Coco vs Organic soil

[hydro91]

Dear 420 magazine community,

After some first hand feedback on the pro's and con's of coco vs organic soil grow medium. I was thinking something along the lines of fox farms soil for a organic grow medium but trying to weigh up the benefits. I've watched a bunch of youtube videos and understand coco is much easier to flush if there's an issue but what would be the benefits of growing in soil.

Looking for the differences in the final products, Supposedly cannabis grown in an organic soil medium has better terpene production, better flavour and has a higher THC content.

Where as the coco grows much bigger, denser but the terpene, taste and strength isn't as good.

 

[Lowrider72]

Some people swear by organics in soil.
Coco is a good way to grow, seen crazy buds in both.

 

[Emilya Green]

Hy Hydro... good question and one that will have all the hydro folks lining up on one side and the soil folks on the other. I will try to be as impartial as I can in my answer, even though I am a soil gal.
Why do I love soil? It gives me a buffer so that I am not a daily or in the case of coco, a twice daily slave to my garden. In large soil containers I can totally walk away from my garden for days at a time with absolutely no detrimental effect... you can't do that with coco.
Some definitions are needed because although Fox Farm Ocean Forest is a high quality organic soil, using it does not necessarily mean you are growing organically. This soil is simply a medium, in which you have the choice of growing organically or artificially by relying on nutrients out of a bottle. If you use for instance, the Fox Farm line of nutrients, these are considered to be synthetic nutrients, and it will not be an organic grow.
Organically grown pot is at the moment the best way that I know to grow pot so that the plant can express itself fully, have the best terpene production, taste better and have higher quality. This is because to truly grow organically, you have to go a few steps further than simply getting an "organic" soil, you have to enrich this soil with minerals... all of the minerals the plant will need all throughout the grow, and then using composting techniques these minerals need to be "cooked" into the soil so the elements can become available to the plants. Then you have to introduce microbes into this soil, because in a true organic grow it is not you or the minerals in the soil that feed the plant, active living microbes do all that work for you. True organic growing is more about keeping life thriving within the soil than feeding the plants, and this living army of microbes feeds your plant better than you ever could.
But that all being said, you can still use your soil simply as a medium, not grow organically, but still have the buffering effects and natural enhancements that soil can provide. For instance, even though not growing in a specifically minerally enhanced soil, there are things that can be added to a soil grow that come very close to approximating the benefits that come in a microbe based organic grow. You can add earthworm castings to your soil, ph buffers, fungi to enhance the root system, Vulx to condition the soil, plant spikes to help the grow... soil allows lots of "tricks" to help the grow along even if it isn't a true organic grow. Taste a hydroponically grown tomato and compare it to one grown in fertilized soil... there is a difference.
So why all the hype about coco and hydroponic methods? Because in those synthetic systems, nutrients are able to be supplied to the plant full time, all the time. In coco you are manually feeding your plants twice a day, using strong fertilizers that cause rapid growth. By pushing nutes it is indeed possible to grow bigger plants and grow them a bit faster than a naturally growing organic plant... but at a cost. Since the plants are being force fed, much like someone in a coma on IV feeding tubes, there is no choice by the plant what it is going to get... you and the nutrient companies decide all this, as well as the feeding schedule, for the plant. The end result looks good and gets big... but there is still something missing that only mother nature seemingly can provide.
They say that coco is more forgiving and that it can easily be flushed, a new nutrient mix made, and any problem can be solved. While this may be true, soil also can be flushed if problems arise, and in my experience the buffer that soil provides slows down any problems that might develop, giving you time to work them out and correct. In a water based system, things can go south much more quickly and if one little thing gets out of kilter, everything can go terribly wrong incredibly fast. Soil is much more forgiving but harder to see what is going on and without proper techniques it is easy to over or under water, whereas in the coco system it is impossible to over water.
Then I will hit you with an adage. Every grow method except outside in the ground, involves a compromise of some kind... giving up one advantage for another. Using rich living mineralized soil is the least amount of compromise over mother nature's methods that we know of.

 

[bobrown14]

Using rich living mineralized soil is the least amount of compromise over mother nature's methods that we know of.

This ^^^ I'm an organic farmer.

Probably over time, the risks in soil are greater because we are depending on the natural world to do all the work for us. It's all about maintaining balance.

The rewards are greatest the risk is higher in organic soil.

There's very little cost over time and less work in general in soil.

If you like to fiddle and measure and be part of the action try soil-less medium.

If you like hands off, plant the plants and LITFA, then organic soil is good.

 

[multiVortex]

Both types are just fine. So is full hydro. Don't get caught up in the whole, "OMG this doesn't do that!" or, "OMG that doesn't do this!" crapola.

There can be minor differences in the end result, however they aren't as significant as some dramatic folks scattered across the internet would lead you to believe.

Yes, with organic soil you can build a little better terp profile. Yes with full hydro you will get better, faster growth. Coco is kind of in between.

Honestly, don't sweat all that stuff. Any method will still produce really excellent bud, but none of that makes a shit if you fail to set up a proper grow environment, and learn how to grow the plant. Sipping cognac while quibbling over a terpene here or there is step 93,412. We're trying to get to step 1 first, with only 93,411 to go.


First things first.

1) Where are you going to grow?
How much space do you have? How many plants? Growing style (like plant training, etc)?


2) What lighting are you going to use?
(Please, for the love of all things holy, don't say you bought a massive 1200watt light off amazon for $80 and expect to cover a 5x5 tent. )


3) How much time do you have to garden, and how much of time are you willing to spend?
You can set up any type of system to be as low maintenance as possible, and be able to be away for a few days. Soil, coco, hydro, whatever.



Once you know these basic things, then we can narrow down a type of medium/system.

Each way to grow has its own quirks, and there is give and take with any setup. The end goal is to find out what those are, and balance them against your needs/lifestyle to the best possible end.

If you set yourself up for failure from the start, it won't matter what medium you're using. You'll end up hating growing, and won't be back for another crop.

A good first step has been taken, it seems, and you're here asking questions before making decisions. You're already on a path that can more easily lead to success, versus someone that just grabbed some bag seed, miracle grow potting soil, and a 15watt CFL bulb that expects to harvest pound but doesn't know where to go from the seed in the dirt and beyond.


Soil, coco, promix hp, perlite, hydro or a hydro hybrid... any of those can be set up for as minimal maintenance as possible. That doesn't mean maintenance free, as some have a few more moving pieces to handle, but as minimal as possible for a given setup.

The big thing that it will come down to is cost. You can spend as little or as much as you want, but you still have to learn/know how to grow the plant.


I currently have two grow spaces. My primary is a new RDWC (recirculating deep water culture) setup. It has 4 buckets and a lot of bells and whistles that I've plumbed into it.

My secondary space is whatever I want it to be. Right now I'm running 5 autos in promix.

The next run in that tent will probably 4 plants in dutch buckets.


Why? Well, that's what my second tent is for. To try different things and mess around.


For a beginner, some great setups would be:

1) Hydro
For a low-maintenance hydro setup, I would probably go with recirculating dutch buckets. Not including the tent/lights/etc, just the grow/medium part, you can build a 4-bucket system for under $200. Yes, that's more than a $5 pot and a watering can. But the automation part of it is where that money is going.

You'll have a water reservoir, with a pump that is on a timer. That pump will "water" your medium (which is straight perlite) a few times a day automatically. Add a top-off res and you can leave this setup for several days without worry.


2) Coco/Soil/Promix
For any of these, I would get an Autopot XL system. Either a 4 pot or 2 pot one, depending on how much space you have. At some point in the next year or two I most likely will end up with one of these setups.

This lets the plants water themselves. The medium sucks up water as it needs it, and is fed from a 12gal reservoir. A 4-pot system runs around $230, give or take. You can also leave this setup for several days as well, and not worry.



There are many, many, many more types of systems out there. As a beginner, the two above will be great options as they automate and mitigate some of the issues that plague beginners and cause their grows to fail. One big one being over watering.


You can also get some fabric pots, some kind of medium (soil, promix, coco) and water by hand. A pack of fabric pots is about $15-$20. Plant saucers around $5/ea, and risers for the saucers to keep the plants off the bottom are about $5/ea. (Check local hydro shop for the risers. Amazon has them for a ridiculous $15/ea, while my local hydro shop is $3/ea.) Total for 4 pots, about $60 or so.

You can also get some cheap plastic pots, and go from there, but won't really save much. For pots, the fabric pots are definitely the way to go over plastic.

With either of those two, you will be watering by hand and checking the plants every day until you learn how frequently you need to water. It may be once a week, it may be every two days. Many factors will influence this.


So it really isn't a "which is better" type of discussion. It's a "which grow type and style better fits my situation and will work out better for me" type of discussion.

 

[Lowrider72]

Coco gets overwatered too much Imo.
I left plants 3 weeks in veg without water in 9L pots. Not recommended though. Lol. but survived, thanks to cool temps.

As for the old having to water twice daily thing in coco.I have never done that in 10 years of coco. Once every day or two at the most.
Emilya knows her soil and I see great results from others too.
Sometimes I think nutes and coco is a good way to get your head around feeding and stuff.
Nothing wrong with hydro, coco is an inert medium that works well with both hydro and organics.
I use a feed that combines both, hydro feeding with a live bacterial component.
Just buy good nutes and dont skimp.

 

[Edzzed]

This year, I tried growing for the first time. I was going to do coco and had everything set up for it. At the last moment I read you should get a few soil grows prior to going coco just because soil can be more forgiving. I assume that to mean if things go bad with coco they can really go bad. I was off to the soil store for FFOF. I also wondered as I bought Cocotek grow A+B as well as Bloom A+B. Turns out I can use the nutes in soil.

 

[Vulx]

Cannabis terroir is just now becoming a topic of discussion and one of the main barriers of advancement is genetic stability. Only now are the necessary advancements being made to get into discussions of terroir and distinct flavor profile differences strain to strain to say one way or the other which is better for flavor. On the whole, people will say that soil-grown cannabis tastes better.

But that varies by strain and by grower. I buy one brand that is hydroponically grown with a 15 day flush that is some of the best quality cannabis I've ever smoked. There's also outdoor grown cannabis that I believe to be just as good or better.

I've seen outdoor cannabis that "looks indoor" because of massive kolas and tightly packed bud and I've seen indoor crop that is hardly something to write home about.

When making these considerations what's more important is what style and compromises suit you best. Once you get your process down and your genetics as dialed in as much as possible then you can create top shelf quality bud in just about any medium. What's clear is how easy it is for someone without the resources of a large company with a "Chief Science Officer" or a massive crew devoted to taking care of the crop 'round the clock to grow good weed in soil vs hydroponics and the answer is that it is easier in soil. When you scale that up to 100 lights a room there's a multitude of other factors to take into account.

Terpene expression in cannabis is coming to the forefront, and studies on what influence those expressions is evolving by the day.

Choose what fits your style, your schedule, your budget, and your philosophy. Everyone swears they grow the best bud in whatever medium they are using.

 

[hydro91]

Both types are just fine. So is full hydro. Don't get caught up in the whole, "OMG this doesn't do that!" or, "OMG that doesn't do this!" crapola.

There can be minor differences in the end result, however they aren't as significant as some dramatic folks scattered across the internet would lead you to believe.

Yes, with organic soil you can build a little better terp profile. Yes with full hydro you will get better, faster growth. Coco is kind of in between.

Honestly, don't sweat all that stuff. Any method will still produce really excellent bud, but none of that makes a shit if you fail to set up a proper grow environment, and learn how to grow the plant. Sipping cognac while quibbling over a terpene here or there is step 93,412. We're trying to get to step 1 first, with only 93,411 to go.


First things first.

1) Where are you going to grow?
How much space do you have? How many plants? Growing style (like plant training, etc)?


2) What lighting are you going to use?
(Please, for the love of all things holy, don't say you bought a massive 1200watt light off amazon for $80 and expect to cover a 5x5 tent. )


3) How much time do you have to garden, and how much of time are you willing to spend?
You can set up any type of system to be as low maintenance as possible, and be able to be away for a few days. Soil, coco, hydro, whatever.



Once you know these basic things, then we can narrow down a type of medium/system.

Each way to grow has its own quirks, and there is give and take with any setup. The end goal is to find out what those are, and balance them against your needs/lifestyle to the best possible end.

If you set yourself up for failure from the start, it won't matter what medium you're using. You'll end up hating growing, and won't be back for another crop.

A good first step has been taken, it seems, and you're here asking questions before making decisions. You're already on a path that can more easily lead to success, versus someone that just grabbed some bag seed, miracle grow potting soil, and a 15watt CFL bulb that expects to harvest pound but doesn't know where to go from the seed in the dirt and beyond.


Soil, coco, promix hp, perlite, hydro or a hydro hybrid... any of those can be set up for as minimal maintenance as possible. That doesn't mean maintenance free, as some have a few more moving pieces to handle, but as minimal as possible for a given setup.

The big thing that it will come down to is cost. You can spend as little or as much as you want, but you still have to learn/know how to grow the plant.


I currently have two grow spaces. My primary is a new RDWC (recirculating deep water culture) setup. It has 4 buckets and a lot of bells and whistles that I've plumbed into it.

My secondary space is whatever I want it to be. Right now I'm running 5 autos in promix.

The next run in that tent will probably 4 plants in dutch buckets.


Why? Well, that's what my second tent is for. To try different things and mess around.


For a beginner, some great setups would be:

1) Hydro
For a low-maintenance hydro setup, I would probably go with recirculating dutch buckets. Not including the tent/lights/etc, just the grow/medium part, you can build a 4-bucket system for under $200. Yes, that's more than a $5 pot and a watering can. But the automation part of it is where that money is going.

You'll have a water reservoir, with a pump that is on a timer. That pump will "water" your medium (which is straight perlite) a few times a day automatically. Add a top-off res and you can leave this setup for several days without worry.


2) Coco/Soil/Promix
For any of these, I would get an Autopot XL system. Either a 4 pot or 2 pot one, depending on how much space you have. At some point in the next year or two I most likely will end up with one of these setups.

This lets the plants water themselves. The medium sucks up water as it needs it, and is fed from a 12gal reservoir. A 4-pot system runs around $230, give or take. You can also leave this setup for several days as well, and not worry.



There are many, many, many more types of systems out there. As a beginner, the two above will be great options as they automate and mitigate some of the issues that plague beginners and cause their grows to fail. One big one being over watering.


You can also get some fabric pots, some kind of medium (soil, promix, coco) and water by hand. A pack of fabric pots is about $15-$20. Plant saucers around $5/ea, and risers for the saucers to keep the plants off the bottom are about $5/ea. (Check local hydro shop for the risers. Amazon has them for a ridiculous $15/ea, while my local hydro shop is $3/ea.) Total for 4 pots, about $60 or so.

You can also get some cheap plastic pots, and go from there, but won't really save much. For pots, the fabric pots are definitely the way to go over plastic.

With either of those two, you will be watering by hand and checking the plants every day until you learn how frequently you need to water. It may be once a week, it may be every two days. Many factors will influence this.


So it really isn't a "which is better" type of discussion. It's a "which grow type and style better fits my situation and will work out better for me" type of discussion.

Lots of good information from all the comments here and I appreciate the input. I'll reply to everyone else's comment tomorrow.

-I'll be growing in a 5x5 grow tent, Planning on growing 4-5 plants with low stress training methods and some Co2
-Lighting solution will be 4x Mars hydro tsw 2000w quantum boards
-Plenty of time around the plant, Should be able to spend the whole day around the tent and willing to spend as much time as possible I just like the idea of fully organic, No chemical/synthetic nutrients

My only question would be if I did purchase some fox farms organic soil, Once the plants have consumed all the nutrients from the soil how can I keep the grow organic without the use of chemical/synthetic nutrients?

Would DIY organic soil be better rather than fox farms?

I like the simplicity of store bought soil and may end up going down that route.

 

[Emilya Green]

Lots of good information from all the comments here and I appreciate the input. I'll reply to everyone else's comment tomorrow.

-I'll be growing in a 5x5 grow tent, Planning on growing 4-5 plants with low stress training methods and some Co2
-Lighting solution will be 4x Mars hydro tsw 2000w quantum boards
-Plenty of time around the plant, Should be able to spend the whole day around the tent and willing to spend as much time as possible I just like the idea of fully organic, No chemical/synthetic nutrients

My only question would be if I did purchase some fox farms organic soil, Once the plants have consumed all the nutrients from the soil how can I keep the grow organic without the use of chemical/synthetic nutrients?

Would DIY organic soil be better rather than fox farms?

I like the simplicity of store bought soil and may end up going down that route.

Fox Farm Ocean Forest is one of the better organic soils out there. It however is NOT a mineralized soil, and without having all the minerals needed for the entire grow, it can not by itself support an organic grow. What makes a grow organic is two things... all the minerals are cooked into the soil, and living microbes are actively cultured to do all the feeding for you. Just because you are in an OMRI "organic" soil, does not mean you are growing organically.

It is possible to use FFOF or any other good organic soil as a base to build a DIY super soil, complete with all of the needed nutrients by adding in what is needed and then composting this soil for 3 months. When you get done you will have a soil that is so rich, that just 1/3 of a container of it will have everything the plant needs and by using that and some good base soil in the top of the container, you can have an organic water only grow.... but...
and this is a biggie....
You can't do organic without microbes. You need to either get good and making proper compost teas, which involve high pressure aeration, or you need to buy the microbes in a products such as RealGrower's Recharge, Voodoo Juice or URB.
If you don't want to take the time of mixing up your own "super soil" that can get you through the entire grow without nutes, the modern world has come to the rescue. There are several versions of super soil out there that you can purchase, ready to go and already composted for you. Get enough of this to fill the bottom third of your containers, use FF ocean forest or Roots Organic 101 or 707 (not happy frog or any of the other sphagnum moss dominant products) in the top 2/3 and you will be good to go.
I would be remiss if I didn't also mention the new technology in fertilizers that are now out... the leader of the pack being MegaCrop. These new amino acid chelated nutrients are by most standards totally organic, not using EDTA based nutes that require an unlocking pH range to function... they are taken up into the plant in whole, broken into their elements within the plant by its amino acids and then those amino acids are also used by the plant. It is a wildly efficient way of providing nutrients to the plants and there is no waste left over in the soil. Using the product is simple and inexpensive and easier to jump into than the whole organic thing.

 

[hydro91]

Fox Farm Ocean Forest is one of the better organic soils out there. It however is NOT a mineralized soil, and without having all the minerals needed for the entire grow, it can not by itself support an organic grow. What makes a grow organic is two things... all the minerals are cooked into the soil, and living microbes are actively cultured to do all the feeding for you. Just because you are in an OMRI "organic" soil, does not mean you are growing organically.

It is possible to use FFOF or any other good organic soil as a base to build a DIY super soil, complete with all of the needed nutrients by adding in what is needed and then composting this soil for 3 months. When you get done you will have a soil that is so rich, that just 1/3 of a container of it will have everything the plant needs and by using that and some good base soil in the top of the container, you can have an organic water only grow.... but...
and this is a biggie....
You can't do organic without microbes. You need to either get good and making proper compost teas, which involve high pressure aeration, or you need to buy the microbes in a products such as RealGrower's Recharge, Voodoo Juice or URB.
If you don't want to take the time of mixing up your own "super soil" that can get you through the entire grow without nutes, the modern world has come to the rescue. There are several versions of super soil out there that you can purchase, ready to go and already composted for you. Get enough of this to fill the bottom third of your containers, use FF ocean forest or Roots Organic 101 or 707 (not happy frog or any of the other sphagnum moss dominant products) in the top 2/3 and you will be good to go.
I would be remiss if I didn't also mention the new technology in fertilizers that are now out... the leader of the pack being MegaCrop. These new amino acid chelated nutrients are by most standards totally organic, not using EDTA based nutes that require an unlocking pH range to function... they are taken up into the plant in whole, broken into their elements within the plant by its amino acids and then those amino acids are also used by the plant. It is a wildly efficient way of providing nutrients to the plants and there is no waste left over in the soil. Using the product is simple and inexpensive and easier to jump into than the whole organic thing.

Sent you a pm with some soil related questions.

 

[bluter]

listen to em. especially if leaning to soil.

i like coco or hempy for a first time grower. it's requirements kind of suit beginner habits, things happen fast enough for a beginner to get immediate feedback from the plant. both good and bad stuff will happen fast tho.

i am biased to hempy at the moment. surprised there isn't more about it. works the same as coco, maybe even easier, and is the cheapest entrance to indoor growing.

at some point i want to do organic soil in a closed loop. just can't support the infrastructure for it right now.

 

[multiVortex]

listen to em. especially if leaning to soil.

This. Lots and lots of this.

Lots of good information from all the comments here and I appreciate the input. I'll reply to everyone else's comment tomorrow.

-I'll be growing in a 5x5 grow tent, Planning on growing 4-5 plants with low stress training methods and some Co2
-Lighting solution will be 4x Mars hydro tsw 2000w quantum boards

First, I'm going to give you some props as it seems you at least did some homework on lights. You may be surprised, but a LOT of folks stop by and are way short in the lighting department. You're going to be just fine.

Great size tent, too. It will fill up quickly once you get pots, saucers, fans, etc all in there.

If you don't want to hand water, or risk over watering, take a look at the AutoPots. Lifting a 15gal pot to check if it needs water can be cumbersome on some folks, especially those with back issues. (/me)

They don't quite promote the same wet/dry cycle, but they do get quite good results. By their instructions they also have you water by hand for the first couple of weeks so the roots get down and established like they should.

IIRC they now have a model that is compatible with fabric pots, which highly interests me, so I'll be keeping an eye out myself.

-Plenty of time around the plant, Should be able to spend the whole day around the tent and willing to spend as much time as possible I just like the idea of fully organic, No chemical/synthetic nutrients

My only question would be if I did purchase some fox farms organic soil, Once the plants have consumed all the nutrients from the soil how can I keep the grow organic without the use of chemical/synthetic nutrients?

Would DIY organic soil be better rather than fox farms?

I like the simplicity of store bought soil and may end up going down that route.

I see what you mean by "organic" now. You mean without chemicals and crap, not necessarily fully living soil and all that. Which isn't a bad thing. We can all use less chemicals in out lives.

IIRC, FFOF can run a little hot out of the bag. I'm not 100% on that, but it's one of the FF products that is. Emilya can better summarize on that.

Also, listen to Em about the Mega Crop. She is also into organic gardening, and giving it a go right now with a new run of plants.

I'm also giving MegaCrop a shot, but I'm doing a run of autos with it in ProMix HP. I'll also be using it in my hydro setup.

 

[bobrown14]

Reading along I almost got talked into hydro, then coco then soil with coco nutrients.

Then I looked out my window to see how the rest of the world was growing.

Food for thought.

my .02 - worth price paid.

 

[Nunyabiz]

Several treatise and manifestos here so I am sure everything has been covered.

I would simply say that if you want to feed from a bottle then use Coco, it's a better medium for salt based nutrients.
If you want to do soil then best is LOS No-till, because you can create a nice ecosystem within the pot and it can create virtually all the nutrients it needs with very little inputs, you also dont have to play this water roulette game, you water a proper LOS no-till pot about the same as you do Coco, it needs to be watered everyday even when you dont even have a cannabis plant growing in it.
You want your soil to be alive.

Coco is dead just a medium to hold roots to feed synthetic nutrients.
Soil should be Living, breathing, eating.

My pots are like big digesters, like a stomach, my cover crop I trim and use as green manure mulch for the worms and Beetles to eat, toss in a chopped up organic banana peel and a little Gro-kashi for fungus so you can start achieving a working soil food web within your little ecosystem.
You need a minimum of 15 gallon FABRIC pots for a good LOS no-till.

Coco I would do 5 to 7 gallon fabric and LOS no-till 15 gallon fabric 25 gallon is best though.
So if you dont have space for large pots then Coco.

 

[Grand Daddy Black]

Hy Hydro... good question and one that will have all the hydro folks lining up on one side and the soil folks on the other. I will try to be as impartial as I can in my answer, even though I am a soil gal.
Why do I love soil? It gives me a buffer so that I am not a daily or in the case of coco, a twice daily slave to my garden. In large soil containers I can totally walk away from my garden for days at a time with absolutely no detrimental effect... you can't do that with coco.
Some definitions are needed because although Fox Farm Ocean Forest is a high quality organic soil, using it does not necessarily mean you are growing organically. This soil is simply a medium, in which you have the choice of growing organically or artificially by relying on nutrients out of a bottle. If you use for instance, the Fox Farm line of nutrients, these are considered to be synthetic nutrients, and it will not be an organic grow.
Organically grown pot is at the moment the best way that I know to grow pot so that the plant can express itself fully, have the best terpene production, taste better and have higher quality. This is because to truly grow organically, you have to go a few steps further than simply getting an "organic" soil, you have to enrich this soil with minerals... all of the minerals the plant will need all throughout the grow, and then using composting techniques these minerals need to be "cooked" into the soil so the elements can become available to the plants. Then you have to introduce microbes into this soil, because in a true organic grow it is not you or the minerals in the soil that feed the plant, active living microbes do all that work for you. True organic growing is more about keeping life thriving within the soil than feeding the plants, and this living army of microbes feeds your plant better than you ever could.
But that all being said, you can still use your soil simply as a medium, not grow organically, but still have the buffering effects and natural enhancements that soil can provide. For instance, even though not growing in a specifically minerally enhanced soil, there are things that can be added to a soil grow that come very close to approximating the benefits that come in a microbe based organic grow. You can add earthworm castings to your soil, ph buffers, fungi to enhance the root system, Vulx to condition the soil, plant spikes to help the grow... soil allows lots of "tricks" to help the grow along even if it isn't a true organic grow. Taste a hydroponically grown tomato and compare it to one grown in fertilized soil... there is a difference.
So why all the hype about coco and hydroponic methods? Because in those synthetic systems, nutrients are able to be supplied to the plant full time, all the time. In coco you are manually feeding your plants twice a day, using strong fertilizers that cause rapid growth. By pushing nutes it is indeed possible to grow bigger plants and grow them a bit faster than a naturally growing organic plant... but at a cost. Since the plants are being force fed, much like someone in a coma on IV feeding tubes, there is no choice by the plant what it is going to get... you and the nutrient companies decide all this, as well as the feeding schedule, for the plant. The end result looks good and gets big... but there is still something missing that only mother nature seemingly can provide.
They say that coco is more forgiving and that it can easily be flushed, a new nutrient mix made, and any problem can be solved. While this may be true, soil also can be flushed if problems arise, and in my experience the buffer that soil provides slows down any problems that might develop, giving you time to work them out and correct. In a water based system, things can go south much more quickly and if one little thing gets out of kilter, everything can go terribly wrong incredibly fast. Soil is much more forgiving but harder to see what is going on and without proper techniques it is easy to over or under water, whereas in the coco system it is impossible to over water.
Then I will hit you with an adage. Every grow method except outside in the ground, involves a compromise of some kind... giving up one advantage for another. Using rich living mineralized soil is the least amount of compromise over mother nature's methods that we know of.

@Emilya, I have a question. For my next grow I'm considering using a super-soil in the bottom of my pot, topped by Fox Farms Happy Frog mixed with coco. I don't plan on adding any nutrients during the grow. Would this be considered an organic grow? More importantly, how do you think this would work?

 

[NOOOBIENOT]

hey Nun is that pot in your house or outside and if I am correct -not sure , would you have to let the worms bugs and banana peels etc decompose for a few months before you could use the soil ? , another words create the soil for 3 months before you wanna grow in it and 25 gallon pots are huge for a indoor tent grow if you want 3-4 plants that is for a good size grow room or a 5x10 x8 tent ?

 

[NOOOBIENOT]

how do you only attract the good bugs and not the plant eaters , I don't want bugs flying all over my downstairs grow room

 

[NOOOBIENOT]

I am interested in the l.o.s grow but my wife would castrate me if I had all those bugs in our home

 

[Nunyabiz]

hey Nun is that pot in your house or outside and if I am correct -not sure , would you have to let the worms bugs and banana peels etc decompose for a few months before you could use the soil ? , another words create the soil for 3 months before you wanna grow in it and 25 gallon pots are huge for a indoor tent grow if you want 3-4 plants that is for a good size grow room or a 5x10 x8 tent ?

I have two of the 25 gallon fabric pots indoor.
It depends on how you do your soil, mainly your compost as far as how long you allow it to cook.
In my case I only needed about a week to 10 days before mine was ready to plant because all my compost I bought (Oly Mountain Fish Compost) which is 2 years old before they sell it.
I started a cover crop to get roots into the soil so that I could get the mycorrhazae inoculate growing on the roots.

After about 10 days I added worms and it was pretty much good to go.

If you make your own compost that could take 6 months or more before you even put it in the pot layered in with the rest of your soil.

Adding the occasional organic banana peel, a little kelp meal, malted barley, oyster shell flour, basalt, alfalfa and corn sprouted seed teas, and trimming the cover crop almost daily is basically all just feeding the worms and you do that all throughout the grow.

If you have predator bugs they keep most of the other bugs away, all the soil borne bugs at least.
I used to be plagued by fungus gnats every grow, now I might see maybe one fungus gnat a week and I dont even bother to swat him, I laugh because the Rove Beetles will eat the eggs before the gnat is done laying them they have zero chance of survival.

I have no bugs except the Rove Beetles and they are perfectly happy to stay right there in the pot.

My two 25 gallon pots are in a bathtub and the space is about 2.5' x 5' x 9'
Which is perfect size for two plants under a SCROG.