80/20 perlite/soil

[LexLuthor]

Wud up Farmers, I was thinking of how to get 'hydro like' growth using some soil. I know it will never be as good, but I think us soil growers can get results close to hydro or coco coir. I just thought about this today so its gonna take alot of time to figure this out, but I have a basis to start from, here it is.

We all know hydroponics produce plants that are bigger, yield more and have more vigor in a shorter period of time when compared to soil grows. Why is this?? I heard its because in hydro the roots have direct access to all the nutrients it needs, so it doesn't waste energy metabolising soil and searching for nutes. I think thats the main reason hydro produces plants quicker and more bud then soil (correct me if I'm wrong). Now there are negatives to every setup, hydro is expensive, complicated and unforgiving, let me give you an example; depending on what type of hydro system your using you need equipment like this: pumps, valves, air bubbler, tubing, EC meter, Ph pen, alot of nutrients, Ph up & down, rez, temp controller/thermostat for rez, and I'm sure there is a bunch of stuff I missed because I never grown hydro before. That list didn't include the equipment needed for the growroom itself like a thermostat/hygrometer, a/c, ventilation, buckets, medium, seeds/clones. Thats another good thing about soil, I never seen anyone grow hydro with seeds, so they would also need a seperate mother chamber.

Ok, I know alot of people grow hydro and they love it, I'm not trying to talk shit and I'm NOT saying soil is better, its just easier. The point of this thread is to try and get growth thats similar to hydro by using a perlite/soil medium, mostly perlite of course and it will be DTW. I got so much more to write but I just wanna get to the point.

Lets say I put a ratio of 80/20 perlite/soil in 5 gallon buckets, the soil will be something like Sunshine#4 because it doesn't have a bunch of fertilizers in it like Ocean Forest, I want my medium as sterile and neutral as possible so I can control my own nutrients. I have not figured out how often I will apply the nutrient solution or what the strength of nutes I will use because I never did this before, but I'm thinking of watering with nute solution about once a day DTW and using the KISS method of nutes, that means 4 bottles at the most, 1 veg, 1 bloom, 1 micro and 1 PK boost.

I wanna get the explosive growth of hydro with a little easiness, forgiveness and microbial goodness of soil. It might work great :), but, it could also be an EPIC FAIL!! :(

Fellow Farmers, let me know what ya'll think about this setup and if anyone has any advice please tell me...or if you think its retarded then please tell me that too, just don't be so harsh on me ;) , thanx to all views and responses.

 

[Dirty White Boy]

I've been doing organic hempys for years. I'm actually using a 60/40 growstones/readygro aration formula/10% Alaskan humic forest. It's one 20 gallon 8" deep container 13 plants. I'm using blue mountain organics with floranova bloom. They are kicking like no other.

 

[Dirty White Boy]

https://www.thcfarmer.com/community...-n-l-xapollo-11-meets-kluic-stud.45886/page-2

Here is my thread check out the bottom. Its pretty much exactly what your talking about.

 

[bobby]

Just be ready to feed the plants as often as they need it. I would say you should be prepared to water like 4 times per day.....or even more. Depending on how much you will feed it each time.

If you keep on feeding them, it won't be an epic fail. People are doing 75/25 Coco/Hydroton....which is basically what you're doing.

Why don't you use coco instead of soil? Coco is really forgiving and will be truly inert. Why even use soil..

 

[LexLuthor]

Just be ready to feed the plants as often as they need it. I would say you should be prepared to water like 4 times per day.....or even more. Depending on how much you will feed it each time.

If you keep on feeding them, it won't be an epic fail. People are doing 75/25 Coco/Hydroton....which is basically what you're doing.

Why don't you use coco instead of soil? Coco is really forgiving and will be truly inert. Why even use soil..

Because everyone uses coco and I wanted to be the cool kid on the block and go against the flow and use soil :) Naw I'm joking, maybe I will use coco, but honestly I wanted to do something different. With soil I could use my same nute profile just water more often, but with coco I would have to change it, something I didn''t want to do. Your right about watering more often, I'll probably be doing more then once a day. Thanks for ya'll input I'll take everything into consideration before I go further with this idea.

 

[bobby]

I think you can basically use your same nutrient program...don't over think it. Just use a basic base nutrient and you'll be covered.

 

[LexLuthor]

So you think FF Grow Big and Tiger Bloom as base, GH KoolBloom as PK boost, and probably FF Big Bloom as micro are good for coco?? I thought FF products were better for soil and recirc.

 

[TexasToka]

Wud up Farmers, I was thinking of how to get 'hydro like' growth using some soil. I know it will never be as good, but I think us soil growers can get results close to hydro or coco coir. I just thought about this today so its gonna take alot of time to figure this out, but I have a basis to start from, here it is.

We all know hydroponics produce plants that are bigger, yield more and have more vigor in a shorter period of time when compared to soil grows. Why is this?? I heard its because in hydro the roots have direct access to all the nutrients it needs, so it doesn't waste energy metabolising soil and searching for nutes. I think thats the main reason hydro produces plants quicker and more bud then soil (correct me if I'm wrong). Now there are negatives to every setup, hydro is expensive, complicated and unforgiving, let me give you an example; depending on what type of hydro system your using you need equipment like this: pumps, valves, air bubbler, tubing, EC meter, Ph pen, alot of nutrients, Ph up & down, rez, temp controller/thermostat for rez, and I'm sure there is a bunch of stuff I missed because I never grown hydro before. That list didn't include the equipment needed for the growroom itself like a thermostat/hygrometer, a/c, ventilation, buckets, medium, seeds/clones. Thats another good thing about soil, I never seen anyone grow hydro with seeds, so they would also need a seperate mother chamber.

Ok, I know alot of people grow hydro and they love it, I'm not trying to talk shit and I'm NOT saying soil is better, its just easier. The point of this thread is to try and get growth thats similar to hydro by using a perlite/soil medium, mostly perlite of course and it will be DTW. I got so much more to write but I just wanna get to the point.

Lets say I put a ratio of 80/20 perlite/soil in 5 gallon buckets, the soil will be something like Sunshine#4 because it doesn't have a bunch of fertilizers in it like Ocean Forest, I want my medium as sterile and neutral as possible so I can control my own nutrients. I have not figured out how often I will apply the nutrient solution or what the strength of nutes I will use because I never did this before, but I'm thinking of watering with nute solution about once a day DTW and using the KISS method of nutes, that means 4 bottles at the most, 1 veg, 1 bloom, 1 micro and 1 PK boost.

I wanna get the explosive growth of hydro with a little easiness, forgiveness and microbial goodness of soil. It might work great :), but, it could also be an EPIC FAIL!! :(

Fellow Farmers, let me know what ya'll think about this setup and if anyone has any advice please tell me...or if you think its retarded then please tell me that too, just don't be so harsh on me ;) , thanx to all views and responses.

Sup lex, im bout like u bra,but not from own test comparison,(i grow in soil)Joerge Cervantes says organic- smokes smoother & taste better.He does judge hundreds of strains....so...I trust his Knowledge, and not trying to brag but my first indoor grow went pretty good,best bud i ever tasted(at the time) honest,and it was an autoflower called Blue Himalayian Diesel
from Short Stuff,damn that shit tasted like blueberry candy:DNo lie,even a buddy of mine who has more grow experience than me said ''DAMN, thats pretty good shit,thats an auto?''I had grown them in FF OF with seaweed kelp/fish,& Hort.Malases,LOVED IT. And no lie dude,no reason 2 lie,I grew tha biggest EASY RYDERS from JD that i ever seen on tha net dude,amazing monster 2 oz plant bro,,,,took a big ass glass jar let me tell u,I did'nt know at time that was'nt common,when i seen others on forums telling people they had big plants(ER) i was like "SHIT BROTHA DAT AINT NUTTN''I should keped pics but they were on old cell phone thats now long gone,shit,mybe got a great pheno?I dont know but no lie bro,But it did take longer than hydro, but shit just watered when 3 gal.bucketts got lite,way more forgiving than droski,but no time 4 total dedication or attention 4 complexities ,Good Luck Bro,tell us what u decide,peace....oh yeah homie,i did however throw mybe not sure exactly...say...15-20%more perilite in tall 3 gals bro (With the FF OF)

 

[TexasToka]

the friend i talked about moved here from cali,used 2 get clones in mail from his potnas,hehe,he got a letter in mail..no more clones(Customs?)Got busted last year..got out kinda quick?????????Dont kick it no more but C him from time 2 time,tells me ''come by bro,ill send u home wit sum good''NL#5,WW,WR,Kushes,ect.Wish i could trust him,but bad feeling.Got alot 2 loose u know,he's 2 friendly and out in open 2 wrong crowd,(thinks those guys r TRU friends)NOT,anyway STAY UP PLAYA,Duces

 

[LexLuthor]

@TexasToka: I've always grown "mostly" organic, Fox Farm products like Tiger Bloom for example, is organic and synthetic, Big Bloom (micro nutrient) and there potting soils like Ocean Forest and Happy Frog are 100% organic. I love organic bud, I just want it to grow quicker and yield more, you know how they say it, "you can't have your cake and eat it at the same time", well, thats exactly what I wanna do :D. I figure the large amount of perlite will give me great drainage so I can water with my nutrient solution everyday and that will cause hydro-like growth and at the same time have just enough soil in there to give me the ease of growing without the "hardships" of hydro. What I mean by that is checking EC, Ph, nutrient solution temps, bubbling my nutrient solution and so on, thats stuff I've never done before and I don't plan on doing anytime soon, because I've always grown in soil and thats what I'm good at. One day I'll take on a full hydro recirculating system, but for now I just don't have the time to learn that type of grow. This whole perlite/soil thing is just a thought in my head and hopefully it works out easily, like bobby said its similar to hydroton/coco, anyways, thanx for your input and I'll definately keep ya'll posted.

 

[LexLuthor]

the friend i talked about moved here from cali,used 2 get clones in mail from his potnas,hehe,he got a letter in mail..no more clones(Customs?)Got busted last year..got out kinda quick?????????Dont kick it no more but C him from time 2 time,tells me ''come by bro,ill send u home wit sum good''NL#5,WW,WR,Kushes,ect.Wish i could trust him,but bad feeling.Got alot 2 loose u know,he's 2 friendly and out in open 2 wrong crowd,(thinks those guys r TRU friends)NOT,anyway STAY UP PLAYA,Duces

WOW, he obviously went CI (confidential informant) for the police, don't do shit wit that mutha fucker, when you see him say hi and bye, thats it, you should always trust that inner voice and stay safe bro.

 

[psilobuds]

cool idea mate, i reckon it should work it you feed n water em enough. dunno if ya would really get the microbial benefit of soil with a system like that tho, as it's kinda a hybrid hydro type thing ya tryin. all those nutes would prob kill off any mycos n stuff. still, give it a go mate n let us kno how ya go!

 

[LexLuthor]

cool idea mate, i reckon it should work it you feed n water em enough. dunno if ya would really get the microbial benefit of soil with a system like that tho, as it's kinda a hybrid hydro type thing ya tryin. all those nutes would prob kill off any mycos n stuff. still, give it a go mate n let us kno how ya go!

I know I won't get the full benefit of organic microbial life, but its worth a shot :) I got 5 blueberry seeds germing right now.

What size buckets should I use?? I always used 5 gallons for my soil grows, but I don't think I'm gonna need that big of buckets for this new setup, I was thinking 3 gallon buckets or smartpots, any advice would be great.

 

[TexasToka]

thats what i would like 2 try (smart pots)i think i red sumwer the sp's help roots grow more ''root hairs''?

 

[TexasToka]

:confused:

 

[LexLuthor]

thats what i would like 2 try (smart pots)i think i red sumwer the sp's help roots grow more ''root hairs''?

idk....lol....I just heard smart pots are better then plastic buckets

 

[purpleberry]

checkut roots oganic soiless media, I got and bag it looks good im going to give a try. Much like ready grow but i think its better quaility and has a little more organics in it. Its probally %70 perilite

 

[LexLuthor]

Thanks purple, I'll look into roots organic.

My 5 blueberry beans just broke surface, well 4/5 did and there in a 50/50 Ocean Forest/perlite mix. When I transplant in a few weeks I'm gonna use the 80/20 perlite/soil mix and I also got 5 other blueberry seedlings that I been growing for the past couple weeks and there not big at all, they look like there 1 week old. Thats because I had fungus gnats that I just got rid of and my HPS light bulb went out over a week ago and I just got a new 1 yesterday. So the past week or more I had them next to a window getting only a few hours of sunlight a day, that plus the fungus gnats had them in bad shape.

Now that I got my grow room back to normal they should start to take off, I got a grow diary ya'll can check out and I'm gonna update later today. The blueberry ain't feminised so with 9 of them I might end up with less then 5 females, but as long as I end up with at least 4 females I'l be happy with that. When I sex them I'm taking 1 male plant with 1 female cutting and putting them outdoors so I'll end up with a bunch of Blueberry seeds when outdoor harvest comes in October.

 

[TexasToka]

say lex, i read in Skunk magizine from Tha Rev. that he has had bettr success with veg & flower with HID bulbs specifically the brand" EYE-Blue metal halide"

 

[TexasToka]

trying 2 find artical 4 u(lex)