soil ,coco or hydro ? decisions decisions

[jiggaboojones]

so I am xpanding my room and amping up my production . I am currently using canna coco n nutes . been using them for years . productions ok . I will b changing up my grow style tho . instead of vegging plants I am going to simply clone root then flower . this will b increasing my plant count greatly however . so I have some things to consider . mostly on the labor issues . how much work do I need to put in for feeding . I could simply grow in soil so I can just water 50 -100 plants everyday . if I use coco I will have to mix nutes n water everyday . hydro I will have to build a system . so I ask you , will it pay to run soil or will I gain a significant amount of weight using the other methods to warrant the xtra everything I will have to invest . I have never run full hydro before so I am kinda hesitant although I am very familiar with it . any input would be helpful.

 

[MakinGoo]

Soil would b cheaper & eazier

 

[jiggaboojones]

very true

 

[PButter]

Soil would b cheaper & eazier

and safer if you aren't already tooled up for dwc.. It took me three runs on a current culture before I was able to finish. Thats well water though and I had some 'stuff' going on...

Soil is awfully forgiving.

 

[jiggaboojones]

I have sewer water .n will have to buy r/o and buildthe actual system . but I do have the meters and whatnot . n yes it would b my first actual hydro run . so all fingers will pointto soil till I can comfortably pay for all the changes iwill make . I don't like soil bcuzz of the bug factor or I would prob use it. using coco has shown me much better growth rates and roots in my early comparasin grows soi made the switch , howevr I hate using media n will eventually switch to aqua or hydro most likely . thank you fellaz

 

[PButter]

Use beneficial fungi and bacteria from day one to get ahead of the pest game. They work.

 

[Tnelz]

so I am xpanding my room and amping up my production . I am currently using canna coco n nutes . been using them for years . productions ok . I will b changing up my grow style tho . instead of vegging plants I am going to simply clone root then flower . this will b increasing my plant count greatly however . so I have some things to consider . mostly on the labor issues . how much work do I need to put in for feeding . I could simply grow in soil so I can just water 50 -100 plants everyday . if I use coco I will have to mix nutes n water everyday . hydro I will have to build a system . so I ask you , will it pay to run soil or will I gain a significant amount of weight using the other methods to warrant the xtra everything I will have to invest . I have never run full hydro before so I am kinda hesitant although I am very familiar with it . any input would be helpful.

My brother coco is where it's at. Pay attention to ur pH and u get production like hydro and some benefits of soil. Hop on my thread why I switched to coco and u will c! Roots galore! Awesome!

 

[Tnelz]

My brother coco is where it's at. Pay attention to ur pH and u get production like hydro and some benefits of soil. Hop on my thread why I switched to coco and u will c! Roots galore! Awesome!

Didn't read ur whole thing before my comments. How about hempy? Also awesome!

 

[surfguitar]

Use beneficial fungi and bacteria from day one to get ahead of the pest game. They work.

Get some hypoasis miles and rove beetles while your at it too ;)

If you want absolute ease with awesome results I have to give a big recommendation for No till organic living soil, some of the benefits imo:
-only needs water
-after initial planting you never have to mix up dirt again or fill up planters
-soil gets better and better over time
-pest and disease resistance
-your product is truly organic

I've tried just about every other grow style and was big into coco for awhile and living organic soil is stupid easy compared to that stuff, with dare I say better results ;)

 

[jiggaboojones]

I was using fox farm soil back in the day n came hot for a 3 mnth span .(only had to ph n water ) did well with it but since then manydif organic cultures arose . is this a prebagged organic living mix or a recipe? I ve enjoyed coco for the xp and had pretty good production out of it . however it is def a lil bit of a hassle sometimes . see idk about any beetles n bugs in tha g-room for ANY REASON . they just erk me n want that area free from them . as for bacteria n fungi . is there something specific your talking about or a nute like hygrozyme or something bottled ?

 

[surfguitar]

For the most part you won't really see the bugs, they are very tiny and live in the soil. They are your friend no need to be afraid, they keep everything in check for you. For bacteria and fungi get some high quality compost and CAPS beneficials(make sure to use promo code farmer).

You can either buy all the amendmants yourself(more expensive in the short term but more economical in the long run) or buy a nute pack from somewhere like kisorganics. I'm doing both currently and both methods produce stellar results. My main soil mix is based off of a recipe by clackamacootz on icmag, I can share if youre interested.

 

[MakinGoo]

Coco would b killer 4 beast mode roots & growth rate>>> I love coco but if ur gunna step up ur game & ain't quite sure about going so big >>juss 2 b safe & cheaper I'd run soil.. Sure coco will give u bigger plants faster & a bigger yield but also u will use double the water & nutes plus the actual coco will run u more money.. With coco u need 2 keep a close eye on ph & ppm going in & out plus if u let it dry out ur fucked & now have 2 flush with more water 2 get all the salt out.. With out water on the scene or extra cash flow I'd think twice about coco 4 now at least.. Since u never stepped it up this big juss play it safe & use soil >> won't b as ph picky>> don't need 2 worry much about ppm going in & out>>won't use as much water & nutes>> cheaper then coco>> no need 2 worry about soil drying out..
U won't lose missive amounts of bud weight.. Get a few low cost soil runs under ur belt & save up ur money then step up 2 coco<< at least that's what id do if I decided 2 go bigger..

But like u said I hate them damn gnats in soil & some coco..

 

[surfguitar]

I'm telling you guys, hypoasis mites+roves+caps bene's=little to know fungus gnats. I had a big population that is nearly gone now from that combo

 

[jiggaboojones]

yes that soil mix is def of interest . one of the only ones I know are from subcool n that was almost a decade ago .
yea that's pretty much my basic reasoning on things as far as labor /cost vs production . iwill be using 50 -100 half gal pots instead of 20, 3 gallons so I will have much more watering but many more tops without the time of scroging ..
I think I am still angry n jaded from the last time I grew in soil making me hesitant . I had a white fly problem that would drop anyones jaw . it took me two weeks of bombing my grow room every other day or two before they disappeared n it cost me 3 plants due t mold n shittyness lol . funny how things like that stick in your angst when growing . I have been mostly happy with my canna coco . been using it for a handful of years now . although I had a few hard lessons learned when I tried to reuse thecoco for a 3rd run without fully knowing how to restore it n ruined 2 crops . set me back a long time . now I don't even bother re using anything xcept pots lol
I will eventually go to hydro due to eliminating the media n hand watering tho .

 

[jiggaboojones]

right now the fox farm o forest is about 20-25 a bag so I am curious on how the other mixes and organics wuld add up to in comparasin to labor of mixing and ease of acquisition of ammendments ? been doing a lot of research on kushmans veganics lately too . pretty neat stuff he's doing .

 

[Prime C]

My first grow back in mich was in coco using maxibloom and it don't get much cheaper than that. 12 plants in one gallon pots dtw. Was the first time I grew over a pound.;)

I will say that I'm also trying rockwool blocks dtw and its working nicely so far. Fast growth for sure should be flowering some in a cpl weeks. Im stacking 3's on 6's running 9 per light. We'll see how it goes.

 

[MakinGoo]

Instead of a grip of lil pots how bout a soil bed? Pop a gang of cuts & flower them with a week long veg.. It would b way eazier then watering a gang of tiny pots

 

[jiggaboojones]

very true , I have def thought about it . but it is a lil easyr moving them around when one stretches more than anoter n so forth . pluss clean up is way easyr as well as splitting up a months dif so I keep it a perpetual harvest . I will also be runnin 2-3 dif strains as well . so this will allow me to b flexible after they express pheno's .

 

[surfguitar]

@jiggaboojones The nute pack from kisorganics is $40 shipped and makes ~32gals of soil, you also will need a bag of spaghum peat($14 from lowes where I'm at), some aeration like perlite or lava rocks(lava rocks from Home depot are cheap) and a bag or 2 of the best compost you can buy(I get ewc from a local worm guy or Bu biodynamic for around 15-17$cuft). So around $80 for 30ish gallons of high quality water only soil, 30gals of foxfarm at your price would be $60-75 and you still need extra nutes on top of that. Alternatively you could buy 50pound bags of kelp/crab/neem meal, oyster shell flour or CaCo3 and rock dust from local rock yard or azure standard. That will be around $400 for all that but will be enough amendments to last you pretty much forever if you have a small grow or be enough to get a nice size commercial grow going.

More beneficial microbes to outcompete the pest creates a environment where they cant ever get a foot hold. You don't get white flys when you have 6 different bugs that eat them, bacteria that kill there larvae etc. :)

Check out my grow, I have 2 phenos of the white s1 from ograskal, one short stocky pheno and a very lanky sativa pheno. I'm able to create a very nice canopy with both plants under a 400w in a scrog, same deal in my 1k room. I grow in big fabric pots.

 

[jiggaboojones]

thank you for your input . I have a bunch of this and that to do today . i'll b checking all of this out . its funny when I used fox farm I couldn't use any extra nutes or my plants go burned . even just a 1/4 of the recommended dose till a few months passed . it carried my widow 3 mnths after a month of veg . but it only gave about 2zips ncoco I would've gotton close to4 lol... I have been seeing the white s1 on seed store things . I haven't had much luck with growing out s1's myself . I tried the sac cut # 3 s1 . looked the shit but no taste n smelled like hay . lol rascal is pretty well respected tho . productshould b good . I am lookinginto getting some cali connection stuff myself since im far away frm cali n having real trouble getting legit cuts anymore . I don't hate growin from seed , well yea I do, unless its for personal projects lol last cuts I had were the uk exo cheese n dj's blue velvet . sux I'm starting over after selling off all my stuff . found ten seeds on the bottom of my drying cab n fired up again . lol damn money problems always coming and gong I cant waste anytime anymore ..