ACT and hydroponic (mineral) nutrients

hello

I am considering using Aerated Compost Tea on my coco plant. I use HESI's coco (hydro) nutrients. I remember reading that ACT and other organic based plant foods are not very efficient in a hydroponic low pH environment, and that these minerals kill the beneficial bacteria in it. BB is the main reason I'm needing the ACT.

Any thoughts or facts?

thanks

It can't hurt. Also, try the ACT as a foliar treatment. Consider trying good ol' soil sometime and put these beneficial organisms to work for you.

nah, soil isn't for me... I don't have access to good materials, or knowledge of how to use them.

just run your finished product through a paint filter, that way you dont clog anything

asaph said:

nah, soil isn't for me... I don't have access to good materials, or knowledge of how to use them.

Click to expand...

I'd be happy to talk about that if you're ever interested. Soil is everywhere.

Rrog said:

I'd be happy to talk about that if you're ever interested. Soil is everywhere.

Click to expand...

yeah... i used to be a dwc grower.. now im hooked on big pots of soil. sure flushing is trickier but the taste is so much better.

Big pots are what I'd love to do at some point. I think there's real long term benefit to the soil when you re-plant in the same soil. The no-till method.

Also, in a real soil with clay and humus, flushing does very little, as the clay and humus will latch onto cations like crazy and will not be flushed away at all. Cation examples are : Ca++, K+, Na+, Mg+, Fe+, NH4+, H+
If you have clay or humus these cations will stay locked until retrieved my bacteria or fungus for the plant to consume. I say all this not to nitpick, but it's just too damn cool not to mention it. Soil is amazing.

In my outdoor applications, I dig an 8ft deep hole and back fill with 3ft of good soil and coco mix, then I plant a 6 ft tall monster that I've stripped the lower branches off of, and then fill the remaining 3ft with quality soil mixed 50/50 with coco coir so when I feed it travels straight to the roots. I dig through the hard pan and dump bb rich soil. So by what your saying I should plant in the same holes next year rather than dig new ones?

what about flushing agents? I use florakleen the night before I start to flush

No flush of any type. The microlife is in control. You can't permanently change the pH, etc.

Mal, if you are able to dig deep holes and start with a well drained soil amended with humus (compost) and clay as well as EWC, blood meal, bone meal, etc..., you'll have the opportunity to top dress with your standard teas as well as finished compost and EWC. You can have a cover crop of clover or other. Great companion plant for MJ. When that plant is harvested, the roots in the clover keep a live root system for EM Fungus to co-habitate with. Then slice a hole in the soul right near where the old stalk was, and the complex EM Fungus / bacterial network will already be hugely established. They will swarm that new seedling or clone with an army of billions of microbes and start super feeding.

Soil perpetuated this way, with no tilling, no digging, no ferts will get better with age. Like an old forest. So no more nutes. Just compost, EWC, teas. I'm not at all an expert on the topic, I've just been reading about this for some time. It may be the highest performance, lowest cost grow method yet.

Wow, I do use guano teas, but nothing extreme.

my experience with soil:
Potting soil, peat-based, with time release fertilizers. There is only one brand of soil in my country that doesn't have them (or at least I think it doesn't have them). So I have tried much with the TRs - it's always bad. Growth is always excellent - nice and green, but once the flowering starts - yellowing starts, as well as multiple micro-element deficiencies. I would use super hard water, very hard to pH down, though I would try, but yeah, I was also growing bad genetics then.

My last attempt was with good genetics, RO water and mineral fertilizers - was by far better than those described above, the plants stayed healthy - but still yielded 1/3-1/2 as much as I got from the same strain in coco. This I believe is because of the heaviness of the peat soil.

There is one brand of soil that's also peat based but is lighter but in water retention (much perlite) and it isn't supposed to have time releasers. It does come prefertilized with a very high runoff (EC 3.0+), but I've actually grown in it (with bad genetics) and it turned out ok - but I would be scared to use it. Like I said I'm not a very experienced grower, and anxiety is one of my most central growing experiences

This experience of growing nicely but flowering/fruiting horribly I've also had with many garden plants, not just MJ.

The problem with soil for me is not knowing - I can never know what's in the soil, how, when and how much to feed and pH. Even runoff and sampling is not helpful in this sense. And if I'm already feeding the soil with nutrients, hydro/coco is a much better way to do it in my mind, with greater control over the chemical properties of the root area.

The only organics I have access to are cow manure compost, and worm humus. All those meals, I can't get where I live (must say it sounds pretty disgusting, blood meal bone meal etc. ). I tried for instance mixing coco with compost for tomatoes - all I got from that was a nasty case of the mosaic virus.

When I have a decent grow going with many clones and I can afford running experiments - I may try it again with MJ. I can make ACT, use molasses etc., but I seriously doubt I can grow a plant through flowering with cow manure and peat.

Manures need to be "cooled" before use. Aged manure is OK.