Hi growers, I used Canna Coco A+B throughout my first run. I'm about to harvest my blue cookies and am thinking about my next run here.. I'm growing in Coco Coir. I would like to switch to alternative nutes. I just want something cheaper, but still of good quality. The pH of my tap water is near a 9. I still have a lot of pH Down left. I heard about clear water nutes and I was told they might be good for me to avoid any ppm issues with my tap. Do you guys have any recommendations? I'm pretty much open to anything here, whether they're liquids or powder form.
I've used GH trio, CurrentCulture, and switched to Greenleaf Megacrop for my latest operation. I wish I'd started using it before, because it's much simpler, and the plants love it. It's the same 1-part solid fertilizer to be used from sprout to harvest. No bloom food, boosters, teas, elixirs, CalMag, or anything else that fattens the pockets of nute companies, while doing little, nothing, or actual harm to our plants. Reading some of these message board posts convinced me to try it: Greenleaf Nutrients
So it works like Canna Coco A+B.. Intended to be used in both phases. What's interesting is that you don't need a pk booster or calmag with your nutes. Wow. Makes things very simple all throughout the run then.
If money is such an issue for you, why are you buying rip off chemical nutes. Just use soil and manure, job done. Miles better weed I dont care what anyone says. Ive grown all and smoked all and seen many others do the same. Organic is cheaper, stop wasting your money on canna nutes and goddam hoovers lol!
I was planning on executing on my first run since June-July. I was listening to this one dude that was instructing me before I knew about this forum. Due to this, I initially had many things bought in place to make the run happen, but virtually no idea what to do with them. Literally didn't know shit bro. I just bought whatever I was told was essential. Nowadays I understand how overpriced they are, and that's why I currently want to make these necessary changes. Soil grows better weed? I'm just nervous about trying different growing mediums for the first time, but I'd probably feel more comfortable with them if I was more educated on them. I heard soil needs to be watered every 3-4 days. Quite a difference from the every day watering I'm used to with Coco Coir in late veg/flower.
I'm not a total blockhead like I was going into all of this lol. I guess we should talk about the soil pros vs cons first. The only cons I know about coco is that it needs to be watered very frequently, and that it apparently produces worse weed than soil? I understand the second part of what I typed is an opinion, but I wanna find out what makes soil so appealing to the eyes of the people that use it.
Please don;t think I'm being a nob. It's more duration at the number of growers out there who are led by marketing (kliek in any other walk of life) and pass on stupid knowledge getting people to waste money. It's all to learn on here, in the organic section. For me the whole notion of "flushing" shows what muppets 99% of chemical growers are. There are many who grow half decent weed with good yields but they are fooling themselves because there are better, more economical ways. Get this run out of the way, try and shift a couple of zips and invest in some good DIY soil. It's really cheap when you make it yourself, but take months so start now. Leaves in autumn make great compost once rotted down. Peat is cheap and can be a main bulk of your soil. There are countless soil recipes on here, but here is one that means just water from start to finish: 60% peat 20% perlite or vermiculate or both 20% Earth worm castings/vermicompost Then per gallon you want a small handful of amendments - chicken manure, neem cake, blood and bone meal, kelp meal, fish meal, alfalfa. The list of amendments is endless, take a look through. Also follow this guy and look at his threads @jerry111165
Soil is less work in the long run. Most of the time just watering and occasionally a top dress of something specific where needed. It produces better weed than coco because of the flora of the soil - the microorganisms that break up the amendments and then feed the plant. It helps terpene development. Dont get me wrong chemical nutes can match organic for plain old thc, but when it comes to terpenes and nice balanced organic soil wins every time.
As Father has mentioned above - I fully prefer soil due to the simpleness and ease. I water every 3 - 4 days ! No need to PH the soil (Soil naturally buffers to the correct PH) and is much more forgiving!!! Although I do believe Coco is more airy and you will achieve better root zones. In conclusion, determining if soil or coco coir is better to grow in really depends on your personal goal. If you are looking to minimize time spent in the garden, soil is probably a better choice. You don't have to water as often and most soils comes pre-charged with nutrients so you don’t need to spend as much time mixing nutrients. Downsides to growing in soil are how easy it is to over-water as well as the reduced aeration by the root zone. If your goal is overall growth and yield, then coco coir is probably a better choice for you since aeration achieved at the root zone leads to more vigorous growth and the potential for a higher yield. It’s also harder to over-water your plants. You will however need to spend more time watering, mixing nutrients, and flushing the medium prior to using (if buying bricks of coco coir).
Will do. I'm taking everything you say into account here. Why do you look down on flushing for chemical grows? Isn't it good to flush out the chemicals inside of them? I'm not going to rush into anything here truth be told, because I still have the necessary Coco Coir left for 3 more feminized seeds I wanna germinate. This, and the fact that I may need to move in terms of housing by the end of next semester limits what I can do/what I want to do. I will say this though about peat. When I first got into this and made a growing journal, someone commented about how peat is very kind towards beginners. Even recommending it above Coco Coir for a beginner. I don't know much about anything concerning soil, but what you say about the top dresses being needed makes sense. I still have a fuckton of Precision Perlite left in a large bag. I guess my next question would be what are amendments? Stuff you mix into the soil for it's general health? Also, I know what earth worms are, but what role do they play in soil?
Agree with everything but this Paulo, well I agree with it in principle but I reckon the same result can be achieved with balance soil. Don't get me wrong peat can be a pain in the ass if you let it dry and then flood like most weed growers do when it comes to watering....but in an organic setting with plenty of perlite and a little water each day and then a good watering once a week, mixed with fabric pots aeration simply isn't an issue. I do think for the novice user though, its easier with coco to achieve good aeration.
Flushing makes no botanical sense whatsoever. Save as for, I suppose, the theoretical build up or inorganic salts. However the so called flush them at the end business stinks of "wash away all the money you have spent on nutes, at a time when the plants needs nutes - particularly p, k, and mg & sulfur like no other. My plants leaves are green through to the end yet no harshness in the smoke whatsoever. I see all these inorganic grows with the leaves all dead by the final week and I just think - so what what you yielded, you could have yielded more and the bud wont have all the building blocks it should have for fully natural cannabis - particularly important for medical users.
I understand what you're saying. Let me ask you this. Do you think it's better to flush them with pk or without pk? I was told I was flushing even when I had done pk mixed in solely, but I don't know the legitimacy of that statement.
I don't know. But take mg as an example, what happens when tomatoes lack mg during the end of flowering? Cannabis is very similar....
Yeah, I understand. I'm just following the advise of my fellow growers at this point. However, what you talk about makes me wonder if I should keep feeding them pk through finish. I still have 5-6 days of flushing left to go here. My ambers are currently showing.
To be fair mate, everything I say is my opinion. Yeh in term of quality of smoke I know I'm good at what I do but there are many others who yield better and probably a few who grow better quality then I and make it easier in the process. Question everything and everyone, and remember everyone is an expert in their own head - including myself. Learn things for yourself and find out what works for you. If you are going to have a go at organic simply have a go at a tried and tested format first and then start tweaking it to suit you. At the end of the day its called weed for a reason, it will grow in anything and even beginners can yield well and decent smoke too. Many of my friends scoff at organic because of what the hydro guys says an they then struggle for grow after grow with ph problems etc and dam right shit weed....then eventually they come round to organics and never look back. For a newbie, starting with inorganic makes it a big learning curve. I've gone super complex with organics with all kinds of stuff down to simply peat, perlite, EWC and bat guano. So many things work it's unreal but seen as though you are growing with yourself work at making the smoke taste, feel and look how you want. If you are doing some to sell then look at reliable methods and just copy them. Hell most shop bought tomato compost will grow really well, just water with that and repot every 3 weeks(many would say that's a bad idea but I disagree)** and then once in flower repot 3 weeks in then leave till the end. With most popular well known brands of compost you will get decent result. **many would say repotting 3 weeks into flower is a bad idea but I've never had any issues although I dont do it anymore.
Nothing but the same solid nute is used from sprout to harvest. And my plants really like it. This is the way all fertilizer should be. If a fertilizer doesn't contain everything plants need, and instead requires us to buy extraneous items, then I believe it's a bad fertilizer. Growing is error prone enough without adding needless fertilizer complexity. My biggest crop ever is being accomplished with the same 1-part fertilizer from sprout to harvest, and none of the bloom boosters, elixirs, teas, etc that people throw money at.