connta
Member
hi all, i'm relatively new to writing on forum but not new to the trade. recently i upgraded my grow area and being soil grower from start i decided also to switch to coco. i still don't have hydro gear and that's why coco seemed like a logical mid step. figured the start will be my biggest problem since in soil plants can start great with existing nutrients and in coco i will have to fertilize from day one. Using the Hesi fertilizer line (which gave the most success in soil) this will prob be delicate because Hesi is very strong and easy to fry with especially when the plants are just sprouts...
so being the "measure twice cut once" guy i would like to present some of my ideas for handling the start in coco and any input is appreciated. lets get to them...
for the reasons above mentioned i was thinking of mixing some organic safe fertilizer in the starting pots for my seeds such as worm castings, just to get them started before introducing strong fertilizer, small plants are so easy to kill by miscalculation. how do you recommend starting seeds in coco? i just need to get them to couple internodes and some foliage.
i have so far used tap water that i let sit some time for chlorine to evaporate (oxidize i guess), fertilized it and ph adjust it from ~7.6 to ~6.8 with that GH dry ph down then water the plants once daily in roomy pots until soil is saturated (ie water comes down from the drains). now i know coco should have hydro ph levels (5.5-6.5) and i'm worried that lowering tap water from 7.6 to 5.5 will make it salt abundant and i will have to flush lot more than i used to (pre plant rinse of the medium, phase changing rinse and ofc the final flush). i don't have RO water and all commercial "destiled" water in my area got some crazy ph levels, tested like 7-8 brands and ph level averaged on ~8.5 so that was a "no go". if i don't wanna flush like every week is RO filter my only real solution for coco?
ok lets get some discussion flowing... its already a wall of text for the stoned crowd with goldfish attention span... or was it goldfish memory span... cant remember
so being the "measure twice cut once" guy i would like to present some of my ideas for handling the start in coco and any input is appreciated. lets get to them...
for the reasons above mentioned i was thinking of mixing some organic safe fertilizer in the starting pots for my seeds such as worm castings, just to get them started before introducing strong fertilizer, small plants are so easy to kill by miscalculation. how do you recommend starting seeds in coco? i just need to get them to couple internodes and some foliage.
i have so far used tap water that i let sit some time for chlorine to evaporate (oxidize i guess), fertilized it and ph adjust it from ~7.6 to ~6.8 with that GH dry ph down then water the plants once daily in roomy pots until soil is saturated (ie water comes down from the drains). now i know coco should have hydro ph levels (5.5-6.5) and i'm worried that lowering tap water from 7.6 to 5.5 will make it salt abundant and i will have to flush lot more than i used to (pre plant rinse of the medium, phase changing rinse and ofc the final flush). i don't have RO water and all commercial "destiled" water in my area got some crazy ph levels, tested like 7-8 brands and ph level averaged on ~8.5 so that was a "no go". if i don't wanna flush like every week is RO filter my only real solution for coco?
ok lets get some discussion flowing... its already a wall of text for the stoned crowd with goldfish attention span... or was it goldfish memory span... cant remember