Should a beginner start with soil?

[StonerZN]

But if you know yourself and you're a lazy cunt... Hydro is not the way for you. 

That's my R1 to this take

This passage speaks to me in multiple ways
Could be a very valuable R1 that.

Full of enthusiasm, but distracted along the way. Need something forgiving that can handle a day or 2 of neglect from time to time ideally.



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[TheUltimateNoob]

Need something forgiving that can handle a day or 2 of neglect from time to time ideally.



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Soil would be the way in that case

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[PsyCLown]

This passage speaks to me in multiple ways
Could be a very valuable R1 that.

Full of enthusiasm, but distracted along the way. Need something forgiving that can handle a day or 2 of neglect from time to time ideally.



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Both coco and soil would work for you then I feel.

As long as you continue to water before the medium becomes too dry.
If that does happen, coco is easier to rehydrate than soil. With soil, the water sits on top for a lot longer before being drawn into the soil, with the coco it draws the water in more willingly and seems to spread the water around better to.
I use to hate having to try water a plant I let dry out a bit too much in soil. Took forever.
But shit happens, we get busy and plants get neglected at times a bit.

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[StonerZN]

Shew. I have flip flopped in my mind so much about this topic... 

Decision time is upon me though, seeds are ordered and will soon be on the way!

Because LED lights (where I want to be eventually) are so expensive I've decided to start a run outdoors to try get myself some homegrown sooner and cheaper.

I have ordered some really really nice (and pretty pricy) Auto Flowers from B&B in an effort to hopefully further speed up the process.

 

So... Outdoors and Auto's...

 

I'm leaning towards one of the Freedom Farms bags... Still unsure which of their Coco-perlite/ Premium /Formula 1 to go with though.

Not gonna have an EC or PH pen for a few more months if this impacts the advice you all may be willing to give on the matter.

Thinking BioBizz for nutes. 

Thanks again for all the advice I have received so far and in advance for what is yet to come 

[PsyCLown]

8 minutes ago, StonerZN said:

Shew. I have flip flopped in my mind so much about this topic... 

Decision time is upon me though, seeds are ordered and will soon be on the way!

Because LED lights (where I want to be eventually) are so expensive I've decided to start a run outdoors to try get myself some homegrown sooner and cheaper.

I have ordered some really really nice (and pretty pricy) Auto Flowers from B&B in an effort to hopefully further speed up the process.

 

So... Outdoors and Auto's...

 

I'm leaning towards one of the Freedom Farms bags... Still unsure which of their Coco-perlite/ Premium /Formula 1 to go with though.

Not gonna have an EC or PH pen for a few more months if this impacts the advice you all may be willing to give on the matter.

Thinking BioBizz for nutes. 

Thanks again for all the advice I have received so far and in advance for what is yet to come 

Coco or hydro without a proper pH pen is not a good idea at all. EC pen you can get away without one, they are cheap though and you do not need a fancy EC pen.

Do not skimp on a PH pen.

 

So with that being said, soil might make a bit more sense. I'd then go with the premium soil.

 

When you are growing indoors, give coco a try (once you have a proper PH pen, something like the HM Digital PH pen).

[Prom]

You need to Ph Coco.. no way around.. FF Premium with BioBizz range will do for outdoor. Should be a smooth cruise.. you want to start in November.. depending on strain time, early Nov for 12 week plants, mid Nov for Fast ones, 8 to 10 week strains. Would be my input..

[StonerZN]

2 minutes ago, PsyCLown said:

Coco or hydro without a proper pH pen is not a good idea at all. EC pen you can get away without one, they are cheap though and you do not need a fancy EC pen.

Do not skimp on a PH pen.

 

So with that being said, soil might make a bit more sense. I'd then go with the premium soil.

 

When you are growing indoors, give coco a try (once you have a proper PH pen, something like the HM Digital PH pen).

Definitely the plan long term. For now cheap is more important. 

Thinking going Premium for now will buy me time to save for pens and such

[afternoon blazer]

24 minutes ago, StonerZN said:

Definitely the plan long term. For now cheap is more important. 

Thinking going Premium for now will buy me time to save for pens and such

What up bud.

So easiest would be soil. As it doesnt require alot of precision in terms of ph and feeding . Etc.

The freedom farms premium clasic soil (green bag) is the shit. Everywhere i go. People have positive things to say about it.

Biobizz is also a topshelf product. But that comes with price. They also have a large full range. But i think the 4 important nutez woukd be

Fishmix

Grow

Bloom

Topmax

 

I would also reccomend fabric pots. Works well.

 

All said and done. Should be a good recipe for success.

[PsyCLown]

15 minutes ago, afternoon blazer said:

What up bud.

So easiest would be soil. As it doesnt require alot of precision in terms of ph and feeding . Etc.

The freedom farms premium clasic soil (green bag) is the shit. Everywhere i go. People have positive things to say about it.

Biobizz is also a topshelf product. But that comes with price. They also have a large full range. But i think the 4 important nutez woukd be

Fishmix

Grow

Bloom

Topmax

 

I would also reccomend fabric pots. Works well.

 

All said and done. Should be a good recipe for success.

Out of those 4, only 2 are really vital as far as I am concerned and if someone is on a budget.

 

Fishmix or Grow (don't need both)

Bloom

 

 

Topmax seems to just be humic & fulvic acids - you can get these pretty cheaply at a few places. Organics Matter sell it, I got some from them a while back. It will last forever!

 

You can get by 100% with just FIsh mix and Bloom, although if you'd prefer you can get Grow and Bloom, grow can be used during flower a bit but I do not see why you'd want to do that, especially in soil. Fish mix I believe is a bit better for veg though.

 

If it were me and based on my previous experience, I would get fish mix & bloom only. leave out the Grow and source humic & fulvic acids elsewhere if you want to use them.

[afternoon blazer]

1 hour ago, PsyCLown said:

Out of those 4, only 2 are really vital as far as I am concerned and if someone is on a budget.

 

Fishmix or Grow (don't need both)

Bloom

 

 

Topmax seems to just be humic & fulvic acids - you can get these pretty cheaply at a few places. Organics Matter sell it, I got some from them a while back. It will last forever!

 

You can get by 100% with just FIsh mix and Bloom, although if you'd prefer you can get Grow and Bloom, grow can be used during flower a bit but I do not see why you'd want to do that, especially in soil. Fish mix I believe is a bit better for veg though.

 

If it were me and based on my previous experience, I would get fish mix & bloom only. leave out the Grow and source humic & fulvic acids elsewhere if you want to use them.

Getting the range from the sane product line helps when feeding. As u can follow a dedicated table. 

I personally only have grow. Bloom and topmax. I use  seagrow as a substitute for the fish mix.

@Prom highly reccomends the 4 biobizz products mentioned above. 

But as @PsyCLown mentioned u can get away with less and cheaper options. 

 

[StonerZN]

At least I can finally cast my vote in this poll now  

You folk have been amazing. 

Now to start a thread to sort out the rest of my shopping list.

[Psylecta]

On 8/28/2020 at 2:43 PM, Fridgedoor said:

I totally agree with this statement @PsyCLown. At least when it comes to mixing the soil yourself.

On the other hand starting to grow with some good premixed soil like for example FF soil plus using the biobizz range is pretty much fool proof (if you stick to the feeding table).

Beginner growers tend to try and invent a new wheel instead of sticking to proven grow technics. Or they try to safe and buy crappy soil from the nursery around the corner. IMO these are big contributing factors why some beginners struggle with their soil grow.

I'm one of those growers lol not trying to reinvent the wheel but rather see how it looks with a pair of mags lol

Im experimenting to find the sweetspot between soil & soiless, basically got my pots with different ratios of both (coco/perlite/chunky vermiculite and prepared organic backyard soil) so far 1/3 organic + 2/3 soiless working well for me

I enjoy having the ph buffer of soil but the aeration qualities of my soil is bad, holds way too much water/stays wet too long & makes roots work super hard which is why I love coco & petlite cause they super fluffy/airy and help make the soil more fluffy

The cannapro premix is decent, (gonna try freedom farms next) I just add chunky vermiculite if using just that, works wonders for vegetative growth only downside to only using soiless is constant amendments and feeding + lack of pH buffer which is why I mix the two or if used on its ace just add organic ferts to it while I grow slowly turning it into organic soil

[Fridge]

@Psylecta, I guess there’s nothing wrong with trying something new as long as you're prepared to pay the school fees ;). I do experiment myself quite a bit. Thinking out of the box is how new things get invented. However one needs to prepare for possible failure.

You mentioned you are going to try Freedom Farms next. I never went wrong with their soil. However I only recently found out Jamie's has got a soilmix too. It's slightly more expensive but the ingedrients used seem unique to me. I spoke to him about it and it seems they really put a lot of research into their stuff. I just mention it as I never saw anyone on here talking about it or trying it. 

https://www.jamiesgardenshop.co.za/shop/orgasoilux-potting-soil-premium-living-earth-blend-30l/

Has anyone tried this soil already? If so how did it work for you?

Edited October 2, 2020 by Fridgedoor

[PsyCLown]

A lot of the soils which are used for cannabis contain some coco and perlite too.
When you start adding amendments to coco, I feel it starts to become a soil and isn't really coco anymore.

The perk and benefit to coco is the fact that its inert, it gives you full control over what you feed your plants. The way it retains water and air is also fantastic.

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[GGG]

I was thinking about this topic this week again, I did a RDWC grow and then a few coco/perlite grows with GH and Greenhouse powder nutes and then Living soil, sooo when I started with the soil I had abit of growing experience behind me. The soil was super easy because its just plain water that needs to be used.
I have a system now where I use the FF Premium Classic in 1L tubs for rooted cutting for 3-4 weeks with just water and then I use the FF Custom Crafted Soil when reporting into bigger pots and that soil can just be watered till harvest time, no ammendments needed.
I have used@SkunkPharm soil and the Orgasoil mix from Jamie 's, they all very simular and I can recommend any of them.
Took some coco/perlite/peat moss mix and added that soil amendment from Jamie's ( at 100ml/L of substrate) and trying that on next run.
But I haven't tried any other cheaper soil or compost mix from a nursery yet, I was advised against .
All the tried and tested soils cost between R170-220 a bag. Cost per plant
Soil - R200
Pot - R100
Plant/seed - R200
Electricity -
+- R500 to harvest between 40-100g is not bad.

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[Psylecta]

4 hours ago, Fridgedoor said:

@Psylecta, I guess there’s nothing wrong with trying something new as long as you're prepared to pay the school fees ;). I do experiment myself quite a bit. Thinking out of the box is how new things get invented. However one needs to prepare for possible failure.

You mentioned you are going to try Freedom Farms next. I never went wrong with their soil. However I only recently found out Jamie's has got a soilmix too. It's slightly more expensive but the ingedrients used seem unique to me. I spoke to him about it and it seems they really put a lot of research into their stuff. I just mention it as I never saw anyone on here talking about it or trying it. 

https://www.jamiesgardenshop.co.za/shop/orgasoilux-potting-soil-premium-living-earth-blend-30l/

Has anyone tried this soil already? If so how did it work for you?

I've seen this on hydrobiz, didn't expect them to be local though, so that's a plus, just looking at the packaging I thought it was imported premium 

An extra 20/50 bucks for proper organic not bad at all in my book, especially if you only need a bag or two

Gonna post some pics of the grow later

[afternoon blazer]

8 hours ago, GGG said:

I was thinking about this topic this week again, I did a RDWC grow and then a few coco/perlite grows with GH and Greenhouse powder nutes and then Living soil, sooo when I started with the soil I had abit of growing experience behind me. The soil was super easy because its just plain water that needs to be used.
I have a system now where I use the FF Premium Classic in 1L tubs for rooted cutting for 3-4 weeks with just water and then I use the FF Custom Crafted Soil when reporting into bigger pots and that soil can just be watered till harvest time, no ammendments needed.
I have used@SkunkPharm soil and the Orgasoil mix from Jamie 's, they all very simular and I can recommend any of them.
Took some coco/perlite/peat moss mix and added that soil amendment from Jamie's ( at 100ml/L of substrate) and trying that on next run.
But I haven't tried any other cheaper soil or compost mix from a nursery yet, I was advised against .
All the tried and tested soils cost between R170-220 a bag. Cost per plant
Soil - R200
Pot - R100
Plant/seed - R200
Electricity -
+- R500 to harvest between 40-100g is not bad.

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Forgot the nutez bro

I use nutez with my freedom farms. Call it R100 worth per plant

Edited October 2, 2020 by afternoon blazer

[GGG]

Forgot the nutez bro
I use nutez with my freedom farms. Call it R100 worth per plant

With the FF Green bag you need nutes but not with the FF Custom Craft, but you can add nutes in flower like the Fire Juice or Biobizz Bloom.
I have used it with out nutes and end result was acceptable.

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