I am going to grow with soil but I do have some coco coir as well. I tried growing with coco but I failed so I want to try soil now. Would anyone advise against mixing a bit of coco wit soil? Or should I just stick to soil alone? Would it be harder to grow with a mix? Would I have problems with ph since soil should be 6.8(?) and coco 5.8?
If you amend soil with coco, then you stick with a soil ph range. Coco only needs 5.8 ph when its used alone (excluding perilite and the other coco amendments we use) since coco by itself is considered hydro since its an inert medium.
Ok I see. do you think, lets say I mix soil and coco at about 80/20, would that be any better than just soil? Would it complicate my grow in any way? What do you think is best?
Sorry to hijack your thread. Can you use coco bricks and mix them with dry fertilizers outdoors? Thanks
Adding coco to your soil will help with water retention and aeration. Im not sure what ratio you should use ( i think it's between 10 and 20%). Using coco as an amendment to soil should not complicate things very much or if at all. One thing to know is coco will break down and release some potassium. Sure.
Ok cool thanks guys. I would add perlite as well. So 70soil/20coco/10perlite, would the coco cause problems with mag and cal? Like I think its not a lot of coco to cause problems.
Ok I see, thanks man. I do think it will be minor, but im sure some mollasses and epsom salt would suffice.
OK, just noticed this thread is a little old, but came up on, yep, the search. I found when I mixed too much coco with my soil (re-used FFOF), worm castings and perlite, say more than 30%, the soil mix wouldn't hold water. I'm assuming also that all that coco material mixed in with the roots doesn't have near the nutrient content as when it is replaced castings, compost or whatever other soil amendment? And maybe coco holds water well when it's a solid coco mass? So, too much coco in soil mix means more watering and more nutrients need to be put in the water. Am I interpreting my recent experiences correctly?
You can amendment the same organic soil amendments to coco. Soil,IMO, is not needed. Soil is needed if you don't want to water frequently. Yes, to much coco/perlite in the soil means more watering. That's why I go 100% coco and water every day or every other day. I think of it as hand watered organic hydro. Coco rules!
So I got a question.. Can I use Coco coir as a replacement for peat in an amended soil mix without having to resort to any "bottled nutes" later? I was thinking a Mix of something like Coco, pumice, kelp meal, worm castings, high p bat guano, dolomite lime, alfalfa meal & Neem cake should work.. But have no experience with coco & also wanted to know if a PH meter etc would be absolutely necessary? Because using a similar mix with peat I have not needed any soil PH meters or any of that gunk (bottled nutes).
That mixture should work just fine. Hell I would ditch the soil and go with coco and all the mentioned amendments. As for the PH if you are going to stick with just coco then you will have to make sure your water is between 5.6-6.2 so you don't run into deficiency issues. I use a dropper ph tester and not a digital one and I get great results and save money. If you are going to mix coco with soil then I say keep doing what you're doing and not use a ph meter.
Cool thanks for the help man, I have a PH dropper tester as well & it was a reasonable enough price compared to the PH soil testers (which I hear can be a major pain in the ass anyways).
Yeah the soil testers are crap. Fun fact: you can use a freshwater aquarium tester for soil applications. $2.50 at most.
Check out roots organics coco mix, it's baller. Has everything you'd want. The light organic amendments help feed the plant earlier on, and provide a boost after each transplant. Pure water can be used for periods of time but it would be best to apply an organic nutrient system to the coco mix once the starter charge has been consumed and washed out. General organics is the nutrient line I prefer. Their ancient forest amendment would be ideal to include periodically to maintain the myco population. The system is fairly inexpensive despite having 6 ingredients. The supplements are used sparingly and a quart will last for 400 gallons or so. The primary nutrients, biothrive grow and bloom, will get you about 40 or 50 gallons per quart, but you don't have to feed very often with the grow because of the charge in the coco mix. Double doses on the bloom is common though so stock up on that. I am a big fan of coco+organics. The spongy structure of the coco peat provides footholds for beneficial microbes to establish themselves in. To amend this mixture completely I would suggest some composted cow manure and worm castings tilled into the top maybe once every two weeks.
I've been playing the soil coco mix game for the last three years. After a dozen mixes I settled on 1 bag Roots 1bag FFOF 1 bag Wiggle Worm 1 Bag Coco. (Bio-bizz has been working well, canna and atami were good too but I'm convinced I can use botanicare bricks and will this time around) 1 cup blood meal (I mix this with the worm castings and then mix that with the coco to insure good distribution) 1 cup Peace of mind Fruit and flower (same mixing as blood meal) I feed this mix with a strong compost tea when I transplant. This mix gets around a lot of the problems mentioned so far. The drying effect of too much coco is probably caused by lack of microbes that is fixed by the castings and tea. The ph, cal, phosphorus issues common with coco are conquered by the peat and compost in castings, Roots and FFOF. The POM beefs the coco up so your not just diluting your soil while the blood feeds the microbe explosion (without it a good AACT can strip the N from the soil...in fact I use one to start a flush again at week 7). Finally NUTRIENTS are the key to a good coco soil mix. Unless you are using huge pots (I use 2 gallon smart pots) no soil is gonna hold enough nutrients for 2 months. Instead of feeding hard at the end I feed constant every watering. This makes the feeding extremely consistent and the plants love it. I use Feeding starts on day 7 flower A 50 gallon reservoir gets 2 shots cal mag (switch to 0-0-0 cal product at week 5) 1-5 shots Flora Nova Bloom (extra shot of bloom each week till week) 1 shot Diamond Nectar 1 shot GH Organics Kelp 1 cup aquashield Week 6 gets a shot of hydroplex or overdrive If extra N is needed in early flower I use equal parts fish emulsions, cal mag and flora nova veg @ 500-750 ppm The most vigorous plants get hand watered with this blend and a little extra Bloom if needed a few times (week 4-6) at 800 ish ppm A bottle of each does 4000 watts for $100 ($200 the first time if you use the GH organics, hydroplex, fish emulsions and 0-0-0 cal) + 70ish for soil Optional variations Use liquid karma instead of kelp and diamond for first 2 weeks or full grow if you can afford it Use equal parts Flora Nova and GH Organics Bloom Use Botanicare line at 400-800 ppm I have been amazed at the results of the tea (leads me to think pasteurizing and sterilizing are bad ideas). To brew the tea attach an air stone to the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, put 2 ish cups of compost (just earthworm castings or a bag of traditional compost are fine but mixed together is better) in a panty hose. Put the panty hose in the bucket with water and knead the compost till the water is filthy. Add 10-20 ml cal mag (depending on your tap water...mine is 70-100 ppm), 5 ml kelp and a tablespoon of any sugar (i use brown). Bubble it for 24 hours. It should smell like dirt/aquarium not rancid or sulfury. Stir the sludge from the bottom into the mix and pour on the soil mix or over the soil.
Hey man, I mixed coco and soil just because I new I wouldn't have been able to water them every day... Which worked out while I was feeding her nutes. I started the flush almost two weeks ago, which is when these picks were taken. I would take a current pick, but she's sleeping until the morning. All I did differently was flush the soil a bit more during veg and added veg nutes like a week or two before flower. Oh, and this little girl is some jolly rancher, seeds I got 6 years ago from some hum opt herb! Figured they were all dead, so I threw six in and this was the only one that sprouted... Happened to be a female!!!! Richous!