Should you grow in soil or coir ?
Are HPS better or worse than LED ?
What are correct PH ranges for soil&coir?
- LET'S TALK.
Personally I’ve only ever grown in coir with HID lighting.
Coir - IMO.
pH should be kept as close to 5.8 as possible without going below 5.5 or above 6.2 as with coir its an inert medium meaning there is very little nutrient benefit from the coir alone.
Holding within this pH range allows all the nutrients to be available for uptake.
When you know coir well enough you can tailor the pH to allow an easier uptake of certain nutrients. Such as 5.5 for better Ca uptake, 6.0 for better Mg uptake etc
Over time it can hold on to Calcium and Potassium. So most coco nutrients tend to have a higher amount of Ca and K to compensate for this feature.
I find nutrients with Ca around 3-5% and Mg around 1-2% tend to work the best.
I like higher N feeds around 3-4% nitrogen.
EC testing nutrient solution and comparing it to run off EC can help you understand how the plant is feeding as far as nutrient strength is concerned.
If your EC increases coming out as runoff then it’s a pretty good indicator that your nutrients are mixed too strong.
EC decreasing by more than -0.2 in the runoff then increase your strength next time.
I transplant 3 times in total. Small Dixie cup to start seeds, then into 1gallon pot and then finally into a 4 gallon pot.
I use straight coco coir that’s been pre buffered and out of the bag reads 1.2EC canna coco pro.
During seedling stage I water every few days when the surface becomes dry.
Once I transplant into 1G I water every other day and continue this until harvest making sure I achieve approx 20% runoff of what’s gone in.
Try not to let coco coir dry out too much as it can cause accumulation of salt build up as crystals.
A good nutrient line along with the ability to add additional Ca and Mg when required (I use canna mono Ca and Epsom Salts) as I find during flowering additional Ca and Mg is required to keep nice healthy green leaves through the heavy flowering stages.
Let’s talk!
What are you experiences with coco or soil?
I use a 250w CFL 6400k for seedling stage.
Switch to 400w MH during veg and first 2 weeks of 12/12.
Then to a 400w HPS for the remainder of flowering.
Never used LED before but I am intrigued by them.
