Choose Your Weapon: Your Growing Medium of Choice

[GreenArmadillo]

Hi all. Hope the growing is going A++!

I had a question today, regarding some of your personal preferences and the reason for these preferences.
What is your growing medium of choice? And why?
Have you tried others? What makes your medium superior?
Pros? Cons? Tips? Tricks?

Anything you can think to say would be mucho appreciated. I’m currently planning out my 2^nd grow, and I think it’s time to do this PRO STYLE!
With my previous grow I used FF Ocean Forest throughout the whole grow. I got some great results, but my main beef with soil as a growing medium was that I couldn’t accurately track the nutrient deficiencies with my girls as they were growing. My symptom analysis and my solutions to my problems were all educated guesses at best. This was of course extremely frustrating!
I was told here by one of the lovely members that the reason he was thinking of switching to coco coir was because of this. In comparison to soil, you can quite accurately track the plants uptake of nutes that you are providing, as the coir itself is nutrient-less.

Basically it makes for more detailed analysis and supervision of the growing plants, as I understand. This is why I have been thinking of switching to coco for my next grow, which should be due to start within the next week or two. Is that a good idea or should I reconsider?

Cheers my lovelies. <3

[Tazard]

I think that it depends upon what you're looking for if you want faster growth you definitely want to go DWC with the top feed. More aromatic crops can be grown with super soil or even Coco as you can use many supplements in coco that you can't use in DWC. I use DWC because my nutes are about 1/3 of coco and 1/9 of soil. Of course "super soil " uses no nutes. I also don't have to worry about over/under watering or a lot of the pests.

[GreenArmadillo]

I should have mentioned i'm not really into the DWC. I've invested a lot in all kinds of pots and equipment to take care of plants in pots. Plus the idea of constantly running water in DWC setups in my small bathroom grow set up is asking for trouble.

I'm gonna be using GO nutes, since I have loads of em still from my previous grow. So that's why I was thinking coco might be better than soil, especially since these nute line ups are usually designed for hydroponic growing.. This much i've picked up from the various discussions on the forums.

[Tazard]

Sorry I thought it was open to any medium. But I use DWC in my 2x2x4 tent too. And you only pump water if you're using the top feed (not required).

[alltatup]

If I had everything to do over, I think I would go with coco coir. DWC involves all the extra expense of keeping the res cool, as was discussed in your portable AC topic. I'd use LED lights to minimize the heat. BUT: I'm already invested in chillers and DWC grow boxes, so... there's no going back for me, unless I win millions in the lottery.

[furrysparkle]

Haha, I figured

[GreenArmadillo]

Totally agree with what you saying there tat. You've learned the ropes of a very specialised form of growing. That's something to be proud of and keep alive. Especially since you've upgraded it on so many instances.

[alltatup]

Yeah, I ain't goin nowhere! Just about to germinate 6-8 more seeds for the small grow box and do single-cola micro grow.

[TheDude777]

I'm a firm believer in if it ain't broke don't fix it. If you had good results on your last grow why make the change. I know you said that it's difficult to track the nutrient intake but if you follow the same regiment you should have the same results or better since you have experience with it. I'm sure whatever you choose, you'll be fine. Myself I use promix hp. I've have had lots of success with it and I'm comfortable with it.

[Canyon Grower]

I use my own organic soil concoction, mostly because im old school and prefer organic cannabis. That said, I dont think there is one way, or even one soil type, that is superior to all others. Each has its pros and cons. I will offer this advice. Either buy a top quality soil or spend enough time and effort to concoct your own. You really want a well balanced soil with enough slow release nutrients to carry you through. You can of course, supplement with specific products along the way. Good luck !

[GreenArmadillo]

Yeah, i'm personally leaning to try coco. So many amateurs and pros use it, plus it'll be fun learning something new.
I somehow feel coco will be "cleaner" to deal with.

If I buy coco, it'll be the fresh fox brand, since the grow shop stocks it. I'll mix it with 25% perlite.
Is the ff coco likely to be old, or does it not matter how old the batch is?
I dunno how well coco preserves you see..

[Canyon Grower]

Im guessing that coco is pretty resistant to degradation. If its commercially packaged it can probably stay fine for years.

[GenghisGreen]

I'm currently using ecosmart organic potting mix with 30% added perlite, and for my nutes I'm using General Organics Go Box which is full of goodness for your plant and the micro colonies in the soil. I'm having great results with my first grow just following the basics and the prescribed feeding schedule.

It's going great enough that I'm going to use the ecosmart again since I can get it at Lowe's, and I'm going to amend the soil with FF bat guano, bone meal, kelp, big rock perlite, and kelp product. I'm also going to throw in some coco coir since I'm switching to fabric pots. Basically I'm making my own coco loco. But I aim to have the best organic buds. I'll let the plant veg for one three weeks with no added nutes while the plant consumes nutes already in the soil and the microorganisms break down the amendments. Then I'm going to go right back to General Organics go box (going to buy the quarts this time) as I find it makes my buds stink really good with a unique scent profile. I also never have to check the pH of the nutes. Super easy nute system to use. Never given me a problem. Only problems I've had are with pests and when I wasn't watering to run off. But one was operator error and you can't help pests outdoors.

So that's that.

[GreenArmadillo]

Yeah man, I went with GO with my last grow. Loved it.

But I don't get how you guys say you don't need to pH it. I needed to pH the shit out of my nute mix every time. Then again, I was pHing to 6.5 since I was doing a soil grow.
With coco it'll be 5.5 pH average, so maybe I won't need to pH like before. That would be nice. =)

[GreenArmadillo]

Any specific tips on using coco btw?
Total noob in the coco scene you see. =|

[GreenArmadillo]

YIKES!
I bought myself FoxsFarm Coco Loco today, thinking it was 100% coco.

Now that I've read the label, i'm shocked to realize that it contains a lot of other ingredients. Will I be able to plant my seedlings in this for the veg stage?
I'm hoping I can.
(I also noticed it contains mycorrhizae content. Does that mean I don't need to order any microorganisms for this grow?)

Here's the ingredient list:

[OzBud]

I think Green75 uses coco loco.

I like coco, haven't tried anything else and not overly interested in doing so. Pretty happy with my coco grow style and results so far

[GreenArmadillo]

OzBud Yeah man, i'm real excited to try coco this time. But i'm worried this Bush Doctor Coco Loco might be a bit too hot for planting seedlings.
My babies just popped in root!t plugs, and I gotta transplant into pots today or tomorrow.

What do you reckon?
If it is too hot, then i'll make sure to flush the coco with water until the ppm becomes low enough for seedlings, and then plant them in there.
Any advice would be awesome my friend.

What are the secrets to successful coco grows?

[OzBud]

That stuff should be fine.

Secrets to success... hmmm. I don't really know what the actual secret to my grows are but I'll give a quick rundown of what I do.

• I don't mix with perlite, just straight coco (everyone seems to think the perlite is important, I don't bother with it)
• I water to runoff every day once they get to about 14 days old (I see a fair few people water every second or third day)
• I water with nutes every watering. Full schedule, no base nutes + calmag one watering then other stuff next watering. I just follow the GH Feed Chart for the full Flora Series + supplements and at the highest strength my plants can handle.
• I start watering with 1/4 strength seedling nutes from day 1 when I put sprouted plants in Jiffys in their final pots.
• Check runoff pH, I aim for 6.0. If it goes beyond 5.9-6.1 I water my next watering at 6.5 if runoff was below 5.9 and water at 5.9 if runoff was above 6.5
• Plenty of light (I use 600W HPS 24/0), plenty of air circulation and ventilation.
• 3-3.5gal pots should be plenty unless you want to grow a monster super auto strain or something like that