PauliBhoy
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Hey so I'm dialing in a coco-based super soil mix. Yeah really
In the late winter I mixed up a modified SS recipe with a 50/50 coco/perlite base plus 5% EWC and 5% biochar plus zeolite (CEC buffers) plus necessary minerals and 1.5 lbs pf nitrogen/cy (chicken litter compost, blood, and feather meals). It worked great for my spring crop but there wasn't quite enough N late in flower so I had to supplement.
So I then mixed up a new recipe in May exactly like the previous, except with approx 2 lbs nitrogen/cy (replaced alfalfa N with the chicken compost and added feather meal) as these would be in veg a couple weeks longer and wanted to make sure there was enough N to finish without supplementation.
The C99 plants I potted up in June have done great. No issues. Just cut them down and they look sweet!
I had a bunch of media left over that was stored in a white super sack outside through the summer and I decided to use it again two months later to pot up some clones for a super late crop. Yeah I can pull off a greenhouse crop in flower from now through early December in my climate .
Anyway I checked the pH of the mix from my (adjusted) pH ~6.0 water and omfg the pH was 4.5!!!! People say "pH doesn't matter" with organic soil so I put a few teens in it in 3 gallon pots. Half I watered with (pH modified) 5.5-6.0 water and the other half I watered with unmodified 7.4 pH water. The former burnt up and died within a few weeks. The latter look great! #pHmatters
Okay so I know that the mineralization process of organic nitrogen can acidify unbuffered soilless media (that includes peat) but I add a ton of buffers and here's the really crazy thing:
The runoff from the same soil mix that I planted into in June and harvested last week is identical to the input water (6.2).
Also the runoff from the leftover soil mix I mixed in the winter (that sat around for 7 months) is also identical to the input water (tested at 5.9 pH).
Yet the runoff from the 2nd mix that sat around for a few months is 1.4 pH lower than the input water.
Any thoughts? Anyone out there growing in coco- based organic "hot soil"?
In the late winter I mixed up a modified SS recipe with a 50/50 coco/perlite base plus 5% EWC and 5% biochar plus zeolite (CEC buffers) plus necessary minerals and 1.5 lbs pf nitrogen/cy (chicken litter compost, blood, and feather meals). It worked great for my spring crop but there wasn't quite enough N late in flower so I had to supplement.
So I then mixed up a new recipe in May exactly like the previous, except with approx 2 lbs nitrogen/cy (replaced alfalfa N with the chicken compost and added feather meal) as these would be in veg a couple weeks longer and wanted to make sure there was enough N to finish without supplementation.
The C99 plants I potted up in June have done great. No issues. Just cut them down and they look sweet!
I had a bunch of media left over that was stored in a white super sack outside through the summer and I decided to use it again two months later to pot up some clones for a super late crop. Yeah I can pull off a greenhouse crop in flower from now through early December in my climate .
Anyway I checked the pH of the mix from my (adjusted) pH ~6.0 water and omfg the pH was 4.5!!!! People say "pH doesn't matter" with organic soil so I put a few teens in it in 3 gallon pots. Half I watered with (pH modified) 5.5-6.0 water and the other half I watered with unmodified 7.4 pH water. The former burnt up and died within a few weeks. The latter look great! #pHmatters
Okay so I know that the mineralization process of organic nitrogen can acidify unbuffered soilless media (that includes peat) but I add a ton of buffers and here's the really crazy thing:
The runoff from the same soil mix that I planted into in June and harvested last week is identical to the input water (6.2).
Also the runoff from the leftover soil mix I mixed in the winter (that sat around for 7 months) is also identical to the input water (tested at 5.9 pH).
Yet the runoff from the 2nd mix that sat around for a few months is 1.4 pH lower than the input water.
Any thoughts? Anyone out there growing in coco- based organic "hot soil"?