Growing Mediums and advice on my setup. Expertise wanted.

Hey guys. From experienced growers, what is your prefered growing medium? I hear peat moss and coco is less forgiving
because theyre soiless mixes, but if the nutes are done correctly will these "harder" to grow mediums greatly increase yields and grow time or plant health? Some pros/cons of different mediums would be awesome.

Some info on my setup:
This summer I started my second grow. I'm growing indoor and outdoor, but mostly indoor this season. I have a 1000 watt HPS/MH setup with a vented hood, several fans for circulation, an a/c unit, and a humidifier. The room is setup in my house with white visquine plastic on the walls and separating it from the rest of the house. I have been dealing with an intense spider mite problem that i believe is now under control. I have been spraying the plants with neem oil once a week when the lights go off. It seems to be working, but I plan on making some CaliCleaner as backup because it worked great in the past. Also have a 28 site aeroponic cloner that i just made and filled with clones. Waiting to see if it works. I am currently dispatched on a fire in Oregon, so pics will have to wait. I currently have 5 female NY Diesel clones indoor growing in a peat moss, organic compost, and perlite mix. Also have 2 NY Diesel and 1 White widow outside in the same mix. I have been FIMing them, but plan to experiment with LST and other topping methods in the future.

Any tips/tricks on my setup, growing mediums, spider mites, or topping would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.

Edit: I use Fox Farm's line of nutes. Working well so far, but I'd like to hear about other good nutes.

I mix up cheap (no added nutes) potting soil, peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite in roughly equal parts. I add about 2T of dolomite lime for each gallon of the mix. Works great for me. All parts are clean, no nutes, no Miracle Grow anything, etc. I use Dyna-Gro for nutes.

Good question. I am a soil guy mostly and never used it, but besides needing to water a lot and feed a lot it is supposed to be very good. Apparently you can use smaller pot's and still get big plants, but it takes a little more attention than soil. I will follow your post because I would like to hear more about it. Good luck with your grow. By the way, I use Bang for mites, and it kicks ass. Peace

Hmm... Sounds interesting. I am probably going to do some trial runs with coco. Ive never used vermiculite or dolomite lime before. I'm going to look into them. Anyone use Fox Farm's Ocean Forest Blend? They have shit tons of that stuff at my local hydroponic store.

The best growing Medium is WATER.

I mix additives and perlite into to my substrates either roots organic soil n coco mix or soil. I like the roots stuff because its nice and light n fluffy can adsorb a lot of water and the plant can up take it quickly giving the mix nice wet/ dry cycles. This is also the main reason I dont all of my plants in it, they take a lot more watering my 3 gal pot needs to be watered every 3 days (if i could time stuff better I think every 2.5 days would be about perfect, at least for this current plant). So with multiple plants and somewhat diff rates/ times of water use means watering something everyday which does not work real well with my recent schedule. So all but one of my current plants are in soil.

The other downside I see with the coco mix is a lack of nutes compared to soil substrates, fewer nutes in the mediums means another step and consideration (more time) watering and feeding.

Soil hold on to water longer and release it over a longer period so you (can) have a 2-3 more days in between watering IME compared to soil and coco. The soil can also have greater nute capacity which is convenient for me since I grow organic and its easier to get plenty of nutrition in the soil right off the bat. But soil is not as light n fluffy as coco mixes, and does not have the quick wet/ dry cycle that (I think) mj enjoys.

I will have more time once Im back in school and so I may do more of my next plants in the coco soil mix since Ill have more time to water and monitor. I would say if you find a few things you like just go with the situation and the benefits of each substrate at the time IMO you dont need to do the same exact thing every time. Play around and go back to the things you like.

I'm going to use a swear word here......Miracle Grow. Toss your plant in it and watch it grow without all the guessing and mistakes a new grower will deal with. Click on my signature "Miracle Grow vs. Happy Frog". It's a bullet proof grow medium. Those who poo-poo it never tried it, or screwed up and added nutrients to the soil.

Hi there,

Not sure if it will mean anything to you but here you go...

Im on my 3rd grow...first was soil/perlite/casting....second was soil/perlite..... third was/is coco.

First grow was good, only a few issues - mostly environmental, when i pulled i noticed that the rootmass had not been getting water evenly and thus had some wierd shit going on, smoke was good = vegg 6 weeks & flowered 8 weeks - 1oz's

Second grow was better, i think the absence of castings gave the soil more porosity, when pulled the rootmass was large and even, i did have some issue's with lockouts... mostly Mg; corrected this with Epsom Salts and everything went fine from there. Smoke was very nice----BUT there wasn't much - only got 1.5oz = vegg 6 weeks & flowered 8 weeks.

third and current grow - 100% coco, Canna A&B, Cannazym, PK13/14 - Plant looks fuckin fantastic.....i have so much growth im worried about wether i should have trimmed or not - have had issues with Mg lockout again but sorted with Epsom Salts, i can see the root mass in my setup and it has developed nicely.... i have yet to smoke but 'eye-appeal' thus far is going to better the previous grow hands down. Im expecting to get over 2.5oz's on this girl - vegged 6 weeks currently in 2nd week flower.

FYI - All grows were indoors, first two were geurilla, third grow is a bit more plush as i bought the tent and fans with the coco setup.... nutes were not cheap....

BUT--- and here is the clincher....

would i go back to soil? NO
Is growing in coco hard? harder than soil but not rocket science

Strain - Jock Horror (fem) from nirvana.... all were grown from seed, phenotypes looked the same.

Yeah i definitely plan to do some trial and error. Thanks for sharing your experiences billbilly. The information is valueable. Makes me want to try coco. Trying to stay as organic as i can. Thanks for sharing everyone.

Side note, My room is usually around 80-88 degrees, 30% rh. Too warm?