SOIL A grow in inert soil!

[Ace1973]

This is a full on experiment, first to test my grow skills, second, to mimic coco as closely as possible with inert soil and smart bags. I know I could have made this all very simple, yet, I have been growing for four years and although I have done well for myself with nice yields, I want to test myself, explore this concept fully. I hope everyone enjoys this little snippet of my experiment, that picture is of my plants growing in inert soil in 4 weeks and three days of bloom. My lights Meizhi 1200 watt(568 watts actual) in a 4x4x7 tent generic, intake outtake fans, my humidity stays in the range of 40-55%, temperature stays between 68(at night) and 80(at daytime). I use tap water, I do not measure EC or PPM, just never needed to and will not do it. I am using dynagro nutes, foilage and bloom, and I have added calmag from general hydroponics, I vegged for about three weeks under a weaker lamp, and then moved to tent.

[yellow]

Love the idea of pushing boundaries & testing ones skill. Great way to improve yourself & have fun along the way.
Inert soil meaning a soil medium with little to no nutrients? So reactive actions based on how the plant looks? Or are you using a planned feeding schedule?
Looks good

[Potted]

Plants, need a bigger home, looks a bit root bound to me, are roots coming out the holes in the bottom yet? Good luck 🍀
ps,.... where’d u get that inert soil from?

[Ace1973]

I appreciate the responses, the grow is relatively short, 3 weeks veg, now in the beginning of week six of flower. Transplant would be pointless as no more root growth(these are 8 week plants). The soil is soil that has been reused multiple times, it is dead soil. I have had to add cal mag, which is to be expected on any grow. I just want to add a side note, I am using smart bags, I have grown hybrids of varying percentages, for about six months or more, I only had one ever try to grow roots outside of the bag, sour d.. I doubt any annual would get root bound after nine weeks of growing in a smart bag.

[Potted]

Never heard them called smart bags before, O thay are autos I would not transplant eather I’ve had roots come out of the smart pots I use occasionally.

[Ace1973]

I grew autos out last month, I was not impressed, I had the seeds for a while and they were not from my regular seed distributor. I was disappointed by the yield mostly, I am so used to photoperiods that I was expecting so much more. the only thing good to come out of it was that one of the auto's was not the same as the others, it was white widow.

[Potted]

I’ve been doing the same thing,reusing old used ffof amened with peat,core and perlite this is the second time around for this batch, as long as u feed them what thay need from the start the soil just becomes a medium like core, but without feeding them daily 😁

[9fingerleafs]

ive been reusing the same fox farms soil 8 flowering rounds and as long as i water with nutrients every single time the plants are happy, if i use ro water they get lighter in color in a day or two. i use botanicare line

[Ace1973]

This is exactly why I am doing this Potted

[Potted]

These girls are in 3 gal. S Ps with the soil I spoke of, it does work I must have screwed up the upload some how?
my point is many growers reuse there soil with great success and have been doing so for years.

[Ace1973]

I wanted to see if I could get close to coco coir, I figured that dead or inert soil, plus smart bags would give the same experience, with the exception of water retention. I water every two or three days, I always use nutrients. So far it is very similar to coco, even having to add calmag. So far everything is smooth and this was a quick grow to understand my plants better. The best suggestion that was ever given to me was,"be in tune with your plants. Study them, watch them. Then you will understand them.". The woman that gave me that advice has been a twenty year veteran of gardening. Even so others may have been doing this for years, I have not, I am always learning and testing myself, every exercise is well thought out.

[9fingerleafs]

still coco plants grow twice as fast in veg and twice as big flower than my old reused soil and nutrients. roots just loooove coco

[Ace1973]

Coco is great, not as great as soil, I prefer the slow grow, I like to manage my plants. Also less nutes are being used, I really had to see for myself. I have to say that this grew just like coco, the only exception was water retention. Honestly, I like to do my grows as cheaply as possible. I always produce decent yields and always very potent.

[Ace1973]

These pics are from today, five weeks and 2 days, by the calendar. I had some signs of cal mag deficiency a couple of days ago, treated it and have no further signs. I just added my orange bud mother plant. I have three cuttings of her and one is going to be used for pollen, the other as a seed bearer.

[Potted]

Pack your bags Martha.....the people next store are growen pot!!!! ! Nice buds from reused soil ace1973

[Ace1973]

I realize this is still soil and not coco. I personally love growing in soil and never cared for alternative grow mediums, soil is easy and the grows can rival even hydro if done right. You can always compare a hydro grow with an outdoor grow, and if pruned correctly an indoor soil grow will be chosen hands down over hydro. The yield from hydro is larger, as well as the electric bill. I am into minimal everything in a grow, farmers were growing crops for thousands of years, they did not need anything fancy, they knew how to tend their crops and now there are eight billion people in the world.

[Potted]

I’m using 1 315 LEC, in a milar closet 4 x 7 x 7 the temp. Stays in the low 70 with no ac this time of year. As the seasons change and it gets hotter I close up my indoor grow and concentrate on my gorilla grows outdoors.( it’s much cheaper) I only grow for myself now, I am just trying to keep my shelves stocked.I have 3 harvests a year fall to winter,winter to spring and summer, 😁

[Ace1973]

I am strictly an indoor grower, I would love to grow outside.

[Potted]

Hi Ace1973, are u in a state that does not abide? As am I ! Stealth is key not just from cops, and noisy neighbors but people are always looking for what your growing !

[Ace1973]

Unfortunately I am in a state which I need to stay anonymous. I can grow indoors without attracting any attention, I even have a diffuser which keeps odors down. I am very close to having my own property now, when I do I will stealth up like some old friends did, a long time ago, and will probably need some advice once I get to that point.

[Potted]

Well good luck with your choice of tents,Hope is works out for best. 🍀

[Ace1973]

Six weeks and a day, leaves are turning purple, these pics just do not show it. Look at bottom leaves of first pic.

[Ace1973]

So these pics have some more detail than before and you get to see that I threw in three plants, the two small ones are clones, these two are being sprayed with colloidal silver twice a day for the last ten days. The larger plant is a orange bud or skunk variety, she has only been in flower for two weeks.

[Ace1973]

I am now at the 7 week mark, by the end of this week I will be pulling the more purple pheno, the other may go nine weeks, I also have my orange bud growing, she is just three weeks into bloom! Also I have two smaller plants growing, one is sour d. the other is orange bud, both are being dosed with colloidal silver spray, I put both in tent on 12/12 and started to spray, I am getting close to three weeks, I was compensating for the one week shock of environment/time change that most plants go through.