Biobizz Light Mix: What's the Best Way(s) to Use It?

[BII]

I am not a "new grower," having grown now for about 5 years in coco. But I'm new to using soil. I'm growing in a 12.5 sq. ft. tent using AutoCOBs. I am approaching a week with seedlings in Biobizz Light Mix. These plants are doing very well, including looking better and bigger vs. those the same age in coco/perlite charged with ~1 g/L Adv. Nutr. pH Perfect Connoiseur Coco Bloom.

My questions are:
1) How and when should the addition of nutrients be done? Should one start adding very small amounts, such as 1/5th normal auto dose, say at 2 weeks, and slowly ramp up over say next 10 days to whatever dose the plants will take without showing stress?

2) For those familiar with their use in light mixes, would it be better to feed with Adv. Nutr. pH Perfect or MegaCrop as the base nutes?

3) At say 3 weeks, start of bloom or other growth milestones/phases, what dosage should I be feeding?

4) Should I expect to increase the feeding dose with time, presumably as the soil is further depleted?

5) Is calcium and/or magnesium supplementation generally needed? If so, when should this start and how much should be used (same I'd use in coco or less)?

6) Any other supplements needed or recommended, such as should I add some Earth Juice Microblast (micronutrients) once/week? I fully expect to supplement P and K, but how much is needed or best?

7) What is the best watering schedule/method? Such as feed daily (with some drain-to-waste as BioBizz recommends) or do wet-dry cycles, with Light Mix so far looking like it would take a week or even much more to get anywhere near 'dry?'

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

Other than my first grow where i used verve soil from B&Q i have been biobizz nutes and soil for 6odd year.
Im a stoner not a grower,a lazy one at that.im giving an opinion simply of how i do it,not a right or a wrong way to do it.
I have issues with BEST and PERFECT
There are perefect/best ph/rh/temps.....there are also acceptable ranges
Eg. My cupboard will float about between 18-30c not perfect but acceptable.if it goes outside of range an inkbird will kick on a heater or an extra fan.
Not perfect not best,would be better between 23-27 but that will cost extra electric.
1.How when to feed......i start at day 10 with 1ml of grow/fish,+1ml every 7 days after.
2.no idea have only used biobizz.
3.3 weeks being day 21 that would be 2ml of fish for me.may have shown sex but still in veg to me.
Some switch immediately to bloom as soon as sex shows,some dont switch till vertical growth stops.
4.+1ml every 7 days from day 10 on.as i introduce 1ml of bloom i back off 1ml of grow/fish.
5.unknown.....se england has a shit ton of cal in the tap water.nw england very little cal in tap water.
A few times i had cal def week 4ish.
If i feed 0.5ml calmag to week 4,5 and 1ml after that cal def never shows.
I know coco likes a ton of calmag 300 ish ppm. A guestimate at 1/4 of that in soil.
6.root juice/bio heaven aint worth shit.......well maybe if bottle was x4 but not at the price for atiny bottle.i hear of some adding pk13/14 late flower,i havnt got round to it yet,6 years in i doubt i will now.
7.dwc,flood2waste,drip personal preference.
I like to stick my head in each day,if im there i may aswell water while im at it.or 2nd day for seedlings.
My medium isnt just biobizz lightmix. Its 4 parts lightmix 2 parts perlite 1 part vermiculite.a light fluffy soil good for cooler climates.
my grow https://www.autoflower.org/threads/archie-gemmills-trophy-cabinet.51671/page-126 just started back up after a few months off.has lots of threadmarks,up beside the page number,if yer really bored.
&
(Looks up duck commanders boibizz thread,woody,ribbzzy,andi good input)...where has duckcommanders biobizz knowledge base gone ? or something like that.... oops time for spamage @woody @Ribbzzy thanks muchy
As with everything get a 4th opinion,think it over and make your own mind up.
Good luck n keep er lit


edit.....crap i should have known @ wont work with an edit,but lets double check it.

 

[BII]

Other than my first grow where i used verve soil from B&Q i have been biobizz nutes and soil for 6odd year.
Im a stoner not a grower,a lazy one at that.im giving an opinion simply of how i do it,not a right or a wrong way to do it.
I have issues with BEST and PERFECT
There are perefect/best ph/rh/temps.....there are also acceptable ranges
Eg. My cupboard will float about between 18-30c not perfect but acceptable.if it goes outside of range an inkbird will kick on a heater or an extra fan.
Not perfect not best,would be better between 23-27 but that will cost extra electric.
1.How when to feed......i start at day 10 with 1ml of grow/fish,+1ml every 7 days after.
2.no idea have only used biobizz.
3.3 weeks being day 21 that would be 2ml of fish for me.may have shown sex but still in veg to me.
Some switch immediately to bloom as soon as sex shows,some dont switch till vertical growth stops.
4.+1ml every 7 days from day 10 on.as i introduce 1ml of bloom i back off 1ml of grow/fish.
5.unknown.....se england has a shit ton of cal in the tap water.nw england very little cal in tap water.
A few times i had cal def week 4ish.
If i feed 0.5ml calmag to week 4,5 and 1ml after that cal def never shows.
I know coco likes a ton of calmag 300 ish ppm. A guestimate at 1/4 of that in soil.
6.root juice/bio heaven aint worth shit.......well maybe if bottle was x4 but not at the price for atiny bottle.i hear of some adding pk13/14 late flower,i havnt got round to it yet,6 years in i doubt i will now.
7.dwc,flood2waste,drip personal preference.
I like to stick my head in each day,if im there i may aswell water while im at it.or 2nd day for seedlings.
My medium isnt just biobizz lightmix. Its 4 parts lightmix 2 parts perlite 1 part vermiculite.a light fluffy soil good for cooler climates.
my grow https://www.autoflower.org/threads/archie-gemmills-trophy-cabinet.51671/page-126 just started back up after a few months off.has lots of threadmarks,up beside the page number,if yer really bored.
&
(Looks up duck commanders boibizz thread,woody,ribbzzy,andi good input)...where has duckcommanders biobizz knowledge base gone ? or something like that.... oops time for spamage @woody @Ribbzzy thanks muchy
As with everything get a 4th opinion,think it over and make your own mind up.
Good luck n keep er lit


edit.....crap i should have known @ wont work with an edit,but lets double check it.

Thank you very much for taking the time and responding in rather good detail to my newbee-type questions.

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

@BII i is no expert far from it,just all my growing experience has been with biobizz,(i tell a lie sorry.i did get 1 bag of plagron light mix.meant to be very similar to biobizz.but the 50L bag was 2kg heavier,seemed to have qite a bit of sand or grit in it,that i didnt like as i use the "lift up pot" method)so i musta picked up a few things along the way more what not to do,or things to avoid,than perfecting things :smoking:
i seen a lot of your posts,you may be a bit behind on biobizz stuff for now,but know your stuff and talk a lot of sense
link me your grow or @me
good luck n keep er lit

 

[automan2]

I too am a biobizz lite mix ,& nutes user for years...I find it to be an easy medium and trustworthy.
I pretty much follow the same things Archie pointed out which have kept my favorite med in supply for 14 years.
I grow in 2-3 ltr pots and am conservative with nutes yet often harvest 2-3 oz per plant.
My temps have often climbed to 86-88f this summer although air exchange is high. Didn't seem to affect potency as all strains kicked butt.
I also use autocobs along with leds and use calmag with every feeding. Having changed from hps to my current lights, I'm still collating info but have seen a dramatic improvement with my yeilds.

 

[BII]

Overall, BioBizz Light Mix use looks to not be much different from my use of coco (as a lazy grower). With both, ramp up feed concentration over a few weeks (with Light Mix start later); do some minimal drain-to-waste feeding; don't bother to pH; and add the usual supplements - beneficial microbes, bloom supplements, etc.

My presumption, hope, with switching to Light Mix from coco is that it will better support the plants for the first few weeks (what it's made to do) vs. my fumbling with guessing at levels to pre-charge and feed (or not) during the first few weeks.

I have been mixing 1 Light Mix bag (50 L) with 1/2-bag Plant-It Coco Croutons (chips claimed to perform like Hydroton/clay pebbles) (14 L), theoretically 78%/22% ratio.

 

[bichon+buzz]

Hey there. Adding my 2c to this. Been growing with biobizz lite mix and nutes for 3 years and switched to autocobs about 9 months ago.

Here's the link to duck commanders feeding regime that Archie mentioned (post is about 3/4 down the page). I use this as a guide and tweek from experience. For example when growing dinafem critical 2.0 I've found it develops and finishes early. So I ramp up the nutes a bit quicker than the guide generally harvest these at 10 weeks with a yield of around 70g per plant.

My setup is a wardrobe grow 0.6 sq m space, 3 x auto COBs and 3 x 16 litre pots.

 

[Cringer]

Better growth in soil than Coco??? Can't belive it Coco is hydro benefits medium that always beats soil i Grow also in Soil "biobizz" great soil love it but i Love Coco more way better to control it and flush out the Nutes.

 

[BII]

Better growth in soil than Coco??? Can't belive it Coco is hydro benefits medium that always beats soil i Grow also in Soil "biobizz" great soil love it but i Love Coco more way better to control it and flush out the Nutes.

I hope for 'better growth' in BioBizz Light Mix (BLM); think for me that BioBizz Light Mix may well beat coco; and BLM looks fairly easy to control, can flush soluble nutes as needed and what's left will at most be a weak 'light mix.'

As I noted before:
- I hope for better growth (for me, a lazy grower) using BioBizz Light Mix rather than coco during the early half of vegetative growth; and from this hopefully get to bigger plants, higher yields, etc.
- With BioBizz Light Mix apparently running out of nutes within weeks, to me it becomes just another inert medium like coco, and one that may be better buffered than coco.
- The only difference in my expected feeding between coco and BioBizz Light Mix is that I start the ramping-up of feeding a little later or less aggressively to start with the Light Mix.

So far my oldest plants, at about day 16, look how we all want, expect them to look - nice color big broad leaves, etc. And younger ones down to few days old look to all be on the same track. So, so far I am very happy with BLM - it's doing what its made to do, and presumably by now has been optimized for indoor growth of our plants. Also, so far no insects despite being soil, with Bt (Microbe-Lift BMC) the only insecticide being used.

A few days ago I started foliar feeding (with Transport) with some kelp, cal-mag (CALiMAGic), Earth Juice micronutes, and Adv. Nutr. Mother Earth Super Tea (3-2-5) which claims to be 'organic.' Soon I'll start regular feeding at 1 g/gallon MegaCrop new version (2.1?) and ramp up from there.

 

[bichon+buzz]

Just to add I've found that flushing makes no difference when using biobizz nutes. The argument I've seen put forward is that organics don't require a flush and my own testing/experience would seem to verify that this is correct.