1st time grower needing advice on which growing medium to start with

[Dmase]

Hey lads,

Very new to growing and just wondering for any advice you could give on which medium to start a indoor grow with first up as there's going to be alot of fuck ups along the way. I was going to start with soil ( grow dirt or turbo dirt) but I don't think I can get it posted to W.A. so leaning towards coco/perlite now.

Any recommended nutrients that you have given a run with, with decent results but not to heavy on the wallet?

I have ordered most of the gear needed and they are on their way. Just missing pots, ph and ec pen, nutrients and seeds to get started. Will be adding anymore equipment I need along the way.

Any recommended ph and ec pen you can recommend? If bluelabs are that highly recommended then I will just bite the bullet and go with bluelab.

I have placed an order for seeds. Let's hope the seeds make it through customs or will have all the gear with no seeds to grow with. Now that will be a fucked up situation

Cheers

 

[Porky]

Osmocote plus from bunnings if ya on a budget!
Can't go wrong with blue lab!

 

[Pikey]

Welcome Dmase, you chose the perfect time to join

 

[Speddyeddy]

Hey there, bluelab is really good. I've since upgraded my truncheon to a bluelab guardian and the probes spend most of their life in the reservoir tank. Don't know much about soil other than I think there is a living soil company on facebook in perth, can't remember the name. Might have been on the ausgrowers reddit? I grow mostly in coco/perlite DTW and it's easy enough when you have the tools. You can get 100L bags of perlite at nutrien for like 40 bucks. Then I'd do a 70/30 mix with the coco bricks from bunnings but I'm going to change from the bricks to the pinegrow 30L bags since there's less steps in getting it ready. As for nutes I use house and garden A/B during flower and now I'm trying campbells diamond special t/cal nitrate/epsom salts with the veg tent. I think you can get most A/B 1L mixes for around 30 bucks.

 

[Gazza]

Welcome mate, I’ll just cut to the chase fuck soil for indoor grows, dirt is for outdoors, hydroponics is the way togo, any decent coco/perlite mix will get you going.

For nutes you can’t go wrong with grow right and bud right and I’ve used hygen a and b for coco and had very good results with both them products.

If you can feed them daily or twice daily and use a ph meter also your genetics and grow environment will have a dramatic effect on the end results.

 

[Squire]

Like Gazza said

 

[Dmase]

Osmocote plus from bunnings if ya on a budget!
Can't go wrong with blue lab!

Thanks mate!

 

[Dmase]

Welcome Dmase, you chose the perfect time to join

Cheers mate Glad I found this place

 

[Dmase]

Hey there, bluelab is really good. I've since upgraded my truncheon to a bluelab guardian and the probes spend most of their life in the reservoir tank. Don't know much about soil other than I think there is a living soil company on facebook in perth, can't remember the name. Might have been on the ausgrowers reddit? I grow mostly in coco/perlite DTW and it's easy enough when you have the tools. You can get 100L bags of perlite at nutrien for like 40 bucks. Then I'd do a 70/30 mix with the coco bricks from bunnings but I'm going to change from the bricks to the pinegrow 30L bags since there's less steps in getting it ready. As for nutes I use house and garden A/B during flower and now I'm trying campbells diamond special t/cal nitrate/epsom salts with the veg tent. I think you can get most A/B 1L mixes for around 30 bucks.

Cheers for the info bud! Will suss it all out. Keen to get a grow under my belt

 

[Billygoat]

Welcome.

Ignore Porky

 

[Pikey]

As always @Gazza is on the money .

I've recently tried coco/perlite on a couple of grows and my biggest take away is that, given you have your pH & EC right and you're watering with adequate runoff, then it's pretty much fool proof¹.

My only grumble is that it can be time consuming given the daily feedings, but that is also a plus I think for someone just starting out. Given that your average newbie is very excited and keen (we've all been there, checking on our baby every 3 mins to see if it's grown, or needs more water) being near impossible to overwater in it, I think it's the perfect beginers media to cope with too much "love".

As Gazz said, DTW coco/perlite + a decent pH & EC pen + a quality 2 part nute under a decent light = success

I'm currently using Bunnings PineGro Coco² + Perlite fed with BioDiesel Green Diamond² 2 part and seeing good results so far. Also, +1 for the Blulab² pH pen & EC truncheon.


¹-Individual experiences may vary ²-other brands are available

 

[Dmase]

Welcome mate, I’ll just cut to the chase fuck soil for indoor grows, dirt is for outdoors, hydroponics is the way togo, any decent coco/perlite mix will get you going.

For nutes you can’t go wrong with grow right and bud right and I’ve used hygen a and b for coco and had very good results with both them products.

If you can feed them daily or twice daily and use a ph meter also your genetics and grow environment will have a dramatic effect on the end results.

Cheers for the advice @Gazza I'll stick to coco/perlite. Are the coco/perlite premix alright? Or would you suggest to buy it separately and mix it up myself. Any particular brands to go with or just go with whatever I can get my hands on.

Do you usually add anything else with your nutes during veg or flowering? Calmag, Pk 13/14 or any other shit during veg and flowering?

Do you reckon 1 litre bottles of nutes will get me through a grow if I ran 2-3 plants or would I need the 5 litre bottles.

Sorry about all the questions. Really appreciate the input mate

 

[Dmase]

As always @Gazza is on the money .

I've recently tried coco/perlite on a couple of grows and my biggest take away is that, given you have your pH & EC right and you're watering with adequate runoff, then it's pretty much fool proof¹.

My only grumble is that it can be time consuming given the daily feedings, but that is also a plus I think for someone just starting out. Given that your average newbie is very excited and keen (we've all been there, checking on our baby every 3 mins to see if it's grown, or needs more water) being near impossible to overwater in it, I think it's the perfect beginers media to cope with too much "love".

As Gazz said, DTW coco/perlite + a decent pH & EC pen + a quality 2 part nute under a decent light = success

I'm currently using Bunnings PineGro Coco² + Perlite fed with BioDiesel Green Diamond² 2 part and seeing good results so far. Also, +1 for the Blulab² pH pen & EC truncheon.


¹-Individual experiences may vary ²-other brands are available

Really appreciate the input @Pikey It's great to have a community that's willing to help a fellow newbie out. Very keen to get started!

With the Bio diesel nutes, are you just using A+B nutes or are you using all the other bio diesel stuff with it like growth enhancer, bloom booster, root and shoot etc.. Not sure if the rest is a must or you can get away with just the A+B nutes

 

[Dmase]

Welcome.

Ignore Porky

Thanks mate

Is his input that valued around here

 

[Billygoat]

Thanks mate

Is his input that valued around here

Haha, just stirring.

he is a good cunt.

i dont agree with his soil advice for ya indoor grow though.

 

[benn0]

Probs just best to start with regular soil if its your first grow, but coco was easy for me to get the hang on and it is a little forgiving, just gotta feed them to right nutes so a bluelab is the way to go, ive been through three cheapo ebay ec meters and 2 ebay ph meters def not worth the hassel and go with the good brand name product

 

[Gazza]

Depends on your budget mate, you can get the pine grow coco from bunnings which is fairly cheap and mix your own perlite in it’s not bad, the nutrifield premix blend is good togo out of the bag but more expensive but better quality imo.

I’d go for the 5 litre bottles and 100 litre bag of course perlite, you’ll use it all eventually I don’t bother with any additives during veg stage, canna pk 13 or green planet pk spike are good boosters from the start of week four into flower.

Definitely need a good quality ph meter also want ph 7.0 buffer solution to calibrate the meter with too, and regularly calibrate it.

What lights and tent size ya looking at?

See pikey is all over it too coco is good, shits all over soil, the postman will validate this too and he is a master coco grower

 

[Dmase]

Probs just best to start with regular soil if its your first grow, but coco was easy for me to get the hang on and it is a little forgiving, just gotta feed them to right nutes so a bluelab is the way to go, ive been through three cheapo ebay ec meters and 2 ebay ph meters def not worth the hassel and go with the good brand name product

Cheers for the response mate

 

[Dmase]

Depends on your budget mate, you can get the pine grow coco from bunnings which is fairly cheap and mix your own perlite in it’s not bad, the nutrifield premix blend is good togo out of the bag but more expensive but better quality imo.

I’d go for the 5 litre bottles and 100 litre bag of course perlite, you’ll use it all eventually I don’t bother with any additives during veg stage, canna pk 13 or green planet pk spike are good boosters from the start of week four into flower.

Definitely need a good quality ph meter also want ph 7.0 buffer solution to calibrate the meter with too, and regularly calibrate it.

What lights and tent size ya looking at?

See pikey is all over it too coco is good, shits all over soil, the postman will validate this too and he is a master coco grower

I was looking at the nutrified premix earlier. Probably go with that if ya reckon it's better quality. Need all the help I can get

Some nute brands has so many separate additive bottles it's gets so fucken confusing for a beginner

I got a 3x3 ac infinity tent on the way but looking to upgrade down the track to something bigger. Light is a Mars hydro fc4800, got it on sale. Hlg are just out of my price range at the current moment.

Think I've been watching too much of Mr cunuck grows hence while I was thinking of soil

 

[Pikey]

See pikey is all over it too coco is good, shits all over soil

I'm am liking it mate, but it will never replace my love of a simple organic soil grow . Way more casual and suits my lazy arse to know I can leave them for a few days and they'll be okay. The coco/perlite schedule can be pretty stressful at times .

But true, it's not the best place to start if you're new to gardening on the whole and want your best chance at a result.