Soil with Coco Coir?

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sandforestcat

New Member
Richard Drysift said:
Yes but don't try to straddle between growing in a living soil and using nutrients. The two do not mix well. You should not need to use nutrients if you provide compost to drive activity in your soil mix and use a clean water source. It's fairly easy to grow organic if you just use a non chlorinated water source and plan ahead. Your mix will eventually drop off in microbial activity so give them worm compost tea before that can occur. You have to sort of give your plants what they need before they need it when growing organic. Save your nutrients in case your plants start to get pale again. What you read was that if you are growing in 100% coco then you'll need to ph your water and give nutrients daily as it is basically sterile. Once you add base soil, compost, and fertilizer it becomes a living mix; treat it as a living thing and don't dump in dissolved salts that harm the microherd unless you absolutely need to. Once you begin using nutes it's almost impossible to go back to feeding naturally. Learn about recycling your soil; it will get better every time you do it.
Chicken manure is great fertilizer; I use Charlie's compost brand. Add a 1/2 handful in the bottom layer of your containers and let the roots find it. It is fast release N so you don't need much. Another good fertilizer to use that you never hear about is organic spikes. Jobes ap organic spikes are so super easy just plug a couple into the dirt and they feed your plants for 8 weeks. I stick 2 into each container just before bloom phase.
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what's your recomendation for maximium ratio for using coco whit organic soil whitout need to ph water?
Also what your opinion using biotabs organic nutrients?
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
sandforestcat said:
what's your recomendation for maximium ratio for using coco whit organic soil whitout need to ph water?
Also what your opinion using biotabs organic nutrients?
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Certainly not an expert on this shit but I am an experienced home grower; honestly never tried making my own mix from jump street. I usually just buy bags of FFOF mix and then amend it indefinitely. If you add straight coco to worm castings; let’s say something like 1 part ewc to 2 parts coco coir that should be a sustainable soil mix for awhile. I suggest adding at least one third of your mix as compost no matter what you decide to use. At some point though you will need to add back more compost in either in a tea or solid form to keep it active with microbes. Otherwise ph adjusted soluble nutrients will surely be needed. How long? Depends upon how active the compost you added was. The presence of active compost is what keeps ph in check through decomposition in the first place. Without it or of it becomes inactive you’ll need to worry about ph lockout.
I would add about 1/3 of a decent base soil to my coco coir instead of trying to use it by itself; you will need to provide npk otherwise. I prefer a water only mix myself. The idea is to add to the soil what is needed before there are plants growing in it. Then all you need to do is water them; maybe the occasional aact just to keep the party rocking.
Honestly don’t know much about biotabs but I just looked it up and if it is truly slow release organic npk then it’s probably ok to use. I have been using Jobes AP organic spikes for bloom phase in each final size container for many years and they work great. These biotabs look very similar ingredients-wise.
 
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EvansInUK

Well-Known Member
Richard Drysift said:
Certainly not an expert on this shit but I am an experienced home grower; honestly never tried making my own mix from jump street. I usually just buy bags of FFOF mix and then amend it indefinitely. If you add straight coco to worm castings; let’s say something like 1 part ewc to 2 parts coco coir that should be a sustainable soil mix for awhile. I suggest adding at least one third of your mix as compost no matter what you decide to use. At some point though you will need to add back more compost in either in a tea or solid form to keep it active with microbes. Otherwise ph adjusted soluble nutrients will surely be needed. How long? Depends upon how active the compost you added was. The presence of active compost is what keeps ph in check through decomposition in the first place. Without it or of it becomes inactive you’ll need to worry about ph lockout.
I would add about 1/3 of a decent base soil to my coco coir instead of trying to use it by itself; you will need to provide npk otherwise. I prefer a water only mix myself. The idea is to add to the soil what is needed before there are plants growing in it. Then all you need to do is water them; maybe the occasional aact just to keep the party rocking.
Honestly don’t know much about biotabs but I just looked it up and if it is truly slow release organic npk then it’s probably ok to use. I have been using Jobes AP organic spikes for bloom phase in each final size container for many years and they work great. These biotabs look very similar ingredients-wise.
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Hi. I was wishing to go organic, too

I also plan on making my own mix of soil, using soil, coco, worm castings and some inoculants etc. maybe throw in one or two more items too.

but what size pot would a transplanted veg plant (basically - what size pot would do 8-10 weeks of feeding for bloom phase) with a water only strategy lol.

So if I moved from a veg container to a flower mix for bloom phase, what do you reckon - pot size, would I need to last until harvest? Of course it can vary, I am thinking about - on average what size pot of mix would be needed to feed it up to the end?

would it be 2.5 gallons, 3 gallons, 5 gallons?All the mix would be just for bloom phase of course. But ill use another potting mix for veg. As I don't know what size pot would be needed to go right through without topping it up, adding more compost, castings or liquid nutes....to go straight from seed to harvest lol. That pot would need to much bigger I guess?
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
Like you say it can vary depending upon how active your soil mix is but any mix can be kept sustainable by giving aacts regularly. I give most of my plants about 70+ days of bloom so a 7g pot is about as low as I like to go. Could get away with a 5g but would have to do more than just water; aacts or a worm casting/ fertilizer is needed to keep the soil active. It’s much better to start with something like a 1-2 gal and then transfer to a 3-5 for bloom phase; don’t try to go to a big ass pot for the full duration. I usual transplant 2x; once from a solo cup to a 2g then into 7g or 10g. But like I said im lazy and I hardly give teas anymore unless needed
 
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EvansInUK

Well-Known Member
Richard Drysift said:
Like you say it can vary depending upon how active your soil mix is but any mix can be kept sustainable by giving aacts regularly. I give most of my plants about 70+ days of bloom so a 7g pot is about as low as I like to go. Could get away with a 5g but would have to do more than just water; aacts or a worm casting/ fertilizer is needed to keep the soil active. It’s much better to start with something like a 1-2 gal and then transfer to a 3-5 for bloom phase; don’t try to go to a big ass pot for the full duration. I usual transplant 2x; once from a solo cup to a 2g then into 7g or 10g. But like I said im lazy and I hardly give teas anymore unless needed
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Ah nah my plan was to veg into a 1 gallon for (how many weeks thats possible without root binding) and then transfer into my soil mix for 1 week then flip. But I only got 2.6 gallons (UK gallons) I think its about 3 gallons us. As I am in a small space 2.6 x 2.6 by something like 5.9 feet. So I was hoping to keep it short, and fat. As height is an issue for me. But I was planning on transplanting, as fresh mix, more nutes etc. also I was going to top dress with some worm castings after the flip. So once first week of transplant is done, flip and top dress same day, with castings. Just as a kick start, while using the soil for nutes as it goes along. I will have some other stuff in my soil mix too.
 
radicaldank42

radicaldank42

Well-Known Member
i do a 50/50 mix plusi add abig bag of perlite as well. so it works well! but i also cheat by doing a kugelkulture bed and made a super soil out of it to make sure it will last a while and has everything plants need and then some.
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
EvansInUK said:
Ah nah my plan was to veg into a 1 gallon for (how many weeks thats possible without root binding) and then transfer into my soil mix for 1 week then flip. But I only got 2.6 gallons (UK gallons) I think its about 3 gallons us. As I am in a small space 2.6 x 2.6 by something like 5.9 feet. So I was hoping to keep it short, and fat. As height is an issue for me. But I was planning on transplanting, as fresh mix, more nutes etc. also I was going to top dress with some worm castings after the flip. So once first week of transplant is done, flip and top dress same day, with castings. Just as a kick start, while using the soil for nutes as it goes along. I will have some other stuff in my soil mix too.
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Top dressing with ewc is good enough but if you brew it in a tea along with molasses and maybe a tsp or two of kelp meal the tea will be much more active microbially than just tossing it on top. Brewing up a worm tea promotes much higher populations of microbes that will keep your soil mix highly active for much longer than just plain water and/or a simple top dressing would. You can sustain healthy plants through most of bloom phase even in a small container as long as the soil stays active.
Adding a slow release fertilizer like composted cow or chicken manure in the bottom layer of your final bloom pots will also help sustain plants long term in smaller than optimal containers.
 
radicaldank42

radicaldank42

Well-Known Member
Some of the best tea mixtures i have found is always a cup of forest dirt for diversity. I have a field and forest anyways cup of worm castings two cups of molasses a big handful of hay and throw all solid components into a panty hose and stew it over night. You can dilute or use as is.
 
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