We were showing old school systems last Sat: The main difference was the media types.

Aeroponics:

Pros: Super high performance, nothing to buy or throw out.

Cons: Not reliable, lots of fail points, no media buffer, no home for microbes.

Rockwool. Grodan stone wool substrates are made from basalt rock that is processed at a very high temperature (over 2,900ºF). This hygienic, inert substrate offers vegetable and ornamental plant growers the opportunity to control growth from propagation to harvest.

Pros: Perfect air/water ratio.

Hugo Blocks  easy to set up hydro system with flood table for success.

Clone Cubes

Resists overwatering, Easily transportable, Renewable, leachable.

Cons: Sterile, not a good microbe home, non reusable.

Coco: Coco or coir is the outside layer of coconut husks (or mesocarp) which consists mainly of coarse fibres but also finer material known as `coir dust’. Harvested coconuts are first soaked in water for months, a process termed `retting’ which makes the fibre easier to remove.

The pith (cocopeat and coco dust) accounts for two-thirds of the coconut pulp by weight and was long considered a waste product. Millions of tons still sit in huge piles in India and Sri Lanka due to its slow decomposition rate of 20 years.

Pros: Excellent air/water ratio Better than Rockwool and Peat.

Easy to see when to water  credit @TriStateTrichomes

Great microbe home? Not without amendments rt? Char, worm? Renewable. pH-neutral value: Coco coir has a neutral pH range of 5.2–6.8. Reusable Coir decomposes slowly over time due to its composition of more than 45 percent woody lignin.

(Lignin is a polymeric polyphenol and class of complex organic polymers that form key structural materials in the support tissues of most plants.)

Steps for reusing coco.  Can be hard to deal with Root Ball.

Soil Sieve

Leachable 

Cons: Expensive.

Not Good for Organics/Living Soil

Can be bulky (Not with Canna Coco bricks)

Canna A & B 

Lots of low quality coco out there. Don’t buy sub par coco. Needs to be properly washed, buffered. 

Ethical – using all the fresh water from poor communities

Peat

Pros: Easily available, consistent quality brands, microbes love peat. 

Cons: Non Renewable resource. Is Peat Sustainable?, water repellence. compaction? Can hold too much water. 

johnkehoe8368 –  hey all question can i use grow dots with a potting mix that is soilless and already has food in it?

Pre enriched FFOF style soils

Pros:

Cons:

Organic Super soils.

Pros: water only convenience, great performance, excellent flavor. 

Cons: Intimidating, easy to go wrong, hard to fix. 

Need to follow a recipe or know how to properly build the soil. You Can aerate/ blend any of these media with Perlite, Vermiculite , Clay balls, Compost, Rice hulls. Rockwool and Coco allow the most control over watering volume/ frequency and  have the highest potential to be crop steered.

FALL OF PROHIBITION/ MARKET REPORTS:

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