Quick question I have a mixture of fox farm ocean and happy frog in 5 gallon fabric pot. How much of each of vermiculite and pearllite would I add to fill the 5 gallon fabric pot? Should I use equal amounts of each or more of one than the other. Right now I have more ocean than frog, and none of the either vermiculite or pearllite in container. I would say it’s 60 % ocean and 20 frog. Seedling coming out of 100% frog.
Vermiculite retains moisture, which is not ideal for cannabis. Very few growers use it for cannabis growing.
Perlite does not. It “thins” the soil. It prevents compacting to some extent and it aids drainage since it does not absorb water. I use 20% by volume of perlite.
Nice looking GSD. I’m a GSD owner too.
What Midwest guy said.
I mix my own soil.
4 parts coco coir
1 part composted manure/worm castings
1 part perlite.
I add Happy Frog dry amendments at half strength.
There are other things added like bat guano and bio-char, but that doesn’t seem necessary and I’m just adding it to get it used up.
I use 1/3 perlite,1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 compost with worm casings. All my nutes come only from Jack’s 321. 5 gallon fabric pots for photos and 3 gallon for autos. Was using 5 gallon for the autos but decided wasted space since they stay small anyway.
That way I can run 2 or 3 photos and 1 auto so I can have near perpetual harvest.
So far works for me in 3x3 tent. Plus I reuse my soil with few amendments every 3rd grow or so
Agree with @MidwestGuy about vermiculite. I tried adding it to FF OF and did not like it all. The soil never seemed to dry out enough. I switched to perlite and was much happier. I tried to end up with a mix that was around 75% OF and 25% perlite. More perlite means you water/feed more often.
Ocean forest has 10% perlite by volume from FF (according to them) I always added an additional 10% totalling 20%by volume. Also I never use vermiculite.
Thanks everyone! I am skipping the vermiculite and added only pearlite. Without watering or plant yet the 5 gallon pot weighs 13.4 pounds with all the soil and pearlite. Hopefully I can use this dry weight as a little barometer of when it’s drying out and may need watering.
Another random question is do you wet the soil to run off and measure ppm and ph and then transplant the plant or do you let it dry out for a week or so then transplant? Do you water it in a little when transplanting? No muted just ph’d water in a ring around it?
I wet the soil in a 5 gallon fabric pot with about a quart of water. Then let it set for 4 or 5 hours to let it get evenly distributed. Dig a hole and put the plant with the dry soil in pack the moist soil around it. That dry soil will become slightly moist later after setting. Then check daily to see if it dried around plant. Pot may not be completely dry at that time because the soil in bottom may not have completely dried yet but top 3 inchs have and that’s where your roots are. Only water a little bit at this time about a cup I know that doesn’t seem like much but it will seep down where the roots can reach it. Try to keep that water 2 or 3 inches away from plant stem it will soak in some and make the root work some while keeping the plant stem dry enough.
I pre soak the whole pot and collect the runoff for use. 1hr later I dig hole and plant
Transplanting can be stressful for the plant and the grower. All it took for me was one messed up plant and I had to find a better way.
I bought these quart sized nursery bags. Seedlings and rooted clones go into them.
They stay in those for about a month and then I just pop them into their larger home.
The roots will grow through the fabric and will fill up the next pot also.
I can even take that pot and put it in or on another larger pot.
GSD Rock. Minus the fur everywhere
Using both those defeats the purpose of the vermiculite and pearllite one holds water the other drains the water.
While his moisture retention effort may be less than efficient ,there is volume and porosity being generated as well and water will drain more readily.
Did my post here get deleted? I see people referring to me, but there is no post from me. @Covertgrower can you see deleted posts and who deleted it? I don’t think I would have deleted it.
I don’t see any that got deleted that I know of? Specific number or post to narrow it down, and I’ll check again. @MidwestGuy
Edit: I restored the first post. The system itself deleted it, and I have no answer why it did. It was a perfectly acceptable post.
It was the second post in this thread. It’s there now. It was gone when I looked earlier. Strange.
See above edited post.
I try to keep it civil, though I’ve been tempted at times…
Lol, I haven’t seen anything remotely crossing any lines in your posts. No worries.
Don’t even get me started on posts I should leave alone.