lost 20 seeds

OldMedUser said:

I still have a big brick of compressed coco I tried 15 years ago. I had no idea that it needed flushing and it screwed up my plants back then and I've never used it since. Can't get it here and I have no desire to go looking for it.

Click to expand...

Youre in canada arent you? Plenty of places to buy coco im sure within a 10 minute drive for you. Home hardware is were I get mine, I think its 5kg for $9. I forget the brand name but I use it without flushing with no issues. I simply hydrate it the first time with phd water and some cal/mag.

Hydro ftw

@OldMedUser

JebsCrispyCritters said:

Thats pretty interesting. I will have to look into that for checking the soil. Now I throw a layer of sand and gnat nix over my soil and gnats have no place to lay their eggs and life is so much better in the tent. I would love to try hydro but its hard to break habit from years of dialing in my norm. I use a pot up method now and it really reminds me of a hydro set up being able to throw more plants in a smaller space.

Click to expand...

I go thru about 4 up-pottings from the start too. Each time I use a bread knife to saw the bottom off the root ball and if there are any roots wound around the sides they get a shave as well. Never see any transplant shock and new roots are poking out the drain holes in a week or less so sure doesn't seem to hurt anything. When I finally crop and check the root ball there is fine roots from the top to the bottom instead of mostly in the bottom half. That's got to be good right?

I use diatomaceous earth to cover the surface of the soil if I get gnats and water from the bottom so I don't mess up the DE. I bought a 30lb bag from the feed store for $30 15 years ago and still have lots left. Great for getting rid of ants and other bugs around the farm or in the house too.

TurboTokes said:

Youre in canada arent you? Plenty of places to buy coco im sure within a 10 minute drive for you. Home hardware is were I get mine, I think its 5kg for $9. I forget the brand name but I use it without flushing with no issues. I simply hydrate it the first time with phd water and some cal/mag.

Hydro ftw

@OldMedUser

Click to expand...

You assume I live in a normal type part of Canada but I don't. I'm way up north in Bumf**k, Alberta and the nearest hydro store to me is a 2 hour drive. They have very little selection and it's very pricey. The bigger store that I buy most of my grow stuff from is almost a 6 hour drive so shipping costs are also pricey and driving there more so.

The local hardware stores all seem to carry ProMix now where I couldn't even get that locally until a few years ago. Even if they started selling coco I'd stick with ProMix especially as I have over a 1000 liters of it stocked up in my carport. Almost 3 - 107L bales of the HP, 6 - 85L bags of their potting soil and 4 - 50L bags of their Veg and Herb mix. Stuff like that goes on sale in the fall and I had extra cash last fall so went a bit nuts.

I'm not putting down coco but not going to go out of my way to get it and plan on growing more hydro anyways so there isn't much need for it here. We got Home Hardware here too about 30 klicks away but they don't carry coco. Haven't been there this spring so they might now tho I doubt it.

OldMedUser said:

I go thru about 4 up-pottings from the start too. Each time I use a bread knife to saw the bottom off the root ball and if there are any roots wound around the sides they get a shave as well. Never see any transplant shock and new roots are poking out the drain holes in a week or less so sure doesn't seem to hurt anything. When I finally crop and check the root ball there is fine roots from the top to the bottom instead of mostly in the bottom half. That's got to be good right?

I use diatomaceous earth to cover the surface of the soil if I get gnats and water from the bottom so I don't mess up the DE. I bought a 30lb bag from the feed store for $30 15 years ago and still have lots left. Great for getting rid of ants and other bugs around the farm or in the house too.

Click to expand...

Thats why I like coming to the forums to talk with ppl , if you look past the drama there are so many new things to learn. Everyone has different methods to do almost the same thing. Its pretty cool to me.
I veg 6-7 weeks in 1 gallon pots until I get all my pre sex flowers in to determine my females then I transfer them into 1 gallon pots of the exact same size that have had the bottom cut off so about an inch of just root ball is showing. I put them in 20 gallon storage tub with about 30 aeration holes. Each pot site recieves a generous layer of invigaroot, or now opti root its called now , and place the root ball directlly on the chitin. I water them in with purified water laced with 800mg of vitamin c per gallon. In 2 weeks I have roots,shooting out the bottom of that bin.
I will have to look at that diatomaceous earth.

coco is hydro

Promix is mud

TurboTokes said:

coco is hydro

Promix is mud

Click to expand...

How do you figure it's mud? The HP is all peat which is nothing like mud. The veg and herb mix and their potting soil use a mix of peat and coco coir so I guess I am growing in coco too. Some peat humus in the potting soil blend but no real dirt that could become mud so you're either poorly informed or deliberately trying to be a jerk.

Different strokes dude so take a .

JebsCrispyCritters said:

Thats why I like coming to the forums to talk with ppl , if you look past the drama there are so many new things to learn. Everyone has different methods to do almost the same thing. Its pretty cool to me.
I veg 6-7 weeks in 1 gallon pots until I get all my pre sex flowers in to determine my females then I transfer them into 1 gallon pots of the exact same size that have had the bottom cut off so about an inch of just root ball is showing. I put them in 20 gallon storage tub with about 30 aeration holes. Each pot site recieves a generous layer of invigaroot, or now opti root its called now , and place the root ball directlly on the chitin. I water them in with purified water laced with 800mg of vitamin c per gallon. In 2 weeks I have roots,shooting out the bottom of that bin.
I will have to look at that diatomaceous earth.

Click to expand...

20 gal containers is 5X the biggest I use in the grow room. I don't do outdoors here as we get frost too early for anything but autos to flower out in time. Still have 15 hours of light near the end of August here near the 60th parallel.

I tried vit. C with this last grow but didn't dose as much as you use. I'll up the dose next time. I also started grinding up a couple 50mg zinc tablets with the C and tossing in a couple B-complex and iron capsules in for the heck of it too. Didn't notice any difference really but figure it can't hurt. I take the zinc so I don't have to get up and go pee 3x a night. Ran out a couple weeks ago and back to twice a night already.

Been wanting to try the chitlin or that Insect Frass to see if that makes any difference as I've heard lots of good things about both.

I mostly just use hydro nutes but a few years back bought one of those General Organic GOBox kits and gave that a try. Used identical clones both in the same soilless mix and only got half the yield with the organic stuff as I did feeding with the hydro nutes. I make no claim to any expertise as a dirt farmer so that's half the problem right there tho leaning to growing some plants organically for a couple of fussy friends. Before getting into growing pot I couldn't keep a house plant alive to save my own life.

TurboTokes said:

coco is hydro

Promix is mud

Click to expand...

Water culture is hydro.

Coco and peat lite mix are both made for fertigation.

Helpful comment you had there.

I hear ya. I try and stay 100% organic as much as possible but somehow once in awhile GH's Maxibloom makes it way into my watering can.