media A guide to growing peppers in coco coir

[PokPok]

Thank you guys so much for this post. Just when I was looking for some info about growing with coco. Most stuff I've found is on weed forums so it's not chilli specific.
 
This is my first ever grow and after doing some research I've decided to go with 8 autopots in my balcony in 50/50 coco hydroton mix. I'm currently using AN Sensi Grow for nutrients. I germinated my seeds in rockwool cubes and transfered them recently to 10cm pots filled with coco with a layer of hydroton at the bottom (2 pots are a 50/50 mix for testing). Most of my plants have 2-3 sets of leaves at this stage. I'm feeding them 0.9EC 5.9pH water once every 3 days now. They are under 4x54w T5 lights on a 18/6 schedule.
 
Blister, my question is for you. What was your watering/feeding schedule like to get that kind of growth in 22 days? 
 
Here's how they look like now.
 

 

[Blister]

 
Blister, my question is for you. What was your watering/feeding schedule like to get that kind of growth in 22 days? 
 

I think it really comes down to having found a complete system that is working for me. I have tried 2 other nutrient lines, but neither seemed to perform as well as GH Flora. I gave the nutrient and mixture rates above. I'll also add that I'm using a 180W UV LED Blackstar light. I tend to run the lights 24/7 for the first 5-7 weeks, then switch over to an 18/6 schedule - which they are on now. I am hand watering from the top every other day, OR when the pots are half the weight of a freshly watered pot. You get a feel for this after you've handled them enough. Because things are still a bit cool here, I've been running a heat mat under the plants to warm them up in the morning.

Coco has given me phenomenal growth. I'm able to grow and have decent production with the superhots where I was previously not able to in soil. If you are looking for additional info on what I've done, have a look at an old glog I did when I first got into coco. I tried to document the grow as well as I could. And yes, virtually all the info on coco is at the 420 sites.

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/43839-blisters-led-coco-grow-has-reached-its-inevitable-end/?hl=%2Bblisters+%2Bled+%2Bcoco

Have a look and if you have more questions, fire away.

Neil

 

[fertilizer]

I'd just like to post a few pictures of the growth I'm getting from my plants in coco. I'm using GREATFULLH3AD's formula:

- 4L RO water
- 6ml Flora Micro
- 9ml Flora Bloom
- 5.7 ph
- ~700ppm

Here are my plants from Feb. 11, 2016. They were just potted up.



Here we are March 3, 2016 - 22 days later.



As to the question of being able to grow larger plants in smaller pots, I can say that yes you can. This is a plant that I had grown when I first started dabbling in coco. It turned out that it wasn't what I had thought it was and had to scrap it. The plant is in a 4" diameter pot.



Perhaps the most impressive thing I've seen with coco is below. The plant is from my first adventures into coco. The roots had grown so much that they were actually poking out the top of the coir! All of the white strands you see are roots. I've NEVER seen this with soil. I've also never seen the growth I'm getting with soil either.



Neil

Impressive plants Neal, good job! Mine are behaving very similarly!

 

[solid7]

I have completely cut out peat, as of this season. It's been a little bit of a learning curve, getting used to the different growing method, but all in all, it's been fun, and I've learned a lot.

I'm not going to say too much, as this will be the subject of an upcoming topic. But I experimented with layering in sub-irrigated containers. The goal was to tryto automate the process as much as possible, without having to mix - and subsequently, store - liquid nutrients. I used dry organic fertilizer and amendments, and had the reservoir plumbed to a drip irrigation line. All I can say is, a constantly uptake of water has been phenomenal.

I've heard the statement a million times that you can't treat coco as soil. Well, that can be interpreted several ways. But if we're talking about planting straight into it, and getting stuff to grow, you absolutely can. And I'm going to elaborate more on that, later.

 

[Chilidude]

Growing in coco is easy once you have found a working fertilizer for it and know how much to measure the stuff to get a good growing/flowering going on for your chilis.

 

[solid7]

I would like to hear from people who have actual experience using dry fertilizers in coco.

General purpose works great, but I need to start experimenting with different guanos for the flowering/fruiting stage.

 

[DesertRoots]

I have completely cut out peat, as of this season. It's been a little bit of a learning curve, getting used to the different growing method, but all in all, it's been fun, and I've learned a lot.

I'm not going to say too much, as this will be the subject of an upcoming topic. But I experimented with layering in sub-irrigated containers. The goal was to tryto automate the process as much as possible, without having to mix - and subsequently, store - liquid nutrients. I used dry organic fertilizer and amendments, and had the reservoir plumbed to a drip irrigation line. All I can say is, a constantly uptake of water has been phenomenal.

I've heard the statement a million times that you can't treat coco as soil. Well, that can be interpreted several ways. But if we're talking about planting straight into it, and getting stuff to grow, you absolutely can. And I'm going to elaborate more on that, later.

 

I would like to hear from people who have actual experience using dry fertilizers in coco.

General purpose works great, but I need to start experimenting with different guanos for the flowering/fruiting stage.

 
I have started all of my pepper seeds in coco with almost no growing experience and have had great success.  My failures have began when I final plant into containers with the cheapest, worst inert bag soil that compacts into a solid block of near cement.  Lesson learned the hard way on keeping a nice light and well draining medium.  On my final plant I nearly ran out of that compacting mix and cut it 50/50 with the straight coco I had left over and dumped it all in a 15 gallon cloth pot.  As my other plants suffered from roots suffocating the 15 gallon pot with 50% coco has been awesome and really sparked my interest in using more of it.  I know you mention a sub-irrigated container, which is very different, but my mix was basically 50/50 coco and cheap bag soil amended with tomato tone, azomite, and kelp meal.  The plant looks great and has only had plain water and compost tea so far.  There are tons of variables including cost and simplicity(or lack of) but it makes me want to try and dial in a mix with a decent amount of organic amendments to cover nutrients with the base medium consisting of coco and some compost.  Not sure if mixing coco and peat moss would be beneficial or not, cancel out, or if there is a ratio that is best.  Coco from what I see is used mostly for drain to waste style hydroponics with a nutrient solution.  That seems to work great but for whatever reason does not really interest me.  I have very little experience overall so this is just me thinking out loud based on what I have done.  Really interested in hearing what all you have learned in messing with coco.

 

[solid7]

Coco from what I see is used mostly for drain to waste style hydroponics with a nutrient solution.

In my experience, that seems to be because of a mindset. Coco has, for me, worked just fine as a peat replacement. In other words, anything that you can use peat for, you can use coco for.

Peat does contain humic acid, which coco does not. But it's easy enough to get it in there. I amend all of my coco with 5-10% worm castings. No more, because otherwise, it isn't light and fluffy anymore.

 

[Blister]

DesertRoots,

Drain to waste is popular, but people have also used coco in hempybuckets. I have them a shot, but it didn't work in my situation. It seems that 1.5G pots are best.

Neil

 

[Chilidude]

Using the airpots, the excess fertilizer water will come out from the bottom to the plastic plate underneath. In time my plants will grow roots throught the bottom of the airpot and start  to suck that sweet excess fertilizer soup, that is collected on the plastic plate, so not much is being wasted by the drainage.

 

[solid7]

DesertRoots,

Drain to waste is popular, but people have also used coco in hempybuckets. I have them a shot, but it didn't work in my situation. It seems that 1.5G pots are best.

Neil

I converted the Hempy concept to organic. OK, I got some tips, but I adapted the system for outdoor growing. So far, so good...

 

[OZZZ]

I know I’m resurrecting this thread from the dead…… but I’m trying to find out if anyone has had any success with large plants outdoors in coco….. in hot weather?

I’m having soil temp issues here in phoenix AZ in the summer and am wondering if coco might work better because of the higher oxygen holding capacity and the ability to be able to water multiple irrigations per day drain to waste and using the multiple irrigations to cool the root zone during extreme summer temps of 115F.

Currently my plants are large around 5-6’, in 15 gallon white plastic pots and I’m getting root zone temps of around 98 degrees which I believe is causing issues. I’m wondering if I’d get pythium or root rot issues with such high temps in coco, that was being irrigated at high frequency

 

[Marturo]

extreme summer temps of 115F.

I moved from peat to cocc with everything.
However you are having heat issues, as we do in the high 90s.

We started using Surround about 15 years with great results.
I've watched plants when it's so hot they wilt & it affects their pod development.

Surround acts like a shade cloth on plants, black plastic mulch & dark pots by reflecting the sun.
You see how squash wilts in the hot sun. Well they don't wilt when sprayed with surround.


Peppers in front tomatoes in back.

 

[OZZZ]

I moved from peat to cocc with everything.
However you are having heat issues, as we do in the high 90s.

We started using Surround about 15 years with great results.
I've watched plants when it's so hot they wilt & it affects their pod development.

Surround acts like a shade cloth on plants, black plastic mulch & dark pots by reflecting the sun.
You see how squash wilts in the hot sun. Well they don't wilt when sprayed with surround.


Peppers in front tomatoes in back.

Hmmmm interesting! I’ll look into it and do some research. I had planned on just bumping up to a 70% shade cloth next year and instead of trying to rely on hefty and frequent irrigations (which then damage roots and mess up the soil) just trying to keep them heavily or even fully shaded through July and August and go that route. Maybe even look into a mister system to Spray the plants down two or three times during the hottest part of the day during those months. From like 12-5pm

 

[Marturo]

Hmmmm interesting! I’ll look into it and do some research.

Make sure & use a good spreader with a good sticker that way the rain won't wash off the surround protection.