Could someone explain soil vs coco please

[seymore_budz]

Out of interest do use the bio-silicon and fulvic to get close to right ph after adding all rest now you know roughly how much is needed to keep ph in range or do you add at doses any other Joe would use them at generally ?

Also bio-silicon my little bit of grey matter is wondering what makes that more bio than any other standard lets say gro-tec silicon except maybe price ? I would have thought all silicon is naturally occuring stuff in the world from stuff used to seal in windows right to growing weed kind and none of it`s man made synthetic stuff. Maybe it`s the other shitty stuiff added to bottle with the silicon but again i would just think it`s a case of adding water to the granulated silicon powder to make your silicon additive for plants, it`s all you do with the dry RAW silicon powder mix anyhow. Feck knows tbh.

Some things i just can`t get my head around and this could well be one of them

Good question Inegrajosh, I'm not too fussed about the PH. After adding all the additives and nutrients the PH is always around 6ish. It's that predictable that I only spot check now every few weeks.

The bio-silicon is all marketing buddy. Not all silicon is equal but the plant magic silicon is straight potassium silicate with a little red iron and humic mixed in so the average joe see's the plants green up and think it's the bio silicon lol. I'm pretty sure the humic does nothing except improve the soil a little. Thr RAW silicon is Silicon dioxide as the GT and Bio-silicon is Potassium silicate. I was told by a friend that you're better off using the later for organics. I'm not sure why but I'll ask him and get back to you.

You also have silicon acetate and silanol that I've not seen a product that uses acetate but I do know of one that uses silanol. But I think that's another thread :)

What`s that all about as well when they use Silica or Silicon on bottlle i mean are they both same thing and which is best ? I mean once upon a time you could only get budlink silica which is still one of most expensive brands around, but is silica more soluble or summink over silicon, feck knows mate it confuses me again, it don`t take much though. :)

Ahh i see silica is silicon dioxide on wiki, hmm more reading me thinks. :)

Atb
jimmi

It's all marketing :) From memory budlink is a mix of silicon and other boosters probably the same as bio-silicon. I can't find a MSDS for it so I don't know but that's what the leaflet says. I'd say the best silicon on the market is Bio-Nova silution. It uses mono silicic acid and is backed up by fulvic acid. It's like a refined version on bio-silicon as both are immediately available to the plant. Is it worth the money.... who knows? All I know is the more I look at the bio-nova range, the more I like it :) A fun fact is House & Garden amino treatment also contains mono silicic acid and fulvic. Probably the same stuff as Silution but with a fancy metal bottle to make it look even more expensive :)

https://www.bionova.nl/grow-products/silution

[seymore_budz]

Budlink is potasium silicate and other boosters FYI.

[Josh]

Thanks Grumpy, that sounds ideal.

I'm in the same boat Re time and kids, I've got a small loft grow that just fits two 60 x 60 m tents so I can't do hydro or have reservoirs, but I like the idea of being able to just get up there ever couple of days. It's arguable I have that now with soil, I just need to get over the over attentiveness of a beginner!

It does seem though that an organic grow is more achievable with coco and the relevant nutes, I'll look into that.

Thanks again for the reply, this helps a lot.

All the best
Tictok

If you're looking for a living soil/organic setup, consider running a no-till bed. I have a 3x3 bed going right now with 4 plants, only a couple weeks in though

I'm also running 12 plants in 5 gallon fabric pots, same soil mix. Just type in on google "coots mix" to get the recipe. Very simple
The downside to running living soil in pots vs a large bed is that it's harder to maintain a perfect ecosystem (needs watered daily, top dressed before flower, etc.)

But I'm having great results so far, not going back any time soon


Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk

[GMO]

I'm gonna gently bump this thread cos the discussion is brilliant. I love how everyone brings a slice of info to the table... let the knowledge feast continue

translated from the bongo of the canna jungle

[Tictok]

Thanks Grumpy, that sounds ideal.

I'm in the same boat Re time and kids, I've got a small loft grow that just fits two 60 x 60 m tents so I can't do hydro or have reservoirs, but I like the idea of being able to just get up there ever couple of days. It's arguable I have that now with soil, I just need to get over the over attentiveness of a beginner!

It does seem though that an organic grow is more achievable with coco and the relevant nutes, I'll look into that.

Thanks again for the reply, this helps a lot.

All the best
Tictok

If you're looking for a living soil/organic setup, consider running a no-till bed. I have a 3x3 bed going right now with 4 plants, only a couple weeks in though

I'm also running 12 plants in 5 gallon fabric pots, same soil mix. Just type in on google "coots mix" to get the recipe. Very simple
The downside to running living soil in pots vs a large bed is that it's harder to maintain a perfect ecosystem (needs watered daily, top dressed before flower, etc.)

But I'm having great results so far, not going back any time soon


Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk

I did think of going that route but the challenge is space/volume.

Having just the two 60cmx60cm tents in an awkward loft grow, unless I converted one to run one big bed then living soil seems to not be an option both in terms of space and weight of the soil itself.

It seems from the above that running pots with coco and organic nutes might be a compromise and possibly an improvement from clover peat compost (which while only lightly fertilised, is not organic) that I'm currently using with biobizz organic nutes.

The challenge would be finding the right pot size and organic nutes that will work. So far, I have successfully killed two autos in 7.5ltr pots and living soil (didn't realise I needed more volume), so I'm back to clover.

I'm putting a list together from Grumpy's excellent post of nutes. Any input to that list would be superb.

[seymore_budz]

Thanks Grumpy, I may well consider it for my next run which won't be for a while.

Just out of interest, what organic nutes do you use? Do you still have to measure ph/ec etc?

Because I'm organic there's no need for PH or EC measurements. Well the occasional PH measurement to double check I'm not very acidic or alkaline. I'm using Plagron Alga for base nutes and for my latest run I'm using Plant magic bio silicon, house and garden root stim 1 as it's fulvic acid and a great root stim, biosys instant tea for added beneficial bacteria and fungus, Atami alga-c universal stimulator. That's just a type of brown algae but full of L-type aminos, vitamins, polysaccharides and all sorts of goodies. Also green sensation as a bloom stim. The silicon and algae will help protect against mold and pests as well as give the plant a boost. I'm thinking of swapping over to Bio-nova products though if I can get hold of it. They have an awesome range of nutrients and additives.

Out of interest do use the bio-silicon and fulvic to get close to right ph after adding all rest now you know roughly how much is needed to keep ph in range or do you add at doses any other Joe would use them at generally ?

Also bio-silicon my little bit of grey matter is wondering what makes that more bio than any other standard lets say gro-tec silicon except maybe price ? I would have thought all silicon is naturally occuring stuff in the world from stuff used to seal in windows right to growing weed kind and none of it`s man made synthetic stuff. Maybe it`s the other shitty stuiff added to bottle with the silicon but again i would just think it`s a case of adding water to the granulated silicon powder to make your silicon additive for plants, it`s all you do with the dry RAW silicon powder mix anyhow. Feck knows tbh.

Some things i just can`t get my head around and this could well be one of them

I poped into the grow shop today and asked why they call it bio-silicon and the guy told me that it's called bio-silicon because it has humic acid that inproves the soil and feeds the microlife. Not sure how true that is but it sounds plausible?

Thanks Grumpy, that sounds ideal.

I'm in the same boat Re time and kids, I've got a small loft grow that just fits two 60 x 60 m tents so I can't do hydro or have reservoirs, but I like the idea of being able to just get up there ever couple of days. It's arguable I have that now with soil, I just need to get over the over attentiveness of a beginner!

It does seem though that an organic grow is more achievable with coco and the relevant nutes, I'll look into that.

Thanks again for the reply, this helps a lot.

All the best
Tictok

If you're looking for a living soil/organic setup, consider running a no-till bed. I have a 3x3 bed going right now with 4 plants, only a couple weeks in though

I'm also running 12 plants in 5 gallon fabric pots, same soil mix. Just type in on google "coots mix" to get the recipe. Very simple
The downside to running living soil in pots vs a large bed is that it's harder to maintain a perfect ecosystem (needs watered daily, top dressed before flower, etc.)

But I'm having great results so far, not going back any time soon


Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk

I did think of going that route but the challenge is space/volume.

Having just the two 60cmx60cm tents in an awkward loft grow, unless I converted one to run one big bed then living soil seems to not be an option both in terms of space and weight of the soil itself.

It seems from the above that running pots with coco and organic nutes might be a compromise and possibly an improvement from clover peat compost (which while only lightly fertilised, is not organic) that I'm currently using with biobizz organic nutes.

The challenge would be finding the right pot size and organic nutes that will work. So far, I have successfully killed two autos in 7.5ltr pots and living soil (didn't realise I needed more volume), so I'm back to clover.

I'm putting a list together from Grumpy's excellent post of nutes. Any input to that list would be superb.

Just shout if you want to know more or ask more questions. I'm always happy to help if I can.

[2-Scoops]

Sounds like Si is just that then and theirs nothing bio about the silicon on it`s own, so im calling shennanigans on product labelling here. I mean doing as you are growing organically in coco i suppose using fulvic mixed with lets say a "none bio Si" like gro-tecs which is cheap as owt on the grow shop shelves creates a bio-silicon in a roundabout way, cus fulvic will chelate with Si and certainly make the silicon more available to plants and "bio" it on. I can get with that explanation though yes i think, maybe a little more info could have given but yes cool. Nice one

I certainly wouldn`t be falling for the bio blurb on a bottle if i grew organically with certain products, especially if your already using humates and fulvic. Then again what else is in the bottles if you did do that, hmmmm got my grey matter working overtime now

[seymore_budz]

Sounds like Si is just that then and theirs nothing bio about the silicon on it`s own, so im calling shennanigans on product labelling here. I mean doing as you are growing organically in coco i suppose using fulvic mixed with lets say a "none bio Si" like gro-tecs which is cheap as owt on the grow shop shelves creates a bio-silicon in a roundabout way, cus fulvic will chelate with Si and certainly make the silicon more available to plants and "bio" it on. I can get with that explanation though yes i think, maybe a little more info could have given but yes cool. Nice one

I certainly wouldn`t be falling for the bio blurb on a bottle if i grew organically with certain products, especially if your already using humates and fulvic. Then again what else is in the bottles if you did do that, hmmmm got my grey matter working overtime now

Yea it's bollocks :) it's enriched with humic not fulvic. So it conditions the soil. Maybe the humic helps separate the K from the Si? I won't be buying it again after doing a little research. I'll be buying a bottle of silution once this little bottle runs out.