Trying Strawberries

[OChydro]

I'm going to give strawberries a shot after reading the forums and GpsFrontier's significant input. I'll take pics along the way for fun. I think Gps was using Organic Coco Coir chips in his unit but I wanted to double check and I have attached a pic of the product. Let me know.

It would be great to hear and see anyone else's strawberry project.

Thanks!!

[GpsFrontier]

I think Gps was using Organic Coco Coir chips in his unit but I wanted to double check and I have attached a pic of the product. Let me know.

Yes, that's exactly what I use. That looks like the same 2 cubic feet block I got. If so, that should fill two 5 gallon buckets all the way to the top, with a little left over. Only lightly pack it down in the baskets, it doesn't need to be packed down tight. In a bucket it shouldent need to be packed down at all.

The chips are big enough that very little can go through the holes in the baskets. It also holds moisture better than grow rocks. The coco chips are not reusable like the grow rocks are, but Grow rocks can be a pain in the a** to clean and get ready to reuse. Although just like new grow rocks, coco chips should be rinsed well before use. What I do is use 2 containers, each large enough to hold the expanded chips. Then brake off a chunk large enough for what I need and put it in one of the containers. Fill the container with hot water and let it soak for a while. Then scope the chips out of that container and put them into the other, and then fill that container with hot water and let it soak for a while. I just keep doing this until I think they are ready. You should really only need to do this a couple of times, but I like to get as much of the color out as I can. Don't worry, the color wont hurt the plants and you will never get all the color out anyway. The hot water helps leach out the color better than cold water does.

I use a pool skimmer now to scoop the chips with. I used to use a plastic container (large butter tub) with holes drilled in it, but It was too small to scope as much as I was doing. We had the skimmer in the garage for some reason (we don't even have a pool). Another easy thing to use is a pasta strainer. If you don't have one that you would want to use for this, you can probably find one for a buck at the dollar store. Its not necessary but will make things a lot easier. I look forward to seeing the pictures.