20 replies to this topic

[hungryjim]

...For quite a while I've only used PF tek/invitro tek and was very happy with the results! :) ...I got some coir, hydrated with boiling water, and made sort of a "sandwich" in a small aluminum pan: half inch of coir, one fully colonized half-pint cake, broken up in a bag and layed out, and another half inch layer of coir on top. Covered with foil (punched w/10 holes each) and back into the IC. Today, just a couple of days later, I took a peek...that 'celly DOES love it! My jaw dropped! This is the first time I got to use it, and am blown away!-(If you haven't tried it yet, yahoughtta!) It seems amazing!!!-------HJ

[vinz]

i love coco coir! Post some pics of your results! =)

[Dr_T]

Yep.
Add some used coffee grounds to the next batch for even more shroomy goodness!

[wildburr]

Yep.
Add some used coffee grounds to the next batch for even more shroomy goodness!

About how much do you use Dr_T? I've never added anything except Verm to my coir. Wouldnt mind trying it. :)

[Dr_T]

I go about 1 part in four or 1:5, coffee to coir.

I collect the grounds over time, I live alone and don't drink much coffee. (But a cup or two every day.), so I sterilize them in jars in the PC before adding to pasteurized coir.

OTOH, I've never tried it without the coffee- maybe I should.

[Skatterman420]

I'm loving coir too, having great luck with a Castings/Coir/Verm mix :bow:

[PsilocybeChild]

lol I just used WBS spawned to a mix of coco coir, brown rice flour, vermiculite, reptile multivitamin powder, spiralina powder and it colonized rapidly in just a few days. Hopefully I'll get good flushes. I love coconut coir.

[joluvs2gro]

I bought a brick of some coco gro, it's hydro grade coir and I didn't have any luck with it. I wonder what I was doing wrong. All I did was poured boiling water over it, mixed it up, let it cool and use. Is the hydro grade coir not the right stuff?

[Skatterman420]

I bought a brick of some coco gro, it's hydro grade coir and I didn't have any luck with it. I wonder what I was doing wrong. All I did was poured boiling water over it, mixed it up, let it cool and use. Is the hydro grade coir not the right stuff?

It may take better sterilization, people say that stuff comes trich infested, because it helps plants grow.

[Dr_T]

Should work. How much spawn did you mix into it?

[wildburr]

What happened? did you get trich?

[Dr_T]

It may take better sterilization, people say that stuff comes trich infested, because it helps plants grow.

Yeah, what that's people say. Has anyone ever seen it in real life?

Edit- hey, here's a company that claims it's in their coir:
http://www.smartgard...iums/coco-bags/
Don't use that.

[NORTh]

Indeed there certainly are "higher grades" of coir to be avoided when the planned application is this field of research..

Yeah, what that's people say. Has anyone ever seen it in real life?

Edit- hey, here's a company that claims it's in their coir:
http://www.smartgard...iums/coco-bags/
Don't use that.

[sweeney]

I bought a brick of some coco gro, it's hydro grade coir and I didn't have any luck with it. I wonder what I was doing wrong. All I did was poured boiling water over it, mixed it up, let it cool and use. Is the hydro grade coir not the right stuff?

Get coir intended for use as reptile bedding, it is not intentionally laden with trichoderma like coir used for gardening.

[joluvs2gro]

It wasn't because of trich, in fact the coir I got seems really contam resistant. It just doesn't wanna colonize. It takes forever. It has a real nice feel and a nice smell. Could I use shrimp and seaweed compost with coir?

[Dr_T]

That's so completely unlike my experience, I really don't know what to say.

But give the shrimp stuff a try, and let us know how it goes.

[wildburr]

You said it was for Hydro, does it have any added nutes? Or something that might inhibit fungal growth?

I've never had a problem with it either.

[Sidestreet]

Here's one that's working well for me.

Here's the coir:




Sorry about the crappy pic. It's T-Rex brand, called "Forest Bed Expandable Substrate."

And here's a bulk sub colonizing. It's on day 3, pf cakes spawned to just coir and verm:




The sub was hydrated and pasteurized at about 170 for an hour. It was originally meant to be casing material, but I made way too much. SO it sat for almost a week wrapped in a garbage bag inside of a closed pot (the one in the pic). Then I baked the crap out of it in the oven (350 for an hour), let it cool, and spawned it right in the pot.

[Raziel]

It wasn't because of trich, in fact the coir I got seems really contam resistant. It just doesn't wanna colonize. It takes forever. It has a real nice feel and a nice smell. Could I use shrimp and seaweed compost with coir?

I bought a brick of coir and used half in a grow and had great success, fully colonised in days. Done a second grow with the same brick but different strain and the spawn just would not colonise, no funky smell or visable signs of contams. Lef t it 4 weeks in total and just came to the conclusion that some cakes/starins just don't like coir.

[Sidestreet]

That's interesting, Raziel. Did you use the same method for both grows? What strains were you using?