Growing medium recommedations plz

[GoatofMendez]

Got my grow room sorted now (thanks to this ABSOLUTELY GREAT forum)

Now for a good recommendation for a growing meduim and feed.

I was thinking of getting a Hesi starter pack from Greens???? any good? (I liked this one because of the nice feeding diagram they supply)


Soil or Coco?????? If soil what soil? I have read that the John Innes line are very good or the batmix from greens (although I need to get it locally really)

Coco? any good?

thanks in advance for any answers... all the replies I've had on here have been fantastic!

cheers
Goat

[Maxi Jazz]

I'm intrested in this one as well.
i have a plant growing in soil at the moment(first/experimental grow) and happy with the results so far. Its been in B&Q seeding compost with perlite mixed in. I was going to get some of the john innes no3 for the final potting and see how it goes.
I like the idea of the batmix but am wondering if is really that much better from an informed choice from the local garden center.

[oldskoolgrower]

Cocoa works well. I prefer rockwool but that's just my preference. Rockwool is a perfect wick medium, so if I want I can keep them fed/watered from the bottom.

As long as you pick a decent medium and follow proper procedure for that medium you'll be happy with the results.

[bergkamp]

the b&q cutting and seedling compost is good used it for my whole grow of lemon stinkies and they loved it

[Myrddin2012]

People will go eek at this.

But i use growbags at £1.26p from B&Q and that does me fine.

Throw a little Bonemeal in there for final potting into the largest flowering 3 or 5 gallon, Indica/Afghani or Sativa, respectively.

What is known as TPMC, tree planting multipurpose compost is fine for anything from 5-6 node up, something a little less course for seedlings but TPMC is one of the cheapest composts available apart from bioaccelerated composts used in the landscaping industry, deffo don't want to use that for Cannabis as not enough bacterial heat was present to burn off all the nasties and should only be used for hardy shrub beds etc, but TPMC is fine and i started using that before i went growbag compost, which is even cheaper.

Composts selling at a tenner a bag are not necessarily any better than TPMC or growbags at half the price or even a little less, just a little more rotted down so appear darker and richer, if you are feeding instead of ammended and organic all the way through, you don't need the richest compost around because you're adding what is essential to the plants in your feeds, so a cheaper medium is fine in my experience.

My plants are perfectly happy in the growbag compost.

One consideration is amounts of Humic and Fulvic acids in the composts and will admit that richer and darker composts do have more humic and fulvic acids which are benificial but cheaper mediums do have suffcient, just more is more desirable, some organic growers would see that as worth paying the extra for but mixing some well rotted Horse manure compost into cheaper ones adjust the cheaper ones to near enough the same for a lot less money, proper well rotted manure mind, usually in 40l bags, not get a bag of Horse crap and leave it outside for 6 months, the process for the product you buy is more refined and has a lot of bacterial heat in the process which is great and makes it lovely for enrichment of cheaper composts.

As for soiless, i remain silent on that as ive not grown in Coco Coir or hydro and doubt i ever will, i prefer soil over any speed of growth advantages etc.