Need some help, please :) *Coco Vs Soil*

Whats the difference between Coco and Soil?Whats the best in geral and why?

Difference, night and day. Soil contains various nutrients, drains differently. Coco is inert so you need to add nutrients ala hydroponics.
You can mix soil, compost etc. to get the right texture for soil. Coco needs to be kept a little moister than soil. Coco flushes better
than soil. You have to work very hard to overwater coco.

Which is best depends on what you plan on doing with it. Do you want an easy hydro method then use coco. Do you want to be able
to water infrequently without mixing nutrients/ph then use soil. Do you have heavy soil and need to fluffen it up, mix coco with it.

I did a GDP in coco last season and I liked it for the fact that I could see immediately what the plant needed and added it. The problem is that I am just too lazy for coco and like the fact that soil has what I need all mixed in so all I need is water. Give it a shot though just to do it.

I`m with AngryBlack on this one, I`m an organics enthusiast and I prefer a soil I can mix to my specifications. Once you have something you like, you tweak it to your specifications and you have something original that provides for the whole lifecycle of the plant. Coco has amazing aeration qualities, but I prefer to mix it with a `support`system so to speak

Feel free to check a few links in my signature, will guide through the process of putting together a fairly easy soil or soiless mix. Like mentioned, put something together and have fun with it

KC

Depends on your definition of soil. The Earth's topsoil or the first horizon of the ground outdoors (where most plants and organisms live), varies drastically depending on location. It is essentially a mixture of weathered rock\minerals and mostly decayed organic matter (humus). The ideal soil is referred to as loam, which is roughly equal parts sand, silt and clay (about 20% clay, and humus). The components vary in particle size; with clay\humus particles being the finest (microscopic) and magnitudes smaller comparatively than silt or sand particles (the largest).

Clay and humus particles have a certain characteristic, in particular due to their chemical and physical attributes they possess a net negative charge. This causes the particles to attract and hold onto cations: the positively charged (ionic) nutrients which plant roots assimilate (NH4+, K+, Ca++, Mg++, etc). This is called cation exchange capacity and it is basically a measure of how well a medium will retain nutrients. Soils with high clay and humus have high CEC and these retain nutrients very well. Humus also holds moisture. However, as you may be aware, clay being the very fine-particle and densely packed material that it is, it is also heavy and too much seriously hinders aeration and drainage.

When you buy bagged potting soil for indoor container gardening, it is actually quite different than topsoil\loam and many potting soils do not actually contain any loam or "soil" at all. Virtually all are soil-less mixes to some degree. An exception to this is Fox Farm Ocean Forest, which has sandy loam. OF and many others are sphagnum-peat based (there are various grades of sphagnum), and they might contain compost, forest humus, or earthworm castings (all forms of humus), and perlite or pumice (a few, vermiculite) along with a liming agent such as dolomite lime (or oyster shell flour) and any other fertilizers if any. The liming agent provides calcium and potentially magnesium as well, and it neutralizes acidity which is important because sphagnum can have a pH as low as 4.

Coco coir is relatively new to horticulture, it has really taken off over the past couple decades as a plant growth medium or soil amendment. It also comes in different varieties but can have a CEC comparable to sphagnum, along with better pH and high porosity (stays aerated when wet). My preference is the loose pre-rinsed "high pith" coco coir such as Botanicare CocoGro.

I make all my own soil mixes, and used to buy big bags of peat, now I buy compressed coco (for cheaper and OMRI) and I couldn't be happier.

I mix equal parts of coco, compost/EWC, and perlite. (with added amendments) and the results are outstanding. I even did a side by side with my old peat based mix, coco for the win.

I also recycle all my soil, and like the way coco breaks down better than peat as well.

Though both, coco and soil are a growing medium for plants, but the former is much beneficial than the latter. Coco peat, being natural is safe for the environment. Soil, after sometime needs additional chemical fertilizers to retain its fertility, but with coco peat, this need is eliminated. Also, since it has a good air porosity, it helps with the development of roots. Also, coco has an excellent water holding capacity and therefore, needs less water for gardening.

TylerMary said:

Though both, coco and soil are a growing medium for plants, but the former is much beneficial than the latter. Coco peat, being natural is safe for the environment. Soil, after sometime needs additional chemical fertilizers to retain its fertility, but with coco peat, this need is eliminated. Also, since it has a good air porosity, it helps with the development of roots. Also, coco has an excellent water holding capacity and therefore, needs less water for gardening.

Click to expand...

Using organic methods soil Def. Does not! Need chemical fertilizers to keep the soil fehelp with ity. In fact using such fertilizers kills the good microbes in your soil making you have to constantly depend on and use those chemical fertilizers. If you have a good healthy living soil then you do not need chemical fertilizers and I would advise against them... Remember this is all going into the plant and being ingested by you as well... Organics has no need for flushes like chemical ferts and nutes need. All you need is to maybe amend soil occasionally or use aacts ,teas, etc. this will also help with smell/aroma/terpenes, and flavor of the finished product. There are not chemical nutes in nature so why manipulate and use them. Not to mention the expense..

Coco coir isn't a magical plant-growing substrate, you know, it does have good porosity but it doesn't just sustain plants indefinitely. Certainly, coco coir alone has much less nutrient content than most soils.

Think of coir as a hydroponic medium... that let's the plant still form a root structure that is similar to that in soil. When your roots are in soil, there are many buffers that prevent nutrition from being immediately accessed by the plants.... However, in coco, your plant will be able to immediately uptake the nutrition based upon the EC and pH of your formula (much like Hydro). While you can run organics and mix EWC into a coco mixture to mimic the organic environment a little more, coco is still mainly lacking that humus source that keeps everything stable and clings onto nutrients. The only elements that Coco really hangs onto are Ca, Mg, and K, most everything else leaches out through it very quickly. Because of this you are going to feed everytime you water in Coco.

I am running the same strains in two separate rooms right now... the first is with Fox Farm ocean forest and EWC in 5 gals with pure blend pro and molasses... no ph'ing ppm'ing or anything... The second room is Roots Organic Soilless (coco mixture) with Pure Blend Pro and molasses as well. I will be running teas and mycorrhizal products once a week throughout so the coco can replenish the essential microlife that readily survives in soil. Of course in coco I will be insuring that my ppm's stay in the 700-900 range and 5.6- 6.0 pH

Another thing to mention is that coco will need less root area, but more frequent waterings than soil. I pretty much water my soil heavily every 2 days and know that the pot will retain it's moisture. In coco with a maxed out root zone, you will be watering AT LEAST once a day.

I made my own coco mix for about $120 andit gave me aapproximately 90 gallons of medium here's my mix
3 large blocks of Botanicare cocogro
1 large bag of chunky perlite (about 4 c.f.)
10 gallons of ewc
4lbs of Dr. Earth fish bone meal
4lbs of Dr. Earth blood meal
4lbs of sun leaves Indonesian guano
5 lbs. Of sea kelp
4 cups of azomite
2 lbs of mycos
I mix it up real well then water it with some compost tea and let it set for 4-6 weeks
All you need to do is add water and my plant look fantastic.
I will admit I basically used Subs recipe with some adjustments since I'm not using Roots soil but seriously my plants look incredible

I have done soil for years. It require more veg time larger pots, and lugging large bags of soil to fill those big pots. When I switched to coco using run to waste, I will never go back. I know what's up and have full control and have never seen results like this. A 2 gallon pot is doing better than a five gallon with soil. It is producing about five times better with a 4 time stretch I put them in flower several days after root show in the clone maker and they launch. I choose Canna which comes with a price tag but thus far it is so easy a child could do it. Better yet Cannas feeding schedule work like a charm. Just use some cal mag to get your water to 400 ec. You will wonder why you bothered with soil. The other bonus, the rooms are so much cleaner without soil and the run off made a non producing apple tree end up covered in apples this year and the blueberries love it also.