what is the raised bed filled with? ive never seen that medium before. have you sucsessfully grown cannabis in it befor
As my thread reads This is a 4' by 8' No Till recycled organic living soil. This is a newly purchased fabric bed from sustainable village, and consequently Is new in conception. The media I used is and favor is coconut coir dominant. I prefer coir to peat for a couple reasons. 1, because it's responsibly produced and has minimal impact on the land as its a by- product of harvesting coconuts. 2, because it has outstanding aeration even when used alone without perlite or any aeration additive and its CEC is ideal essentially as is without organic ammendment and Trichoderma fungi naturally colonize this media. I'll explain the extreme importance of 3 Trichoderma strains later.
Cations are positively charged elements in a solution, while anions are the negatively charged elements. Cation exchange capacity is a calculated value that is an estimate of a substrate’s ability to attract, retain, and exchange cation elements. This is an important factor in plant health, as higher CEC will provide more available nutrients to plants. The major cations associated with CEC are potassium, magnesium, calcium and sodium.
CEC is reported in millequivalents per 100 grams of soil (meq/100g). The higher the organic matter in a substrate, the higher the CEC. For example, sand has a CEC of approximately of 2 meq/100 g., while organic matter will have a CEC range of 250-400 meq/100 g. Coco coir has a CEC range of 30-100 meq/100 g. Substrates with very low CEC are more likely to develop deficiencies of the major cations, while higher CEC substrates will have less leaching of nutrients.
The one major downside to coir is its natural sodium content and its insistence on robbing calcium and magnesium unless otherwise buffered. BUFFERING IS A MUST AS IS RINSING THE SODIUM OUT! There are alot of reputable coir suppliers and also alot of frauds. For my convenience I purchase ultra low sodium and pre buffered 11kg mega blocks from Australia. The brand is Nutrifield and comes backed with a RHP certification. I highly recommend.
Their is peat also in my substrate witch has a slightly higher CEC than coir. But I like to keep the peat value at or less than 20% so I will never have a peat dominant substrate.
And the aeration media I prefer to used is par boiled rice hulls, hydroton, #4 perlite, crushed limestone, silica grit, granite, biochar and basic playground sand.
You'll notice in the pictures that i have a mulch layer. This is a 3" deep layer of cocao bean hulls. This is a powerhouse media in terms of housing and feeding Trichoderma. It will literally colonize solid just under the surface and have a nice spongy like mat feel. Bonus, it makes the whole room reek like chocolate and I just love it for that reason alone.
