Best medium for Fastest Rate of growth?

[EzExtractions]

hey guys i have a few seedlings that are about a week old in jiffy pods. Going to move them into there new mediums and pots but still havent picked a medium yet.

Im leaning towards soil just because it easy to maintain and also i have never done anything other than soil so i kinda know what im doing.

My other options is a soil-less based medium such as (promix, hempy, coco)

Now i know with soil it wont grow as fast as it would with one of the other mediums.

So what one would be best in terms of minimal maintenance and fastest rate of growth? I kno most people will lean towards coco but it seems very finicky to me, having to monitor the high nitrogen levels and making sure the pH doesnt get to out of wack.

Can any one talk me into a medium? as of right now im gonnna do soil just cuz its easier, but i really hate how long soil takes to grow. But on the other hand i hate how much maintenance soil-less mediums are in terms of nutrients, ph levels, and any other thing that could go wrong.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Re: best medium for Fastest Rate of growth ?

If you want low hassle growing go organic with a good compost/soil mix & organic nutrients... i just water nutrients 'n' forget the rest, ya don't need to PH adjust nutrient solutions for organic growing or even soil grows as the PH of the soil is the important matter



If you want to speed up harvest time i would suggest using a perpetual growing style of a short flowering time strain... more likely obtaining a harvest every 2 months easy, with a bit of space aviable you could even manage a harvest every month.



The other option is hydroponics with a run to waste system, basically you have main res & a dripper system on a timer for feeding... waste nutrients/water runs away down the drain or to a collection point for disposil... top up res once a week etc

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Re: best medium for Fastest Rate of growth ?

When i think about it...

Soil is one of easyer options for growing & may only need watering every couple to few days... but slower for vegging but may depend on grow style used with SOG method being mildly quicker due to shorter veg time used, a mother plant or two may be kept to run SOG effectively tho to reduce cost of seed purchase per grow & if you don't mind the extra vegging time/training but like a larger yield then SCROG is a good suggestion


Faster vegitive growth is achieved with hydropponics systems such as DWC, aeroponics & NFT etc which can be half the time it takes with soil grows... but system which use a nutrient tank reserva may require daily monitoring to keep PH, EC, PPM level optimal depending on stage of growth...

A run to waste system is slightly less hassle as nutrients are pre mixed in the res & used on a timer system... these nutrients are not recycled so daily monitoring is not so much required.

The next best thing would be a hempy bucket using an inert growing medium such as perlite but may require daily watering with PH/EC correct nutrient solution to keep things optimal.

 

[EzExtractions]

Re: best medium for Fastest Rate of growth ?

im on the fence about just doing a hempy mix (perlite/vermiculite). and using BPN organic nutrients. If i do that would i still need to get the fungi stuff to allow the roots to uptake the nutrients ?

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Organic nutrients work best in soil/compost as large majority of organic nutrients require microganism/bacteria etc to help break down the nutrients for the plant to use... this is where i assoicate the use of mycorrhizal fungi is with the use soil/compost grows.


However their do appear to be many brands aviable in america which host mycorrhizal fungi, other fungi & microrganism from hydroponic style grows


Now chemical/synthetic nutrients often come in a chelated form which basically means their are readily aviable for the plant to use instantly & when ever the plant so wishes to do so, with these nutrients more suitable for hydroponic systems & inert growing mediums

Over feeding my induce nutrient burn with some growers my use an EC or PPM pen to gauge concertration of nutrients used... otherwise common sense my tell you the more nutrients you use the higher the value of EC/PPM of the nutrient solution will be to less nutrients used in same quanitie of water !

 

[EzExtractions]

Well i think im going to go with 3L hempys. Will feed with 3 part nutrients from BPN . If you say the chemical nutrients are readily avalible for uptake then i wont need to get an fungi stuff

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Hempys are a good choice & dirt cheap to make

I've made a couple of hempys from 12l buckets for a future grow & will use perlite as an inert growing medium which can be washed & reused after use.


Most people will water thier hempys every other day or daily with between 10% to 25% over flow/run off from drainage hole to keep PH/PPM reasonable optimal & in good order to substain healthly plant growth.

Ya just need something to catch the over flow.

 

[EzExtractions]

right now i got 2 - 1gal hempys (made them with the square Hawaiian punch jugs). I tryed to get my hempy mix to 75% P and 25% V. I then put the seedlings in the hempy buckets and watered down both hempy buckets so that the perlite could get washed off, drained it immediatly. I then made my veg 1 nutrient solution from the 3 part BPN nutrient line, and filled my hempy buckets with the nutrient water until i saw a tiny bit of run off come out of the over flow holes.

My 280W MH light is about 10'' away from the tops of the plants. The plants have a good amount of growth on them for only being 10 days into veg. I notice some kind of small brown rust colored spots on the very edges of the first 2 real leaves. but not on the new growth. Not sure if its from something in my water (like a cal mag issue or something). Im going to keep an eye on it over the next few days.

The 3rd BC seedling is very small still, and i germed it at the same time as the other 2. I still havent trasplanted into the hempy yet but will soon. I also have a white rhino seedling that is just starting to show its first set of true leaves. Looks like it may be a deforemd/hermie tho.

Going to LST one plant, and top the other, maybe LST it down the road but i only plan on doing about 4 weeks of veg, before i switch the lights.

oh ya i also got my carbon filter in, mounted it nice up in the tent it looks really clean in there.

The cool tube and the 440cfm fan is doing a great job of keeping the light cool, there for i can have the plants closer to the light.

Ambient temps are starting to get warmer around my area, so i may invest in a new A/c for my room so that the passive air intakes in the tent will suck in nice cool air, and hopefully the fan wont have to run as much (only to exhust smells)

I wish i could start a journal but im just super worried about posting pics online and such so it is what it is.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

Journals/pic's are not every bodys cup of tea...

A good description of any issue's which may occur through out growing can normally be fine with plenty of questions asked to solve the problem


When the seedlings are still small sprouts to a few inches tall, a 1/4 to 1/2 nutrient application will be fine for feeding intill they are much bigger... helps to avoid nutrient burn on young plants.

 

[EzExtractions]

So i decided to make a journal, please come check it out thanks 1 Gal Hempy Blue Cheese Tent Grow