Looking for advice to make my soil more airy.

[Therealzemi]

50/50 coco/super soil is not necessarily imitating hydro. I only water my large plants (35 gal) once every other day. hand watered. But clearly you have it all figured out homie

And i have 16 pots to water. Hence why i dont want to end up watering that much. Only aiming to make my soil slightly more airy (as was established earlier in the thread)

Dont know why you compare your grow to mine. You grow trees in what looks like a greenhouse. I grow in a 1mx1m room under a 600watt, and it's way smaller trained plants. Fyi, there are 64 main colas in there.

But honestly. What did you mean by what you said "by the look of my grow"? I am always trying to improve, so input is always welcome.

 

[highcountrygrow]

And i have 16 pots to water. Hence why i dont want to end up watering that much. Only aiming to make my soil slightly more airy (as was established earlier in the thread)

Dont know why you compare your grow to mine. You grow trees in what looks like a greenhouse. I grow in a 1mx1m room under a 600watt, and it's way smaller trained plants. Fyi, there are 64 main colas in there.

But honestly. What did you mean by what you said "by the look of my grow"? I am always trying to improve, so input is always welcome.

always more than one way to skin a cat!glad your methods are working. Just informing you what can be done with soil cut with coco. Im sorry you had a bad experience with coco, what brand were you using? I also do indoor as you can see if you look at my threads. I would do the same method as you as far as LST is concerned with smaller plants. You always have to adapt to you growing space. And we all have room for improvement. Every day you must be a skeptic and keep the inquisitive mind state.

 

[Redbuddz]

Zemi

Those are some fine plants you have there. I sure do wish I were your friend. lol. I have .not read every reply but I believe I have a suggestion for you that no one has offered yet. I think that fabric pots are the greatest thing since sliced bread and they are designed to do just what you're looking for and that's allow more air into the root zone. I have been using them for a few years now and the more I use them the more I see just how great they are. I just whacked down a 5' plant that was in a 7gal fabric pot and the root ball was amazingly solid but with NO intertwined roots. 1 other suggestion I can make is don't be afraid to poke holes into your root ball. don't use anything to big in diameter and you won't harm the plant in any way.

Keep on Growing Ya'll


Redbuddz

 

[Therealzemi]

Ello and thanks Red

I can only agree with the fabric pots. I did 1 grow in them, and it was a 3 plant scrog in the same room. They are brilliant for sure. Just not sure how well it would work with my current growstyle. Fitting 16 round pots in there wont be easy, without the pots getting too small. Will look in to it

 

[Redbuddz]

I believe they do make square fabric. you will have to search for them but do believe they make them. even if you had to squish the rounds into squares the roots are still going to grow into every corner and fill the pot.

 

[Ratzilla]

Therealzemi
I think drainage and aeration go hand in hand.
A quick draining mix usually holds much air for when the water runs through the mix it pulls air in with it.
I think the trick in getting good drainage is using bigger size particles.
And use enough of whatever these bigger size particles that they lay on each other thus creating voids which become air pockets.
Chunky size perlite is one such particle another is par boiled rice hulls.
Don't be afraid of coir the trick is using the longer strands or what looks like big hockey pucks , the coir resembles wood chips.
Some pine bark like 5% will help plus the fungi loves the bark.
Roots are seen clinging to the bark.
Try not to mix big size particles with smaller size , the smaller size will only fill in the voids that you want to create.
On rooting I opine that most root growth stops around the same time as the stretch ends.
At this point the plant switches gears to get to flowering, not growing roots.
So if you want to fill your flowering containers with roots try getting the plants into their flowering pots while still in vegetative phase at least ten days before the flip.
I flower in about the same size pots 2.5-3 gallon and as aerie and loamy that my mix is I water like every 5 days but if I wanted too I could go 10 easy before any droop.
I get much better growth with a shorter watering cycle.
Calcium goes a long way in making a mix lose while magnesium tightens a mix.
Also I mentioned this before don't over load your base mix with more then 20% of organic matter.
When I build my pots I make sure the mix in the bottom1/3 is nice and light.
Hoping something I said lights a light. LOL
Ratz

My mix is about 40% coco coir .
I would never go back to soil.

 

[Ratzilla]

I do feel that it is important that no matter what kind of coir you would choose that it must be rinsed no matter what anyone says.
Coir just by the fact of where it grows contains much salt.
Much coir comes from Sir Lanka and they depends on the monsoons to rinse the coir.
So depending on how many time the pile is turned.
Not that you asked or anything but after 12 years of growing I 'll give you the mix that I have been using for a few years now.
40% coco coir well rinsed!
15% worm castings
15% big chunky perlite
15% par boiled rice hulls
10% pine bark nuggets
5 % diatomaceous earth
This is my base mix before adding any nutrients ,fertilizers.
I think you have much style already .
Your plants told me.
For your second grow great job!
Ratz

 

[Granger2]

Or make your own fabric pots without sewing. Custom size, see chart. -granger
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=262977

 

[Therealzemi]

Thank you very much guys. Love this forum

About the coco. I did use small fibers coco (Biobizz cocomix). So perhaps at a later point, i'll give it a go again with another type.
It is not my second grow, it is..... counting..... Hum...... Hmmm. Must be the fifth grow. But the second grow using this 16 pot setup. They just finished week 6 of flowering, and are looking very good atm. But i believe i can save some soil next time, and go down 1-2 liters in pot size. It all counts in the end for me. I live in a apartment, and is more or less forced to buy most of my stuff ready to use.


Granger... You always have good answers on hand. Looks really simple with those homemade ones. Will give it a go

 

[Kelly's Heroes]

Looking for advice to make my soil more airy.

PERLITE IS THE ANSWER ! ! !

 

[the gnome]

 

[Jhhnn]

My limited experience leads me to believe that a lot of commercial mixes are overworked before being bagged, that the particle size is beat down too small as compared to a good mix from scratch. It's the difference between a bucket of marbles & a bucket of small glass beads with the latter having a lot less airspace & greater water holding because of surface tension effects of water.

What I'm sure of is that this mix works great w/ blumats, might drain too fast for hand watering-

Soil mix 7/13/15- 14 gal

3 gals peat
3 gals coarse flushed coco block
2 gals med perlite
1 gal earthworm castings
1 gal compost
1 gal garden soil
1 gal leaf mold (otherwise another gal coarse coco)

1/2 cup equal parts dolomite lime, gypsum & powdered oyster shell
1 cup glacial rock dust
2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup azomite
2 cup crab shell meal
4 cup kelp meal
4 cup fish meal
4 cup fish bone meal
1 cup langbeinite
2 cup neem seed meal
1 cup alfalfa meal

Wet with ewc/compost tea to level suitable for planting
Let sit & keep moist for 3-4 weeks. add occasional aerated ewc teas while growing.

Ultra fishy/stinky until it's aged. Well worth every bit of time, effort & money put into it. I was amazed at how much better it worked than anything I'd done before.

 

[prune]

My limited experience leads me to believe that a lot of commercial mixes are overworked before being bagged, that the particle size is beat down too small as compared to a good mix from scratch. It's the difference between a bucket of marbles & a bucket of small glass beads with the latter having a lot less airspace & greater water holding because of surface tension effects of water.

Excellent observation, although a large part of the small particle size is the fact that short fibre peat and coir are less expensive and dominate the commercial market.
Making your own blend, as you do, with custom sourced material will always produce a superior performing mix. It's getting harder to find those premium goods these days, especially the peat…

nice mix, btw

 

[Therealzemi]

Looks like a solid mix Jhhnn

And i so wish i had the option of making ALL my own stuff. I love the feeling of satisfaction you get from creating something that works well, for what ever purpose. But alas, i cant. I am limited with space in this apartment. And i have to keep everything stealth. Everything from odor control to carrying used soil out in the middle of the night....lol. That also means i have to stay away from most fish products.
Perhaps if my dream of having a small house, out in the middle of nowhere ever comes true

 

[Therealzemi]

Just a small update.

This is the best set of clones ive had thus far. I added the extra 10% perlite, and BOOM they are exploding. And for the first time, i know what "proper drainage" means and feels like. They where rooted in Eazy plugs, and then transplanted to the cups you see. They have been in there for a week, and already packing roots like ive not seen before. I cannot WAIT to get these girls in to the big room
Thank you again for the help guys

Bubble Kush btw.

 

[Floridian]

2 parts ocean forest 1 part roots and its plenty airy cause the roots is full of perlite.I've tried a lot in 13 years I think I have a weiner here.Add mycorrzae of course

 

[stoned-trout]

cheap perlite home depot has....yeehaw

 

[Therealzemi]

cheap perlite home depot has....yeehaw

Hehe. For someone located in Europe, that's quite a travel distance to get perlite. Except ofc when i visit my GF in CA
I do buy the cheap perlite in 100 liter bags (It's actually localy produced here ). Those 5 liter bags grow stores has, are so over priced it's ridiculous!

 

[Redbuddz]

Thems some nice looking clones. coming from a guy who's wanting to better his root environment I'm surprised to see them in such narrow styrofoam cups. I chimed in to your post here already. I recommended the use of fabric pots and after another years of harvest I truly believe they are the greatest thing you can do for the root environment. I know they don't sell small starter fabric pots but I'm certain you could make your own with minimal sewing skills.
Without weed for my own recreational use I think I would have a bi-polar disorder

Keep on GrowIn Ya'll

Redbuddz

 

[Granger2]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=262977
No sewing needed. Also, he has a chart for measurements to make practically any size fabric pots. Good luck. -granger