Hey all you CoCo Growers. I am currently preparing to start my 5th grow, 2nd or 3rd in CoCo-I really don’t recall just now. Anywhooo, I’ve decided to reclaim some of the CoCo from-this will be my 3rd in CoCo-from my last 2 grows. So far I have soaked it all in a 27gal tote. I’ve went through it several times ridding it of maybe 95% of any root matter and foreign objects, ie hair, fuzz, etc. So it’s pretty clean. I have separated out most of the Perlite, which I also plan to reuse, and have the perlite in one bin and the CoCo in another. I haven’t yet started the CalMag soak. What I have is about 10gal CoCo in a second rainwater soak and the pH of the soak is at 4 7 and the PPm is at 157. The Perlite is currently sitting in a pH of 5.6 and a PPM of 919. Originally, whenever I had them soaking together, when I separated out the perlite, together they were in a mix of pH at 4.5 and PPM at 321. When I pulled out the Perlite the mix the CoCo was in was at pH 5.5 and PPM at 143. So bottom line because all that probably doesn’t mean squat anyway, is that the CoCo mix is now at pH 4.7 and PPM 157 and the Perlite mix is at pH 5.6 and PPM at 919. Is this clean enough to strain them out and put them back together and do the calmag soak? Thanks a bunch.
Well now, come on Forum Friends. Surely somebody out there reclaims? Too expensive not to. I have read and read and read some more and I believe I am at good numbers to get this grow started but I want to be sure. I still have 3 sheets of Siding to hang before moving o to the gutters and roof repair but when the Siding is done I’ma get these seeds into some water.
I would rinse the perlite until the ppm drops to under 200, I didn’t know perlite would retain that many nutes, but I know now. I use a bucket with hundreds of small holes in the bottom and rinse my used coco or Promix until it’s low ppm and then rebuffed your coco, I even buffer my Promix with cal mag at 250 ppm and 400-500 ppm Jacks. Haven’t had a yellow leaf on a seedling or clone since starting, they take off and go.
Well, to be clear, it is the water it’s in that is at that number. So idk what the difference is but there’s that. I’m glad you chimed in. I was going to mix them back up in some fresh water for a day and recheck those new numbers if I didn’t get a response. Idk you could reuse your promix. That’s cool. Thanks Doc.
I pull my rootballs, wash out most of the ball, then reuse. Ive done this 4 times with no issues that I am aware of. I just run Jacks and straight coco w/ a little perlite.
Coco and Promix are similar in that they are both an inert medium but Promix can buffer a lot better as it has some Dolomite in it to adjust PH and act as a buffer. Mixed with 50% perlite, it is absolutely my favorite medium. You basically created a giant slurry with the soak and that’s fine, just want to rinse all until the PPMs drop to near nothing and charge it with cal mag and nutes. All ready to grow again! Let me know if you need some seeds!
I switched over to cocoa 4yrs ago and I’m still growing with the first batch I ordered, no issues. I did add some new to my mix for this last grow but the bulk is 4yrs old.
After each grow I dump my pots into a big plastic container and get all of the plant matter out. Then I refill the pots and soak them with the water hose. Once the water running out of them is clear I run another 4-5 gallons through just to be sure then I let them dry out completely. Before I start my next grow I recharge the pots with a good watering of calmag and seedling level nutrients.
Thanks so much guys. I am getting ready to head to the dungeon and squeeze it all out and let it dry for a few days. Then the calmag and test and drop my seeds. I’ve decided to do 1 strawberry Cough, 2 kona red, and since I only want to do 4 I’m going to add in the 1 that some Dude gave me. He says it’s feminized but I’m going to put it outside until I’m sure.