I started using Coco after a ten year hiatus from growing. I was always in Sushine mix before. I just ruined two crops of Auto’s, and here is what I did wrong. Coco is NOT soil. Coco is pure hydroponics. Even after massive research, I was fooled by old thought patterns. You look at it, and you brain thinks ’ Wow, looks like really clean, consistant soil, or soless mix’. Which it is, but with ZERO nutrients. Think hydroten. Seriously. Even if, and this is really not necessarily smart, even if you supplement coco with humus, or other amendments. What I did wrong was that I starved my babies severaly in the first couple of weeks in pure coco. Now, there is sufficient nutrients in the cotyledons to keep seedlings alive that long, but no enough for them to prosper. To vigorously GROW ROOTS. The second crop, which is 6 weeks on, and is going by the wayside now, has the root structures of a two week old plant. I have kept them alive, and fairly healthy, by foliar feeding to this point.
What I am going to do now, with the new babies, is feed every watering, which is going to be everyday in a couple of weeks. As soon as they have sufficient root structure to dry out the coco quickly. Additionally, I recommend loading the coco with ph balanced nutrients at the seedling level just prior to placing the split seed in to it.
Boy - is there a lot of crappy advice about coco on the inter-web. There is about everything, but coco even more. I finally was able to separate the hobby growers posting from the pros. And the pros say, feed every watering, but very small amounts. Better yet, drip irrigation on timers. I’m using G.H.'s basic set of gro, bloom and micro. Take what the bottle says for seedlings, and cut it in half. Or one thrid. And then slowly increase. I have an EC metter coming in a week or ten days, and then I will be checking PPM going in, and PPM going out. This is the only way to tell if your kids are eating their spinach, and if you are giving them too much to eat at a sitting.
How this might help even one person from jumping through the hoops I did.
Pease. Stay safe, stay happy.
To continue, here is why I say what I said. Now , while going to the ‘well, this is how her ancestor’s lived’ move is often not the best way to discover optimal conditions, it will give you the basic necessities of any plant. All feral cannabis, then and now, sprouts and develops in an environment with some measure of nutrients available. Even in a house’s gutter, there would be rotting organic matter, likely some fully composted, and so forth. And a seed that manages to find itself in an place that is absolutely deviod of anything to eat, will certainly first suffer, and then die, all realatively quicky. Therefore, it seems to me, one must both preload the coco, and feed either every watering, or every other watering, from start to finish. Lastly, coco does not retain nutes to use later anywhere near the capacity of soil, or even peat-bases soilless mixes. So nutrients must be constatly replenished. Think hydro. The reservoir always contains nutrients, which the plant feeds on as it wishes. So it is with coco.
Now, this is classic Jodie - I will now argue with myself! No, kidding. I don’t know what I was thinking about when I said above that it isn’t wise to amend coco. I do think humus (i,e, Earthworm castings) is great, as it raises the EC. Other stuff, not so much, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experiement ‘if the Spirit moves you’.
I say…Amend Pro Mix BX. Save a ton of $$$
@Jodie I’m growing 2 in coco. I’m really glad I saw this. I just started them and was going to water regularly but only nute once a week when I refresh my hydros. I have a feeling you just saved my babies.
Question- I have them in 4-gal pots. Is a gallon of nute water every 2 days enough?
I am newly back into the grow scene and after a few weeks of online research, including reading numerous grow journals that achieved amazing results, I never once thought coco would support my plants without organic or mineral based nutrients!!
I am not sure where you read such nonsense that coco acts like soil. I hope not on this website!
I knew nothing about growing in soiless medium but the whole concept revolves around the need to support the plants needs from day one.
I am very sorry that you were mislead and even more sorry that you had to experience loss of your ladies!
I suggest you read coco grow journals from start to finish and you will find that each and every grower will be feeding in coco at 1/2 or less strength in seedling stage and stronger mixes after the plants reach 10" or so but never never feed them at the manufacturers recommended amounts. Because you will want to feed nearly every watering (I hand water my coco plants twice daily, everyday, always with nutrients), I run my ppm’s in the 650-700 range.
Again sorry for your troubles but I think the information in grow journals would only be useful if they produced a harvest and to do that, no journal would start out treating their coco like soil IMHO
hello … im realy new in growing in coco this is my firat crop. pls can you tell me what is the best ph level for flowering stage in coco??? someone keeps same ph level 5,8 during a whole proces, Im a little sceptic abbout that…
5.8 is the right answer coco is much like hydro
thank you very much, I’ m 3th day in flowering stage and i will keep the samw ph level. i will post the picture to see 
now is bed time :))
I’m glad you got things dialed in now. With the internet as always a lot of misinformation and if you are relying on bad information you are going to get bad results… PH and nutrients level according to your lights all have varying results and requirements and typically seed strain will dictate how much you can feed your plant daily or every second day but feeding daily can cause nutrient lockout and slower growth.
It semi hydroponic and a bridge way to full hydroponic after you got things work though and makes things a lot easier if you are using quality coco design nutrients too. Best of luck @Jodie and happy growing. I grow in coco/perlite mix and I love it.
sorry, can pls tell me can i cut that lower big lieves in the flowering stage?? i have few blue cheese now enter in 3 th week flowering, and i notice that lower buds dont have light… can i cut those? does harmed the plant? do some problem or stop produce buds? i really dont know. its my first grow. i have some big starting allready to yelow but iwas thinking to xut those and a few more. can i do that? or to dont touch nothing
Yeah you can just don’t go crazy with it. Prune some back so it get a bit of light to where you want light. It not going to hurt anything some people prune a lot just before going into flowering and again in the 2-3 weeks in but after that you don’t really want to do anymore since they won’t be developing anymore leaf.
ty bro. you are really helpfull! ,
you are really quick with answers so ty one more time
@spidermite1, you might also look pruning techniques in flower to maximize yield. Most of us will remove understory growth that isn’t getting much light anyway and is robbing the top branches of sugar. It can be mild to aggressive. It’s YOUR plant! Ain’t it cool?
I’ve got a Blue Cheese outdoors and it seems to be very good at picking fans to sacrifice: They turn yellow and then you can pick them off very easily, or just wait a few days and they dry up and turn brown. Other fans look fine. It’s also very open so light gets to all the buds pretty well. I don’t think trimming it at all will be needed.
All good always happy to share some knowledge around it my part in giving back to the community on what I’ve learned myself overtime. I do have a journal up and try to put in some tips/tricks and lessons every few days if you are interested in that kind of thing
Keep between 6/7 6.5is good
I am new to growing in coco too. Well growing period. I follow my nutes feeding schedule exactly, except the addition of recharge and calmag. I water everyday to run off with 1/2 strength calmag in tap water that i ph around 5.8 to 6.4. I leave my water out for 24 hours too. I feed twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays. I do not check ppm, but plan on getting a meter soon. But my point is, feed in coco and figure out what works best for you. But most importantly listen to your ladies. And have fun.
I’m new to coco medium. Recently my girls have shown deficiency at 7wks old. I have them on an auto watering system with nutes. I’m using Coco Canna product line and schedule. They are under LED light in tent 18/6hr. Ambient temp is 78degrees F, humidity is low 38% (told it needs to be 50-60%) but they seem to not like it that high. My strains are Mockingbird High and Studio 57.
So each day they look worse, and the Studio is showing minimal to no growth. Both look thirsty/hungry but when I feed they look even worse.
I’m using rain water, Calmag Plus, and Normal Feed schedule of Canna Line. My ph is usually 5.8-6.3, ppm is around 500-550.
My question is I’m using 5ml per gallon of CalMag per plant. Is that not enough?
Any help is gratefully appreciated.
6.3 may be a little high in coco. Also your coco looks really dry which may be contributing to the droop of your leaves. I’ll tag two growers who may possibly be able to give sound advice. @imSICKkid @Myfriendis410