COCO COIR Planning Ahead - Anyone Use Down to Earth or Dr. Earth?

[RossHarold]

What’s up everyone! I recently rekindled a childhood love of gardening, having grown up growing most of my own vegetables. As I made my way back to gardening, I started consuming a little bit of medical cannabis, so here I am merging 2 things that bring me a little enjoyment.

I’ll be growing 3 autos (Blue Dream, Tangie and Pineapple Express from Fast Buds) in coco and perlite at 70/30. Right now I’m looking at starting off by amending the coco with Down to Earth Vegetable Garden (4-4-4) and Rose & Garden (4-8-4). I’ll be growing in a 2.9’ x 2.9 x 5’ tent using 3 gallon cloth pots with a 1000W HiGrow light off of Amazon with a 20/4 schedule.

Does this look ok so far? What’s everyone’s perspective on organics for the seedling and veg stages for autos?

Thanks in advance, this looks like a really cool group!

[9fingerleafs]

welcome, coco needs a "buffering" (couple of soaks and rinses) when its not bagged and branded "ready to use" but you cant really amend the coco beforehand, coco cant hold nutrients like a soil would, you need to mix nutrients with the water every watering to provide a stable source of nutrients for the plant

[dphipps1020]

I just recently started using soil and so far I'm having pretty good results. I have no other real reference since this is really the first cycle with soil but it looks good to me. Been doing hydro for a little more than a year and keep running into issues that reduce my yields or kill my plants so I decided to go a different route. I am using a mix of Fox Farm's Ocean Forest (1.5 cu ft bag) and Fox Farm's Happy Frog (2 cu ft bag) as my base soil. I also found a soil amendment on eBay to make a bit of "super soil" for my bottom layer. So far I'm happy with it, all I have to do is water. Main reason I went this route is so I wouldn't have to mix nutrients when I water. The ladies I have right now are fairly small because I'm trying to get to where I have 3 cycles going at once.

[RossHarold]

I just recently started using soil and so far I'm having pretty good results. I have no other real reference since this is really the first cycle with soil but it looks good to me. Been doing hydro for a little more than a year and keep running into issues that reduce my yields or kill my plants so I decided to go a different route. I am using a mix of Fox Farm's Ocean Forest (1.5 cu ft bag) and Fox Farm's Happy Frog (2 cu ft bag) as my base soil. I also found a soil amendment on eBay to make a bit of "super soil" for my bottom layer. So far I'm happy with it, all I have to do is water. Main reason I went this route is so I wouldn't have to mix nutrients when I water. The ladies I have right now are fairly small because I'm trying to get to where I have 3 cycles going at once.

After doing a little more research, I’m leaning toward Fox Farm soil with an amendment. What was the brand of amendment that you found on eBay? I have my eye on Nature’s Living Soil off of Amazon to mix with my bottom 1/3 layer.

[dphipps1020]

RossHarold https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F131928114393 this is the amendment I'm using. So far I'm happy with it but I don't have a lot to compare it to since I've only done hydro till now. Comes with directions and the only other thing you need is earthworm castings. Only watering about every 3 days with this mix, maybe 4. Each bag will mix 1.5 cubic feet. I had a lot to make so I got 2, and mixed my soils first and then added everything else. Can't wait to show some pics with beautiful ladies. Until then, these ladies are about 2 weeks old. One picture was Monday and the other today (Friday). The seedlings are in my base soil only (Happy Frog and Ocean Forest) and are getting straight tap water.

[RossHarold]

Those ladies look great. Thanks for sharing!

[dphipps1020]

Thank you! And any time. Those are in my 2'x2' tent and I may run out of room pretty quick. The ones in the middle I'm guessing were just bad seeds. I pulled them from a bag I got at the dispensary, strain is Str8 Lemonade. It was pretty tasty so I figured why not do a whole cycle of those. Going to try to keep uploading pictures of their progress in the forums for input, tips, etc. I give them another 2 weeks tops and I'll most likely have to transplant and move them to a bigger tent to continue vegging, they seem to love the flat panel LED boards I have in there.