watering/feeding soiless mix help?? please.

[allrollsin21]

Good day folks. I have been bouncing this around in my head for a few days and just realized the smarter thing to do would be to ask ya'll.
I have been growing in two separate mediums. For one i have been using Ocean forest soil. The other i have been using Canna coco. I mix both with about a 1/3 perlite.
I have found the Ocean forest to be a little too rich or hot.
The coco/perlite a bit difficult because i am hand watering and the frequency is tough. The coco side by side with the soil and the soil are bigger more robust. I always see pics demonstrating the coco should be bigger and my hydro guy tells me its faster.
My question is i mixed 1/3 soil, 1/3 coco, 1/3 perlite to make my own mix. I am wondering how to go about feeding it because it still has soil in it, but my hydro guy says its a soiless mix. Should i water and feed every other day as i have been with the coco?
Would it have been better to water/feed the coco everyday? I was doing them every other because the bottoms of the pots never came close to drying out.
I am a rookie and would love any help anyone would be kind enough to offer. Thanks in advance to YOU!!:stoned:

allrollsin21 Reviewed by allrollsin21 on 04-18-2008. watering/feeding soiless mix help?? please. Good day folks. I have been bouncing this around in my head for a few days and just realized the smarter thing to do would be to ask ya'll. I have been growing in two separate mediums. For one i have been using Ocean forest soil. The other i have been using Canna coco. I mix both with about a 1/3 perlite. I have found the Ocean forest to be a little too rich or hot. The coco/perlite a bit difficult because i am hand watering and the frequency is tough. The coco side by side with the Rating: 5

[rhizome]

If yer in the COgr coco, that'll never fully dry out- you want to see a small (5-10%) runnoff every time you water. Designed to be ued w/ auto drip irrigation- most folks hit w/ 50-100ml over several minutes, 2-8 cycle per day. Gotten away w/ handwatering, but would really like daily.

If yer in the BioTerra mix, water it like a potting soil, but try to make sure that you're getting some runoff on a regular basis- maybe hard water once a week, and then as needed other days.

The moment that there is rotting organic material in a planting mix, it becomes soil. You may still want to treat it as soilless, depending on ratios, but technically it's a soil. F'rinstance, I'd go lighter on the N first couple weeks of flower in a mix like that than I would in a straight soilless, as there's slow release N from the FF that you want to get consumed, and you don't want to deal w/ high residual N in late flower.

My $.02 US- not worth much, and losing value every day.

[allrollsin21]

Thanks for your advice rhizome. I will take it as fact. Things can get confusing for a newb like me when i start mixing things together. I appreciate you taking the time to assist. Happy 420 ya'll

[the image reaper]

suggest ya keep it simple, stay with soil (coco-noir sucks, IMHO) ... I also found FF Ocean Forest soil to be too hot for my seedlings, several varieties, in fact ... since you're in California, I will suggest 'Whitney Farms Premium Potting Soil' ... very popular, available in most every nursery and garden shop ... excellent for all stages of growth, and a LOT cheaper than Ocean Forest ... my friends have also dumped the FF soil, and returned to the Whitney Farms ... in just the last month or so, it appears Whitney Farms was purchased by the Scotts/Miracle Grow people ... doubtful they would change it, may even make it available in a wider area ... we'll see :thumbsup:

[allrollsin21]

I wonder why you think COCO stinks? It is a bit more work, but any other reason? I have found FF Ocean to be on the hot side. I don't feed the plants in FF until they are at least two weeks+ in veg. The Nitrogen from the Sea Kelp in the soil does enough. I will check out the Whitney Farms. Thanks for your suggestion Reaper