Has anyone ever heard of or used hydrafiber shredded wood grow medium in their soil or soilless mixes before? I've been using for several months and have been experiencing some serious issues. It's big selling point is that it holds lots of moisture; however, I find it actually seems to hold too much moisture for what cannabis can tolerate. Plants have shown signs of overwatering (curling, canoeing or tacoing leaves) as well as less vigor and yield because the medium stays wet too long. Hydrafiber supposedly holds up to seven times more moisture than a peat based potting mix. Wondering what others have experienced.
To me using 100% compost/ plant matter is asking for drainage issue leading to root rot or over watering slow growth issues.... not only that my plant need silica to be strong and resistant to bugs/fungi issues. pretty much the phase of over watering is a not really the case and there is no such thing. The water is oxygen depleted . air water nutrients and minerals at certain ph's at certain temps........
The manufacturer claims the potting mix contains 60% peat moss and the other 40% consisting of the actual hydrafiber wood product mixed with Perlite. I have a hard time believing there's that much peat moss. The only reason I tried it was because it was five dollars a bag cheaper.
Plants need as much air as water, encourage that air by adding yet more perlite or clean river sand ensure you have enough holes in your bags/pots to drain this medium, I got caught out by switching my organic soils to a new one.... it hurt bigtime good luck
I purchased their Proline HFC-25 which is similar but includes pine bark chip as well. However I was looking at some of their marketing material and it mentions the ph as being 4.5 +/- .4. . It’s made by HydraFiber and sold in various blends.
Was that the Jolly Gardener brand? How did your plants react to it? Hopefully better than mine did. I'm using the Pro-line HFC/20 and if that's true about the ph being 4.5 +/- .4 no wonder I'm having so many problems. All my new cuttings/seedlings are back in Pro-Mix BX and things are looking much better.