What medium is best??

[NickMe!!]

Im thinking about doing another soil grow but am unsure what is the best medium. Before now Ive just used things like John Innes #1 and tomatoe plant grow bags, but have now been looking at Canna Coir. I know you need to add nutrients to it (Canna Nova etc) but is it significantly better than stuff you can get from any normal garden centre?

Also, rootzone. I have never heard of anyone use this on this site, but does anyone know what its like to grow pot in? Im a greenkeeper on a golf course and its what we ue to build greens with. A green cost about £20,000 simply because of this stuff! It must have some properties over normal soil but is it better than Canna Coir?

Also what are the best additives for soil grows? There are so many root boosters and bud boosters and feeds that its near impossible for me to work it out by trial and error! Like I said I work with golf greens but fertilzing a green with 25kgs of ammonia or iron or whatever is VERY different as you can probay guess!

[oldtimer1]

NickMe!! I’m not sure how to deal with your question. Using Coir/coco as a medium on its own is like using it as a substrate for hydro growing. The only people that I know of that make a totally organic based A/B nutrient for this purpose are BioBizz. But as far as I’m concerned it is still growing hydroponically and I don’t see that as an organic method of growing. The good things about coir is that it naturally carries tricoderma fungi, that in turn grows into the roots of plants growing in it. This in turn gives protection against pathogenic fungal root infections like pythium.

The coco fibre in compressed bricks you get in garden centres is an inferior quality compared to the fibre mix in canna or BioBizz product coir also they often still have residual sodium which is very toxic to cannabis.

You should consider trying one grow using all mix and the grow and bloom feeds from Biobizz.

If you are a green keeper look at my mix that I make at the top of the forum, it works for me with only a little feeding during the flowering the rest is all in the mix.

Finally do you have a link to a site where I can read about rootzone, more to the point is it an organic product?

[NickMe!!]

Ill have a look but rootzone is a very rich sandy soil. Its very similar to loam if you know wha that is. You use i when laying turf. Like rootzone it has good rooting qualities. Like I said, its expensive but works well. A green built from say normal compost would struggle to grow roots more than 3inches (7.5cm) long whereas usga spec rootzone will allow roots as long as 6-8inches (15-20cm) to grow. If not more depending on the atmosphere. Not bad seeing as the grass above ground is only 1-2mm! It has amazing drainage qualities too.

Ill have a good look though.

[NickMe!!]

No, im affraid I cant find anyhting!

I will be able to get you some info on it but it is from a book and will have to find em all from the attic.

But basically it is a mix of different materials. Similar to what you have posted.

It tends to be a type of soil (cant find out what the usga spec is for this, sorry, usga sets the standrads for all competiton courses. Its an international golf course sandard) mixed with top dresser (A sterilized and very fine sand used for spreading on top of turf and for germinating seed.)

A mass of what is sometimes called gravel though it is sand! To look at its like 'play sand'. The stuff you get for your kids sand pits. This is for drainage and makes up a lot of rootzone. And then a mixture of peat and loam for nutrient for water retention. Rootzone, in its final form though is like a supercharged loam with excellent drainage. And on occasions, though rarely dared by turf managers, cows blood! Dried of course but is very very rich in nitrogen. I dont even think you can buy this stuff in the shops. Although it contains top soil it is one of the least added components.

There are extras like seaweed, charcoal, iron, ammonia etc but is added externally. I suppose as an additive nutrient in the way we would use it.

Its the best there is for golf courses so I thought it would do well in my growroom.

I cant find anywhere what ratios we use. Im surprised there isnt a usga website!

I found this.

http://www.turfdiag.com/turf_lib.html

Not exactly good reading for plant pot growers but is interesting.

I did have a link demonstrating root development in rootzone and in a bunch of other mediums but lost it! Sorry, we all know what happens when we smoke this stuff!

[NickMe!!]

Bloody hell, a third post from me!!!

Have a look at this site.

www.sandfinder.com

and go to guidelines and the usga putting green link. (the top one)