I'm guessing you will probably do very well with the coco bricks possibly better than peat.

Soaking the coir is not that bad on a large scale, but you could get a wood chipper to speed things up.

We are on the same mission and I think it's somewhat uncharted territory. Everyone around me grows in dirt. Just filled my raised beds with amended coir. I top dressed and scratched in a bunch of kelp, worm, bat, bird, blood, glacial rock, fish bone, and alfalfa. Hoping to prop up the mix a bit and the plants seem to be loving it.

No perlite in my mix. Well actually the perlite is under the beds, in a trench. Air is blown underneath in a pipe.

Interested to hear what you choose for your mix and about the grow.

hi
I buy large bales for 10$ fills 20 gal smart pot
I treat ALL coco as a dirty whore lol...
1. put in 45 gallon rubbermaid garbage can 3 bales
2. fill with hose water
3. put a 10 gallon bucket on top and fill with water(this keeps bricks submerged)
4. let stand several hrs. untill all soft smoosh it all up and put inside a 20 gallon smart pot.
5. take hose and flush for like 20 mins
6. fill 45 gallon rubbermaid garbage can with r.o. water and coco buffer ph to 5.8 and let sit for @ least an hr... I like stir every hr adjusting if needing the ph back to 5.8
7. then i take and mix 15% perlite 85 % coco so 20 gal coco = 3 gal perlite
This will give you ready to use coco no diffecencys and no ph flux!!
as far as feed and coco buffer and several additives I make my own
canna coco a,b
calmag+
silica blast
moab
hammerhead
enzymes
mycos
fulvic/humic acid
saves me 1000s on nutrients ...

good luck
o

Looks good!

On that scale, feeding with liquid nutes is going to be very expensive and labor intensive. It seems like you're approaching this as though it was an indoor grow and just scaling up, which is a big mistake, IMO. Outdoor is a different animal altogether.

The way you do big plants outside is with a well-amended mix, lots of benes, topdressings and teas. The micro herd and nature's synergistic processes are yours to harness, even in the G-pad.

You should look into Tom Hill's large plant soil mix. Super cheap, and proven to produce. Id post the link to the IC thread, but that's probably a breach of the TOU. Tons and tons and tons of useful information in those 300+ pages.

I think coco makes a fantastic base to a rich soilless mix, just don't skip on the amendments. If I were you, I'd look into some or all of the following:
Cottonseed Meal and/or Soybean Meal
Alfalfa Meal
Kelp Meal
Neem Seed Meal
Crab/Shrimp Meal
Oyster Shell lime (powdered)
Gypsum
Azomite
Greensand
Humates
Chicken Manure
High P Guano
Soft Rock Phosphate
Vermicompost (EWC)
Nice black organic compost

And about 30% perlite/pumice/scoria. I actually prefer pumice and scoria because they stay down in the root zone rather than floating up to the surface as perlite tends to do.

You're looking at a purchase of about 20 yards of mix - why not consult your local bulk suppliers of soil, compost, vermicompost, etc. about making a custom mix for you. I would bet that you'll find the cost difference negligible. Depending on what kind of materials and mixes they have available, you could drop ship your amendments to the soil company and then have them mix and deliver your medium.

If it's too late to do it this year, make sure you at least explore the option next spring.

It's pretty wonderful to see AAA results simply feeding plain water and foliars (Calcium25 and brix mix are amazing) in veg, and the occasional tea or topdressing in flower.

Generous amounts of myco applied to the root zone at transplant increases my growth rate 2-3x.

Hortonova applied correctly during veg and stretch will completely take care of your support/staking issues.

1/2" drip emitter line is your friend. As are irrigation injectors.

I hope this little rant has been helpful. If you're really going to go for it, you should spend a couple days reading through the growing large plants outdoors thread over on IC.

Don't forget to keep us updated about how things unfold. Good luck!

so i ended up going with coco bricks and 25 percent perlite mixture. I really like the consistency of it. now time to see how the plants like it. has anyone ran age old organics in coco, or a similar mix? 55 gallon barrels of it for 800 bucks. hopefully ill have a better camera and get some pics soon - george

we used roots organics with botanicare nutes
got a good price in 1200 for 55 gallons
mini dos injectors here this week
then just feed teas, daily feeding will be automated.

damn... sealed138. looks great! i hope i can achieve something like that this year. did you do light depo, or just let it go naturally?

depro. pulling down this week already pulled down lemon og's