Preparation Of Plant Media
To gain the best from your plants you as a grower are required to prepare your soil and media for the seedling, cutting or seed to start their life in the best possible surroundings. Media and soil manufacturers will of course prepare the basis of the media on offer, by this, buffer's and minerals that release into the soil or media when contacted with liquid nutrients or the plants root zone would of been added. Soil's and media's not only offer the root zone feeds they also offer protection from the elements and if using hydroponics equipment, namely grow lights then the media or soil will aid in restricting the light or lumens hitting the root zone.
Root Nutrients and Boosters
Preparation starts with root nutrients and root boosters as these are what any plant is first required to focus on, mass root production. Without root production nutrients can not be up-taken by the plant. Soils and other media's benefit highly from dosing the root nutrients at near maximum strength. This will ensure the roots can find root enhancing nutes immediately upon releasing from the stem.
Preparation Amounts and Timing
The amount of liquid nutrients required to prepare the soil or media will depend on which type of soil or media is to be used, this also applies to how long the process will take.
Soil's - As soils soak up liquids immediately preparing soils are by far the fastest to prepare, however, it takes two to three days for soil to absorb the nutrients ready for releasing as the roots take it up or as the moisture in the soil evaporates. With this said it is good practice to heavily feed the soil with a large quantity, not strength. After two or three days repeat this process. Two days later the soil will be moist rather than wet, this is optimum potting soil.
Media - Quite often a substitute to soil is clay pebbles, pre-formed from volcanic matter. To prepare clay media the grower would be required to top up the grow system reservoir with water, add root nutes and boosters, pH to 5.5 and turn on the system's feed pump, this will have to stay turned on until the media has fully prepped. The only way to be sure you have prepared your media is to check the EC and pH on the returning feed. The media will make the EC and pH raise requiring the grower to change the media preparation feed or add a top up tank to lower the EC to its lowest and the pH back to 5.5. Quite simply put, when the reservoir liquids read the same as when you put the feed in then the media is ready for potting into.
Note: The washing of media's is as important as adding feeds. If you do not wash the media correctly to start with it will take longer for the EC and pH to stabilise. Take caution when washing out media, removing all loose matter will be highly beneficial.
Buffering Soils and Media
Preparation of media's and more so soils also require growers to add buffer's. Using buffer's soften the nutes and minerals and allow the plant to absorb these more simply. Media's quite often buffer by adding pH and root enhancers into water as above, soil's however quite often do not and require specialist buffering treatments such as COGr. The manufacturers will have added small amounts at source however soils eat away at the bufferer requiring topping up before adding preparation feeds and more so before adding plants.
Media Preference
Whether using soil or media Canna Rhizotonic is the choice of many with recorded achievements Worldwide due to its outstanding performance in all soil's and media's. Rhizo as it is often called ensures your soil's and media's are fully optimized for the coming of the new roots with nutrients ready to feed the roots with necessary minerals which duplicate the plants natural root releasing process forcing the plant to release more roots.
Hydroponics is a science that whilst simple to learn, will enthral you for years to come. The possibilities are endless using hydroponics equipment, anything that grow's in the wild can be grown using hydroponics cultivation methods, benefiting from speeding up the growth cycle of any plant species, offering the grower complete control over feeds, cycles, lighting and climate.
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Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Please comment, good or bad, all feedback helps me to learn also, all the best, Jay Short. Director/Webmaster
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