New Grower Healthy roots

[agito]

"And furthermore I wouldn't advise coco that much because it retains N from the roots due to their high c:n ratio. They have high amounts of K and very low Ca, so it should be amended with gypsum, not liming materials because coco pH is already around 6.0 and it would get off balance. And besides their high salinity they are also rich in phenolic compounds witch reduces growth."

Sorry i don't get this part what ratio of NPK does it have far as im aware it pretty much a additive with very little NPK and why would you add gypsum to a pre buffered media we are not on about raw coir here and of course perlite would provide no Ca or any nutrient either so whats your point this is not hydro and its been blended with another compost that buffered also it it would depend on the tap water ph source as well ?.
Can I ask have You used Coco or are you just cutting and pasting off various website without actually trying the product I would not warn growers off a product without first hand Exp.
Please bear in mind Georges new book lists several potting mix ratio's with coir up to 50% and its no issue for him.
and yes I have used perlite in the past and root IMO do not penetrate it 100% at all rather the roots cling to the porous surface the same as expanded clay

adding 30% perlite would reduce root space as well as a lot of nutrient content from the mix as well as water retention ability as compost hold more water than perlite as that why it improves drainage

 

[Hugo]

I use coco just for starting my seeds. After that they're transplanted to BioBizz AllMix. Pretty happy with it so far.

(...) compounds witch reduces growth.

Ofcourse this would only be THAT important if we were talking about growing in soil-less coco. Peat-moss would be much much better for that purpose. 50/50 with perlite (...)

I'm not talking about NPK, I'm talking about carbon to nitrogen ratio. When it's high nitrogen clings to the soil, when it's low carbon does.

Perlite is neutral. The point is to use it to get a good soil consistency, good drainage and good aeration.

I need to get George Cervantes new book Right now I'm reading through "The science of marijuana" and it's pretty damn mind blowing!

 

[agito]

I have the Georges old one (grow bible and ed's old one in paper back) but just had a quick skim through the new one from a torrent as i can not afford the paper back tried getting Ed's new one but don't want to use rapid share and download mad binary files. I understand you was meaning carbon but is the Nitrogen in the nitrogen carbon ratio treated different well from nitrogen in NPK and you mention K as well.

 

[Hugo]

Oh I see. Check your inbox

Well it's different things. You see, when I provide N into the soil, in whatever form, it will have a certain degree of atachment or detachment effect to soil depending on the C:N ratio. If the soil has a high C:N ratio that means it's low on N in comparison to C. The micro life will then rob the N I'm supplying in NPK nutes, according to the C proportion, to make decomposition. This will eliminate it's presence for plants uptake.

In coco K is the main element, and there's very low quantities of Ca and Mg. This 3 elements compete with each other for uptake by the coco cation buffer. It's not a big deal when coco is part of a group of other soil composts. If coco is the main soil source then it's necessary to amend the Ca quantities present. That's why coco fertilisers are rich in Ca and Mg and low in K. This will balance the coco coir ratios and avoids any lockout of this elements.