Dumb question - does anyone mix coco with soil?

[Colo MMJ]

Does anyone ever mix the two? Is coco more productive with higher yields?

 

[mo841]

I do when growing shrooms. So the answer to this open ended question is yes

 

[RM3]

Look into tupur

http://royalgoldcoco.com/soils/royal-gold/tupur-pid-3

@ttystikk & @Afgan King both use it

 

[Afgan King]

Yup yup yup

Look into tupur

http://royalgoldcoco.com/soils/royal-gold/tupur-pid-3

@ttystikk & @Afgan King both use it

Tupur all day shits amazing pretty much like your describing but a bio-char compost mixed with coco and perlite

 

[Fish-man Dan]

I mix Coco and perlite with my soil, it helps lighten up the soil and retains moisture.

 

[hunter21312]

Nothing is dumb about you learning..

 

[fearnoevil]

I run what I call a modified Hempy mix, take 2 parts coir, 1 part perlite, 1 part organic soil and for every 5 gallons of this mix I throw in a couple of handfuls of manure and the same for worm castings.

I've been doing this for a couple of years now, started with straight Hempy mix but then wanted some organics to buffer as well as retain some of the nutes so that it wasn't all going to waste. Doing this I now feed every 2-3 days (depends on stage, usually increasing feeding as they mature) then just water, so basically feed-feed-water.

This has not only helped cut down on the nute costs, but I hardly ever get nute burn and I get better results than I did with the original Hempy system, but like any system, it takes some time to get a feel for it, get things dialed in.

Here's some pics from the last grow ;?)

 

[fearnoevil]

Yup yup yup

Tupur all day shits amazing pretty much like your describing but a bio-char compost mixed with coco and perlite

Tupar, huh, never heard of her.. uh it, lol. So what's so special about this Tupar? I can't get it near me and shipping doubles the price. I don't know what the ratios are, but it looks like the only major diff might be this bio-char (never heard of it either, lol). Any idea what this bio-char does or adds? I'm curious, maybe I can find that nearby, or at least shipping cost would be less for an additive ;?)

 

[fearnoevil]

So the shipping for Bio-Char that I found (only one company called Arbico) is kinda steep for a 40 lb. bag, but an organic forum talks about techs for making your own or some say you can use LUMP charcoal, but NOT the briquettes, and one guy added,

"You can buy lump charcoal and use it. but piss on it first or soak it in manure tea or even add some urea to it. Adding a high N manure to the char will neutralize the PH, you may want to add other anion containing materials too.

If making your own char you can add some extra ashes which may reduce the production of lighter polymers which are more harmful. By adding ashes you may reduce the polarization frequency and also get a product with less sulfur content."

Yeah, couldn't make heads or tails out of that second paragraph, lol, but I sure can get some lump charcoal and piss on it . As much as I've been getting up at night to pee, maybe just leave a bucket of it by the toilet, lol, but if I do I probably shouldn't tell my friends/clients about the new "secret" ingredient.... or at least wait until they've been smoking it for a while, then spring it on them

 

[fearnoevil]

Does anyone ever mix the two? Is coco more productive with higher yields?

So I can't claim that it produces higher yields than other systems, but I personally saw an increase over straight DTW. But if not done right I could see problems, and whether you get better yields has as much to do with a particular growers skill set, as I've seen huge yields under many different systems, just gotta get your system/style sync'd and then dial it in.

BUT what I like about the Hempy bucket system (drain to waste) is that it is extremely forgiving and one of the easiest methods to learn and operate. I know a lot of folks have great success with some very high-tech and comparatively complex systems, but after having tried several I personally found that when it comes to indoor/hydro methods, I just don't like dealing with all the problems that come with pure hydro (balancing your res, maintaining res temps, root diseases, etc).

While the trade-off is higher nute costs, due to the dtw, I have very few issues as it's very simple. I've toyed with setting up an automatic feeding system, but there's issues with that as well. As is, I just mix up 10-20 gallons at a time and then pump it through a hose to a sprinkler wand and then feed until I get about 5-10% runoff and Bob's your uncle!

 

[Nugachino]

I've got about 25% coco in my soil mix. This is in a 2.8 gallon pot. Then there's a further 10% compost and a weak watering of go go juice (kelp, fish, soil bacterium). Oh. And some worm castings.

 

[Afgan King]

Tupar, huh, never heard of her.. uh it, lol. So what's so special about this Tupar? I can't get it near me and shipping doubles the price. I don't know what the ratios are, but it looks like the only major diff might be this bio-char (never heard of it either, lol). Any idea what this bio-char does or adds? I'm curious, maybe I can find that nearby, or at least shipping cost would be less for an additive ;?)

So bio char is used to buffer ec and ph I push ec 4-5 all the time so 2000-2500 ppm. That's the biggest thing about tupur other than that it has a compost mixed into the compost as well so inoculating it every other feeding helps tremendously. I get mushrooms growing in mine from time to time. I put hay on top as well to add extra microbes every feeding and to compost over the flower weeks

Edit: any ph between 5.5-6.5 will work with no ill effects as well. Those two things make bio char worth its weight in gold.

 

[thenotsoesoteric]

I'm another who is down with the tupur. Shit is easy

 

[fearnoevil]

Cool, I'm going to have to look into this bio-char, it can be made according to some organic farmers.