legaleyes13
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I would much prefer these to wooden beds and was wondering if I could use one or if it could only be used as a tray liner.
Have any of you ever used em?
Have any of you ever used em?
Could I use something like this (geopot planter) as an indoor bed?
GR33NL3AF
- 1,904
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Yes bro, this is what I use... they work great..
legaleyes13
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Perfect. So you use em as is? I know I talked to you about Coco, but I'm thinking I'm gonna go with organic soil... less yield, but less work. I don't wanna have to deal with ph, mixing nutes and blah blah blah... and hopefully what they say about taste is true about organic grown bud...
So yeah, it would work in soil too right? I'm not gonna install drainage holes, and I know you have em installed for runoff. Just wondering if that changes anything...
Thanks again.
Billyboat
Moderator
- 970
- 243
I run em as well, they work great and are breathable so you don't need any drainage holes. Put two inches of perlite at the bottom and throw the soil on that.
legaleyes13
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Cool. Great. Are they easy to modify? I'm gonna have to throw casters on em. Do you suppose that would be a problem?
Billyboat
Moderator
- 970
- 243
They are made of fabric...and come in premade sizes so one can't really modify them.
You would need to put thee planter on a tray with casters.
legaleyes13
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Cool. That's good enough I guess. I'll just throw em on a very short tray.
GR33NL3AF
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So far, with these liners, I've ran FFOF, Roots Organic, Sunshine #4, Promix, Mega Roots (Special Peat Mix), and now Coco. Granted my knowledge for growing is much higher but the coco crushes all of them. In several of the previous mixes I ran straight organic top dressings and in the Promix ran the 'Nectar for the Gods' organic nutrient lineup and I can definitely say the organics produced a better quality product.
I went to organics with drain-less beds for the same reason (to avoid ppms and pH) but trust me drains are always a good idea. If you're completely sold on no drains, make sure you read up on how to take slurry tests of your medium and pump those beds with plenty of bennies.
legaleyes13
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Why are drains always a good idea? I genuinely don't understand... and what do drains have to do with ppms and ph if I'm only watering and using teas/foliar?
And will the geoplanters leak even if I don't put drainage holes... afterall they're made outta fabric.
Tnelz
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Not sure if anyone else chimed in but Coco isn't really a hell of a lot more work than organic soil. Long as u have the right stuff it's pretty painless bro. Don't get me wrong organic soil grows are awesome better than that even but Coco kills it bro. And u can get as organic Coco or run organics with Coco and still get the benefits of the Coco. Just saying Coco is awesome but gets a bad rap. I was organic in soil for a long time. Switched to promix and it was cool but switching to Coco was like an awakening bro. Keep ur pH in check and ur media clean and ur rockin. Ran some super coco (organic) just add water and it was pretty awesome. Straight Coco is better though. Sorry I'm high as hell. Good luck either way bro but really give Coco some thought. U can do whatever you want with it.
Tmb
legaleyes13
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I would run through way too much nutes... at least I think I would. A few 4x4 beds and all drinking what? 5 gallons a day (or more, what the hell do I know) at peak. Not the biggest deal in the world, but because of the weird dimensions of my room, mixing nutes can be backbreaking work, especially if I have a few beds in different stages of flower that require different feeding strengths. That's why straight water and tea twice a week max, is so ideal.
I'm definitely listening to see if you can talk me into coco. It would be easier to source and that is a huge plus. Just filling up the beds with Canna Coco would be pretty easy. How would I run organics with Coco? Feeding teas and water or feeding nutes that market themselves as organic? I'm not some organic freak that needs things to be organic by any means, I'm just a busy guy with a cramped room that needs to create space in my room and make things much easier on myself w/ hauling water and mixing nutes... not to mention that my digi ballasts have made my tri meter virtually useless... literally :wtf: Except during lights off.
HookedonPonics
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Coco if you can drain runoff, extra yield will pay for nutes waaaay over. Also coco beds are really easy to recycle, just pull main root ball, flush with hygrozyme, and replant. Organic soil is more of a pain re-ammending and pH testing/buffering in between runs, but soil is cadillac once your up and running, yield is less, trichomes are far less caked, flavor is deeper/more floral. No need for a drain with soil, no salt buildup so you can just dial your waterings so you dont get waterlogged.
legaleyes13
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I plan on running no till, so re amending would basically be topdressing, unless I'm really confused and off base here. I have no idea how to buffer ph in soil, so I'll have to look into that. I'm a little scared of low yields, but I'm probably more scared of overworking. I don't wanna become a slave to my op. I'll just have to be happy with the better flavor. Hopefully it's noticeably better and not some minor thing.
But which do you like better, soil or coco? I can't really tell by your response...
Thanks again, man.
HookedonPonics
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- 93
I still run both, my bad i should of been more clear, it really depends on the application. I prefer a soil mix in my greenhouses, but indoors i prefer a bed with a 80/20 mix of coco/hydroton with a 1" layer of hydroton across the bottom of the bed of to increase drainage. Coco is easy to recycle, very forgiving and very hard to mess up. Yields alot more than soil because you can feed everyday like hydro, but if you miss a day youll be fine.
For your set up, to make it easy id just grab a 55g drum for each bed. Make a whole weeks worth of each beds food at a time so you dont have to mix daily, only adjust the ph. Depending on your budget id either set up a top feed (if you need help send me a pm, I can help you set up a top feed manifold for cheap from home cheapo) that automatically feeds your plants daily from a timer or if your on a tight budget just get a pump and a water wand and get in there. Also drilling a drain in your beds is a must, not in your fabric but in your trey so that the fabric isnt sitting in stagnate water, just let it run into a 5g bucket or small rez so you can test your run offs ph and ppms, helps predict what your plants are eatting, and even foresee root disease (causes rapid ph spikes in run off)
Make sure when you first plant in coco you dont give them too much water and let them dry inbetween feedings their first week, once their roots are established in the bed you can feed everyday and get explosive hydro like growth, thats whats great about coco it has an optimum aeration/water retention so you can never overwater them once their roots are established, I have my lines feed my plants twice a day in full flower. Also every other feed make sure they get 15 to 20% run off to remove any excess salts that may have built up in your bed. If you feed everyday you can cut your nutrient strength down substantially too. I used to run 1300 to 1400ppms mid flower before, now that I feed everyday with nice run off, I never go over 1100 ppms and never have any kind of deficiencies.
If you go the soil route, top dressing the whole run can be messy and takes a few runs to get dialed since once its in the pot its in there for good. So if you top dress too hot, you cant correct until the next run, where as coco you can just adjust your next feed accordingly. You will save water in soil though, which might be good if your in cali. Also to adjust your soils ph, grab a ph soil testing kit at ace hardware for like 7 bucks. Give it a test, ammend with dolomite lime to raise ph, ammend with a sulfur product to lower ph.
For your set up, to make it easy id just grab a 55g drum for each bed. Make a whole weeks worth of each beds food at a time so you dont have to mix daily, only adjust the ph. Depending on your budget id either set up a top feed (if you need help send me a pm, I can help you set up a top feed manifold for cheap from home cheapo) that automatically feeds your plants daily from a timer or if your on a tight budget just get a pump and a water wand and get in there. Also drilling a drain in your beds is a must, not in your fabric but in your trey so that the fabric isnt sitting in stagnate water, just let it run into a 5g bucket or small rez so you can test your run offs ph and ppms, helps predict what your plants are eatting, and even foresee root disease (causes rapid ph spikes in run off)
Make sure when you first plant in coco you dont give them too much water and let them dry inbetween feedings their first week, once their roots are established in the bed you can feed everyday and get explosive hydro like growth, thats whats great about coco it has an optimum aeration/water retention so you can never overwater them once their roots are established, I have my lines feed my plants twice a day in full flower. Also every other feed make sure they get 15 to 20% run off to remove any excess salts that may have built up in your bed. If you feed everyday you can cut your nutrient strength down substantially too. I used to run 1300 to 1400ppms mid flower before, now that I feed everyday with nice run off, I never go over 1100 ppms and never have any kind of deficiencies.
If you go the soil route, top dressing the whole run can be messy and takes a few runs to get dialed since once its in the pot its in there for good. So if you top dress too hot, you cant correct until the next run, where as coco you can just adjust your next feed accordingly. You will save water in soil though, which might be good if your in cali. Also to adjust your soils ph, grab a ph soil testing kit at ace hardware for like 7 bucks. Give it a test, ammend with dolomite lime to raise ph, ammend with a sulfur product to lower ph.
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Tnelz
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So honestly hookedonponics gave it to you honest and straight. I don't think another word has to be said. Dude Hella respect bro. So legal good luck. Either way you will be fine. Good luck brother.
GR33NL3AF
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- 263
For starters, drains on beds are necessary for monitoring runoff (ppms and pH). This should still be an option even if you run organic soil. The quickest way to find the problem (when plant's are discolored) is the runoff, it will tell you everything you need to know.
The liners will leak but if they're in a tray they will leak in the tray from the tray you can manipulate the water to either sit and pool or drain.
I'd like to add that you could run Nectar for the Gods organic lineup in coco. This would be the only organics I would recommend running in straight coco and the heavy emphasize on calcium in the lineup will do wonders.
Think it over, you can get the same quality product and MUCH more of it from coco compared to organic soil. Soil will produce minimal numbers.
GR33NL3AF
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- 263
Which level feeding program did you run? And what pH did you maintain? I think the shit is over priced for the app rate but everything I grew with it was straight FIRE.
Tnelz
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After speaking with Scott a couple times on my first go with it he convinced me to use the recommended pH even in Coco. I found it to be a little high in veg for Coco. So I kept it around 5.9. Bloom was at about 6.2. I ran the advanced line and I got it all as a sample. Didn't pay anything except 24 bucks shipping. They sent me everything except hades down which I did purchase. Now I only pH with their stuff and I mostly will be using the Herculean Harvest and mega Morpheaus as additives in my supercoco runs. I have a plan for my next run using a few different products together. To long to post here but if you want to pm me I'd be happy to share.
Tnelz
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Really like synthetics tbh. But if I were going fully organic I'd go nftg all day.
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