Choosing the best medium for your Cannabis growing is a very important decision you need to make first. This factor will influence the entire growing process of your pot so you need to have a thorough research about the important things to consider in choosing your Marijuana medium. In this article, I will talk about how to choose your Marijuana grow medium in order to help you come out with a good choice and be knowledgeable about this matter before starting to grow your own Marijuana plant.

What is Marijuana Medium?

When it comes to growing Marijuana, medium is where you will let your Marijuana grow. Basically, we will think that there are limited types of media to grow Marijuana; however there are varieties of types so that you in yourself have the freedom to choose the best medium that can do both good and convenience to your plant. Whether it will soil or soilless, it is important to know the advantage and disadvantage of each choices.

What Constitutes A Good Marijuana Medium?

Before choosing the kind of medium for your Marijuana, you need to know first what are the things these medium should have in order to make your Marijuana grow healthy. These are following:

• Anchorage- it is the place where the roots will settle, extend and become stable.
• Nutrient Retention- whether you are planning to grow your pot in soil or in hydroponics, the medium should be able to retain nutrients and let the plants absorb it.
• Gas exchange or aeration- your medium should be permeable to allow gasses or air to in and out through its roots.
• Good drainage and water retention- water is important to any plant, however if there will be excessive water absorption it might result to early death of your plant.

Types of medium for your Marijuana Plant

Since you already know what are the important things to consider in choosing a medium, below are its types. With features that has both advantage and disadvantages, reviewing these things before starting to plant will help you a lot in your Cannabis growing.

• Soil

Soil is the most common and popular medium whether it’s Marijuana or any other kind of plants. This medium offers convenience since this is easy to provide, can be found anywhere and less hassle. However, this kind of medium needs to be chosen carefully. If you are planning to grow your pot in the soil, be mindful about the two things first, these are the texture and the Ph. The ideal ph of your soil should be 6.5 to 7. When it comes to texture, you can check it by picking up a handful of moist and run through your hands. The soil should stay together and spongy when clenched by your fist. Soil has basic components that are all beneficial to your plants; these are air, water, mineral particles and organic matter. However, using soil can also be prone about many bacteria and diseases. If you are planning to use soil as a medium, you can buy good soil mixes for better Cannabis growing.

• Rockwool

Rockwool is both effective and useful in its own way. Rockwool is made from metal oxide or mineral fiber and combined with heat and pressure. This kind of medium offers plenty of breathability and takes a lot of water. Its fibers are denser which allow good stabilization for the plant. Although, this medium found to be effective in Cannabis growing, its negative side is the fact that it contains metal that could react to its nutrients. Lastly, just make sure to ph balanced your Rockwool before planting.

• Perlite

Perlite is a type of amorphous volcanic gas in granule form. This medium works well in transplantations because it works well in containers. Another advantage of perlite is the fact that you don’t need to neutralize its ph neutral. It effectively retains water but still maintains permeability. However, the disadvantage of using this medium is its dusty quality which will cause fliter problems of hydroponics system, plus if you happen to breath the dust it might cause lung issue, better to take precautionary actions first before growing your Cannabis in this medium.

• Vermiculite

This medium is like Perlite, it is light clay and mica product. Like rockwool, this medium undergone heat expansion too. The lightness of this medium allows oxygen to flow freely and has high water retention ability. However, because of its lightness, Vermiculite does not offer much root support, with this matter it is advisable to combine Vermiculite and another type of medium.

• Coco coir

Although this medium is not commonly used, it still gains popularity nowadays because of it many benefits. This medium is made from coconut husk fibers, which is considered as environment friendly medium. Aside from the fact that this medium allows good drainage, aeration and water retention, Coco coir can be reused, it does not breaks easily enabling it to be reused many times.

• Clay Pellets

Clay is commonly used in pellet form or LECA(lightweight expanded clay aggregate).This pellet has been treated with heat and made it more porous. This medium is popularly used by Marijuana growers because of the fact that they are sterile and Ph neutral plus they can be used again and again(but make sure to sterelize them between uses). It provides good plant stability and proper aeration plus good bacteria can also grow in this medium. After buying the clay pellets, make sure to wash them before using. Wash properly in between every use to ensure its safety and sterile.

• Hydroponic

Hydroponic is a kind of growing system that will offer higher yield. It involves growing Marijuana plant without using soil but with the help of any other medium stated above. This system is a bit tricky for starters but it also requires proper knowledge. This system enables the go straight to the plant’s roots because nutrients go directly to the water. There are many other methods for hydroponic growing however they need research and practice to it correctly.

• Aeroponic

This type is similar to the latter system, except that the roots of your Marijuana plants are suspended in the air. No need to use any medium or you may consider the air as the medium. The plants are sprayed with water filled with nutrients. Because of so much oxygen in this environment, the microbes of your plant will take all the nutrients and will feed it to its whole body straight to its circulatory system. It there will be extra carbon dioxide to your aeroponics setup the growth will speed up. In using this system, make sure that the spray is in high pressure and can be switch on and off.

What is the most effective?

When it comes to system, Hydroponic and aeroponic are totally effective. If done correctly, both help in higher yield production. However, if you plan to us this kind of setup,you need to make sure that you are technically inclined in order or knowledgeable for a successful Cannabis growing.

All medium are effective, and whatever you choose, it is important to have a complete knowledge and understanding on the kind of setup and medium you want to use. Bear in mind that even the most basic and the simplest ways also needs proper care and attention for a successful production.