Hmmm: What grow medium to use this time?

[Grebs]

I started with soil. Had good success with it. Pretty simple.
Thought maybe this time around doing coco, maybe pro mix. I dunno maybe just stick with soil. Only bad thing with soil is the length of grow time. Or so I hear it's slower than other medium

 

[Hootenanny]

Give coco a go! its really easy!

 

[Stunned]

I agree
Coco is a great medium to grow in if you don't mind watering every day
Great thing about coco is it's forgiveness
mess something up in your feeding, just flush and redo

 

[JWM2]

I use a mixture of both. 40% FFOF, 40% Canna Coco and 20% Perlite. I mix in some dolomite lime to balance it out and stabilize the pH. Simple recipe and you get the forgiveness of soil.

 

[Fomerballer]

Hydro is easier than u think.

 

[pontiacman]

I use a mixture of both. 40% FFOF, 40% Canna Coco and 20% Perlite. I mix in some dolomite lime to balance it out and stabilize the pH. Simple recipe and you get the forgiveness of soil.

Too funny I practically do the same. But I use FFHF.....lol

 

[SamSmith]

Coco in fabric pots with advanced nutrients ph perfect coco base nutes. Great performance and easy.

 

[Brewer]

I tried hempys for this run, 3 inches of perlite, and the rest is promix, just flipped the lights last week, best grow ive had yet, zero problems, and not mixing nutes every day.....love it

 

[Jackalope]

If price is not a issue. I would say it is best to stay with Fox Farm soils. If you want to try something different just do a plant or 2 as a test. Coco as mentioned has its advantages. Other then that there is hydro to consider though it is not for everyone.
With just the plant in mind. I would say the best soil to use is a 50/50 mix of Ocean Forrest and Happy Frog with 20 to 25% perlite added in.

You mentioned harvest time difference between soil and hydro. I hear this is true but I don't do hydro so I have nothing to base it on. Most advertised harvest time are shorter then reality. Some say this is because the seeds where made in a hydro set up. This could very well be as all my harvest times seem to be a week to 2 weeks behind advertised. This could be because of soil. This could be because they don't want tell you it is a 11 week strain when 9 weeks sounds so much better.

 

[SamSmith]

You mentioned harvest time difference between soil and hydro. I hear this is true but I don't do hydro so I have nothing to base it on. Most advertised harvest time are shorter then reality. Some say this is because the seeds where made in a hydro set up. This could very well be as all my harvest times seem to be a week to 2 weeks behind advertised. This could be because of soil. This could be because they don't want tell you it is a 11 week strain when 9 weeks sounds so much better.

Again great advice here. Watching my grows in Coco (hydro) vs. Soil and DWC grows what I have noticed is the Hydro advantage is mainly in the veg state. Hydro to me anyway is dealing with training and defol severeral times a week. The growth is measurable pretty much daily. Hydro plants because of that get bigger in veg so the yields are higher.

I have not seen mine finish earlier than those guys growing in soil/blends and like Jack mine usually go longer by a couple of weeks than what the breeders state. Also some people consider the start of flower to be at the flip to 12/12 and the reality is they don't start throwing pistils until 2-3 weeks afterwards. That stretch phase to me and I think the breeders is still considered vegetative growth.

To further add to the Hydro vs Soil difference is growing expertise. Most people that run hydro are detail oriented because you have to be very hands on. This means that the other factors like lighting, nutrient timing, feed schedules and other environmental factors are also paid attention to more. When you see the guys like Van Stank, Blew Hiller, Doc, Jack and company do soil and the yields/quality close the gap quite a bit. The newer guys go to soil because they think it's easier and they have marginal lighting, air circulation and don't really understand how a plants needs change.

 

[Brewer]

That stretch phase to me and I think the breeders is still considered vegetative growth.

this is the best theory on the Breeder timeline ive read yet!...……..well done!

 

[grower987]

My understanding was to start counting when the button, or cotton top starts to form when looking down from the top. It would be nice to all be on the same page.

 

[Grow Bro]

I am preferring coco and perlite mix and add some dolomitic lime, bone meal, and glacial larvadust.
I used to add worm castings but I found it attracts all the little bugs and mites you don't want around indoors.
Good luck with the grow.

 

[SamSmith]

Here is an example of what straight coco is like. This is my one week progress from complete butchering to now. I started the seeds and got them above ground then I was away from them for almost 2 1/2 weeks and my wife was just watering them with 1/4 strength nutes in solo cups. Some of the plants were on the 7th and 8th nodes. All were terribly root bound. I almost scrapped them. The chop was stressfull on them for sure but they are back in stride now.

I topped them at the 4th node, defoliated the crap out of them and started the quadline process of LST. Below is the one week time line progress.

After the chop job.

tent-1.jpg

• SamSmith
• Oct 2, 2018

After Topping and defoil

Today

tent-10-02-2018.jpg

• SamSmith
• Oct 2, 2018

Had I been here to top them in time and work with them they would have been almost 2x this size.

 

[Virgin Ground]

I was reading a blog on one of the seed co. sites and they said that the grow to harvest timelines are based on clones, not seed to harvest. This would make a bit more sense. I wanna say it was on Cannapot's site, but sometimes I get that....what do you call it......oh, marijuana memory.