HortGrow Introduction

Green Mopho

Green Mopho

Grower of Many Things
Hey to everyone! I've been a long time grower and Cabana member. Happy to be back to the site and contributing.

Over the past few years, I've had various Director and Cultivation Manager roles at various licensed facilities throughout the world. I have been lucky enough to collect data and perform analysis on tons of coco brands and determine not only their quality but cost effectiveness as well. Throughout that time, I have continually gone back to HortGrow coco as a reliable coco brand, thats still small enough of a company that can cater to what their clients want and where the owner is passionate about the product they put out. I'm not here to bash other coco brands, and I plan on sharing a lot of knowledge and experience that applies to all coco growing in general, but I am here to represent HortGrow and help answer any questions and provide solutions for growers using coco coir.

Check out HortGrow's offerings and shop at:

hortgrow.com

And a big thank to Curbie, Dman, Skitty, and OP for allowing me to have this opportunity!
 
Green Mopho said:
Absolutely! This photo was with an amended coco based organic mix in my greenhouse.

What size containers and in what kind of climate and precipitation level are we talking about?
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Hey @Green Mopho, I’m trying to help a family member that recently moved to an area just east of San Diego, the climate is dry, not much rain. I have a question about plant size and hopefully that will help pick a pot size. Have you found bud quality decreases with plants over a certain height? Like say 6 or 7 feet tall?
 
digger said:
Hey @Green Mopho, I’m trying to help a family member that recently moved to an area just east of San Diego, the climate is dry, not much rain. I have a question about plant size and hopefully that will help pick a pot size. Have you found bud quality decreases with plants over a certain height? Like say 6 or 7 feet tall?
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I wouldn't say overall bud quality decrease with big plants, but it does take longer for nutrients to travel to the flower sites from the roots with large plants. So it gets much harder to control and steer a plant as far as nutrition, so you can lose grip on whats going on and quality will suffer. It is certainly much easier to grow a lot of smaller plants.
 
Green Mopho said:
Absolutely! This photo was with an amended coco based organic mix in my greenhouse.

What size containers and in what kind of climate and precipitation level are we talking about?
View attachment 355411
Click to expand...
five gallon grow bags, coco perlite mix, west central Florida from September through April. Hot start in fall and a hot finish in April with decent weather in between punctuated by a few cold snaps. Humidity and temps all over the place depending on the weather, but generally pretty good.

I used to run perpetual during this timeframe, but the last two years I do two staggered harvests, one before Jan 1 (just finished that one) and one timed to finish by 4/20 or slightly later.

The reason I've shied away from coco and stuck to peat and perlite is that I hand water and sometimes when the weather changes and the air really dries out, the bags can dry out almost overnight and I read that was the absolute worst thing that can happen when you run coco.

Plants are typically under five feet due to stealth requirements and the need to move them if it does freeze.

I feed raw salts custom mixed my myself.

I do know to rinse the coco and then charge it first with some nutes. I'm really just concerned about it drying out too much and not being able to rewet it, or even drying faster than my peat mixes.
 
Dawn Patrol said:
five gallon grow bags, coco perlite mix, west central Florida from September through April. Hot start in fall and a hot finish in April with decent weather in between punctuated by a few cold snaps. Humidity and temps all over the place depending on the weather, but generally pretty good.

I used to run perpetual during this timeframe, but the last two years I do two staggered harvests, one before Jan 1 (just finished that one) and one timed to finish by 4/20 or slightly later.

The reason I've shied away from coco and stuck to peat and perlite is that I hand water and sometimes when the weather changes and the air really dries out, the bags can dry out almost overnight and I read that was the absolute worst thing that can happen when you run coco.

Plants are typically under five feet due to stealth requirements and the need to move them if it does freeze.

I feed raw salts custom mixed my myself.

I do know to rinse the coco and then charge it first with some nutes. I'm really just concerned about it drying out too much and not being able to rewet it, or even drying faster than my peat mixes.
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Hey Dawn! I was actually in Citrus County for all of November, including Thanksgiving.

I would say, if you are worried about it drying out too much, why not remove the perlite from your coco mix? I like peat based mixes only for when I can’t have much runoff, like a baldly build indoor facility without drainage. Peat is very acidic and requires a lot of lime mixed in to buffer the pH. Coco does not require this and is much more pH neutral. The native soil and water in Florida tends to be acidic as well, although sandy. With a lot of rain, a peat based mix will continue to leach out its buffering lime, which can be a pain in the ass.

Are you adding any other amendments or Organics to your soil mixes? A mild compost, worm castings, or clay top soil at 5% in your mix could help a lot with nutrient and water retention. Also, a slower releasing buffer like oyster shell could also help without causing lockout issues with your current nutrient regiment. Also, have you ever used VanSil (calcium silicate)? I always thought that stuff would be amazing for outdoor in Florida.

HortGrow does sell a loose mix of straight coco that doesn’t have the very fine particle size that other loose coco brands have. It drains well without the need for perlite. Maybe you can give that a shot.
 
Green Mopho said:
Hey Dawn! I was actually in Citrus County for all of November, including Thanksgiving.

I would say, if you are worried about it drying out too much, why not remove the perlite from your coco mix? I like peat based mixes only for when I can’t have much runoff, like a baldly build indoor facility without drainage. Peat is very acidic and requires a lot of lime mixed in to buffer the pH. Coco does not require this and is much more pH neutral. The native soil and water in Florida tends to be acidic as well, although sandy. With a lot of rain, a peat based mix will continue to leach out its buffering lime, which can be a pain in the ass.

Are you adding any other amendments or Organics to your soil mixes? A mild compost, worm castings, or clay top soil at 5% in your mix could help a lot with nutrient and water retention. Also, a slower releasing buffer like oyster shell could also help without causing lockout issues with your current nutrient regiment. Also, have you ever used VanSil (calcium silicate)? I always thought that stuff would be amazing for outdoor in Florida.

HortGrow does sell a loose mix of straight coco that doesn’t have the very fine particle size that other loose coco brands have. It drains well without the need for perlite. Maybe you can give that a shot.
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Well damn, next time you get down this way let me know!

been using a 60/40 peat perlite mix with some dolomite lime but no other amendments for about five years now. I have three raw salt feed ratios that I use (veg/stretch/flower) and top dress with Diamond K and all in all, I'm pretty happy with what I can do. I really don't want to add any organics to it, one of the issues I believe I just had was that I reused the peat so much I think it started to break down and added N above the levels that I wanted.

I appreciate your thoughts, I'm gonna play around with some spare clones and some different coco mixes and see how they do this spring. I may not get to flower them but I really need to get a feel for this stuff and see if I want to make the change.
 
Diamond K top dress is gypsum? That’s always good. But you do need to lime that peat regularly to keep it stable. It does break down fast and get super acidic.
 
Lecanto is growing like a weed my kids love it because they just put in a new panda express lol iv been here around 6 years I work all over Florida but we use to fish in cedar key it's beautiful there haven't been out there since the last storm that did some damage out there hope your place was OK
 
purpleskunkdutchtreat said:
Lecanto is growing like a weed my kids love it because they just put in a new panda express lol iv been here around 6 years I work all over Florida but we use to fish in cedar key it's beautiful there haven't been out there since the last storm that did some damage out there hope your place was OK
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My friends live right by the Panda Express and Wawa, lol. They are from there, 3rd Generation. Which is rare.

I grew up in Broward County myself.
 
I'm originally from Ohio my father grew up in Brandon FL move to Mexico Beach couple months before hurricane Michael lost nearly everything there lol we picked that area because it's so beautiful and a hurricane hasn't hit in like forever but then Michael hit now we are in citrus County and we love it here
 
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