My input on why people should refrain from using soil indoors.

I, have recently crossed over the soil barrier and into the wonderful life of coco. or however you like to spell it. This is some WONDERFUL stuff. from previous experience with working on having a prime organic soil that had no added nutes and a lot of perlite became rather tedious. after talking with my hydro dealer for quiet some time, i decided to upgrade. i was due for a pot transfer, so i said fuck it. i purchased a 2gal aero pot, and this "coco blend soil." WOW is all i can say. you can instantly see the difference in between mediums. the coco did not act like a constipated colon. when you water your plants with soil, you could get away with not having to water for at least 2 days. this water that had been stuck at the very center of your pot never gets drained due to constipation from the soil. with the coco soil i noticed how light it was and how there was barely any pearlite, i was told that there doesnt need to be a lot of added pearlite, since the soil is airy on its own, and holds as much water as it needs. when i watered my plant for the first time, i watched a large amount of water flush right out, with no fear of overwatering. although i had to place my root ball (wich i patted down as much soil as i could from the roots) i still noticed a greater amount of change as if my plant was breathing much better. i regret starting any of my grows with soil, and i hope all you other growers can agree with me and hopefully start new plans for your next grow!
happy growing

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Wat was the total cost of your new upgrade? Wat would the needed area be for this system? I'm thinking trying something different.

it works just like ordinary soil, no need for any fancy pumps or anything. the pot is about 13inches in diameter that i picked up from the hydro stor for $3.50, i placed a coffee filter at the bottom since it is an open strainer type of bottom. the coco costed me about $25, i added pearlite on the top layer of soil to keep away bugs. i will upload pictures asap.

Welcome to the Cocommunity. RIU has been a little slow to implement a coco forum but there is a great number of growers here just like you who have made the switch.

Like yourself, I also started in soil, as I was looking for simplicity. Coco for me produced the largest, most beautiful plants and I love the stuff. After a half dozen or so grows in the stuff I do have some ideas and wanted to start utilizing the organic benefits of a media like coco.

Coco fiber has a spongey structure of the grains that creates an ideal environment for microbes and biologicals to take hold. By taking the coco media and amending it with organic fertilizers like worm castings, guano, kelp, greensand, and some other good stuff you build a system that holds a good amount of moisture and runs at a higher pH (requiring less adjusting products). As the organic profile is constructed it is also smart to add an equivalent amount of perlite.

So, 50% coco, 25% perlite, 25% organics. You can still feed this mixture as often as you would normal coco, daily, or even twice a day. Or you can plant in a larger planter and allow for more time to go between watering. Either way, you're running hydro/organic.

You can mix it up yourself, or you can do what I do. For $18 (a little pricey...) you can get a bag of the Roots Organic Coco mix. Not the mix with Peat... there's a different one. Coco Hydroponic Roots Organic. Take 1.5 cuft of this and mix it with a $12 brick of expanded Botanicare CocoGro. This increases the coco to perlite ratio. You can add a little benies or some more micro too if you like. Great white, Dolomite, Su-Po-Mag... But you don't have to.

The result is a mostly coco mixture, enough for maybe 80-85 liters of media. You can vary the amount of Coco you add to the mix too. Allow it to "cook" as long as possible.

Right now I'm about to start a grow. Starting the plants in party cups of pure coco, on coco nutrients for the first 2-3 weeks. Then transplanting to 2 gallon planters of the above mixture and running 1/2 strength nutes for the rest of the grow (probably). Feeding in the morning, and watering in the evening. Gotta love the power of coco!

Snow Crash said:

Allow it to "cook" as long as possible.
!

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explain cook?

looks like a thread made by coco salesmen

I mean to mix the coco, the roots organic, and the beneficials together with some moisture and humics and allowing it to just sit there (in the sun if possible) to allow the media to become enriched with organics. A small infusion of some myco will grow in the coco over time making it ready to go after a few weeks.

My coco is going to rest/cook like this for the next 3-4 weeks.

Snow Crash said:

I mean to mix the coco, the roots organic, and the beneficials together with some moisture and humics and allowing it to just sit there (in the sun if possible) to allow the media to become enriched with organics. A small infusion of some myco will grow in the coco over time making it ready to go after a few weeks.

My coco is going to rest/cook like this for the next 3-4 weeks.

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oh so mixing it all together with other nutrients. i didnt do anything like that i just purchased a bag and poured it.

Its called Air Pots. Soil is great. FFoF No Need to Feed during veg. Jussa Little Root Booster

I just transplanted a few plants to coco tonight in varying amounts just to see the results. i was a hydro grower, then i was put in charge of a bunch of dirt and just didnt wanna switch to coco, but i decided to try it. I soaked a little in some humic acid water and just mixed a little in other pots dry with some happy frog. I did a couple light, a couple medium, one heavy, and a couple controls with no coco. Should be interesting though i think i know what will happen.

themda said:

oh so mixing it all together with other nutrients. i didnt do anything like that i just purchased a bag and poured it.

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No, I don't add any nutrients, just humic and myco. The Roots Organic coco mix does contain a few nutrient rich items and this allows me to use a lot less bottled nutrient during the grow, especially during the first few weeks.

man coco is awesome, the roots get so nicely occupied in there...

vitamin b1 enables an explosion of root growth..

how is the quality compared to pro mix with mycorise? better/worse? I couldnt decide so I went with the pro mix but the coco is sounding pretty good now.......

Well constructed soil with a wide range of organic elements is a truly wonderful thing for outdoor grows with large well established plants. With that said I will not go back to using soil indoors. For smaller indoor plants with a high turn over rate the cost of coco is king. I love it in every regard, and couldn't be happier with it. I've heard from some people that using coco with a bit of peat or sphagnum and rockwool bits (little .5" chunks) with worm castings and perlite is the ultimate mix. The only thing I think is better than coco is a well tuned aero system, I actually prefer coco to typical hydro setups. +rep, more attention should be brought to coco IMO, its a wonderful medium that more beginners and experts should try.

indoJR said:

how is the quality compared to pro mix with mycorise? better/worse? I couldnt decide so I went with the pro mix but the coco is sounding pretty good now.......

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my friend uses the promix and wow his plants look mean. growing in coco has been probably one of my wiser decisions after moving out of such a small grow space.

Myself, I just use straight Coco. I have for years now. Maybe one of these days I will try something like what Snow Crash talks about. But I hate to change something that works so well.