Dual Substrate Grow - 1 Gallon Soil Round the Trunk, Surrounded by Coco

[ExpatGrower]

Hi Guys, has anyone tried the same as I'm doing right now?

 

So I'm almost ready for flowering... I potted up my small soil plants into coco. 

 

I'll be feeding the soil weekly organic ferments, and the coco getting frequent fertigation with salts (Athena), daily or multiple times per day most likely. 

 

So far the soils only been in there 3 days, but hoping by the time the roots spread out so moisture balances, ph should be around the same... I'm optimistic!

[Arthur Mix]

How you going to stop the salts wicking into the soil which will then fuck with the organics ? 

[Goodbloke]

What's the thought process behind this? 

[ExpatGrower]

Salts totally killing organics is bro science according to Bugbee... sure they hinder the organics if really high, but you can have a bit of both, its working well so far! I just finished the 1 node flip and will show some pics in a fe weeks when the growth comes back.

 

P.s the thought process is to try and get a few extra benefits you see with organics, while growing with salts. I.e extra terps! I'm not the first person to do this.

[Shumroom]

You don’t need compost in order to add organics into a hydro grow.

 

I use mycorrhizae and trichoderma along with other beneficials in pure coco  

 

Atb

 

Edit: for extra terpines consider your light spectrum  

added UVB for the win.

 

Edited April 15 by Shumroom
Eta

[ExpatGrower]

On 15/04/2024 at 19:01, Shumroom said:

You don’t need compost in order to add organics into a hydro grow.

 

I use mycorrhizae and trichoderma along with other beneficials in pure coco  

 

Atb

 

Edit: for extra terpines consider your light spectrum  

added UVB for the win.

 

Thanks mate nice tips! Tbh, I had planned to go full living soil, but didnt think about the fact as I'm doing a 16 plant pheno hunt in a 5x5 tent, the pots would be too small. So after some research decided to go the dual method.

 

So far day 3 of flowering is just about to end and they look great. So in a nutshell they started off in the typical 30/30/30 close to coots mix soil blend; now in coco and just getting Athena standard feed. I'll give them a ferment once a week just for shits and giggles! As well as the organic kelp/humic foliar for another couple of weeks which is basically the same as athena stack. 

 

Oh and almost forgot... I have the mars hydro ur45 to go with my fce 6500... i am thinking i'll run the red light, and the uva, at the same time for a couple of hours at noon once the stretch has finished, since I'm concerned the extra blue would promote more stretching. The jury is open on the effectiveness of the ur45 though.

Edited April 18 by ExpatGrower
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