All you big dogs out there know all the ways to grow weed so I'm not trying to school you. But in case there is someone on the island who wants to learn from this old Dragon, I am going to mention the things that I feel are most important.
I grow in Coco which is not soil and although coco can be beneficial in soil, growing in coco without soil is nothing like growing in soil. Growing in coco is much more like growing hydroponically.
I feed my plant like it is an engine and I always keep it primed. This means that I always keep the coco wet with a pump and a reservoir filled with CLF strength nutrients.
There are many reasons why I feel it is best to always keep the coco wet:
1: If the roots are dehydrated they are not drawing in nutrients properly and the plant goes into survival mode rather than production mode.
2: This is an easy way to always keep the pH where I want it
3: When the planter dries up, many of the nutrients wont ever dissolve again, thus drawing other fresh nutrients out of solution when added.
4: Because I am continually flushing the planter with fresh nutrients, I never get any salt build up and dont need to worry about doing EC tests.
5. If I buffer the coco with extra cal-mag the first time I get it wet, and I always keep the coco wet with my regular regimen then I don't ever need to add extra cal mag to my normal regimen (unless the coco dries out, then I need to buffer it again once). If the coco is buffered and stays wet then it will remain buffered.
By providing the fertigation from above, I am pushing the old used solution down and out of the planter with the injection of new nutrients. The new nutrient solution keeps the PH where I want it, allowing the plant to consume the fresh balance of nutrients. The old water is removed from the system as waste by gravity and or a pump. As I continuously do this every hour or two throughout the day, the plant is able to feed with the proper pH and nutrient balance all day long, allowing it to produce with its greatest potential possible.
The only time that I dont continually fertigate every hour is for about a week when I am waiting for the roots to stretch out after transplanting into the biggest planter.
I just recently switched down from the number 3 airpot with the yellow bottom to the number 2 airpot with the red bottom. My plants were getting too big for this new 7 foot flower room. (doing the best with what I got to work with)
I mix my own nutrients: I dont trust the large corporations. They want us to consume their products, they dont care how well your plants produce. A few examples are:
1: Coco only needs to be buffered once with extra cal mag if it is always kept wet, coco doesn't need extra cal-mag in the normal cannabis regimen if properly buffered and kept wet.
2: I also like a different Cal to Mag ratio than is in most cal-mag formulas. These two elements are used symbioticaly by the plant, if the ratio is off a little, adding more cal mag will keep making the problem worse, or rather, make one reliant on the suppliment.
3: Probably the most common problem I see with most corporate formulas is that it is mathmatically impossible to keep a correct micro-nutrient ballance if they put the micro nutrients into the same formula as the macro nutrients. These two live in different mathmatical dimensions and can not be divided equally. Unless we are always feeding these type of formulas at full strength, we are not giving enough micro nutrients to the plant. Because the macro nutrients are symbiotic with the micro nutrients, the wrong micro ballance can lead to macro deficiencies as well as micro.
With that said, I once had an old batch of my Micro mix fall out of solution and it caused dramatic problems. The Micro's are super important!!!
