I’ve grown chilis and cannabis without really knowing what I am doing, now I wanted to learn to grow any veggies, but finally learn about soil and prepare it well myself.
I naively tried to use coco substrate with tap water and killed off my tomato seedlings pretty fast. Then I’ve did some research into soil and learned about more organic approaches, and also that pure coco is a bit like dry hydroponics and needs a lot of understanding, and that I probably both over-fertilized and starved them at the same time.
I’m going to start from seeds in Mel’s mix with 1/3 coco 1/3 perlite/vernaculite 1/3 compost. Is this kind of substrate to be treated as organic or as mineral approach? The compost probably adds the typical soil properties including the buffering of pH and EC and taking care of fertilization.
But I do not want to re-pot all the time, it is messy and inconvenient. I don’t really like working with soil. Instead I want to use mineral fertilizers. Once the compost is depleted, can I consider it to be like a non-soil grow? I got a pH/EC sensor to check my water and the drain coming out, diluted a pH- down based on diluted citric acid to normalize my water to 6,5pH, which seems like a good starting point for any situation.
Does it make sense to follow some generic approach (like keeping pH/EC in certain ranges in certain growth stages)? I do not want to use commercial fertilization formula schemes. I want to work with standard off the shelf mineral fertilizers. Is it possible to get decent results with that?
And where can I find that kind of information for general vegetables, like tomatoes or cucumbers etc.?
The whole soil business is pretty overwhelming, but I want to learn enough (without getting a degree in agriculture) so that I can do this not blindly but improvise with available substrates and fertilizer. How to get this knowledge?
Thanks for the great reply! I just assumed that this community is probably bigger, but yeah maybe next time I should ask in the German one, talking about plants in english not knowing a lot of normal words from gardening is a bit annoying :D
I see that I have mixed up a lot of things, between things relevant for soil and hydro. So your recommendation seems to be not to try to mix because it is counter productive, and if I use some compost-based approach I should stick with organic fertilization? I guess I could try to do that on the balcony, where the plants will live by the normal sun and weather cycle. Then I’m gonna research a bit more about organic fertilization too. Soil feels like a “black box” and more of a vibe thing than an exact science and that makes it somewhat hard for me to get into.
Indoors I’m pretty interested in doing “hydro” in coco coir, because I can store a lot of it dry and compact in the basement for years and not worry about insects or mold.
With hydro stuff however I am worried that I become too dependent on some “fertilization system” supplier and if I only learn to paint-by-numbers I don’t learn any transferable knowledge, even though hydro seems to be much more precise. Like, are there vendor-independent hydroponics recommendations per plant? Or you always just pick some fertilizer brand and follow the instructions, regardless of plant? And I can read info about hydroponics and apply it to growing in coco or something else which is non soil or are there some caveats? Because I’m not planning to have a hydro tank system, just interested in non-soil substrates.
And a very stupid question: is “compo complete” a soil or a mineral fertilizer? I thought it was mineral which is intended for soil, and now I’m confused as you said not to do such things. Thought organic fertilizer must be some worm humus or plant material or other stuff they add into soil, like indirect complex compounds of something decaying which is broken down by micro organisms, and that liquids are always mineral NPK mixes with immediate availability, or is that assumption completely wrong?
I see that I have mixed up a lot of things, between things relevant for soil and hydro. So your recommendation seems to be not to try to mix because it is counter productive, and if I use some compost-based approach I should stick with organic fertilization?
While organic vs. “hydro” is more of a spectrum and in some cases hard to define, I’d say it’s better to clearly separate them to get the most benefits out of each concept.
Soil feels like a “black box” and more of a vibe thing
That sums it up very well.
When growing organically, you can let the microbes (and small critters) do the work for you. You don’t know what they do, but they just do stuff, and you don’t or can’t worry about it.
It’s more of a layed back thing.
Weeds now don’t exist anymore, they’re now just called “cover crops”, and pests don’t demolish your crops, they’re just waiting to get eaten by other beneficial insects 😁
Indoors I’m pretty interested in doing “hydro” in coco coir, because I can store a lot of it dry and compact in the basement for years and not worry about insects or mold.
Maybe read my guide on passive hydro with LECA. It has similar benefits, but is completely inorganic and my substrate of choice.
become too dependent on some “fertilization system” supplier and if I only learn to paint-by-numbers I don’t learn any transferable knowledge
Fertilizers are mostly the same. They all use the same ingredients in one form or another.
You can easily switch from T.A. to Plagron to Masterblend for example, that shouldn’t be much of a problem.
You still need to get a bit of experience, but I find it way easier to diagnose problems and trends.
And I can read info about hydroponics and apply it to growing in coco or something else which is non soil or are there some caveats? Because I’m not planning to have a hydro tank system, just interested in non-soil substrates.
While the two disciplines seem to be separated from each other, you can still greatly benefit from mastering both.
For me, hydro mostly just means soil-less.
I thought it was mineral which is intended for soil, and now I’m confused as you said not to do such things. Thought organic fertilizer must be some worm humus or plant material or other stuff they add into soil, like indirect complex compounds of something decaying which is broken down by micro organisms, and that liquids are always mineral NPK mixes with immediate availability, or is that assumption completely wrong?
You are correct. The effects of synthetic fertiliser on soil is sometimes a bit exaggerated. Microbes are kind of tolerant to minerals, it’s just that you steal their jobs and weaken the connection between them and the plant. Read more about mycorrhizal networks if you’re interested in that topic :)
Can you provide a link to your “passive hydro” guide? Sounds very interesting :)
In general I’m interested in learning some non-soil method that is still forgiving, does not need special tech (like pumps and stuff) and ideally not much more maintenance than a soil grow. Maybe I’m asking for something impossible.
Btw, I do have Tropf-Blumat and was going to set it up indoors anyway, to automate and optimize watering. not sure whether it helps for hydro, if you always have to supply nutrients in the water (I would not put nutes into the normal watering tank). I got that, full spectrum lights and ventilation. That’s as “high-tech” as I wanted to get :D
I guess in any case I’m going to try Plagron or Masterblend then, you convinced me! Maybe I should not make my life more difficult than needed when just starting out.
In any case, thanks for the patience with a total newbie :)
