Hydrofarm's big coco brick because I didn't rinse it before use,
I always check the ppm levels of my coco before using it these
days.
I opened both bags and filled two 5" pots.
They both looked and felt similar, with the Botanicare having a few more
"hairs", but otherwise the texture and quality of both products seemed
very good.
I watered the pots with RO water and collected the runoff so I could check
sodium levels with my ppm meter.
This stuff would have killed my plants pretty quick if I had used it without rinsing.
and this stuff would have probably taken about twice as long to kill my plants.
After rinsing and flushing with several gallons of rainwater, I had coco that was
safe to use.
I'm curious to see what the hydro shop dude will say when I show him these pics.
moral of the story for me is to continue to check the ppm levels
of any coco I plan on using in my garden, no matter what anybody
claims about it being ready to go