Re-Using Promix HP

I'm going to be trying to grow just one plant this grow (I have only a small 2'x4'x5' tent to grow in) and have decided to use a raised bed smart pot (specifically this one: Smart Pot Urban Raised Bed – Smart Pot® (smartpots.com))

Since I have such a small tent even though that bed is 18" tall I plan on only filling it with 10 or 12" of medium cuz vertical space is at a premium. So the amount of PromixHP I will need to fill that is 2'x4'x1' = 8cuft and the promix bails (Pro-Mix HP High Porosity Professional Growing Medium w/ Mycorrhizae, 60-lb | Canadian Tire) are only about 4cuft.

Long story short is that it will cost me about $90 CDN for the 2 bails of promix which is a bit pricey for one plant, so I was wondering if there is a way to re-use the medium after a grow? I know there are products like Cannazyme that are meant for re-use of coco coir, but for this peat based pro-mix I'm just unsure if it can be used again and if so what needs to be done to use it again?

I've usually just bought new medium cuz I have been growing in 9 gallon pots, but now that I'm scaling it up so much I would really like an option to reuse the promix medium if possible. Appreciate any advice (on re-use, not on which medium to use, I love promixHP and I've tried many mediums ). Thanks

 

It's not, the 9 gallon pots gets root bound during every grow (when I would grow 2-4 plants in that tent) that's why I want to just try to use the entire space if possible for one plant of a strain that's supposedly a high yeilder (Dutch Passion: Auto Ultimate).

It's not that much more expensive then I remember, I think it might have been like $10 cheaper a few years ago, but in any case one bale would do me for a few plants since they were in 'only' 9 gallon pots.

I love promix and it works great, so I'm not going to switch to something completely different when I already have a great medium and fertilizer mix that work for me. I just want to know options for re-using it. I will look into your topdressing idea though, thank you.

 

Yes you're probably right about since it's autoflower I had totally forgotten. I have grown maybe 1 auto before (and I have about 15-20 grows under my belt, of only ever photoperiods, usually feminized), for the photos I would disagree cuz I can veg them until they are monsters and can make a plant that will be rootbound in pretty much any volume of media if I let it veg long enough.

Autoflower totally different, didn't think about it just thought about it being a free seed from a friend .. and the fact that the other autoflower grow I did was a 1.25lb yielding monster, but yeah i had no control over when it decided to start flowering and what size it would take.

I think that what I am going to try is to use the 2'x4' grow bag that I linked (partly because it's already in the mail), but only fill it with 6" of medium (which would be 4cuft =2'x4'x0.5'). Why? because it's a 5' tall tent and it takes a nightmare of LST, topping, mainlining, SCROGing, and supercropping after the stretch (because they will grow into the light otherwise), so every extra vertical inch I can get I want to take.

It takes up my whole closet (as you would imagine a 2'x4'x5' tent would) and is a real PITA to hand water when the plant(s) get big so I am looking into trying to use like a rainbird drip irrigation kit to try drip irrigation watering, have always just watered by hand but with such a large footprint I 'think' a drip system would be better. I have a programmed Arduino and soil moisture sensors already, so may as well put them back to use.

In any case, I'm still looking for advice on re-using sphagnum peat moss. What makes you say that roots are only fit for compost? Can you link to me a peer reviewed article please because I'm sorry but I just don't buy that. If you don't break them up appropriately sure that would be a problem but I don't know why the rootmass wouldn't be anything other then additional resources to the medium if broken up appropriately. If i'm wrong please I would like to know the reason (in a scientific journal).

I realize now by both of your responses, and the fact that this is like my 3rd post on this account that you probably think I'm a noob, and that's fine, but in short I forgot/lost access to this forum and had to create a new account. I have nearly 800 posts on rollitup (guitarguy10) and as I've said about 15ish grows under my belt, many of which were with Coco Coir, which is a good medium but I have come to love the simplicity and great results that simple promix HP has given me (and if you're curious I use GH FloraGro/Micro/Bloom with some Calmag in tap water that does not require being pHed cuz it comes out about 6.0-6.2 .. nothing else and no flushing that is a stupid myth, never flush! only the toilet lol).

Any and all advice on how to break up used media and how to sterilize (if that's even necessary) would be appreciated, same for drip feed irrigation and again pls provide me your sources though. Science is important and word of mouth advice on grow forums are .. terrible, usually vitriolic narcissistic replies (not you guys, your replies were good, however, you both didn't answer the question of the thread, which is probably one of my bigger pet peeves, I didn't ask about what better media to use, or ask to get into an argument about what can or can't be rootbound, I only want peer reviewed information on the reuse of sphagnum peat moss.

I apologize if this post sounds like I'm trying to be arrogant or all knowing or something. I promise you I'm not, and if you scroll through my posts on rollitup you'll see that I have had PLENTY of fuckups, of all different causes and flavours, whole crops lost, has definitely taken me some time and documenting of logs of my grows to get where I am. My statement still stands though that i want peer reviewed scientific literature on these processes/questions, not just some growers opinions.

 

Cost is the most important factor in this matter. As I said in the original post:

Long story short is that it will cost me about $90 CDN for the 2 bails of promix which is a bit pricey for one plant, so I was wondering if there is a way to re-use the medium after a grow?