Bionova - Cocos Bricks (6 pieces pack)

Six compressed coco blocks. Each block swells with water to roughly ten times its own volume, giving about 10 litres of ready coco substrate. Rinsed and treated against disease, pests and weed seed.

Ten times the volume sounds abstract until you fetch the bucket

A compressed block is about the size of a thick book and weighs very little. Out of it comes 10 litres of loose substrate, and that is the whole point of this pack: six blocks you can tuck under a shelf come to some 60 litres, and until you wet them they take up almost no room.

What catches growers out the first time is not the volume but the container. Bionova give 3 litres of water per block. That looks like very little for 10 litres of substrate, and the temptation is to add more. Do not add it all at once: coco takes water up slowly and you only see what has actually been absorbed after half an hour. Put the block in a roomy tub, leave it for thirty minutes, then break it up. If the core is still hard, add water a splash at a time.

Too wet is harder to recover from than too dry. You can squeeze it out, but you rinse away part of what is in there along with the water.

What is left up to you

This coco has been rinsed thoroughly and so has a low conductivity: it brings almost no nutrition of its own. That is exactly what you want when you work to your own schedule, because you start close to zero and everything the plant gets comes from you.

We do not print an exact EC or pH figure. The values circulating for this product disagree with one another, and some of them belong to a different brand of coco. Measure your first run-off and work from there.

Technical Specifications:

• Type: compressed coco substrate with low EC
• Manufacturer: Bionova
• Contents: 6 compressed blocks per pack
• Yield per block: about 10 litres of ready substrate, roughly ten times the compressed volume
• Water per block: about 3 litres
• Treatment: rinsed and treated against disease, pests and weed seed
• Reuse: coco fibre breaks down slowly, so a second round is possible after rinsing out

Frequently asked questions

How long should a block soak?
Allow half an hour. Then break it up thoroughly until no hard core is left.

Do I need to feed from the start?
Yes. This substrate brings almost nothing with it, so your plant depends on your schedule from the very first watering.

Is this buffered coco?
The manufacturer describes it as rinsed and treated, but does not state calcium buffering. So allow for being a little more generous with calcium and magnesium early on, and measure your run-off.

Can I use half a block?
You can, though a compressed block is awkward to break in two. It is easier to swell a whole block and keep the remainder dry and sealed.