I'm in 95% coco with about 5% perlite. I'm using the Dr. Earth Premium Gold 4-4-4 and Dr. Earth Flower Girl 3-9-4. My original substrate I amended before transplant with recommended dosage. At 4 weeks I top dressed with 75/25, at 8 weeks (just before my flip), I top dressed with 50/50. When I top dress, I just scratch it in the top and then water with ph'd water switching up adding silica, cal/mag, and tea with each watering (so my plants only get a dose of each once per week approximately). I only water every other day, as I wait until the pots are fairly light before watering. I only water until medium is fully saturated, with little to no runoff.
Now that they are in flower, I will probably start tapering off silica, and do more of the Pure Blend Tea and add molasses. I will still be adding cal/mag at least once a week. I do notice that after the watering with PBT, the plants look really perked up, and I hope that adding the molasses will help with cal/mag.
I think overall the plants have been very healthy with this style grow; however, I am just starting 12/12 cycle this week, so I'll be carefully watching their progress to see if they are getting all they need to finish strong.
One thing I did notice with this grow compared to my DWC is that the size of the main stem is much smaller than DWC. My thought process in trying this method is that I wanted to go as organic as possible, and also that it would be easier to maintain by just adding the nutrients to the coco and watering.
However, the people doing the coco/hydro grows seem to be more in line with the rapid growth and large main stem you see in a DWC setup. I am curious to try using a full hydro style method with coco on my next run with high frequency fertigation with organic liquid nutes to compare it with the dry amendments (soil type grow).
There is also the possibility that my coco just doesn't yet have a good enough microbiology to support the plants as well. I've read that 2nd/3rd runs using the old coco just gets better and better - more like a living soil.
Here's my girls this morning - no watering today, but will water with the PBT and molasses starting tomorrow - wish me luck :)
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