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You'll want to add the water. Some big blocks of coco tell you it takes up to 2.5 gallons to moisten the block enough to break it up. At that point the coco becomes the texture of soil. And you can use it straight.
One thing about coco is it's extremely neutral and has no micro nutrients, like soil does. When you consider the purpose of the coconut husk in relation to the seed inside you understand. The husk of the coconut by nature is designed to allow the coconut to drift across the sea and land on another beach, and grow another coconut tree. So the husk repels water, and it doesn't hold water for long. They say it's hard to over water coco, and that's true to the extent that the moisture level of the root zone may induce powdery mildew.
The advantages of coco is you don't need large pots, you can grow lots of roots in smaller pots. It also dries out much quicker than soil, but is a lot more forgiving than clay pellets that dry out quickly. In small pots you can water daily, every other day, or use drippers. It's pretty flexible. Pot tastes better in coco than most other hydro methods. It is technically hydroponics.
What I like about it is it goes from soaking wet to kinda dry in a day. For a small set up you can run a lot of food to the plants and if there is a mistake it's super easy to flush. When the plants are dry the coco is very light, if you have to move pots around or need to chceck moisture content in the root zone they're easy to pick up.
The disadvantages of coco is it does dry out, three of four days without water is a problem in most systems. Also the material is inert, you have to supply all the micros and cal mag for a lot of strains.
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