The need for Coco specific nutrients are marginal and exaggerated by nutrient manufacturers. I'll give you an example with a hilarious text posted by Advanced Nutrients (on their web site) on Monkey Juice - that gets it more or less all wrong:
http://www.advancednutrients.com/lan...B_landing.html
"Coco Coir is a fantastic new root zone media made from spun coconut hulls, but it won’t do you any good if you use regular hydroponics fertilizers with it."
-Oh yes you can, total bullshit.
"You can’t use regular hydroponics fertilizer in coco coir and get good results. That’s because coco coir has unique chemical properties and water-holding characteristics that cause problems with regular fertilizers."
-Aha. So why does a non-coco specific nutrient outperform your coco specific nutrient?
"... if you use regular hydroponics fertilizers in coco coir gardens, you’ll get decreased growth rates and smaller harvest size. Coco “locks up” some nutrients while over-releasing others. It has to be properly fertilized and pH- balanced or it can skew nutrient availability so plants grow slowly and produce less."
-Let's take a look at what Advanced Nutrients claims.
The "unique chemical properties" AN mentions refers to the Cation Exchange Capacity of the coco fibers. Cations are positively charged ions (An ion is an atom or molecule which has lost or gained one or more valence electrons, giving it a positive or negative electrical charge.), such as Calcium, Magnesium and Potassium. The grow medium (coco coir) will hold these ions in a matrix, releasing them as absorbed by plants. The thing is, until the CEC of the growing media is filled, the growing media may hold positively charged nutrient ions, most notably calcium, in reserve, making them less available to plants.
Coco 'specific' nutrients therefore tend to have elevated levels of calcium and magnesium while having lower levels of nitrogen.
Nevertheless, this is not such a big deal. Plant science shows that plants - when ion uptake of a certain nutrient decreases - increases its efforts in assimilating a particular nutrient, and therefore to a certain extent compensate for the loss.
Also, the CEC of the coir media is quickly filled, and actually assists Ca absorption during flower. Some additional Ca/Mg or the right kind of bat Guano mixed into the coir media in the initial phase of veg is all it takes if the CEC is low.
But manufacturers of coco coir have thought of this problem, and nowadays, most high quality coco coir have been chemically pre-treated to satisfy the CEC of the growing media. With other words, the problem has been solved right from the start.
What does AN refer to when it talks about
"coco's unique water holding characteristics causing problems with the uptake of regular hydroponic nutrients"? Maybe one of their hotshot PhD's can get online and explain that one.
The unique water holding capacities of coco coir refers to its particular fiber structure. Compared to for instance peat, the coconut fibers are tougher and coarser, which means that more airspace is available for drainage and to supply the root zone with higher levels of atmospheric oxygen (O2). Still, it can absorb eight or nine times its own weight of water, and is immedaitely absorbing, even in a completely dry state.
How the coco will react to regular hydroponic nutrients depends on the composition of the nutrient and the quality/mineral content of the water.
"More and more growers are finding out that using Advanced Nutrients Monkey Juice Bloom is the only way to properly fertilize blooming plants in coco coir hydroponics gardens"
-That's a bold statement, claiming that Monkey Juice is the
"only way to properly fertilize blooming plants in coco coir".
Do they have any REAL science to back up their sales pitch?