I’m bending in a very un natural way for myself here.
What brings me here? I want an easy consistent way to get healthy plants with tiny soil volume - I have yet to achieve this. Going to run some numbers indoors - only seed work - don’t need large seed counts so going to keep plants small in solo cups.
As these plants won’t be consumed - I am considering stepping outside my comfort zone. a bullet proof way to get some consistent healthy good growth in solos.
I occasionally get nice plants in small pots - like solos - but not consistently. As I rely heavily on living soil / organic inputs.
I may just go to my organic practises out of guilt, but I want to hear what’s out there.
With my current regiments and soils - I can get about 25% good looking plants from seed to finished flower in cups. I am hoping we can pull that up with some changes - my regiments are fine when I give them some reasonable soil volumes. Maybe there are organic options that can meet this consistency with small root volumes? I know the group of people here are rich in knowledge - I am certain this is the right place to ask.
I find keeping them in small pots is also a great way to weed out plants prone to herm - as it can encourage it in known stable plants.
EDIT- to add, this is completely new to me, I always see the dozens of flashy labeled big bottles of bud bloomers around - but I just want cheap and easy and i trust you guys to know the perfect go to here.
I am generally a die hard make your own inputs kind of guy… but I feel for this purpose I can bend a bit with something packaged, purchased, in liquid or powder form.
Thanks in advance for suggestions
_____ + ____ = consistent healthy plants in solos
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I have a buddy who either rocks cups or dwc baskets only and swears buy kosher nutrients powders. Easy mix up, cheaper seeing no water is mailed out and his results have never been as consistent since he moved from bottles to the powders. I looked around here and found nothing on the company but do know he was a gh guy and tried theirs and a couple company powders before sticking with kn. Best of luck and hope you update your adventure!! Happy grows🍻
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I know youre shooting for soil, but Id imagine coco with a drip could give some decent solo cup plants.
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I’ve been using aeroponics for the entire 16 years I’ve been growing. It’s easy to set up, just a pump in the grow reservoir, feeding a drip spinner that keeps the roots wet. General Hydro nutes, and a silica booster. My plants grow fast, because the roots grow fast. YMMV.
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I’d suggest you to look at coco with 1 or 2 part nutrients both work well and tick your boxes, with a few basic rules coco offers good growth rates with the flexibility of hand watering a pot.
I’ve used a few coco specific nutrients and had good results with all them the price of the base nutrients would be the deciding factors for nutrients…alternatively canna is a solid option.
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I would be mostly concerned about watering. Even in late veg in 1L pots I nearly need to water twice a day. That’s just not realistic for me.
For feed I like pure blend pro and for reference I often grow very large plants in 1G
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Impossible in soil probably…
Coco is your friend here
Oxygen is the main factor in keeping plants in small containers, because roots get tangled up and suffocate in soil, no matter what nutrients you give…
You can cut the roots in half every 2-3 weeks essentially making a bonsai and that’s also a solid way of getting away with it sort of speak until you know what to do with it or clone it again
Coco offers the most air/water ratio of all “soil” mixes so you could veg for a long time if you water just the right qty and like 5 times a day depending on your light intensity and environment
What @This1guy said, coco with a very slow dripper, you could probably grow a tree in that cup
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I use coco with jacks 321
My solo cups are always as healthy as can be.
Here is the last batch I just transplanted a few weeks ago.
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I’ve run simple aeroponics rigs for the 16 years I’ve been growing. Just a pump with a drip spinner keeping the roots wet. I’ve always used General Hydro nutes, with a silica booster. No problems.
