Ultimately my question is do i need to buffer my coco with cal mag or did my mistake already buffer it?
So i decided to diy build a soil. first thought living soil then i heard about meta soils which were mixing coco with organics. lets just say not a great idea, particularly for a newb. So i had to rinse the hell out of my soil. Originally it was:
60% coco
15% rice hull
15% worm casting
5 % biochar
5% oyster shell and bat guano
and just 2 cups of vermiculite.
YES I Know now this is a dumb ass recipe!^
It sat like this for a week, then i realized it was not releasing water at all. Did some research and learned about rinsing the tiny dusty sized coco from the larger pieces if using a brick and the need to cal mag buffer. So:
I filled the bins of soil up with water and soaked for an hr then rinsed the soil very thoroughly through a colander. Lost a little over half its volume and nearly if not entirely rinsed out the worm casting, guano and oyster shell. leaving a nice loamy soil. Was it buffered by the magnesium in the worm casting and calcium in the oyster shell?
I would supplement with cal/mag when necessary. Cannabis has a very short lifecycle and you will have harvested the plant by the time oyster shell has the time to break down into its constituent parts.
Dolomite lime is useful as well. It takes a lot of time for lime to break down, but it is still helpful in buffering pH.
So im using jacks 321 pure and simple for the grow and supposedly cal mag is not need as and additive. My seedlings are not showing signs of cal mag def, if anything to much from the worm casting. its more a concern for transplanting into this now rinsed coco. which im. probably getting ahead of myself i dont even know if these seedlings will survive as ive only watered once since seeds went into soil 6 days ago. to much water log worried roots will rot or drowned. thanks for the dol lime suggestion.
So im using jacks 321 pure and simple for the grow and supposedly cal mag is not need as and additive. My seedlings are not showing signs of cal mag def, if anything to much from the worm casting. its more a concern for transplanting into this now rinsed coco. which im. probably getting ahead of myself i dont even know if these seedlings will survive as ive only watered once since seeds went into soil 6 days ago. to much water log worried roots will rot or drowned. thanks for the dol lime suggestion.
so i ignorantly used the coco and worm casting mix for the starter. its far to dense and causing water lock. im not sure what i can do for these seedling now they are planted.
Coco should be wet. How about a pic of the plant(s) and a close up of your coco? Let’s get some more info and get to the cause of your problem. I’m thinking it may be because you are giving it too much water at once which the plant isn’t capable of absorbing within a day or 2. I’d like to see how big the plant is and just how wet the coco is. How much do you water each time?
