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Choose Your Weapon: Your Growing Medium of Choice

GreenArmadillo

GreenArmadillo

New member
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[SUP]nd[/SUP] 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 :wink:
 
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.
 
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.
 
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).
 
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.
 
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.
 
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 !
 
Don't get stuck in that sunk cost fallacy! If you want to switch, switch! I bet you could convince one of your smoke buddies to take some of it off your hands to recoup some of the money, and the balance would be worth it, if it makes things easier on you.
 
Aloner No way!! Sunk cost fallacy my foot!! I would lose thousands of dollars I've invested. No one else grows among my closest buddies. For now I'm sticking with DWC cuz I have learned it and invested in it. So my grow room is a grow box room with both boxes self-contained. In an ideal world, I would have it different, but in reality, I'm happy with my set-up and live with its limitations.

furrysparkle hell no.
 
I am just amazed that anyone who knows you irl is not trying to grow themselves! I would think your enthusiasm (and results) would be so infectious that it would be near impossible not to want to try!
 
HAH and double HAH! They all broke and just wanna smoke my weed. I'm kinda like the stoner jewish mama they all never had...
 
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.
 
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..
 
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.
 
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.
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