Grow Mediums So… how are you guys reusing your coco ?

[Eyes on Fire]

certainly but the chletion processes are different and that makes a difference when natural and cheaper are the win imho LOL! the life eats or chelates the matter for you instead of adding a bottled psudo Ion to do a lesser version of it is all I ment

 

[Roasty McToasty]

What zyme do you use? blocks of coco are cheap but I am so lazy lately.

Was on the Cannazyme, just recently switched to AN Sensizyme.

I will say that each run reusing coco, seems to do better. Probably from what EoF is eluding to. Although it does get muddy halfway through the second run. Might try breaking up the medium before reusing, just to speed up the watering process.

 

[talkative]

oh no, we're taking it to the next level. No till baby, in a [HASHTAG]#10[/HASHTAG] airpot. At the moment it's Jacks No Till Coco. But my African Nightcrawlers are working on all that. I was bragging to a no till guy how I could just dump my coco out in a 20 gallon tote and re amend it and mix it all up and reuse it, and he talked me into no till. A few modificiations and now my worm bedding and my original mix are exactly the same, and then I top after each watering with the same mix/bedding that the worms have spent 4 months working on. My wf 360 produces 2 gallons of ewc/mo and that supplies my two plant top dressing needs so we are hitting it right in stride. Hardest thing was accepting that old roots may not be bad since I was always told when I tried to grow many plants in the same container that the old roots exude some kind of protective force field around them which inhibits any new girls from hanging out on their corner. But I think the overlooked secret may be just hanging a do not disturb sign in the grow room. It's all coming down to microbes man, NPK is just a by product. But before I go, my enfatuation with coco started out observing how much my worms liked coco, but has progressed to where I think pure unammended coco may have the perfect drainage I was attempting to achieve with perlite. So therefore, anytime I dumped it out after use that act alone was disturbing it's perfect drainage properties. If left untilled will it breakdown and compact? Well, that's where the old roots come in. I'll let you know. I already have a plant growing in a container with pure virgin coco on the bottom and used soil/ewc on top. The lack of Calcium and the ph shock when the roots hit the pure coco with no buffering zone was quite impressive. But that was before I started thinking about no till so it will have to be dumped and started over properly. Eventually my goal is to violate every gardening law known to man all at the same time. Man, that pot these kids grow today sure does make me talkative.

 

[Corgy]

I flush with seedling nutes and zyme, after chop i simply cut out the stalk of the harvested plant and refill the hole with fresh coco. Then simply drop a bean with a tap root into the fresh coco. It can be done for 3 uses, but toward the end of 2nd run it gets pretty muddy and water doesn't run through the pot very fast.

I do exactly like that too, here's 5 Amnesia Haze in an Aquafarm on the 3rd run up to day 50 with another 1-2 weeks or so to go https://www.autoflower.org/threads/...airpot-coco-gh-nutrition-and-470-w-led.58203/

I'm doing 4 plants for the next run in the Aquafarm, Short Stuffs Tha Shitniz and they went into the shot glass earlier today.
Last week before harvest I'll "flush/cleanse" with tap water and 3 ml Florakleen/l, then when all present plants are gone I take the top of the Aquafarm with da coco init, put it in the shower for a couple of minutes, and then it's right back in the bright lights.

I started growing with coco because getting rid incognito of some 2-250 L of perlite-laced soil mixes every month or so was becoming a royal nuisance in the rear.... Simply love it to bits, so does the Autopots, Aquafarm, Airpots and Smartpots..... Hard to imagine ever going back to soil again..... But stranger things has happened....!

Btw, I'm reusing 2 XL Autopots at the moment with Mapito, second run, a DP Ultimate in each.... Early days, we'll see.... And yup, there's an Airdome in each pot asper the Tabernacle SOP.... LOL

 

[talkative]

and another thing since it's late at nught and deep in thought about coco and EWC. I believe, and we are just talking principle here, that if you add EWC to New Coco you have only degraded both. In that new coco, virgin never used, fresh off the brick is best in it's pure form nothing added. And EWC right off the farm is at it's best in it's present form to be used as the perfect top dressing. So....just saying, a something to think about when you start dreaming recycle. I would always want to keep my new coco on the bottom of the container if I was dumping and remixing rather than combining the old with the new.

 

[Eyes on Fire]

I always liked this link as a nice overview personally. but I forget the term but like Peat,or a course soil ,coco coir when reused time and time again it breaks up,gets puffy like shaved moistened peat moss. taking up air spaces and being an overall better quality medium,period. then add biology to the mix time n time n time again and there's the win. make it work for you. and you dont need enzyme products if done correctly. I have never used one..ok well ONE some years ago to mess with them a time or three but I haven't used anything of the like in several years now i believe. I use coco coir minimum of 50+% of all my mixes.. with soil but I have had some heavier coco coir mixes. worked well too. I hope these help some.

http://www.cannagardening.com/problem_solving_coco?newsletter=problem-solving-coco&date=02-12-2015


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_pressure

http://extension.umd.edu/sites/exte...ions/HG42_Soil_Amendments_and_Fertilizers.pdf

many soil amendments can ultimately be used,especially over the course of a cpl three reuses of coco coir. it'll get an even fuller more perfect texture like Peat and soil do. then amendments should be able to be used more effectively after the months of use.

 

[talkative]

ah I give up, no till just isn't going to be an improvement for me. So back to the old way. Dump the old pot out, give the root ball to the worms, pour the re ammended coco on top of brand new untouched coco. And here we go again. But the very top of the new pot is pure EWC and my worms can do wonders with coco. Worm Factory 360 best money I ever blew.