coir

Hello! My grows in progress are my first experience growing in coco. I have been growing (not cannabis) plants indoors and outdoors for over 30 years and I have always used soil. I decided to try coco because I liked the sound of the benefits including it being lighter, less hydrophobic, non-clumping, pest-free, uninviting to new pests, more air to the roots and easier for them to grow through (less dense), more free draining. Having experienced using coco I can tell you with a near 100% degree of certainty that I will never used soil again for indoor plants. Coco is absolutely wonderful stuff. Not only do I use it now for all my cannabis grows, but I have also replanted all of my houseplants into coco/perlite instead of soil. I use it for cacti, succulents, foliage plants, seedlings, flowers, ferns, and herbs. I can confirm all the benefits I mentioned above to be absolutely accurate, in particular when dry/not saturated it is incredibly light, I can pick up a 12 week old plant in a 40l pot with 2 fingers - it is also a really reliable indicator of the moisture level in the medium. You can tell just by the weight how moist it is once you get familiar with it. As well as the usual "advertised" advantages the main things I have found that I like about coco the most is a) the smell (or lack of soil smell) b) the transplanting process is an absolute dream. Because the medium doesn't clump together or compact it is trivially easy to move plants around and avoid shocking them. I have done at least two shock-free auto-flower transplants - eight if you count plugs/pellets into final pot as a transplant. Most tutorials and info sites suggest that you need to "buffer" your coco-coir with CalMag (basically rinse it to shit, and give it a massive dose of CalMag before you start) - however every coco substrate product I have used so far (Coco & Coir, UGRO COCO XL) comes pre-washed and pre-buffered, the latter also has trichoderma added. I have never buffered any of my coco. However because I like organic gardening, and because I think the flavour is likely better without synthetic nutrition, I am still using organic methods. So I "enhance" my coco with this method: 1) Hydrate with PH adjusted and normal CalMag dose. For hydrating a 70l block of compressed coco I use 25l of very warm water. 2) Use a large container to mix a 70/30 coco/perlite mix. 3) Transfer mix to a large fabric container and flush through with 30-60l PH adjusted and normal CalMag dose, then allow to drain. 4) Mix in trichodermal, bacterial and mycorrhizal inoculants. 5) Feed with a mix suitable for young plants. 6) Put the unplanted pot in the grow space and fertigate whenever you fertigate the plants. 7) After one-two weeks the colour of the coco will darken significantly, the coco smell will disappear, and it will at first glance look more like soil, once this has happened it is ready to plant. I have been using organic nutrients (except the CalMag I think). Feel free to have a look. All the best.

The only thing I can think of with coco is maybe adding ground up egg shells for a boost in calcium but other then that I don't think there is much you can add directly other then feeding with nutes and additives.