HydraFiber?

[MrBreeze911]

Peat and vermiculite and a 1 to 1 ratio with proper nutrients and watering doesn't seem like a problem to me, why does it seem like a problem to you? Using a coco and perlite mix is pretty common, is it not?

 

[MrBreeze911]

As far as an organic mix, how is peat moss, perlite, kelp meal, basalite rock dust, malt extract, compost, ewc, biolive, gypsum, lime, neemseed meal, biochar, and I can't remember maybe a few or things...

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Skip the neem seed meal. A rather large (and growing) number of cannabis users are finally cluing in on how nasty it is with cannabis. Only took 10 years of posting about it to get this far, let's keep things moving forward.

Neem oil, seed meal and azadirachtin extracts all put azadirachtin in the end flowers. This causes CHS type symptoms including slowed digestion issues, all over muscle contraction, increased pain in injured areas, kidney area pain, pain which fades temporarily with hot water and possibly cyclical vomiting. Nearly EVERYone I know has at least mild reactions to it, most of which is usually blamed on the foods they ate.

So yeah... skip the neem stuff.

 

[pjlive]

Has anyone ever heard of or used hydrafiber shredded wood grow medium in their soil or soilless mixes before? I know it can be used with coir or peat or by itself in indoor non-organic grows. I am wondering if anyone here has ever used this product in any capacity growing marijuana because I cannot seem to find any information about it on this site. Dr. Bruce Bugbee mentions using HydraFiber in one of his youtube videos about maximizing yields with cannabis. i am considering using it to amend some of my 200 gallon smart pots with organic soil with it along with EWC, ph stabilizers, dry ferts, and compost year after next.

I did. I tried it for three runs mid to late last year. Then, I went back to pine bark. I found that HF served the same drainage, holding, and compaction benefits as pine bark but didn't seem to have the same effect on the end products' appearance or taste. My plants basically seem to have a majority bias toward shredded pine bark. It's noticeable, so I went back.

But, I can also attest to HydraFiber having no negatives. I guess it depends on what other amendments you're choosing and what your intention is with them along with the HF, as well as what end product you're looking for. For me, there was always a noticeable difference in how the plants did (they seemed to like the looser drainage of pine bark vs. HF and woke up faster at lights on/went to sleep later at lights off). There always seemed to be a noticeable difference in appearance during the veg. and bud set stages, and end cure taste.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Good info, thanks pjlive My first thought is all the nice terpene components in the pine bark would be processed out if used to make HF. No?

 

[pjlive]

Good info, thanks pjlive My first thought is all the nice terpene components in the pine bark would be processed out if used to make HF. No?

I don't know the science behind it. But, yes, there have to be some components in the pine bark available to the plants while its omission removes them along with it if you leave it out. One thing I did not try is a run using both pine bark and HF. Once I knew I liked my plants better with the former I just pitched the idea entirely.

I'm sorry I don't know the answer, tho. There's definitely something "missing" in the HF for the plants, I know that. Or, there's a better mix of amendments that I might of used along with it but just didn't know what that mix was.

Plus, too, I have to say -- it's hard to beat the scent of freshly shredded pine bark as a media amendment. It's been a grandma tested and mother approved soilless media amendment since the mid 1800s (I think).

 

[MrBreeze911]

I did. I tried it for three runs mid to late last year. Then, I went back to pine bark. I found that HF served the same drainage, holding, and compaction benefits as pine bark but didn't seem to have the same effect on the end products' appearance or taste. My plants basically seem to have a majority bias toward shredded pine bark. It's noticeable, so I went back.

But, I can also attest to HydraFiber having no negatives. I guess it depends on what other amendments you're choosing and what your intention is with them along with the HF, as well as what end product you're looking for. For me, there was always a noticeable difference in how the plants did (they seemed to like the looser drainage of pine bark vs. HF and woke up faster at lights on/went to sleep later at lights off). There always seemed to be a noticeable difference in appearance during the veg. and bud set stages, and end cure taste.

Interesting. I haven't heard of shredded pine bark. Hydrafiber is a pine bark from a specific type of pine tree from North Carolina. It is heat pressure and steam treated or something. I wonder if the pine bark you mention has nitrogen problems. Do you have to use it at a certain percentage along with another material? I guess my goal is to do a side by side comparison with different media components and also organic vs non organic and also 30 vs 200 gallon pots. I want to try using jacks nutrients, either 321 or 20 10 20, with bloombastic during flowering for the synthetic, and my previously mentioned organic mix for the organic stuff. What brand or supplier did you get the pine bark from, or can I get it from the ponderosa pines in my backyard?

 

[MrBreeze911]

I don't know the science behind it. But, yes, there have to be some components in the pine bark available to the plants while its omission removes them along with it if you leave it out. One thing I did not try is a run using both pine bark and HF. Once I knew I liked my plants better with the former I just pitched the idea entirely.

I'm sorry I don't know the answer, tho. There's definitely something "missing" in the HF for the plants, I know that. Or, there's a better mix of amendments that I might of used along with it but just didn't know what that mix was.

Plus, too, I have to say -- it's hard to beat the scent of freshly shredded pine bark as a media amendment. It's been a grandma tested and mother approved soilless media amendment since the mid 1800s (I think).

Do you have to adjust the ph and how do you manage the watering and or feeding personally? What works for you? I live in a dry, hot, climate near stockton ca.

 

[pjlive]

Interesting. I haven't heard of shredded pine bark. Hydrafiber is a pine bark from a specific type of pine tree from North Carolina. It is heat pressure and steam treated or something. I wonder if the pine bark you mention has nitrogen problems. Do you have to use it at a certain percentage along with another material? I guess my goal is to do a side by side comparison with different media components and also organic vs non organic and also 30 vs 200 gallon pots. I want to try using jacks nutrients, either 321 or 20 10 20, with bloombastic during flowering for the synthetic, and my previously mentioned organic mix for the organic stuff. What brand or supplier did you get the pine bark from, or can I get it from the ponderosa pines in my backyard?

I hand shred my own pine bark. It's harvested from pine trees cut down for winter use on land owned by a good buddy. So, yes, I guess I'm saying that, whatever natural elements are in raw pine bark seem to be either more beneficial or simply liked better by my cannabis plants. I really can't tell you the action(s) behind that, though.

My media mix is varied depending on the plants I'm growing out. But, for cannabis, it's been the same now for a while. It's slightly adjusted for high altitude vs. tropical strains, but it's essentially the same mix. You can see a full description of it if you want on my currently active "Mystery Auto Grow" thread.

Any all natural pine bark can be used in potting media as long as it's free of treatments. It should be 100% pine bark. If you can get it naturally, simply collect it, dry it out a bit, then chip, pulverize, or hand shred it to be added in to your mixes. You have to be mindful of various bugs, and you don't want gobs of sap all over the place either. You kind of have to be choosy about your bark. But, the good news is, in Spring, many garden and landscaping shops have Pine Bark Mulch available. If you can find a bag of that, it's fine too. Plus, a 25-50lb bag of the stuff can cost as little as $1.99 *or maybe even less in some places*.

Great question about the variety of pine! I don't know about this either, so you'll have to do some research on pine barks on your own. I'm using almost exclusively bark from Balsam Fir trees. And, just to repeat so there's no confusion what-so-ever -- I don't know the exact composition of the stuff vs the composition of other barks from other types of conifers. I just know what I'm using works for me.

 

[pjlive]

Do you have to adjust the ph and how do you manage the watering and or feeding personally? What works for you? I live in a dry, hot, climate near stockton ca.

Yes, I do have to take into consideration the adjustments made to both the change in media environment and fertigation ranges and pH. This is something I've also had to adjust to over time through trial and error.

Go Stockton, mo-fo! Haha. The Diaz bros. are real, man.

 

[Tomatoesonly]

Did this experiment ever take place?

 

[TwYzTyD_the_Oldhead]

Interesting. I haven't heard of shredded pine bark. Hydrafiber is a pine bark from a specific type of pine tree from North Carolina. It is heat pressure and steam treated or something. I wonder if the pine bark you mention has nitrogen problems. Do you have to use it at a certain percentage along with another material? I guess my goal is to do a side by side comparison with different media components and also organic vs non organic and also 30 vs 200 gallon pots. I want to try using jacks nutrients, either 321 or 20 10 20, with bloombastic during flowering for the synthetic, and my previously mentioned organic mix for the organic stuff. What brand or supplier did you get the pine bark from, or can I get it from the ponderosa pines in my backyard?

Don’t need big pots to run organics that’s such a misconception. I ran a solo cup for 100+ days using organic inputs.