Coco Coir buffering solution?

2nd CANNA CoCo, I use their bricks, once expanded with hot water give it a rinse to bring down the EC. It sits aorund 1.2 for me but I use tap and my tap water is around 0.5EC on the normal. Good Luck!

1.0-1.5 EC regular feed with some calmag is what I did when I didn’t trust the coco I was getting Soaked for couple hours Found Canna coco to be the best coco out there so far

i assume you get 10% runoff waste religiously? if not start doing so. that is a fundamental key to growing in a soilless substrate like coco coir. 1.3-1.5 EC every irrigation. always 10% or more runoff waste water. don't let it sit in its piss. This waste water is wonderful for outdoor plants but not potted plants anywhere.

symptoms: First, your pH is fine You are feeding too little at 500ppm (assuming 500-scale, i.e. would be 1 EC, which is what the cheap TDS-pens measure, not actual ppm. this is converted differently by various brands of equipment) 1.3-1.5 ECis better and that is 650-750 ppm on the scale i'm familiar with. stick to EC, if your TDS pen has that option dsiplay it instead of the calculated from ec ppm value, it will avoid apples and oranges conversions. These are calculated from guaranteed analysis label percentages... not a TDS pen. 120+ N 50+ P 180+ K 100+ Ca 50-75+ Mg keep S under 110 (methinks, less certain on this one) Now that's a lower concentration than "1.5 EC". It is much easier to add than take away. You have been on low side, most likely but even with 500ppm 1 individual nute could potentially still be high, so cannot 100% assume this. YMMV with these values.. but not in a huge manner. Other ratios of nutes may work, too. Referencing Mulder's chart can explain why the ratios of nutes given affects how much will be available to the plant. you may find a formula with Ca sky high, but it might be due to pH or other nutes locking it out or otherwise making it less available, which then requires a higher PPM for the plant to get what it needs. increasing EC with no benefit or use to the plant == good? bad? i don't know for sure but definitely wasteful, lol. high ec can cause issues. more headroom can't be a bad thing. Do some math or use manic botanix nutrient ppm calculator along with your guarnateed analysis lables. tabulate ppm of all the primary and secondary nutes. if anything is drastically off from the above, it's a good chance that is what is "off" at the moment. I use a similar pH, but local enviornmental vairables still play a role in this. Anything that can impact plant metabolism is relevant, for example, as far as how much you need to give of everything, but ratios should remain roughly similar. These will work well for soilless and hydro contexts. A good hydro/soilless fertilizer should be ph-buffered so you shouldn't have to adjust that. a good hydro/soilless fertilizer should be 100% plant ready the moment it dissolves -- fixated / chelated / whatever... ------ pH you absolutely do not get lockout at 6.2, BWAHAHAHA 6.2 is perfectly fine for coco. anything 5.5-6.8 is going to be relatively fine. Do be consistent though as it can impact ratio of nutes needed to give the plants. is some level more optimal than others, sure. alkaline is definitely something to avoid. but, so is dropping too low. the amount of cross referencing and formulas needed to test to flesh this out is astronomical. i doubt anyone has done it properly. Mulder's chart lists teh antagonistic/stumulative relationships involved too.. this is a complex mess that no one can be confident to say this "5.5" is best for hydro.. that's hubris and a simplistic view not reperesentative of reality. Very difficult to find any reputable research that backs this up. 5.5-5.8 may or may not be better, but what it is for certain is less room for error on the low side. you stray much below 5.8 too far and you WILL lock out nutrients.. not because of urban myth but due to the actual chemistry involved. My professiona Ag brand, not originally a marijuanan brand, buffers to 6.0-6.2pH give or take. never had lockout due to pH ... ever, becauase it is impossible at that level, lol. ----- Buffering: coco should come buffered. if you have to do it, you can use a combination of calcium nitrate and epsom salt, or just use your normal formula. The 2 i suggest are basically makes up any cal-mag product out there if you red the ingredients. Calmag products are diluted AF and cost more. Go buy some generic calcium nitrate and foodgrade non-scented epsom salt. 2.3 g /gal Cal nitrate 3g / gal magnesium sulfate (epsom) This gives 110 ppm Ca / 78 ppm Mg -- you'd probably need half a bottle of any "calmag" product, lol. In future just use full formula you normally use. that way if any other molecules are relevant, they too will reach equilibrium before it has a chance to leach anything. Since your formula is having the results you see, i'd suggest these for now. if you find a great formula between now and then, simply adjust these to match what you provide. This is close to what i give in my normal feed for Ca / Mg. Soak for two 8+ hour sessions. If double soaking is not enough and see some mild, general salinity issues early on, do a third soak. why not higher concentration? then you just have the exact problem of excess Mg and Ca going into feed and leaching K (others?) from feed. A different equilibruim would would be motivated and leaching would occur until it is reached Everything is in motion at all times, but an equilibrium can be thought of as a constant state for the sake of ease, but it is anythng but constant other than the sum of it. cation exchange sites (CES) come pre-filled with Na, K and ?? at higher concentrations than you want. buffering solution causes a replacement reaction in these sites. Ca++ and Mg have greater affinity to bond to CES. They will supplant the Na and K, which you send down the drain and re-soak a second time to further ensure you reach a new equilibruim in the CES that is conducive to what you will feed later (concentration / ratio of each nute). So it will have leached out all the Ca during the soaking process that the CES can hold relative to concentrations of molecules that you will feed. Only a change to your formula would change equilibruim. and the types of changes we make during a grow cycle would not cause a problem and quickly transition with no harm. good pre=packaged 70/30 coco should be washed and buffered. bad batches do happen. i've seen someone's entire grow get fucked up from a bad batch of coco. So, always good to run soem extra water through them before use or even with fertilized water. I tried to use the bricks before i really understood how to do this... also didn't use a wetting agent. it was a fucking mess. my plants took over a month of very slow / strenuous growth before they took off... that's how many irrigations it took to get the substrates into equilibrium in addition to the nightmare it was to get them to soak up water (hydrophobic) due to now wetting agent. avoid the hassle. it's one thing to buffer a couple pots worth of substrate, but any large volume it is probably worht it to pay for the pre-washed pre-buffered stuff.

I disagree with you Roberts. Nothing is locked out at 6,2 I fact studies show that Calcium is best absorbed at a pH of 6.2. If you bought a good brand of coco it will be pre-washed and buffered with calcium and magnesium. This has to take place to push out the large volume of potassium that coco naturally has. It will also be buffered to a acceptable pH range. I use Mothers 70/30 coco/perlite and out of the bag it is 6.8. Its a little high for my taste. I believe the ideal pH in coco and soilless growing is 6.2. Even when i water in a 5.8 pH solution, my soil pH tester reads 6.8 the lowest ive ever seen a ready is 6.6 in my coco. Weed likes acidic soil. Not way acidic, but slight. The 6.2 pH is just fine. Hell you could have a successful run at a pH of 7.0 Why you think peat products always come with lime? Cus it's very acidic and the lime maintains a neutral pH of 7.0. Otherwise your peat will naturally drop to like 4.4 and then you got problems. Lime also naturally adds calcium and magnesium. If you wanna re-use your used coco, you can but you will have to wash the fines out of it, mix a 2x strength calmag solution with your desire3d pH....lets say for Roberts sake, 5.8. Then you'll soak your coco for at least 12 hours in it. Then you can drain it and use it or let it dryout. Whatever you wanna do. You can re-use coco several times, or actually you can re-use it forever, or until your coco has broken down so much that its just fine dust. You don't want the fine dust. You wanna wash that stuff out because it cakes and gets water logged and air can't penetrate it.

I looked at your diary. Your 1st issue is your ph of 6.2 needs to be 5.8. It's lock out over 6.2. You can use your solution they are growing in now to buffer it for cal mag. But it will be needed the whole grow. Coco/perlite grows are 5.8 ph in and 5.8 ph out for best results. Heavy irrigation grow. It is to never dry out, but never sitting in run off either. I have grown in coco for years. Feel free to dm me if you need more help.