0:06

Ladies and Gentlemen , stoners and Growers

0:08

, welcome to a midnight rendezvous

0:10

like no other . I'm your host , socrates

0:13

Gros , broadcasting from a server

0:15

in the heart of America . Join

0:19

me on this extraordinary journey

0:21

through the lush foliage of my autoflower

0:24

garden to learn how to grow your own fire at

0:26

home . This is Auto Flower

0:28

Power , the podcast that takes you deep

0:30

into the hidden realms of the horticultural

0:33

marvels that we call autofowers

0:35

. On this episode , we'll be discussing

0:37

different growing mediums . We'll

0:39

be discussing the drawbacks and benefits

0:41

of several different kinds , including soil

0:44

, cocoa and hydroponics

0:46

. We'll also discuss some options

0:48

for new growers and more experienced growers

0:50

, as well as some of the different paths you might want to take

0:52

on your journey of growing mediums

0:54

. So sit back and enjoy

0:57

this episode of the autoflower

0:59

power . So

1:10

let's begin with discussing why choosing

1:12

the right medium is so important for your grow

1:14

, especially with autofowers . First

1:16

off , determining the right medium is going to be a big

1:18

impact on how your plants grow and

1:21

the amount of effort that you're going

1:23

to have to put into each growth . After

1:27

that , you're also going to want to consider that each medium

1:29

is slightly different and has different

1:31

time input requirements . This

1:34

is going to add to more or less time

1:36

in your grow room or in your

1:38

garden , so keep

1:40

that in mind when you're choosing which grow

1:42

medium you're going to be using . Next

1:44

, each medium does have its pros

1:47

and cons , so you're going to want to weigh each one of those

1:49

and do a little bit of research as well as

1:52

what you're going to hear on this episode today and

1:54

find out locally what's available and maybe what

1:56

some local growers or people you talk with

1:58

are also using . That could be a big

2:00

help . Next , you're going

2:02

to want to consider that each one

2:04

of these , while you might

2:06

end up having miserable results in your first couple

2:09

of runs , each one of these , you

2:11

can get really excellent results and

2:13

different qualities for each one that

2:16

is beneficial to

2:18

that particular type . So , for

2:20

example , soil , you can get amazing

2:22

flower out of deep

2:24

water culture . Hydroponics , you can

2:27

get amazing results out of , and cocoa . So

2:29

none of these are bad . None

2:31

of these are particularly better . They're all sort of suited

2:34

to your style , your environment and

2:36

what you want to be doing . This

2:38

is also going to be something that you're going to want

2:40

to take into consideration is the types of containers

2:43

you're using , so if you're hand watering

2:45

in regular pots outside

2:47

, or if you're going to be using some type of raised

2:49

bed outdoors , that is going

2:51

to make a big difference in what you're going to be using

2:54

Additionally . If you're going

2:56

to be using fabric pots and sub-irrigation

2:58

, there's some ways that are easier to go with that

3:00

. And again , if you're going to be using

3:03

hydroponics , well , you've already made

3:05

your decision on what type of medium you're going to be

3:07

using . You're going to be using an oxygenated

3:09

water with nutrient mix , so

3:11

these will all factor into

3:13

choosing the right medium for you and

3:16

, like I said , today we're going to be talking about soil , cocoa

3:19

and hydroponics , specifically

3:21

deep water culture , and we'll discuss that

3:23

briefly towards the end . Let's begin

3:25

with soil , the most traditional of

3:28

the mediums . I've

3:30

heard it said that soil is what's in your garden

3:32

and dirt is what's under your bed

3:34

. Your goal with soil is

3:36

that soil should retain moisture

3:38

. It should allow for micro

3:41

microbial life

3:43

to grow . You should be able

3:45

to hold nutrients in it . It

3:47

should be able to allow airflow and also

3:49

drainage . These are some of the major goals of

3:51

a good soil . You can find

3:53

soils that already come amended or

3:56

sort of more weak soils that

3:58

allow you to add your own amendments to

4:00

them . Thank you , basically

4:02

premixed soils will be available and

4:04

some of them , like I said , even if

4:06

they're mixed , they will be

4:08

like less hot , which

4:10

means like less amended with nutrients

4:14

, which is something that you're going to want early

4:16

in the autoflower stage is kind of a

4:18

little bit less nutrients . You're not going to want to be pushing

4:20

so hard in the first couple of weeks . So

4:23

some people recommend for

4:25

quote unquote hot soil , which is , you know , heavily

4:27

amended soil . So something like Fox

4:31

Farm Ocean Force is very commonly

4:33

available in a lot of grow shops here

4:35

in America . That's going to be considered a hot

4:38

soil because it's got a lot of micro

4:40

microbial life . It's also got

4:42

a lot of nutrients already in there . So that

4:45

early seedling might be a little bit overwhelmed

4:47

by everything that's in there . So you might

4:49

want to consider something a little bit less

4:53

, less

4:55

amended . Basically , this

4:57

could be something like if you're going with Fox

5:00

Farm , that's something that you've got in your area , it

5:02

could be like a happy frog If

5:04

you've got it , a rich organics good . Another

5:07

great brand is build a soil

5:10

. This comes pre amended or kind

5:12

of less amended and you can add your own . These

5:14

are all pretty good and reputable brands

5:16

and you

5:19

could also mix your own soil . This is

5:21

pretty common and pretty traditional

5:23

. Usually it's some

5:25

combination of peat , moss , pearlite

5:27

and compost . You're going to want some sort of

5:29

life in there , so that compost

5:31

is going to bring that microbial life

5:33

and maybe some beneficial

5:36

insects to your soil

5:38

. So consider maybe mixing your

5:40

own soil . If you have the resources

5:42

available to you , especially if you're doing your own composting

5:45

, that's a great way to go . This

5:47

is something maybe called

5:49

the living soil that you'll see online . This

5:51

is where you actually do have microbial

5:54

life going . This is a non sterile soil

5:56

that it's not going to be found in

5:58

your general like

6:02

hardware store , like a Lowe's or Home

6:04

Depot , but you will be able to find these pretty

6:06

easily in your local grow stores

6:08

. If you're growing outdoors , you're probably

6:11

going to be growing in soil , so think of raised

6:13

garden bed or something like that . You're going to

6:15

be finding some worms and some other insects

6:18

in there and typically there's a

6:20

movement , especially now , where you're going to want

6:22

to do kind of these no till , which

6:24

means you're not going to turn them up and switch

6:27

out the soil each run beds

6:29

and basically in these beds a

6:32

lot of guys are using these much

6:34

larger containers , well

6:36

over 12 gallons , sometimes

6:39

up to 100 gallons of soil , and

6:41

they're adding in , you know , a

6:43

vermiculture , worms

6:45

and other beneficial microbes

6:47

. They're also exploring

6:50

a lot with cover crops in between

6:52

runs that they'll be able to chop down and add

6:54

back into the soil as soil

6:57

amendments . I think these are really

6:59

cool ways to go into growing . They're

7:02

really good for the environment , they're

7:04

beneficial to you and , frankly

7:06

, there's a lot of good research

7:08

that some of the best terpenes on some of the best cannabis comes from this

7:11

living soil . So let's talk about some

7:13

of the pros and cons of

7:15

growing in soil . Soil is

7:17

pretty easy for new growers

7:20

. I would say most beginners that I know begin

7:23

in some type of soil . That's both because it's

7:26

pretty forgiving and it's also pretty

7:28

simple to run . There's not really a lot that you can easily

7:31

mess up on a soil growth . That's

7:34

not to say that you won't mess it up , but it is pretty simple

7:37

and straightforward . Especially if you've grown other

7:39

fruits or vegetables

7:41

in soil before , the

7:43

transition is really easy to cannabis . So

7:46

if you're comfortable with soil and you're a beginner to

7:49

autoflowering cannabis , soils are a great way

7:51

to go . Another reason you might want to consider soil

7:53

is like I had mentioned before , there's great

7:55

flavor profiles in the final products for a lot of

7:58

these living soils and

8:01

not salt-based soils

8:03

, so that's another great benefit

8:05

is that you can get

8:07

really , really killer terpenes

8:09

and smells coming off plants that are grown in these organic

8:11

living soils

8:13

. You can

8:15

also fairly easily find or

8:18

import these , depending where you are , whether it's

8:21

something like a fox farm , which you can find in

8:23

almost every family growing store , even if it's not

8:26

necessarily a hydroponic store or

8:29

if it's something more specific like a roots organic or a

8:32

build a soil , these are all

8:34

fairly available . So they're pretty easy to find and it's not going

8:36

to be too much

8:38

of a trouble trying to

8:40

get them to start off . They're also highly versatile and customizable

8:45

, so if you have some soil , you can mix and match soils . If you've

8:47

got a little bit of this and

8:49

a little bit of that , you could even add in some cocoa

8:51

choir , which we'll be talking about next

8:53

to your soil , and it's

8:55

just another ingredient in your soil . Soil is really just

8:58

basically like a

9:00

mash-up of a bunch of natural

9:03

organic materials that are breaking down and feeding into

9:05

your plant's root zone

9:07

, so you can do

9:09

a lot of different things with your soil . Going

9:12

along with that , there's a lot of different

9:14

recipes for how to both build

9:17

your soil and amend your soil . I'm

9:19

going to put one of the notes . This is like an

9:22

amendment recipe from Daz of Night

9:24

Owl . He uses it At

9:26

least he did and he's posted it

9:28

on Instagram in the past . So

9:30

this basically shows you like what

9:32

type of dry amendments you can use in

9:35

a soil . This is not an episode

9:37

specifically on amendments

9:39

or amending soil , but that just kind of will

9:41

give you an idea of some of the types

9:43

of things that you can do if you really

9:45

want to . Additionally

9:47

, there's plenty of dry

9:50

amendments or salt amendments , which

9:52

can be liquid , that

9:55

you can use in soil . That will make it much

9:57

easier than making your own amendments , so just

9:59

consider that as something

10:01

that might be easier

10:03

. Additionally , I

10:05

would say that there's usually less

10:08

pH issues if

10:10

you're going to do some type of organic soil

10:13

. That's not always true , but that

10:15

might cut down on some

10:18

pH issues . If you have

10:20

some resistance to

10:22

wanting to get out that pH meter every time you water

10:24

, I'd really highly suggest you

10:27

check out the Build-A-Soils YouTube channel

10:30

. Jeremy over there has some

10:32

pretty cool videos and has a lot

10:34

of information about living soil , how

10:36

to build it up , what to start with , what

10:38

to amend it with cover

10:40

crops , everything really and he's

10:42

an amazing resource , so definitely

10:44

check out Build-A-Soil . What

10:47

are some of the cons of growing in soil ? I've

10:50

really only got two written down , and

10:52

the main one for me is that

10:54

, as a beginner , you're more likely to

10:56

overwater soil than you

10:58

are cocoa . The root

11:00

zone in soil can

11:02

get clogged and overwatered

11:05

and it will lead to less root

11:07

zone growth , which will slow down

11:09

the growth of your plant , especially when you're starting

11:11

. You want to resist any slowdown

11:15

because we're on a timer with autoflowers

11:17

, so please consider that

11:19

. You know , don't overwater

11:21

it . You're better off letting it dry back , much

11:24

like other mediums . So overwatering

11:27

is a problem , so just keep an eye on that . If

11:29

you're a beginner and you're deciding to do

11:31

soil and

11:33

additionally after that , you can

11:35

see slightly slower growth initially

11:38

and potentially through the entire

11:40

plant's life if you're using soil , compared

11:42

to some of these other mediums . Aside

11:45

from that , I really wouldn't be concerned . Soil

11:47

is a great medium and I would

11:50

really highly recommend it if you are a beginner

11:52

grower or if you're coming to

11:54

cannabis or autoflowers

11:56

from gardening outside . If you're a tomato

11:58

or a pepper grower , this is a great transition

12:01

. It makes it super easy for you just to dive

12:03

headfirst in and not concern

12:05

yourself too much about the mediums

12:07

. Let's

12:09

now talk about cocoa . Cocoa

12:12

, or cocoa choir , is the

12:14

fiber husks of coconut that

12:16

have been shredded up and shredded down , and

12:19

you can find them both in bagged form

12:21

, which is pre-buffered

12:23

, or you can find them unbuffered , in brick

12:25

form . We'll talk a little bit more about that in the pros

12:28

and cons . Let's

12:30

talk about some of the pros of cocoa

12:32

, because I don't think a lot of people are familiar with

12:34

growing in cocoa , unless you have grown

12:37

cannabis . For the most part , most traditional

12:39

gardeners don't grow in cocoa for various

12:41

reasons , but you do find a lot

12:43

of house plants and

12:45

other things that are grown partially in

12:47

cocoa , and I do think

12:49

it's a super interesting and useful

12:52

medium . So let's talk

12:54

about that . One of the main

12:56

benefits to

12:58

cocoa , in my opinion , is that it

13:00

holds water . You can almost

13:03

completely soak the thing and it's

13:05

still breathable . It gives

13:07

you a lot of the benefits of hydroponics

13:09

in that way , like you're basically soaking

13:11

the roots in water , but because it's

13:13

so porous , there's always oxygen that's

13:15

getting through so you don't have to worry about overwatering

13:18

, like we mentioned with soil . So

13:21

it basically makes it absolutely

13:23

impossible to overwater , with

13:26

the breathability that the cocoa kind

13:28

of naturally has as a natural

13:30

characteristic . I

13:32

also find cocoa if

13:35

you're growing with organics especially to

13:37

be a little bit easier to

13:39

pH than soil . I've

13:41

had less pH issues and

13:43

lockout and stuff like that . That

13:46

also has to do a lot with your nutrients

13:48

and how you're ECing and pHing your water

13:51

and your nutrients , but I've

13:53

had pretty good luck not

13:56

having any pH issues with

13:59

my cocoa grows . So

14:01

that's another thing to consider

14:04

. When you look at

14:06

cocoa , like I mentioned before

14:08

, you can find bricks

14:10

of it . They're like small blocks and

14:13

getting those is super easy . If you're in

14:15

some remote area , again

14:18

, if you can just go down to your local grow store

14:20

and get a bag of it , this has

14:23

nothing to do with you . But if you're somewhere

14:25

far out there , if you're in Alaska or if

14:27

you're in some remote area that doesn't have

14:29

grow stores , you can get these bricks

14:31

shipped out . They're really small , they're really tightly

14:34

packed , they're really lightweight , so they're fairly

14:36

cheap to ship and they're very common

14:38

. So keep an eye on that if you

14:40

want to ship cocoa or if you want to try cocoa

14:43

and you don't have the resources of

14:45

a bagged cocoa available to

14:47

you . Next

14:49

, let's talk about cocoa choir

14:51

being renewable . Since it's coconut

14:54

husks and it's just a byproduct

14:56

of coconuts , it is a pretty

14:58

renewable resource versus the peat

15:00

moss that is pretty much the main ingredient

15:02

of almost any soil that you're going to buy

15:04

, especially at most of the big grow

15:06

stores , and that peat moss is not

15:08

renewable . You can look into that a little bit on your own

15:10

, but it's definitely something to consider if you

15:13

are into the environment or

15:15

considering what your

15:17

impact with growing cannabis is

15:19

versus not doing it . Next

15:22

, let's talk about just the fact that the

15:24

roots of your plants love

15:26

cocoa . Your plants mirror

15:29

your root zone and your roots

15:31

love the aeration and the ability to

15:33

breathe and the amount of water that they could

15:35

also take in . It's almost impossible

15:37

to overwater , like I mentioned before , and

15:39

the roots absolutely love this and they're going to reward

15:42

you for your

15:44

efforts and the cocoa's efforts

15:46

. One thing to consider

15:48

is that , with a watering , sub-irrigation

15:51

or automatic feeding is awesome

15:53

for cocoa . I'll talk

15:55

about this in just one second , but if you can

15:57

take watering out of your own hands

15:59

and automate it in any way . This

16:01

is going to be such a benefit to you and your plants

16:04

. You're going to see such tremendous and vigorous

16:06

growth . I think you're going to be really

16:08

impressed . Versus hand watering

16:10

Although that is possible I

16:13

think sub-irrigation or automatic watering

16:15

for cocoa is really the way to go . Let's

16:20

talk about some of the cons With

16:23

cocoa . If

16:25

you're not doing an automated or sub-irrigated

16:28

system , you're going to need to water

16:30

and you're going to need to manage your nutrients a

16:32

lot more . I mean , this is a tremendous

16:35

amount of work . Look at

16:37

a website like Cocoa for Cannabis

16:39

. I'll leave a little note in the show

16:41

notes on how to get there and some other notes from their

16:44

website . He's an amazing

16:46

grower . He's an amazing resource total

16:48

scientist about cocoa

16:50

. It really shows you kind of , when you start diving

16:53

deep into this website

16:55

and a lot of this information about cocoa

16:57

, that this is a lot of work , a lot

17:00

of thought goes into it and a lot of effort to get your

17:02

nutrients exactly right and

17:04

dialing it in , because this is something different

17:06

than cocoa and you're going to need to dial this

17:08

in . What does that include

17:10

? That includes watering tiny amounts

17:13

of water to keep that saturated

17:16

many times a day . Ideally . Now

17:19

an automated system again is really

17:21

the way that you should be doing this , or sub-irrigation

17:24

. If

17:27

you're not doing that , it's just a big time

17:29

commitment . Keep that in mind when you're doing

17:31

that . One last thing that I want

17:33

to mention about cocoa before we

17:35

move on is that

17:37

if you do buy the bag

17:39

stuff , it is pre-buffered with CalMag

17:42

. What that means is that the

17:44

cocoa won't be taking up all

17:46

the CalMag from

17:48

the plant

17:50

. It will be allowing the

17:53

plant to get exactly what it needs , versus

17:55

if you buy it in a brick

17:57

, you're going to need to Buffer

18:00

it . I'm going to leave a show note

18:02

on the website to

18:04

Cocoa for Cannabis that talks

18:06

about when you need to buffer and when you don't need to

18:08

buffer your Cocoa . Lastly

18:11

, just keep in mind that you're going to need to

18:13

learn it . There is a slight learning curve

18:15

, but the adoption is pretty

18:17

easy once you can dial in your

18:19

Cocoa Grow . It might take one or

18:21

two grows or you might be able to get the first time . If

18:23

you do enough research and you prepare enough and

18:26

you're using sub-irrigation or automatic

18:28

watering , this could be really

18:30

easy for you . I think this is also another

18:32

possibility for beginners

18:35

, but it's not

18:37

as easy as soil . There's a little bit

18:39

of more to learn with it

18:41

, so just keep that in mind . So

18:45

now we're going to talk about hydroponics

18:47

. The most common form of

18:49

hydroponics in autoflowers

18:51

is deep water culture , also known

18:53

as DWC . This

18:55

is the most commonly used and

18:57

typically what you're going to see with this is

18:59

plants will be grown in something

19:02

called net cups , which are small plastic

19:04

cups with a bunch of slits cut into it

19:06

, and those slits allow

19:08

the roots to hang into a water nutrient

19:10

solution that's usually

19:12

in some kind of container , and that container

19:15

is oxygenated by air pumps that are running

19:17

through air stones , so that water

19:19

nutrient solution is always super

19:21

oxygenated and your

19:23

roots are always getting oxygen pumped

19:25

directly into them through the water actually

19:27

, and there's always the

19:30

ability for them to breathe due to those

19:32

air pumps . So you're going to want to consider that

19:34

those air pumps need to be running all the time

19:36

. The water is

19:38

going to be constantly monitored , basically

19:41

daily or constantly , for pH

19:43

and EC content , which is going to

19:45

show you how much nutrients are in the water

19:48

and what you're doing , whether

19:50

or not , is correct or incorrect . So

19:52

let's talk about some of the pros and cons of deep

19:55

water culture or hydroponics

19:57

in general . First

19:59

off , when you use a deep

20:01

water culture , once the roots

20:04

hit the water and the nutrient mix , they

20:06

start just blowing up fast

20:08

. This is a really quick way to grow big plants

20:10

, and deep water culture

20:13

is a super quick way to

20:15

really get monster plants

20:18

if you can dial in everything . So

20:20

totally dialed in nutrients is

20:23

basically the benefit of all

20:25

this . You are feeding

20:27

the nutrients that the plant needs at that exact

20:29

moment directly into the roots of the plant

20:32

through the water . There's no intermediate

20:34

area . There's no need for

20:37

nutrients in the soil to break down

20:40

. There's no organic processes with

20:42

earthworm castings or

20:44

bone meal breaking

20:47

down . This is all just directly

20:49

blasting the plant with exactly what

20:51

it needs at that exact moment in a chemical

20:53

compound . There's

20:56

nothing like dirty about chemical compounds

20:58

. What you're doing in organics is you're basically

21:01

breaking these things down to those chemical

21:03

compounds . This is just a much more

21:05

direct method to getting

21:07

those nutrients into the plant . One

21:10

other thing that I'd like to mention before we go on is that you're

21:13

probably less likely to have pest problems

21:15

with deep water culture than you

21:17

are with soil or cocoa

21:19

, when you're more likely to have like , say , fungus

21:21

and stuff like that . The water

21:24

is much less likely , unless you open

21:26

up your tank one day and you find a goldfish

21:28

in there , but that's pretty unlikely as well . What

21:31

are some of the cons of hydroponics

21:33

? First off , it takes a lot

21:35

of monitoring and management

21:37

of both your pH and your EC

21:40

. This

21:42

is constantly making sure that your nutrients

21:44

are balanced and correct for the stage

21:46

of your plant's growth , because

21:49

there's

21:51

nothing between the water and the roots

21:53

. Basically , it's

21:55

a direct shot . You're going to need to make sure everything

21:58

is really really on point . Another

22:01

thing to consider is the expense . To set

22:03

up Deep

22:05

water culture is

22:07

not the cheapest thing to set up . You're going to

22:09

need some pumps . You're going to need some buckets

22:12

typically full system

22:14

for water and reservoir

22:17

, compared to just soil and

22:19

pots and even sub irrigation . This can

22:21

get expensive up front if

22:23

you don't know specifically that this is what

22:25

you're going to be wanting to do in the long run . So definitely

22:28

consider that if this is something that you're into

22:30

or that cost isn't an issue , this

22:32

might be something to really take a look at . It's

22:34

pretty cool . You're also

22:36

going to require electricity all

22:38

the time to keep your pumps running and your reservoir

22:41

tank going . So

22:43

you will also need electricity

22:46

for lights , but it is an extra small

22:48

expense and if you do have electricity

22:50

outages in your area , this is another

22:52

thing to consider . I know you're

22:54

probably already considering that with your lights , but just

22:57

do consider that . Last

22:59

but not least , I'll say to some degree

23:01

there is a little bit more

23:04

thinking involved maybe than with soil

23:06

or with cocoa . You're almost

23:08

a bit of a chemist when you're dealing

23:11

with hydroponics or deep

23:13

water culture , so take that into account

23:15

how much hands-on time you want with

23:17

your plants and how much you want to dedicate

23:19

to mixing your different nutrients

23:22

and making sure your water is good

23:24

Just clean pH and all that good stuff

23:26

. So

23:28

now let's discuss which medium might be

23:30

right for you , and

23:32

we'll talk about a couple questions you might want to ask yourself

23:34

. First off , are

23:37

you a beginner ? If you're

23:39

a beginner , soil and cocoa is probably

23:41

the easiest entry point to growing mediums

23:43

. Pre-mixed soils

23:46

, ones that are already amended , can be really

23:48

easy to get you started and you don't have to

23:50

worry too much about them . Same thing with

23:52

pre-mixed living soils . You can find

23:54

these in local growth stores . There will probably

23:56

be local brands that you could find . So

23:59

consider that as an easy

24:01

entry way to growing mediums . Cocoa

24:04

is also great because you're very unlikely

24:06

to overwater it , but you

24:08

can underwater it and stunt the plant that

24:10

way . So consider that . How

24:13

often do you want to be in your garden ? Deep

24:17

water culture requires the most hands-on

24:19

management for the most part , but

24:21

cocoa also takes a lot of time if

24:23

you're going to be hand watering it , so there's quite

24:25

a bit of effort in that too . Soil

24:27

may require the least amount of management

24:30

of time , depending on what type of nutrients you use

24:32

. So consider that when you're thinking

24:34

about how much time you want to spend in your garden . Let's

24:37

also discuss how much do you want

24:39

to dial in slash play with nutrients

24:42

. It kind of goes with the amount of time that you're in the garden

24:44

. A deep water culture gives you the most

24:46

direct control over your plants intake

24:48

of nutrients . Salt

24:51

nutrients in cocoa or soil can

24:53

work quickly as well , but they may

24:55

require flushing of your medium because

24:58

of the salts . From time to time . You

25:00

also may be using organic nutrients

25:02

and these

25:04

are a little bit more difficult because they have

25:06

a time delay element to them which

25:09

separates your action from the results that

25:11

you end up seeing . This can be beneficial

25:13

because then you're not like forced to like kind of chase

25:15

your tail around and make big moves . But

25:17

it could also be really difficult for some growers

25:20

. If you're looking for like immediate

25:22

action on what you're doing , you

25:24

know an organic nutrient might not be for

25:26

you , so take that into consideration

25:28

when you're considering your medium is what type of nutrients

25:31

you're going to be using . Let's

25:33

also talk about what's your environment . Do

25:36

you have a completely controlled environment ? A

25:38

deep water culture might be ideal for that

25:41

. Will you be going indoors or

25:43

outdoors ? Outdoors , typically , you're going to

25:45

want to soil grow . That's going to be the easiest

25:47

for you . Will you have constant

25:49

access to electricity is another thing as far

25:51

as your environment goes . If you're indoors , you

25:53

got a lot more options both with the

25:56

soil , cocoa and

25:58

deep water culture . So take that

26:00

into consideration when you're considering

26:02

your environment . We'll also

26:04

talk about your budget . You

26:07

know what is your budget . Soil and

26:09

cocoa are fairly cheap and require

26:11

minimal extra setup initially . Deep

26:14

water cultures we mentioned before require

26:16

not only equipment but nutrients to get

26:18

started and the electricity

26:20

to run the setup . So

26:22

that's an additional cost . Can

26:25

you afford sub-irrigation for

26:27

cocoa If you can . That might be a great

26:29

intermediate where you're growing partially

26:31

hydroponically but you don't have to deal

26:33

with some of the headaches of deep

26:36

water culture . Also

26:38

, you might want to consider what's your

26:40

goal really . If you're going

26:42

for taste , you might want to consider

26:44

a living soil . If you're going for speed and

26:46

size , you might go with deep water culture

26:49

. If you're looking for some ease , some size

26:51

, some taste , you might go with cocoa and organics

26:53

. It really just depends what you're going for

26:56

and what you're hoping to do . Each one of

26:58

these can give you a very different results and

27:00

you will have your

27:02

own preferences in the long run and you'll

27:05

have your own ideas of which ones do

27:07

taste better or which ones are the most vigorous growth

27:09

, because we all have different experiences

27:12

with each one of these when we try them on our own

27:14

. Let's wrap up with

27:16

a few tips and things to avoid with mediums

27:18

. Let's just get the big one out of the way

27:20

. Don't grow in miracle grow

27:23

or any cheap hardware store soil . It's

27:26

just not beneficial for your plants , you're not going to have

27:28

great results and you are wasting your time

27:30

, money and genetics If

27:32

you're using premixed soil . Consider that

27:34

each one is slightly different . Even

27:36

the same type of soil will be different

27:39

each bag or each different round

27:41

. If you go to buy it at different times of the year

27:43

, some need

27:45

more amendments than others . If you're

27:47

using a hot soil or a highly amended

27:50

soil , you might want to consider using

27:52

that towards the bottom . Utterflowers

27:54

are fairly sensitive to nutrients , especially

27:56

in the first couple of weeks , so you

27:58

might want something a little bit less amended towards the

28:00

top and something more amended

28:02

towards the middle and more amended towards the bottom

28:04

. Daz mentions this in a super

28:06

soil . Additionally

28:08

, a lot of people , if you're using something like

28:11

a fox farm , they

28:13

will use a bottom half of ocean

28:15

forest , which is the more amended and happy

28:17

frog towards the top , which is the less amended

28:19

medium . So that's just something to

28:21

consider . You'll

28:24

also want to consider that each genetic that you're

28:26

running will grow differently in each different

28:28

medium , so you might want to give it a try in different

28:30

mediums . Each genetic Cultivar

28:33

will want something slightly different , so

28:35

you will see different results from different mediums

28:38

, just like different environments . Lastly

28:41

, I'll just say that when you're

28:43

choosing your medium , do some research

28:45

. You will want to

28:47

look into this a little bit more than just this podcast

28:50

, you're gonna want to consider what's right for you . Maybe

28:53

talk to some other growers and Do

28:55

a few runs . If you can , try

28:57

soil , try cocoa . If you

28:59

have the option , try some hydroponics

29:02

. These can all be great . They're

29:04

all very fun to try . You might want

29:06

to hop back and forth between them . I know

29:08

certainly . I have gone between soil

29:10

and cocoa several times and

29:13

I look forward to trying new stuff

29:15

each time I do a grow . So

29:17

I I hope you're gonna be able to

29:19

stick it out and try a couple

29:21

of these mediums for more than one run , because they

29:24

do take a little bit of time to dial in and

29:26

really learn , but once you get them

29:28

, I think you'll see the benefits of each one

29:30

. Thanks

29:36

for checking out this episode of the auto

29:39

flower power podcast , where

29:41

we've discussed the pros and cons of

29:43

cocoa soil and deep water

29:45

culture . We've also discussed some of the

29:47

ways to determine which medium might be right

29:49

for you , depending on your situation and your

29:51

environment , and , finally , we've touched

29:53

on some points of tips

29:56

and tricks on picking

29:58

your soil for your auto flower

30:00

plants . I hope you've taken something

30:02

away from this episode that you can directly

30:05

apply to your garden today to grow bigger

30:07

, more vigorous , monster giant

30:09

plants . Check out the show notes

30:12

at Socrates grows comm

30:14

slash mediums . You'll

30:16

find notes there and links from this episode

30:18

, or you can email me at

30:21

Socrates grows at proton

30:23

male calm . And until

30:25

next time , take it easy

30:27

. Bye , you

30:57

.