pro mix or coco

NukaKola said:
Coco is great, but be sure to rinse it prior to use. I prefer the dehydrated compressed blocks. I get 5KG blocks for $10 that are ~2.5 cf after being hydrated. The loose bags of coco are usually $20-30 for 2.5 cf and even though they say double/triple rinsed they still have residual salts. I used to use Promix HP but my local hydro store charges $50 for the 3.8 cf bale. I can get 12.5 cf of coco for that much and my plants grow just as good.
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i wish i could find cheap botanicare cocogro 5kg bricks up here for what i used to pay. now they are no where to be found and all i find lately is cocotek which for me the granule size it too small. Botanicare was chunkier and superior.
 
Coco is great stuff. just try and buy quality stuff, preferably prebuffered that doesn't require a rinse. Canna Coco bricks are like $15 for 40l.

there are some good guides, I'll try and find links when I get home. and I hate to say it but there is A LOT of misinformation about Coco on these boards (I just had a dispute last night with someone claiming you should water, water, fert, repeat in Coco which is just WRONG).

incidentally I am trying promix hp right now for this mother plant I'm growing, I'll let you know my observations. so far I'm liking it a lot
 
I used Sunshine #4 until they changed peat moss suppliers causing the pH to go up into the 8's. That was a wasted run. Always check the pH of the medium before you buy the bale. I take my Apera PH60S and stick the bales at the store.

Coco is totally a different animal than peat based mixes. You want to allow a peat based mix to dry out between waterings, with coco you must NOT allow that to happen. Coco also has an affinity for magnesium. You can get superb results with coco provided you don't try to treat it like a peat based mix. Lower pH, little more magnesium, don't let it dry out and NEVER flush with plain water (always use calmag at least).
 
myke said:
Reading around here the sunshine #4 has gone to the crappers.pH outa wack every bag is different i read.
The key to coco is having an easy way to collect runoff,tray with a drain,20% runoff ALWAYS!.Check ppm same out as in simple.
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thats weird i've been using it for years and it still works fine for me. careful what you read on this forum though.
 
pulpoinspace said:
thats weird i've been using it for years and it still works fine for me. careful what you read on this forum though.
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A lot of people had the same issue. Perhaps your supplier had purchased a large amount and missed the bad batch. Sure fucked my grow off that run.

A coco that is good straight out of the bag with no buffering and it's not bricked is Mills DNA Coco/Cork. The Tupur is another good one. I refuse to use anything bricked, Waste of time smh.
 
Renfro said:
A lot of people had the same issue. Perhaps your supplier had purchased a large amount and missed the bad batch. Sure fucked my grow off that run.

A coco that is good straight out of the bag with no buffering and it's not bricked is Mills DNA Coco/Cork. The Tupur is another good one. I refuse to use anything bricked, Waste of time smh.
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yeah. i usually buy it at home depot they had like 80-90 bales there when i picked mine up. I have noticed that late in the flowering cycle the sunshine mix seems less pH stable than pro-mix and it does drift up. thankfully it hasn't been too much of a problem. If home depot had promix hp i would buy it unfortunately they only sell it at the hydro store around here.
 
BobThe420Builder said:
Sunshine is peat...not Coco

Coco is too much work
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It's as easy or as hard as people make it. I like to do things the easy way so when I grow in coco I use 100% coco and blumats for watering. That's as easy as it gets.

Now if you're hand watering and messing around with runoff it can get to be a hassle. But with blumats, once you get them set you just walk away and keep the reservoir filled. Contrary to what many say you do not have to water until runoff daily. There is no runoff with blumats. The trick to healthy plants with coco and blumats is to not overfeed.
 
Renfro said:
A lot of people had the same issue. Perhaps your supplier had purchased a large amount and missed the bad batch. Sure fucked my grow off that run.

A coco that is good straight out of the bag with no buffering and it's not bricked is Mills DNA Coco/Cork. The Tupur is another good one. I refuse to use anything bricked, Waste of time smh.
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I actually prefer bricked coco. It's more cost efficient and takes up less space so it's easier to store. I've used Botanicare bricked coco for years and have never had any issue. I just rehydrate it in a weak nutrient solution and it's ready for planting. It's already been rinsed and buffered. But I do remember years ago using bricked coco that was just nasty. Full of sand and pieces of trash. I used to rinse the crap out of it and the bottom of the tote I rehydrated it in always had a layer of sand on the bottom. I found a dead lizard once and another time I found a 6 inch piece of bone. Then there were all the sticks and rocks. These days any decent brand has been double washed and buffered.

Once companies realized it was more than just a niche product and is very profitable they've made sure that where they source it from takes better care of the raw product.
 
Renfro said:
I used Sunshine #4 until they changed peat moss suppliers causing the pH to go up into the 8's. That was a wasted run. Always check the pH of the medium before you buy the bale. I take my Apera PH60S and stick the bales at the store.

Coco is totally a different animal than peat based mixes. You want to allow a peat based mix to dry out between waterings, with coco you must NOT allow that to happen. Coco also has an affinity for magnesium. You can get superb results with coco provided you don't try to treat it like a peat based mix. Lower pH, little more magnesium, don't let it dry out and NEVER flush with plain water (always use calmag at least).
Click to expand...
My coco goes completely dry uh before every feeding. I'm not saying that you're wrong, but my plants have never suffered from the coco their in being completely dried out?
 
I use Canna's bricked coco and it's great stuff. It is already buffered, the quality is great, it's cheaper then bagged canna coco, it takes up less space. You can make only small amount if you're like planting some seedlings, vs. opening and exposing a whole bag.

Nothing wrong with GOOD bricked coco :)
 
guitarguy10 said:
My coco goes completely dry uh before every feeding. I'm not saying that you're wrong, but my plants have never suffered from the coco their in being completely dried out?
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what size pot and how often do you water

in pro-mix/sunshine. i grow plants ~5 feet tall in 3 gallon fabric pots and I water every ~48 hours. After ~72 hours my plants will be completely wilted

my concern with going to coco is they couldn't make it the 48 hours.
 
pulpoinspace said:
what size pot and how often do you water

in pro-mix/sunshine. i grow plants ~5 feet tall in 3 gallon fabric pots and I water every ~48 hours. After ~72 hours my plants will be completely wilted

my concern with going to coco is they couldn't make it the 48 hours.
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In my past few grows I have been using 5 gallon fabric pots. They would be completely dry and require watering every other day (so 48 hours). That's to almost complete dryness.

I should add that I was able to push it to 3 day's once or twice when I just couldn't feed every other day and they wilted and were looking pretty blah, but they came right back when I watered them. So I wouldn't go more then 2.5-3 days in 5 gallon coco (I use 75/25 coco/perlite btw)
 
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guitarguy10 said:
In my past few grows I have been using 5 gallon fabric pots. They would be completely dry and require watering every other day (so 48 hours). That's to almost complete dryness.

I should add that I was able to push it to 3 day's once or twice when I just couldn't feed every other day and they wilted and were looking pretty blah, but they came right back when I watered them. So I wouldn't go more then 2.5-3 days in 5 gallon coco (I use 75/25 coco/perlite btw)
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Mine are in coco/perlite in a 10gallon pot, and I have to water on the same timeline. Day 2 they'll feel mostly dry, day 3 they'd be wilting. Seems to be once well rooted they just suck it out of there at that rate.
 
So i got some coco and will be transplanting asap. I don't worry about wet and dry cycles because as soon I get them to flower I start watering every day.
 
xtsho said:
It's as easy or as hard as people make it. I like to do things the easy way so when I grow in coco I use 100% coco and blumats for watering. That's as easy as it gets.

Now if you're hand watering and messing around with runoff it can get to be a hassle. But with blumats, once you get them set you just walk away and keep the reservoir filled. Contrary to what many say you do not have to water until runoff daily. There is no runoff with blumats. The trick to healthy plants with coco and blumats is to not overfeed.
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What kind of nutes and what's your ec when you feed with blumats? Also what do you use to keep lines clean? Drip Clean?
 
kingzt said:
What kind of nutes and what's your ec when you feed with blumats? Also what do you use to keep lines clean? Drip Clean?
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I'm just using a hydroponic micronutrient blend 3-10-20 and calcium nitrate 13-0-0 for veg and then I just add a little MKP and magnesium sulfate in flower with a some potassium sulfate about week 5. I max out at 2.0 ec or 1000 ppm's. I haven't had any need for anything to keep the lines clean as the nutrients I use leave little to no residue. I did purchase some Pekacid to make my own DripClean when I first started using blumats but have never had the need to use it. The 1 lb container still weighs 1 lb. I wouldn't run anything with blumats that will gunk up the lines like Botanicare or even GH with that sludgy micronutrient they have. But good water soluble hydro nutrients work just fine without clogging anything. The feeder lines are only 3mm so nutrient selection is critical. Jacks 321 would work excellent as well.
 
xtsho said:
I'm just using a hydroponic micronutrient blend 3-10-20 and calcium nitrate 13-0-0 for veg and then I just add a little MKP and magnesium sulfate in flower with a some potassium sulfate about week 5. I max out at 2.0 ec or 1000 ppm's. I haven't had any need for anything to keep the lines clean as the nutrients I use leave little to no residue. I did purchase some Pekacid to make my own DripClean when I first started using blumats but have never had the need to use it. so the 1 lb container still weighs 1 lb. I wouldn't run anything with blumats that will gunk up the lines like Botanicare or even GH with that sludgy micronutrient they have. But good water soluble hydro nutrients work just fine without clogging anything. The feeder lines are only 3mm so nutrient selection is critical. Jacks 321 would work excellent as well.
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Do you ever measure ppm of runoff? What do they get up to if you're feeding 1000ppm. For me that's a really heavy feed
 
Syyndrome said:
Do you ever measure ppm of runoff? What do they get up to if you're feeding 1000ppm. For me that's a really heavy feed
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The only time I've checked ppm is when I've mixed the nutrient solution. There is no runoff with blumats to check. I didn't explain enough when I said I max out at 1000 ppm. That's typically only for around week 5 - 7 when the plants are uptaking the most. And not all the time. It's also strain dependent. I watch my plants and adjust nutrient strength accordingly. I typically run between 650 - 850 ppm for most strains. Although I have grown some sativa's that didn't like it above 500 - 600 ppm.
 
Dopesmoka said:
How would you grow organically using tupur ? If you do grow organically
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everything i use is organic except for my base nute....and i use nutrifield coco a&b...if i couldn't get that, i've used the soul base from aurora - that works well...i would also use canna coco a&b....i wouldn't be opposed to using sensi coco a&b either....and with none of those have i needed to add any extra cal-mag
 
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