Bagged attempt at living soil

starcraftguy1988

starcraftguy1988

Well-Known Member
Basically the title. I bought two bags of Roots organics soil and two bags of Brut Super soil I also mixed in one bag of this Organic Perlite. Have it all mixed into a 50 gallon garbage and will be running it in 5 10 gallon smart pots, plan on adding ewc/bloom teas for flowering. From what ive read of these soils, this should be a pretty straight forward but if you see something im missing please speak up. Also A quick question. Will I need to Ph Balance my RO water in Living soil? the stuff i have is said to do no damage to microbes/living soil, but I have also heard its not necessary. Thanks guys :weed:
 
go go kid

go go kid

Well-Known Member
could be, its expanded something or other oh no its volcanic glass now ive looked it up. i thaught it was expanded something, maybe thats verniculite or some other growing medium, expanded shale ?????

eddited for answer
 
go go kid

go go kid

Well-Known Member
Perlite is a mined mineral that undergoes some physical processing. It is actually allowed by the National Organic Standards Board for use in certified organic agriculture. So if you are planning to do some organic farming or horticulture, yes, perlite is a safe “organic” additive.

so it is organic
 
insomnia65

insomnia65

Well-Known Member
So a stone is organic, confuses the shit out of me, I always thought perlite was organic anyway, what I mean by adding the word organic they increase the price.
 
DankTankerous

DankTankerous

Well-Known Member
starcraftguy1988 said:
Basically the title. I bought two bags of Roots organics soil and two bags of Brut Super soil I also mixed in one bag of this Organic Perlite. Have it all mixed into a 50 gallon garbage and will be running it in 5 10 gallon smart pots, plan on adding ewc/bloom teas for flowering. From what ive read of these soils, this should be a pretty straight forward but if you see something im missing please speak up. Also A quick question. Will I need to Ph Balance my RO water in Living soil? the stuff i have is said to do no damage to microbes/living soil, but I have also heard its not necessary. Thanks guys :weed:
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Some people pH their soil drenches in organics, you can get away with not doing it. I’m usually more worried about the soil’s pH, because I’ll top dress with inputs that tend to take the pH down. The soil you’re using doesn’t seem to have a lot of inputs, so you’ll probably have to top dress or do those grow/bloom teas throughout its life. Is this the first time growing organically? Also make sure you’re adding sufficient aeration in there. Good luck!
 
starcraftguy1988

starcraftguy1988

Well-Known Member
DankTankerous said:
Some people pH their soil drenches in organics, you can get away with not doing it. I’m usually more worried about the soil’s pH, because I’ll top dress with inputs that tend to take the pH down. The soil you’re using doesn’t seem to have a lot of inputs, so you’ll probably have to top dress or do those grow/bloom teas throughout its life. Is this the first time growing organically? Also make sure you’re adding sufficient aeration in there. Good luck!
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I am planning on doing a singular veg tea, and lots of bloom teas. I was looking at the Grean bicycles bagged stuff but am honestly completely open and even have time to add inputs as I don't even have the beens yet. Any suggestions for the amount of soil cooking? 50 gallons.
 
L

loco41

Well-Known Member
starcraftguy1988 said:
I am planning on doing a singular veg tea, and lots of bloom teas. I was looking at the Grean bicycles bagged stuff but am honestly completely open and even have time to add inputs as I don't even have the beens yet. Any suggestions for the amount of soil cooking? 50 gallons.
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I'm not an expert on anything and pretty inexperienced myself, but I would focus on sourcing the best quality compost you can find for getting the soil started. I think getting a quality compost/ewc source will put you on a path to where it'll be harder to mess up than it will be to succeed more so than any specific tea/amendment will be able to provide. The compost will provide nutrition and fresh microbes back to the soil however you choose to apply it, tea or topdress. If you can grab some good compost or ewc, it seems like there are a lot of viable dry mix options you could grab for down the road before you flip to flower. I have never used or really looked into either of the soils you linked, but I'm sure they have plenty of nutrients built up in the to keep the plants going for a while. A well rounded dry mix/compost topdress would probably be "safer" and easier to apply than a tea or you could even source a few single ingredient amendments for now and also for future amending after this first grow.

I'm not sure where you are located, but I found a local hydro shop that carries a wide variety of Build A Soil products now, so I luckily have access to the composts they use/used if ever needed (oly fish mountain and malibu composts). Also found a hardware store that will ship Coast of Maine composts to their store for free and be be able to pick up in-store several days after placing the order. I'm sure there are plenty of other quality commercial brands out there as well, but I have read good things about these three specifically (used a bag of Bu Malibu compost and thought it looked/felt/smelled great and would use again, just a bit pricey).

Sorry for the ramble, just my two cents. Good luck moving forward though.
 
starcraftguy1988

starcraftguy1988

Well-Known Member
loco41 said:
I'm not an expert on anything and pretty inexperienced myself, but I would focus on sourcing the best quality compost you can find for getting the soil started. I think getting a quality compost/ewc source will put you on a path to where it'll be harder to mess up than it will be to succeed more so than any specific tea/amendment will be able to provide. The compost will provide nutrition and fresh microbes back to the soil however you choose to apply it, tea or topdress. If you can grab some good compost or ewc, it seems like there are a lot of viable dry mix options you could grab for down the road before you flip to flower. I have never used or really looked into either of the soils you linked, but I'm sure they have plenty of nutrients built up in the to keep the plants going for a while. A well rounded dry mix/compost topdress would probably be "safer" and easier to apply than a tea or you could even source a few single ingredient amendments for now and also for future amending after this first grow.

I'm not sure where you are located, but I found a local hydro shop that carries a wide variety of Build A Soil products now, so I luckily have access to the composts they use/used if ever needed (oly fish mountain and malibu composts). Also found a hardware store that will ship Coast of Maine composts to their store for free and be be able to pick up in-store several days after placing the order. I'm sure there are plenty of other quality commercial brands out there as well, but I have read good things about these three specifically (used a bag of Bu Malibu compost and thought it looked/felt/smelled great and would use again, just a bit pricey).

Sorry for the ramble, just my two cents. Good luck moving forward though.
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I actually can pick up a bag of the Coast of Maine Lobster Compost and was thinking about getting some fish hydrolysate as well, as they sell that at my local hydro store. I was also looking at the Grean Bicycles "happy endings compost teas" they look real solid. I'm between them and the earth dust stuff. Im sure either are fine.
 
starcraftguy1988

starcraftguy1988

Well-Known Member
DankTankerous said:
Some people pH their soil drenches in organics, you can get away with not doing it. I’m usually more worried about the soil’s pH, because I’ll top dress with inputs that tend to take the pH down. The soil you’re using doesn’t seem to have a lot of inputs, so you’ll probably have to top dress or do those grow/bloom teas throughout its life. Is this the first time growing organically? Also make sure you’re adding sufficient aeration in there. Good luck!
Click to expand...
Yeah I think as long as Im ph adjusting my teas I should be OK as the soil should be buffered to an extent. This isn't my first organic grow. But I don't have access to the amendments I used to have access too locally, and im looking to do a bit less leg work. Hopefully it will all work out!
 
L

living gardening

Well-Known Member
In a true living soils system you end up with a self regulating system. I never PH anything and started with ten year old pasture dirt/soil. You should try to start with local soils and build them up. The best way I can put it is: If you have ever owned a car that someone has played with (bag soil). When something goes wrong, you don't know where to start finding the problem because you don't know what they did! But if you buy a car that is stock (local soil), you know where it was what was around it, so so fourth. You can now move forward to improve your situation. Plus if creatures are brought in with local soil, chances are the answer to them is in there too. Not so much with bagged dirt.
 
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