SOIL VS. COCO SIMPLIFIED

Most growers, home or commercial, usually have an initial thought of "What should I grow in?". I hope this blog post summarizes everything you need to know in a simple way for you to understand so you can feel confident with your decisions when growing.

Soil and coco coir provide different methods of feeding and watering then one another. Each presents its own feeding and watering schedule and can have different potential drawbacks.

SOIL

Soil has properties that differ from coco. These properties are that it doesn't drain water as well, less aeration, pH levels, and nutrient retention. It's easy for a new grower to overwater their plants in soil. It doesn't drain like coco so it can be an issue. A good way to prevent this from happening is to put your finger and inch into the soil. If it feels wet, don't water. If it feels dry, water. Less aeration can be hard, especially for some strains. Each strain is a little different in what it wants to grow in and how it wants to be fed. Less aeration has a drawback of potential root rot, which would ultimately kill your plants. If you've grown a strain in soil and it looks stressed after you water it, try adding more perlite to your soil or try growing it in coco. pH levels can sway more in soil due to its high CEC. This can stress out some strains due to potential rapid changes in soil pH, potentially creating lockout. Nutrient retention pertains to the soil CEC, this is a growing media's ability to hold nutrients for the plants. A high CEC means you will have to feed your plants less nutrients since it holds more in the first place. A low CEC means you will have to feed your plants more nutrients. The drawback to this is its easy to overfeed your plants, so be careful and remember that a hungry plant is an efficient plant. Soil also offers more biodiversity which can help your "umbrella" of nutrients

COCO

Coco coir separates itself from soil in all the opposite ways I mentioned above. It's a well drained growing media that is practically impossible to overwater your plants in. The drawback to this is that it requires more frequent waterings and is easy more easy to stress your plants out by underwatering them, potentially causing spikes in EC which can mess with your flowers ripening if its too early in flower. More aeration lessens your chances of root rot as well. Coco offers a unique quality in that it's good at staying pH neutral. This helps increase the availability of your nutrients to your plants by having less sway in pH. Coco's nutrient retention abilities can be viewed as good or bad. It has a low CEC so it requires more nutrient feedings. This can help some growers by giving them more control over their inputs into the coco. But also creates more room for error and judgement calls which can be hard for new growers. One drawback to this is coco isn't compatible with organic nutrients due to the nature of organic nutrients being less readily available.

SOIL VS. COCO

SOIL PROS

SOIL CONS

COCO PROS

COCO CONS