I have been doing the DWC route for about 6 years, mainly due to my grow being in the basement in previous house right next to water access. I have since moved and have a bigger space, but no direct water access. I was pretty successful with DWC but have since moved a plant outside in the soil and saw how amazing it's doing. Anyway, I want to switch to soil and haven't looked into it before. I'm looking for a soil that I can water and let it do its thing. I also had a question with how long soil lasts before replacing, or do you add nutrients like you would with DWC( but not as often)? Would appreciate any other tips or tricks if you have them.
I've done DWC for years as well. I started doing promix on the side with my DWC plants and feeding them the same. They shortly started to rival my DWC plants. It's just easier. You can use the same nutrients but you don't need an air pump. Feed weak and often. I feed nutrients every day. I think you might like it since you know DWC it's an easy switch over. It's still hydro and my promix plants have rivaled my DWC plants in yield as long as you finish in at least a 7 gallon smart pot. Lots of promix brands and types out there. I prowl the forums. The most highly recommended promix is promix brand HP. It comes 30% perlite out of the bail. I use sunshine promix 4 and mix it with 15% extra perlite. I think it's a superior medium to just coco. It's not nearly as picky about ph. I try to hit about 6.2 but it doesn't care as much like DWC. I mix in 2tbsp per gallon of mix of dolomite lime to help supply cal/mag and balance ph. I'm just now doing a crop that's all promix. I put all my DWC stuff away for a while. It's nice not hearing my air pump and the plant's are happier then ever. I'm 9 days since flip in a 4x4. 4 plants.
I found the feeding schedule,the smart pots, and the pro mix high porosity. My next question is, what do I do after the full cycle with the soil? Is it reusable? Or do you just buy a new bale of it? I would assume after flushing the soil would be ready for re use or am I wrong? Also what size smart pots do you use throughout the cycle.
You end up with a firmly packed ball of roots. It's hard to reuse. I have heard of techniques. You can treat the rootball with barley based pond clarifier and the word is it will dissolve. Then you can plant a new plant next to the old stem. I've been just buying new stuff each time and dumping the old at the base of some berry bushes behind my house. I usually veg with a 3 gallon and transfer to a 7 gallon about a week before flip. People complain about transplanting with smart pots. Let the plant dry out, run a garden shovel around the outside to separate the root ball from the fabric. Then grab one corner of the bottom and the stem with your other hand and pull down. It peals off pretty easy like that. I use a turbo klone 24 to start clones. They'll go from there to a small half gallon plastic pot for about 2 weeks or so and then to the 3 gallon. I run two rooms so I have about a 10 week veg before I can move those plants to the flower area.
Do you like 7 gallon better in the tent or is 5 gallon good and do you top you plants an where? Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk
C Check out the organics section, theres 2 threads there you need to read if you want to go with a water only soil mix. No-Till Gardening: Revisited Easy Organic Soil Mix for Beginners All the stickies in the organic growing section are great but those are the ones you want to start with. Escpecially the easy soil mix one.. it explains recycling and everything
7 gallon results in a much larger plant in the end. I've got about 50% more bud off of 7 gallon plants compared to 5. I never top my plants. I'm a supercrop trainer.
If you use 7 gallon fabric pots you'll find out that they're a good 6" or more shorter then 5 gallon plastic buckets. So are 10 gallon. They're the same height, just wider. It's nice to have a larger pot and gain headroom.
Wow guys thanks for the links and info, ordered my pots and nuets just need to find a good soil supplier, possibly families farm. Thanks again
If you check out many of the organic growers soil recipes like Jerry's that stickied you'll notice that many of them use promix for a base and then just add their own amendments to it. It's an excellent medium. If you're willing to bottle feed from the start you don't need soil. If you understand how soil actually feeds the plant it's like a drip feed compared to bottle feeding. In order for the plant to feed it needs organically locked nutrients to be broken down by the soil microbes. In hydro the plant just sucks up those same ingredients as much as it wants with no waiting.
Thanks I ordered 7 gallon right after I read this I want lots of room for my roots these smart pots are way better then other pots for sure Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk
I used to grow in supersoil and still grow my veggies in it. Now I grow in straight coco one gallon pots and feed multiple times a day with a 55 gallon res. The growth is amazing and it’s cheap. My nutes are $35 for 12.5# and use 10-15 grams per 5 gallons. I supplement ProTekt silica, superthrive, and SP-90 Powdered humic during veg. During Flower, I eliminate the superthrive and silica and add Flower Fuel, then finish with Himboldt Snow Country or AN Overdrive the last two weeks before a flush. Check out my journal if you would like to see how it’s going.
Well I made the switch over to ProMix HP, since my families farm provides it at cost. Took 5 babies out the cloner bucket and into the soil, they are growing great already! I can already see the ease of soil vs dwc. I might have to look into coco at some point, but for now this is where I will relax at the new house with the new grow space! Thank you all for the input, I'm switching from House and garden Aqua flakes to Advanced nutrients sensi grow and bloom, with voodoo juice, big bud, b-52 and overdrive. No more annoying PH testing every day !
I ordered 3 gallons and 7 gallons, they look like they will be perfect from veg to harvest. Now to figure out what to do with the 20 something 5 gallon buckets I have lol