Need to make about 15 gallons of mix. I have artwork castings 30lb. Perilte and a little coco. I am unsure if I should do about 50 percent top soil, 20 percent coco, 15 percent earthworm castings and 15 percent perlite. I plan on using lotus nutes. Could also change it up. Could add some fox farm or whatever. Thx for help @OGIncognito @Spiney_norman
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Commercial top soil or from the yard?
Your mix sounds reasonable to me.
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Commercial. Not sure which one. Suggestions? @Spiney_norman
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Lots of choices out there. You dont want anything with time release food like Miracle Grow.
I see a lot of people using Coast of Main and of course Fox Farms Happy Frog.
Changing a bagged soil with other amendments can be overdone and make the grow difficult. But what you posted seems like it would only lighten up the mix. I might try that with Happy Frog.
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I wouldn’t recommend mixing coco and soil…2 different PH requirements 
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I too dont like to do this. That’s why I asked about the soil for the base. Some of them already have coco in them. 20% total in a mix shouldn’t be enough to make the pH an issue, but if the bag mix already has coco in it then adding more would be problematic.
Ya know I got tired of chasing issues in dirt and once I switched to plain coco with some perlite I got so much better results. It took me about 3 grow cycles to iron out my methods but even then my problems were not enough to make a big impact on my final harvest.
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Same here 3 years ago. I’m still a fan of the FF coco loco when I’m lazy. It’s a blend and found 6.3-6.5 works for that medium
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Thats every day for me.
I try to keep ahead of my needs by hydrating a block of coco when I feel good even if its weeks before I need it. I have had no problems even when I let the coco sit in the buffering solution for a couple weeks. When I feel good I will move it into grow bags and rinse it with plain tap water followed by RO water with Jacks.
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My day job gets in the way of my cannabis hobby unfortunately. I moved to auto pots and coco and a few DIY aeroponic set ups to keep the plants going. I’m on a 3 week rotation between work and home at the moment. I can make do with a week or a little more but lost 12 plants these last few months 
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I do believe I will eventually do the same. I grow for my wife to make edibles and we need about 3 pounds a year. Since it looks like I will be doing this for a long time Autopots might make my life easier.
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I second @OGIncognito one or the other.
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I’m ok doing coco and perlite. My wife can use the worm castings. lol.
This was is what I’m going to buy. I don’t want to buffer and this already is. Think 80:20 is good? I’m using the lotus nutes and I think they are ok for this.
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I grow for a group of disabled veterans, myself and my wife and auto pots definitely made this possible.
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I run 70/30 coco and perlite in my set ups. The lotus nutrients will work well, expensive though. Look into jacks 321, simple, easy on the plants and a $30 bag will last many grows
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Ok. I’ll try the hacks when I run out. Thx
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Building a proper soil mix is actually harder than you think. There are a lot of components needed to build a good nutrient load in the medium. Like stated above; coco/perlite in Autopots does a phenomenal job without the issues related to soil or poor soil.
I see growers adding worm castings to coco and calling it ‘soil’ but they are missing most of the nutrients and micronutrients needed to properly flower out a plant.
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Was able to return dual hose plus heat portable ac that I paid $500 for and get same without heat for $230 dual hose on a lightning deal today!!! I already have a heater but I thought why not then but ……not for an extra 250. I’m thrilled
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Nice score Grow Bro
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I paid nearly double that for a 12000 port ac…
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