Easiest water only medium base?

VincenzioVonHook · Oct 30, 2022

I'm strangely intrigued by "water only" techniques as I like the whole set and forget nature. I have messed with super soils and some pretty convoluted mixes with no luck and always had to feed come stretch.

I have ended up getting my best results so far going back to basics. Yard soil (sandy loam) mixed 70/30 with Coco coir and uxp pumice added at potting. I added two tbsp of slow release 8-4-10 in the top 3" of medium at week two transplant into final pots and have gone 90 days tomorrow on tap water.

Amnesia auto by SAG

What has been your best attempt a super soil equivalent without all the fuss? Should I even bother investing more time in a better "water only" mix, or just get with the times, run straight Coco and feed if I'm looking for a better finish?

dbz · Oct 30, 2022

I grow organic indoor and outdoor. I tried building a lot of water only. ROLS has a lot of info. I do pretty well now, but I do top dress well before the plant needs it to make it available later. I just use my own ewc, cow manure compost, mushroom compost, gypsum, basalt, lime, neem cake, kelp meal, lime, perlite and crustacean meal and peat moss. I prolly forgot something. I top dress with ewc throughout grow..so still requires maintenance. Outside I do a lot less because the roots have more room. I do no till outside. Add cow shit, compost every year after grow this year growing red clover during winter. Inside I think my biggest mistake was 5 gal pots. I use 10 gal now.

VincenzioVonHook · Oct 30, 2022

dbz said:
I grow organic indoor and outdoor. I tried building a lot of water only. ROLS has a lot of info. I do pretty well now, but I do top dress well before the plant needs it to make it available later. I just use my own ewc, cow manure compost, mushroom compost, gypsum, basalt, lime, neem cake, kelp meal, lime, perlite and crustacean meal and peat moss. I prolly forgot something. I top dress with ewc throughout grow..so still requires maintenance. Outside I do a lot less because the roots have more room. I do no till outside. Add cow shit, compost every year after grow this year growing red clover during winter. Inside I think my biggest mistake was 5 gal pots. I use 10 gal now.

I would love to get my own fresh vermicompost going. I have to buy from a local farm regularly and it adds up. I found the dry castings at home depots to be useless. I don't know why I'm so keen on this method, but I think it stems from enjoyment of mixing medium and watching the microbial life form over its cook. I lose out on that if I just buy a bag of Coco and feed.

I have three plants at day 16 now which are in the same yard soil, Coco, vermicompost and pumice mix but as they are in 7" starter pots I have not added any additional feed bar the ewc and organic matter in the mix.

I am tossing up between a 5 gallon pot and feeding with liquid compost I have here which is 9:2:8, or running a 7 gallon pot with some organic 3-1-3 slow release and an added organic bloom boost during flower (1-1-2 with added humic and triacontanol).

The organic liquid compost smells terrible, but looks interesting.. they reckon it only needs to be fed to the medium once a once a fortnight to get decent results.

dbz · Oct 30, 2022

VincenzioVonHook said:
I would love to get my own fresh vermicompost going. I have to buy from a local farm regularly and it adds up. I found the dry castings at home depots to be useless. I don't know why I'm so keen on this method, but I think it stems from enjoyment of mixing medium and watching the microbial life form over its cook. I lose out on that if I just buy a bag of Coco and feed.

I have three plants at day 16 now which are in the same yard soil, Coco, vermicompost and pumice mix but as they are in 7" starter pots I have not added any additional feed bar the ewc and organic matter in the mix.
View attachment 5219710
I am tossing up between a 5 gallon pot and feeding with liquid compost I have here which is 9:2:8, or running a 7 gallon pot with some organic 3-1-3 slow release and an added organic bloom boost during flower (1-1-2 with added humic and triacontanol).

The organic liquid compost smells terrible, but looks interesting.. they reckon it only needs to be fed to the medium once a once a fortnight to get decent results.

Looking good. Yeah that is one of the things with super mixes a lot depend heavily on EWC and quality EWC at that. Home Depot EWC probably isn't. That's why I started vermicomposting. As for cow shit I get that from a farmer. I also met someone who grows a lot of mushrooms and composts. Some of it can be eased by finding people around you locally. Once you have a good source of compost you have a lot of options for teas etc that you can make yourself. Everything about organic soil is slow release. That's why I usually top up a few times.

Easiest water only medium base?

VincenzioVonHook

Well-Known Member

dbz

Well-Known Member

VincenzioVonHook

Well-Known Member

dbz

Well-Known Member

Similar threads