Every grower who uses coco coir knows how great this medium is to use! Coco is almost impossible to overwater, it has the perfect pH for growing and it’s environmentally friendly! With all these great qualities its easy to see why you would want to reuse this amazing medium, and thankfully, you can! But, your coco must first undergo reconditioning before you can use it for your next grow.
Reconditioning coco is the process of removing all the salts that nutrients add to coco and removing dead root matter from previous plants so that you are able to reuse it
Here, we’ll explain how to do that!
1. Break up your coco and physically remove and roots that are left in your coco, these can be saved and used for composting!
2. Wash the coco thoroughly with clean, distilled water. There will be lots of salt build up within your coco from all the nutrients you fed your previous plant. You will be able to tell when your coco has been cleaned when the water that comes out of it runs clear. It is absolutely vital that this step is followed, failure to do so could result in salt-based nutrient lockout that will badly affect your plants and could even kill them.
3. Soak your coco in a Sensizym solution! Sensizym contains enzymes that break down all the root structures that remain in your coco from your previous plants, turning them into a food source for your next grow. In doing this, the enzymes in Sensizym recondition your coco coir, creating a healthy environment for your crops.
4. Your old Coco is ready to be reused!!
Its worth mentioning that most growers only reuse their coco coir two to three times due to the fact that after prolonged usage, it starts to lose its lignin structure and begins to lack the capability to hold roots and maintain correct moisture. With each crop cycle, minerals and chemical compounds from the crops and the products used to nurture them accumulate in the grow media. One of these minerals is salt. Too much salt in your coir can block nutrients from reaching your crops, resulting in nutrient lockout. Salt-based nutrient lockout can look a lot like a nutrient deficiency. Both cause crops’ leaves to become discolored and wilt. Left untreated, nutrient lockout will kill a crop.
Author: Hydroponify
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