First grow, mix coco or perlite in the soil?

Blossom21

Blossom21

Active Member
I have mostly BioBizz All Mix soil ready (inc. 20% sphagnum peat moss, 35% garden peat, 10% worm manure, 30% perlite and 5% ‘pre-mix), what kind of mix should i make as a first timer so i would have a little more forgiving medium (so i wouldn't have to worry about PH and nutes so much, ofc i have nutes for later)?

I also have coco and some perlite, i would imagine they you could create more airy medium but not sure what would be a good balance.
 
Weouthere

Weouthere

Well-Known Member
I just used FFOF/perlite mixed at like 60/40 ratio. Works great, haven’t had to add anything yet!
You can mix coco and perlite in with soil as well
 
Skunk Baxter

Skunk Baxter

Well-Known Member
If it's your first run, I'd suggest you just keep it simple. That pre-mixed medium you're starting out with sounds pretty complicated already. Remember, each ingredient you add to your mix is going to change the overall characteristics of the medium. Right? I mean, that's why you're adding them. If this is your first time growing and your first time working with that starting mix, how can you possibly know what things about it you want to change? Plus, once you get your grow underway (and, after it's finished), how will you know which changes you made were positive changes, and which ones were undesirable? You have to just guess, and you have way too many variables to narrow it down.

Making it more complicated than it has to be your first time out is asking for trouble. Keep it simple, spend the next 3 or 4 months getting familiar with the medium you've chosen, learn everything you can from what you're doing, and then start thinking of what you'd like to see it do differently.
 
Weouthere

Weouthere

Well-Known Member
Skunk Baxter said:
If it's your first run, I'd suggest you just keep it simple. That pre-mixed medium you're starting out with sounds pretty complicated already. Remember, each ingredient you add to your mix is going to change the overall characteristics of the medium. Right? I mean, that's why you're adding them. If this is your first time growing and your first time working with that starting mix, how can you possibly know what things about it you want to change? Plus, once you get your grow underway (and, after it's finished), how will you know which changes you made were positive changes, and which ones were undesirable? You have to just guess, and you have way too many variables to narrow it down.

Making it more complicated than it has to be your first time out is asking for trouble. Keep it simple, spend the next 3 or 4 months getting familiar with the medium you've chosen, learn everything you can from what you're doing, and then start thinking of what you'd like to see it do differently.
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My first grow I tried to do coco and it was way too complicated.
For this first “real grow” I just used ffof and perlite and I haven’t had to do anything except water it.
Make it easy on yourself when you’re learning all you can do is get better from there
 
Blossom21

Blossom21

Active Member
Skunk Baxter said:
If it's your first run, I'd suggest you just keep it simple. That pre-mixed medium you're starting out with sounds pretty complicated already. Remember, each ingredient you add to your mix is going to change the overall characteristics of the medium. Right? I mean, that's why you're adding them. If this is your first time growing and your first time working with that starting mix, how can you possibly know what things about it you want to change? Plus, once you get your grow underway (and, after it's finished), how will you know which changes you made were positive changes, and which ones were undesirable? You have to just guess, and you have way too many variables to narrow it down.

Making it more complicated than it has to be your first time out is asking for trouble. Keep it simple, spend the next 3 or 4 months getting familiar with the medium you've chosen, learn everything you can from what you're doing, and then start thinking of what you'd like to see it do differently.
Click to expand...
Yeah the soil sounds a little bit complicated and should have nutes ready in it for a couple of weeks at least. I'm just asking from experienced guys here if it's a good idea to add coco or perlite to make a good medium out of it? My friend runs 50% the same soil and 50% coco and recommended it to me after his grow. Just wanna make sure i'm in right direction, so all knowledge is appreciated! :)
 
Blossom21

Blossom21

Active Member
Fishface1977 said:
You do have to worry about ph. If the water you are using to feed them is ph 9 or something then it will greatly hinder your grow.
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Yeah i know at least that, i have ph- so i can adjust my PH to at least 7 or lower since my tap water is a little bit higher. I'm just undecided on my growing medium.
 
Skunk Baxter

Skunk Baxter

Well-Known Member
Blossom21 said:
Yeah the soil sounds a little bit complicated and should have nutes ready in it for a couple of weeks at least. I'm just asking from experienced guys here if it's a good idea to add coco or perlite to make a good medium out of it? My friend runs 50% the same soil and 50% coco and recommended it to me after his grow. Just wanna make sure i'm in right direction, so all knowledge is appreciated! :)
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What did your friend say was "good" about it? Why did he think it's better than if you didn't add coco? Did he have a specific reason, like "it drains better" or something like that?

What I'm trying to find out is this - what exactly is it that you want it to do differently than it already does? Because if you don't know that, then why would you add anything at all? And how would you know whether adding it made it "better" in any way than if you'd just used it straight out of the bag?
 
Blossom21

Blossom21

Active Member
Skunk Baxter said:
What did your friend say was "good" about it? Why did he think it's better than if you didn't add coco? Did he have a specific reason, like "it drains better" or something like that?

What I'm trying to find out is this - what exactly is it that you want it to do differently than it already does? Because if you don't know that, then why would you add anything at all? And how would you know whether adding it made it "better" in any way than if you'd just used it straight out of the bag?
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Didn't say a specific reason, he has done few grows and recommended it to me, that's it.

I just wanna ask other opinions what would be a good starting point with the soil i already have, or how i should mix it for the best possible results. I'm sure there's plenty of people here who can offer knowledge on growing mediums so i can learn. I've just read the basics on soil, coco and full hydro mediums, but i haven't found much information on mixing stuff. That's what i want to know.
 
DCcan

DCcan

Well-Known Member
Blossom21 said:
I've just read the basics on soil, coco and full hydro mediums, but i haven't found much information on mixing stuff.
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Blossom21 said:
Didn't say a specific reason, he has done few grows and recommended it to me, that's it.
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Blossom21 said:
what kind of mix should i make as a first timer so i would have a little more forgiving medium (so i wouldn't have to worry about PH and nutes so much, ofc i have nutes for later)?
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Keep your mix amendments simple starting out, like perlite and EWC. Then you have a baseline. That's a forgiving medium, not amending it. Once you see how far that gets you, then you can modify it.

People using mixed mediums have some experience with coco and soil, and with solving issues with both mediums.
Skunk Baxter has spelled out the pitfalls very clearly and succinctly,
Skunk Baxter said:
... how can you possibly know what things about it you want to change? Plus, once you get your grow underway (and, after it's finished), how will you know which changes you made were positive changes, and which ones were undesirable? You have to just guess, and you have way too many variables to narrow it down.
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Still don't know how to recreate that mix I made, fucked myself good and it turned out good. No clue how, all those exact questions came up, it was so frustrating
 
Kingrow1

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
Fishface1977 said:
You do have to worry about ph. If the water you are using to feed them is ph 9 or something then it will greatly hinder your grow.
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Learn buffers and alkalinity first dude. Water can be ph 9 and be absolutely fine... mine is a lot but so fricking what its only 70ppm out the tap.

:-)
 
xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
Pick one or the other. Soil, peat/perlite, coco/perlite, or just straight coco. No need to reinvent the wheel.
 
S

Snowchaser

Active Member
I am currently using an Australian over-the-counter premium soil (not as good as Fox farm) and I add perlite 10-20% and I also add 20% coco for even more oxygen and easy spread of roots.

Having said that, I treat my grow as if it were in straight soil as far as nutes and pH are concerned. In fact I learned the hard way that lowering the pH of my tap water to 5.5 or 6pH as if I were growing in Coco really wasnt good for my plants because the soil already buffers my pH7 tap water beautifully.
 
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