Best Soil-Less Medium

I am not interested in the hassles of hydroponics and will be going with a soil-less medium running general hydroponics flora series nutes. I have used these nutes for years and love them.

Previously i have used a medium made up of Sunshine Mix #4, Fox Farms Ocean Forest and added some perlite but i cant remember the proportion i used. It may have been 1 large bail of SS#4 to one bag of FFOF does that sound optimal?

My goal is to create a medium that is idiot proof as my green thumb may be rusty. The sunshine 4 has ph buffers (lime) which will make my job a little easier and keep the FFOF from slowly lowering the PH.

Can anyone think of anything they would add or substitute to make for an even easier medium? My main concern is PH lockout and over/under watering/feeding.

I will be using distilled water and ph testing every feeding around 6.5, does this sound right?

I assume i will need a cal/mag booster for the distilled water along with some MOAB to add to the flora nutes for late flowering. Do i need to be using anything else? Advice?

I like HP Promix as a base for FFOF. I mix different ratios for different stages. Like 3:1 early veg, 2:1 veg, 1:1 bloom, HP promix : FFOF.

booms111 said:

I like HP Promix as a base for FFOF. I mix different ratios for different stages. Like 3:1 early veg, 2:1 veg, 1:1 bloom, HP promix : FFOF.

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This is good advice. I really like the FF coco loco over the FFoF, it's not as hot and I can feed more. I've been trying 1:1 coco loco to ProMix HP

purplehays1 said:

I am not interested in the hassles of hydroponics

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it can be very simple and hassle free

i use nutes (a+b) rockwool cubes nutrient truncheon submersible pump
with a large res it can be left unattended until the lights need moving or at least a week between checking

peace

Has FFOF been hotter in recent years? been a while since i used it but im pretty sure i used to put my clones (rooted well) directly into 100% FFOF and NEVER had an issue with burn. I would straight let them love the OF for a few weeks before even thinking about nutes. (veg obviously). Or I had genetics that could handle the nutes i guess??

I would then transplant the teens into their final boxes which were 1:1 SS4/FFOF (pretty sure), then i would give them 2 weeks under the HPS at like 16/8 to get used to their new home and then flip em to 12/12 and start hitting them with GH flora series, with some calmg, sugardaddy and moab.

Does this sound like it would be a workable program? It has been a while and i cant remember all the specifics, but with a method similar to this made 23%THC OG Kush 1.8lbs/1000w with ~70 day turn around.

Don't use media at all. A bucket with a two or three inch netcup and neoprene insert is pretty effective. Using media is more hassle than it's worth.

i think u mean medium, the media is the dbags on TV

Whats in the coco-loco, good olf FF and not telling me shit? The OF provides countless things that would need to be supplemented if removed.

qustion does ph really matter for soil ?? sorry to come and stomp ya post man just i have been getting alot of mixed results from alot of people i have my ph at 7 in soil thats 4 other 4 i have a ph of 6-5 and they are looking a bit yellow no nutes on any of them

Well i feed the ladies with hydroponics nutes, which when mixed with water in the desired PPM will fuck the PH up hard core. So i make sure the PH of every drop of water that goes in is correct, if the PH of the soil is not correct the ladies cant absorb the nutes and shit gets bad real quick, this is called lockout as the needed nutrients are available but locked out from use by the plant due to the PH. I have never used only soil, always a soil-less medium like ss4 with some soil. The ss4 has lime in it which helps to maintain the PH but is not enough when feeding. If you were to use ONLY soil like FFOF (or similar all in one soil) and no other nutes u could probably get away with never worrying about PH at all and just watering with distilled water (or even tap water depending where u live).

If your soil is 7, with an accurate reading, i would be feeding/watering at 6 to lower the ph into the desired 6-6.5 range. I would venture to say u probably dont have an accurate reading of your soils ph. You are putting in 7 ph water, but many soils will tend to run very low PH ~5, and thus the ph could be too low and u dont even realize it. This is just a guess, but yellowing plants is either something obvious, or a deficiency and may very easily be caused by a PH lockout.

Unless u have a soil PH tester, I recommend u take a sample of soil from your girls and run PH tested water through it. Then re-test the water, if it dropped in PH you soil is likely very low. If the water maintains PH in an acceptable range your problem likely has nothing to do with PH. If you are using pots that run off just water enough that they piss a little and test the run off.

i just cant under stand the ones that i have ph with a wand at 6.2 6.5 are looking really yellow and the ones that are with a ph of 7 7.6 are looking awsome its really doing my head in lol

these are soil readings with a wand?

yeah a ph wand

Semantics, both terms are commonly used. Why spend money on something that isn't needed? Most of the A+B nutrient lines provide everything that's needed and in a more readily absorbed form.

Clay pellets+perlite if you insist, pH neutral and reusable.

rob333, does your soil use ammonium nitrate in the mix?

no i pay extra to get my soil imported from bvb soils from netherlands it has even mix of soil perlite and coco it has speaks on google about it lovley soil

manley used for major veg production

i might sound silly but what does it mean on the bag in caps it say this soil has been buffered to 6 6.5 ?

rob333 said:

no i pay extra to get my soil imported from bvb soils from netherlands it has even mix of soil perlite and coco it has speaks on google about it lovley soil

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Do you have a direct link to what you're using. BVB imports a lot of products.

rob333 said:

http://www.bvb-substrates.nl/cat/89/horticulture

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You linked me to a generic list of products. With no GA and no ingredients list it's hard to say what the issue is. I can't read minds.

GL

its there soft fruit soil with a link to a list of whats in it with 30% soil 20% coco and 50 % perlite no adertives