Size Matter?

[Naughty.Psychonaut]

what about cubes? 

I don't mean we must measure the soil in cubic cm, I think in general a certain amount of soil is easier to guage by "the size" of it. 

like a certain size bag filled to the top will only be able to have that amount in, if you put wet soil dry soil heavy soil light soil, you fill it up and call it "a full bag of soil".

because of the fact that we're dealing with soil we can't really call it Liter or Kilograms, because it's not always gona weigh the same. 

[Naughty.Psychonaut]

4 hours ago, The_StonedTrooper said:

Was only wondering, if you would prefer more at the same cost in the bag, or the same amount for less, which ever your flavor or taste. 

I like the taste of the same size bag for cheaper flavour

...the bag I use now happens to be ff and I think important to note I am not moving to another brand because it will be cheaper only, it has to be the same quality too  

so the answer isn't just one or the other for me and I don't think for most of us, sorry we went off topic brother! 

[PsyCLown]

I guess as a soil absorbs water, it expands in size and therefore in liters.

Like coco, you can purchase a 5KG brick and it is small in size but then expands to 50L+ when added to water.

 

I think it is fine to keep the size the same but reduce the price. People are use to 30L bags for soil.

Coco typically comes in different sizes, typically 45L to 60L so no standard there really.

 

Makes sense to state that the bag is x L when at a specific moisture percentage though.

Also how compact the soil is plays a role too, I always fill up my pots, shake them and bang them on the floor and then top them up again.

[Naughty.Psychonaut]

Just now, PsyCLown said:

I guess as a soil absorbs water, it expands in size and therefore in liters.

watering also causes compaction, like our pots always seem to have less and less soil in the longer you been watering it down, so it can just aswell shrink the medium in size

[PsyCLown]

10 minutes ago, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

watering also causes compaction, like our pots always seem to have less and less soil in the longer you been watering it down, so it can just aswell shrink the medium in size

Yea, most certainly. Watering after putting soil in the pot helps to compact it a bit.

 

Lots of reasons not to use weight for soil. Therefore liters makes a bit more sense.

[The_StonedTrooper]

1 hour ago, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

because of the fact that we're dealing with soil we can't really call it Liter

Agreed, but you can call a Litre a size, just the same as a cube, wet or dry.

[The_StonedTrooper]

1 hour ago, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

I like the taste of the same size bag for cheaper flavour

...the bag I use now happens to be ff and I think important to note I am not moving to another brand because it will be cheaper only, it has to be the same quality too  

so the answer isn't just one or the other for me and I don't think for most of us, sorry we went off topic brother! 

Yeah, exactly, like your favorite, FF telling you, we can give you the same amount, for less at X, or a little more for the same price?

 

[The_StonedTrooper]

1 hour ago, PsyCLown said:

I guess as a soil absorbs water, it expands in size and therefore in liters.

This is slightly true, but also not, as you know when you water it compacts it too.

 

1 hour ago, PsyCLown said:

Like coco, you can purchase a 5KG brick and it is small in size but then expands to 50L+ when added to water.

Unfortunately that has been compressed, and is a different matter all together,

Most soils, when wet, will pull / pool together and look less, as there is less air in there now, my understanding. 

[Naughty.Psychonaut]

7 minutes ago, The_StonedTrooper said:

Agreed, but you can call a Litre a size, just the same as a cube, wet or dry.

yeah like a 30L bag is our "general measurement" and is more accurate than saying 30kg bag like Psy said. 

 

3 minutes ago, The_StonedTrooper said:

Yeah, exactly, like your favorite, FF telling you, we can give you the same amount, for less at X, or a little more for the same price?

 

ok ok lets see, so I wouldn't mind if they just filled up the 30L bag but kept the price the same, seems like that would be the easier thing to do. I agree about not wanting a bigger bag though, so just that little bit at the top, I don't know if thats gona be enough to fill the 30L material pot. if I had a old plastic FF bag laying around I would've checked as I have a couple bins of it recycled, can fill a bag to the brim then throw it all in a pot and see how much it will be. although, as you already know it will compact in the pot over time after many waterings. 

[The_StonedTrooper]

9 minutes ago, Naughty.Psychonaut said:

yeah like a 30L bag is our "general measurement" and is more accurate than saying 30kg bag like Psy said. 

 

ok ok lets see, so I wouldn't mind if they just filled up the 30L bag but kept the price the same, seems like that would be the easier thing to do. I agree about not wanting a bigger bag though, so just that little bit at the top, I don't know if thats gona be enough to fill the 30L material pot. if I had a old plastic FF bag laying around I would've checked as I have a couple bins of it recycled, can fill a bag to the brim then throw it all in a pot and see how much it will be. although, as you already know it will compact in the pot over time after many waterings. 

Also very hard to check by filling a 30L empty bag, as I did this and came out with enough soil to fill up an actual liquid volume 45L tote to almost full, so you can squeeze way more than what is in there already from factory. 

[Bay Seeds]

Save money on soil and get these two. Takes the guesswork out and you can dial in the soil. I got 200L of soil at R21 per bag of 20L at my local Agri. The tap water in my area is 170 - 200 ppm and 7.9 pH. Get a big container and make a large amount of 6.0 pH water and nutes at 800 - 1000ppm.

Flush your new soil with a hosepipe outside until the runoff is 300 - 400ppm.  Then water with the new batch of pH corrected water. Getting a pH pen speeds this up a bunch, but the drops work fine. Paying for FF OR OLX soil just gets too expensive in the long run.  My Darkstar seedlings got burnt to shit with orgasoilux and I just decided fuck that. Buying your own perlite and vermiculite still works out cheaper. 

 

[Naughty.Psychonaut]

12 hours ago, The_StonedTrooper said:

Also very hard to check by filling a 30L empty bag, as I did this and came out with enough soil to fill up an actual liquid volume 45L tote to almost full, so you can squeeze way more than what is in there already from factory. 

woah! I was just about to say that the little bit at the top might not be enough to fill a 30L pot/bag, this is why I was thinking the size of the soil bags sold might have to increase, but you're saying it can fill even more than that without making the bag any bigger? 

well.... uuh now see ..... now I would like to change my answer. I would like to get a full 30L bag for same price  

[Naughty.Psychonaut]

10 hours ago, Bay Seeds said:

Save money on soil and get these two. Takes the guesswork out and you can dial in the soil. I got 200L of soil at R21 per bag of 20L at my local Agri. The tap water in my area is 170 - 200 ppm and 7.9 pH. Get a big container and make a large amount of 6.0 pH water and nutes at 800 - 1000ppm.

Flush your new soil with a hosepipe outside until the runoff is 300 - 400ppm.  Then water with the new batch of pH corrected water. Getting a pH pen speeds this up a bunch, but the drops work fine. Paying for FF OR OLX soil just gets too expensive in the long run.  My Darkstar seedlings got burnt to shit with orgasoilux and I just decided fuck that. Buying your own perlite and vermiculite still works out cheaper. 

 

this is cool information, might even run a little testy test myself what do you do about soil composition? besides adding perlite and/or vermiculite do you sieve anything out or you just choose the right bags off the get go? for instance, i've bought cheap potting soil from the commercial nursery only to have about a 2:1:1 mix of grit sand, bark and some halfway decomposed leaves ....

this was way way back before really growing my own weed and not knowing a thing about soil, I thought it was the best damn thing, needless to say it wasn't. because of the heavy amount of bark the N levels kept rising over time and the soil compacted like a mother cause of all the fine dust from all the load of sand in the mix. drainage worked well for the first month or so till the bark became a sludge and together with the compaction created a whole anaerobic mess and basically I ended up with mud. 

I guess to do what you're doing one already needs to have a basic understanding of soil and what to shoot for and what to avoid. 

[StonerZN]

Same size for less money pls!
Makes it easier for peeps to see they are saving money when volume is the same.
Dont ask stoners to work out prices/litre in their heads yo.

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk

[Bay Seeds]

I dont know how much of each nutrient is in my new soil. So after I mix in my perlite and vermiculite I do an aggresive flush untill most of the water soluble nutrients are flushed or leeched out. Every time you will get a lower reading on the runoff until the ppm gets to about 300ppm. I then just start a brand new feeding scedule with new nutrients in ph corrected water.

[Bay Seeds]

Im really concidering switching to only coco or hydro. Just seems easiest to measure. With soil there is always at least one fuckup during the grow. 

 

[PsyCLown]

18 hours ago, Bay Seeds said:

Im really concidering switching to only coco or hydro. Just seems easiest to measure. With soil there is always at least one fuckup during the grow. 

 

I was just going to say, you may as well try coco then which is inert and will give you full control over the nutes you're feeding to the plants and coco can be cheaper than "cannabis soil".

Purchase some 5KG bricks, expand, buffer and use. With coco you need to be on point with your PH though as there isn't anything in the coco to help bufer the PH, I would recommend a high quality PH pen.

[greenkush]

18 hours ago, Bay Seeds said:

Im really concidering switching to only coco or hydro. Just seems easiest to measure. With soil there is always at least one fuckup during the grow. 

 

It's only a fuckup if you tinkering with the soil constantly or it was formulated incorrectly to start, coco can go south extremely fast. I've grown in all mediums, if you have the patience to hydrate and buffer your own coco it's a no brainer. I've however gotten lazy in my old age and rather just buy FF soil now and run with it.