Soil with Coco Coir?
- Thread starter zman33
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- soil ammendments
greencropper
Well-Known Member
just finished 3yrs of experimentation of various coco/manure/soil mixes, imo the soil combo's with coco coir blended together can result in good plants but...in the end the mix of 70% coco coir with 30% perlite outperformed all those blends i tried, of course it all revolves around proper nute/ph/lighting regime, some of the main differences i noticed were the terpine/resin counts as well as calyx to leaf ratio & bud density with the coco/perlite blend bringing the best result, when i first started this test i had a thought the soil/coco blends would be superior to the coco/perlite blends, well in the end that was not my finding, my results are only from fairly limited testing abilities and it may be that other people are reeling in much better product than i managed with different soil/coco blends
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xtsho
Well-Known Member
Coco and perlite is a great medium to grow in. Excellent aeration and drainage. Explosive root growth. Lush healthy plants. Of course it all defends on environment, lighting, and knowing how to feed properly. Get that down and coco will make you happy. Up until just a grow ago I had been growing in coco for years. Had it dialed down to straight coco and blumats. I got some of the easiest, trouble free, and best yields I've ever had using that method.
greencropper
Well-Known Member
sounds great! me too, im not doing anymore soil/coco testing again in the foreseeable future, i had a real lot of nute etc probs doing those experiments, really really happy now with that 70%/30% coco/perlite now, yet i need to try the straight coco grows next!
Thats what I want to hear! I love growing in soil. Just want to add a little variation to see what could happen.
I have seen a coco/perlite grow that was excellent. Im not ready for that yet though. Still in my baby diapers
Richard Drysift
Well-Known Member
I add coco to my recycling mix all the time. I grow in organic soil so I try to use a coco coir that is rinsed free of salts. Botanicare coco-grow is a good one and pretty cheap too. What's nice about coco is it has lots of tiny little spaces that microbes can colonize. Coco, EWC, perlite, and recycled soil is my starter mix; use it for starting seeds and young clones. Helps to cut down a heavy mix too.
greencropper
Well-Known Member
man, its not that hard, what held me back was the mad scientist approach and experiment with everything, lots of issues that way, if you stick to a very basic approach & keep within the coco boundaries you will kickass...hardest thing for a soil grower in the transition to coco is, gotta nute feed every time you water...it looks like soil, but it aint, theres nothing in it to feed a plant, there's some one part coco nutes out there where you do not even have to mix A & B, just feed every time they need water, follow directions on the bottle
I have seen a coco/perlite grow that was excellent. Im not ready for that yet though. Still in my baby diapers
Aladdin.khalifa
Well-Known Member
Yes Zman33,
I have tried it and I like it. I used to do 50% soil and 50% coco. It allows your growing medium to absorb water much faster so watering becomes way quicker. It is also good for the roots since there more oxygen in the substrate.
However, you are going to have to fertilize your plants a bit more because coco coir is devoid of nutrients.
Cheers,
Pig4buzz
Well-Known Member
When you say feed more nutrients exactly what ppm are you mixing for veg compared to flower. I was told 350 ppm in veg n 650-700 ppm in flower. My ph is 5.8. Is this close or bs? Lol!
Black2greyNE
New Member
I'm a new grower tried my own soil mix and pH got out of wack. Found cococoir perlite and a mushroom earthworm manure did a 1/3 of each so far so good roots have taken off plants made it past seedling stage! Ordered a cheap 1000w led with great reviews and tips on nutrient scheduals would be awesome Coco's strange and new for sure.
Richard Drysift
Well-Known Member
If you give compost teas and use compost in a mix containing coco it gives the microbes tiny places to hide and thrive.Anything but a small amount and coco and soil is a crap mix that works against itself imo
Coco won't do much to help a ph imbalance. It is the mushroom compost and worm castings that made your mix active. Compost is what drives your mix and will feed your plants without nutrients; throw the feed schedule out the window and just give them clean water.
Black2greyNE
New Member
I changed from a $3 bag of shit soil mix from Walmart, after I found coco coir went to orshlens they had the mushroom wormcastings manure mix for even less but I've heard good things on the wormcastings. Plants have there color back now!! Everything back on track. Don't know how long im going to use this Alaskan naturals stuff kinda stinky but the plants love it no nute burn. I read with coco you need to water 1-2 times a day and use nutes every watering. When salts build up just flush it or transplant. Fairly cheap medium compared to my attempt to make super soil. I wish I could get pictures to upload faster I'll give it a go. I'm learning more than I could have hoped for. Thanks again. I'm willing to pass on the nutes honestly. I was trying to go organic with chicken manure for my main source or food being well balanced for veg
Black2greyNE
New Member
Heres one that was turning yellow and slowed way down
Flowki
Well-Known Member
It won't be easy to grow 50/50 like others said. You've removed half the food source so you're going to have to account for that. You'd need to guess how much the plant is feeding on at any given time. Never done it, but going organic/water only alone would be difficult enough to get good results in a pot, I really take my hat off to those who do it well.
What I can add to this is that yes, the more coco you add the more water volume/frequency you will use. That's good for yield but also comes with a very strong risk of gnats and other pests, since you've gave them everything they need to take hold, obviously that's not good for yield.
It would seem wiser to go as close to organic as possible so that the soil does not stay too wet for bugs to thrive. Or do the opposite and go mostly coco so that damp organic matter isn't available 24/7.
What I can add to this is that yes, the more coco you add the more water volume/frequency you will use. That's good for yield but also comes with a very strong risk of gnats and other pests, since you've gave them everything they need to take hold, obviously that's not good for yield.
It would seem wiser to go as close to organic as possible so that the soil does not stay too wet for bugs to thrive. Or do the opposite and go mostly coco so that damp organic matter isn't available 24/7.
Dynamo626
Well-Known Member
Exactly i use 50/50 siol coco. Allows for the coco roots but still treat like soil. Coco/perlite is even better for growth but then you have to ph everytime and feed every day/every other day to 20% runoff. I have done it but its a lot more work. 50/50 ffof coco for me
Richard Drysift
Well-Known Member
Yes but don't try to straddle between growing in a living soil and using nutrients. The two do not mix well. You should not need to use nutrients if you provide compost to drive activity in your soil mix and use a clean water source. It's fairly easy to grow organic if you just use a non chlorinated water source and plan ahead. Your mix will eventually drop off in microbial activity so give them worm compost tea before that can occur. You have to sort of give your plants what they need before they need it when growing organic. Save your nutrients in case your plants start to get pale again. What you read was that if you are growing in 100% coco then you'll need to ph your water and give nutrients daily as it is basically sterile. Once you add base soil, compost, and fertilizer it becomes a living mix; treat it as a living thing and don't dump in dissolved salts that harm the microherd unless you absolutely need to. Once you begin using nutes it's almost impossible to go back to feeding naturally. Learn about recycling your soil; it will get better every time you do it.
Chicken manure is great fertilizer; I use Charlie's compost brand. Add a 1/2 handful in the bottom layer of your containers and let the roots find it. It is fast release N so you don't need much. Another good fertilizer to use that you never hear about is organic spikes. Jobes ap organic spikes are so super easy just plug a couple into the dirt and they feed your plants for 8 weeks. I stick 2 into each container just before bloom phase.