I have a 4x8 area with 3 plants on the full line up of Future Harvest nutrients, and 4 plants in Gaia Green. The Gaia Green plants are keeping up with, or in some cases are doing better than the synthetic plants. This is just barely anecdotal evidence as this is my first grow in a very long time so skill and knowledge should be considered.
I didn't think the Gaia in coco would/should work due to the coco being an inert medium. I was told it shouldn't work, I understood why, but my father mixed Gaia with coco after seeing it done on youtube, and I saw first hand through him that it did in fact seem to work well with such minimal effort and ingredients.
Using Botanicare Coco-Gro prewashed/preloaded coco mixed with perlite 70/30, I mixed the all purpose 4-4-4 at 4tbsp/gal and diatomaceous earth at about 8tbsp/gal (which I later learned doesn't do what I think it does in that way when wet, but can be a source of silica?). I pre-watered and mixed this for about 2 weeks as I read it takes a couple weeks to start to break down and become available to the plants.
While that was going on, I had already started the seeds in plain coco, and when it was ready I transplanted them up from clear plastic cups inside solo cups to 1gal pots with the all purpose coco. I dusted the roots with Myco Jordan mycorrhizal inoculant and have been watering with tap water. I transplanted up to 3gal pots with the same all purpose soil.
While vegging these under a 600watt mh lamp, I premixed power bloom 2-8-4 in the same way as the 4-4-4 above, I then lined 7gal pots with this soil, and transplanted the 3gal plants into these a week before I flipped to flower.
From my notes, it looks like I've top dressed twice since the transplant with 2-8-4 at 2tbsp per gal. Once around end of week 2, and once at beginning of week 5.
One of the heavier feeding plants I have seemed to be showing some Cal-Mag issues (but I also am very poor at diagnosing problems), so I watered in some Organical (Future Harvest OMRI certified). I'm Mid-Week 7 now and am still very happy with what I am seeing!
I don't know if pre-watering the mix had any benefit, or if the Myco Jordan's even worked since I only used it twice during transplants, of if microbial life just forms because life grows everywhere, but something is getting the food into these plants even without an living medium.
I am considering for my next round:
- Plain 70/30 coco with Happy Frog for seedlings.
- Plain 70/30 coco with FFOF or Gaia's Living Soil for early veg.
- Premixed Gaia 4-4-4 coco with FFOF or Gaia living soil for late veg transplants.
- Premixed Gaia 2-8-4 coco with FFOF or Gaia living soil for flower.
- Top dressing with Gaia as needed.
- Blumats with pressure reducer and city tap water. (My tap water comes out at 6.8 to 7.0 and has very low PPM. Chlorine is used here as well but also very low).
Thanks!
