A bit of Coco info you may find useful
Background on Coco
The recent shift to Coco as a medium for growers has caused many to turn and take a look. Since Coco can be used in virtually any style of growing (ie. Container Growing, Ebb and Flow, DWC and even Aeroponics) and wide spread reports of increased growth rates as a result of it's use, it certainly merits a closer look.
Coco and it's various grades are manufactured from the shells and husks of the Coconut. While Coco is made in several parts of the world, Sri Lanka is by far and away the world leader inCoco production. For obvious reasons, it is cheaper to produce the Coco in Sri Lanka as labor is cheap and Coconuts are quite abundant as Coconut export is one of Sri Lanka's top export products.
Coco products have many uses other than it's Horticultural applications. As an example, Coco husks (the larger pieces) are used to mix in with unstable earth to help anchor it and allow water to easily pass through thereby controlling erosion in mountainous areas of the world. Coco is also used to filter drinking water in some parts of the world that can't afford the high cost of water treatment plants.
Coco in Gardening
In indoor gardening, Coco and it's various grades offer indoor growers (Newbies and Seasoned Growers alike) a super forgiving medium that practically insures that over-watering and "dampening off" never occur. In Hydro, Cocoallows the gardener to cycle/flood less frequently as the Coco itself, unlike Hydroton, will retain the perfect amount of moisture to keep the plants happy between floods. Depending on the grade of Coco used, if you're flooding four or five times per light cycle, you can easily cut down to two to three floods during "lights on" and NONE during the dark period. Less floodings = less nutrients used = big savings on nutrients!
Being a totally inert (no food value) substrate,supplemental feedings through a good, well rounded nutrient regime are essential. However, this is the beauty of Coco as since it is inert, youcan more accurately control EXACTLY how much food your plants are receiving. Also, by just looking at your plants, you'll be able to see if they are wanting more food or less and you can veryprecisely contol the feedings by monitoring the PPM or EC of your feedings. Coco allows the grower to have a "gas pedal" and a "brake" for the plant growth. Through trial and experimentation, you will quickly find that precise level that your plants perform best at and learn to keep it there for pronounced growth!
Something should also be said about the "symbiotic" relationship that Coco enjoys with plants. When doing a side by side comparion withplants grown in Coco versus the same plants grown in Soil (or Coco vs Hydroton in Hydro), it becomes apparently very quickly to the grower that the rate of growth is EXPLOSIVE in Coco!It's not at all unusual to see the same cuttings in Coco be twice the size of cuttings in soil. The plants have an overall healthier, happier look to them and the hybrid vigour of a given strain is accentuated when in Coco. The tastes and aromas of buds grown in Coco are extremely difficult to tell from herb grown in a totally organic soil and are ALWAYS more flavorful and aromatic in Hydro when compared to Hydroton grown bud.The plants just seem to give their best in Coco and with less hassle than either soil or Hydrton.
When it comes to the problems of seriously vasilating pH in Hydro when Hydroton is used, you can kiss those problems goodbye when you convert to Coco as your medium. Once thoroughly flushed and buffered with pH'd water, Coco will prove to be rock solid when it comes to staying in the proper pH range. This reason alone makes Coco worth converting to in Hydroponics, IMHO.
Aside from training your brain to pH at hydroponic levels, Coco growers must adapt to a "Water to Waste" approach to watering/feeding when container growing. This means to continue watering well after runoff water comes out of the bottom. This is because Coco retains just enough moisture to sustain the plant but, like Hydroponics, it requires a good long drink to keep the plants happy. This also acts as an effective"flushing" method to keep salts (nutrients) from building up in the medium. Although you need to feed much more frequently than a pre-ferted soil mix, it is still recommended that you do a periodic plain pH'd watering to assist in ridding any built up salts in the medium. For this reason, Watering to Waste requires some sort of "catch" system to capture the run off water out of your pots whencontainer garden. An Ebb n Flow tray works well or you can fabricate your own catch try to place under your pots. If elevated, this catch tray can have a drain in one corner or at the center to allow the run off to drip into a Rubbermaid containerbelow the catch tray.