CANNA offers a complete COCO system. This consists of a COCO medium as loose fill or in the form of slabs, as well as a COCO nutrient which is adjusted to the natural nutrients in the COCO medium. Many nutrients for growing on other mediums are usually divided into a vegetative and a flowering solution, but this one is not. However, you still need two bottles – COCO A and COCO B.
Coco fibre typically contains little calcium and even less phosphate; on the other hand it does hold a lot of potassium compared to other growing mediums. These are just some of the nutrients plants need but they are not present in the proper amounts in coco coir to meet the needs of your plants. For this reason CANNA Research developed a COCO nutrient that supplements the CANNA COCO medium to exactly what the plants need. It is quite obvious that when using COCO medium, lots of calcium and phosphate and very little potassium need to be added to the coco, and this is exactly what the CANNA COCO nutrient line contains.
The amounts of calcium and phosphate that have to be present for the nutrient to do its job properly are quite high. When you put such highly concentrated elements in one bottle they will conflict with each other sometimes resulting in a slimy residue of sorts. The design problem is: your plants still need both elements and they need them in large amounts, in spite of their conflict.
COCO A and COCO B
COCO is divided into a two-part nutrient solution known as COCO A and COCO B. There are two bottles but it is actually only one fertilizer, so you need both of them to work as a complete nutrient.
If you find a brand of COCO nutrient sold in only one bottle with no residues in the container, this should be like ‘writing on the wall’ to you. You now know that there cannot possibly be high enough amounts of both calcium and phosphate present: you’re probably being ripped off. The fact that we divided it into two bottles is actually clever thinking and proof that our formula is strong enough to be effective and cannot be put into one bottle.
Let us illustrate what would happen when all ingredients are put together in one bottle anyway:
The residue doesn’t appear instantly; and it will take some time to settle.
Tips:
- To prevent any residues from appearing in your nutrient reservoir, always mix the A and B portions separately in the reservoir with a large amount of water.
- Mix the COCO A solution first and stir well before adding the COCO B solution to help prevent saline residues.
- Always use COCO A and COCO B in equal amounts.
- When you choose to grow on COCO you need a special COCO nutrient as well. The CANNA COCO A + B nutrient will give the best results when combined with CANNA COCO medium.
