Compost tea and super soil cooking HELP

I’ve done a lot of research on my organic grow and built a soil I feel is pretty good. ( got about 415 cubic feet of potting soil, then added spagnum peat moss, perlite, and compost. For my amendments I added kelp meal, neem meal, crab meal, bat guano, worm castings, biochar, gypsum, glacial rock dust, langbenite, rock dust, and oyster shell flour) I am cooking my soil and the temperature has been fairly low lately in my city around 60 - 45 it’s suspose to go up now but is that to cold ? Should I start using a heater to help with the temperature?

My next question is since I used about 415 cubic feet of soil can I just plant my plants directly into it?

Another question is when brewing my compost teas what should I put in it besides worm castings and molasses ? And how much of the tea should I give to each plant when it’s a small clone to when it’s fully in veg growing and when it’s flowering?

And finally any tips or advice for my first grow ?
Got 3 greenhouses going with about 300 plants

Julianb11 said:

I’ve done a lot of research on my organic grow and built a soil I feel is pretty good. ( got about 415 cubic feet of potting soil, then added spagnum peat moss, perlite, and compost. For my amendments I added kelp meal, neem meal, crab meal, bat guano, worm castings, biochar, gypsum, glacial rock dust, langbenite, rock dust, and oyster shell flour) I am cooking my soil and the temperature has been fairly low lately in my city around 60 - 45 it’s suspose to go up now but is that to cold ? Should I start using a heater to help with the temperature?

My next question is since I used about 415 cubic feet of soil can I just plant my plants directly into it?

Another question is when brewing my compost teas what should I put in it besides worm castings and molasses ? And how much of the tea should I give to each plant when it’s a small clone to when it’s fully in veg growing and when it’s flowering?

And finally any tips or advice for my first grow ?
Got 3 greenhouses going with about 300 plants

Click to expand...

sounds like you got a pretty good base for your living soil down! congrats on getting started and I hope to see you grow monsters!
if your cooking your soil indoors then yes a heater wouldn't hurt but i doubt unless its large enough it will have an effect. To the best of my knowledge, super soil cooks at certain upper temps and if it lowers the process simply stops. i'd wait until better weather though but you can still turn her and all that. there are compost activators you can purchase that will raise your temp to an acceptable range

when making super soil it is natrally hot due to the amendments breaking down and "cooking" so it will be dangerously hot for virtually anything within the first 15 or so days. if you've cooked it at high temps for a minimum for 25 days and its Ph is at around 5.6-6.4 and your temp isnt too high then you should be good. my rule of thumb on super soil is to always cook it for 45 days at temp, no more or less. you can cook it for up to 60 days and I've heard of prefect blends done this way but 45 is my magic number and you cant cheat nature.

compost tea feedings will be up to you and the plants needs, feed as often as you like but i do teas about 1 times a week, outdoor i do them twice a week when the weather permits. you can add anything to a compost tea to make it whatever you neeed it for. Add kelp and nitrogen based products for a good veg tea, use bat guano with the right NPK and you can use it as a bloom booster or bloom initiator. compost teas are really the shit and i advise checking out this thread and copying the recipes down like i did!

Your soil doesn't have ingredients that will raise the temperature to levels you couldn't plant in/would toxify or be out of whack within a week or two ime. So, no heat needed to "cook". The ambient temperature can affect how quickly the carbon in your inputs further compost but as I said isn't applicable here.

For additions to teas, think about what the plant might need that you're not sure is provided for in the soil or would like to "replenish" as you go along in a cycle to make sure its in abundance, mainly minerals... if you're worried about npk you didn't put enough quality compost in or top dress as required. Also think about what part of the cycle you're in and try to match leafy accumulators with veg or flowers/fruits for flower - speaking about what the plant is doing, not what your timer says you're doing.

I'd avoid things that steer things fungal dominant after week 3-4 12/12, strain dependent, generally your fruitier/sweeter stuff benefits from more bacterial forward brews towards the end ime. I trend toward plant based inputs with fruity stuff as well, only crab meal and maybe some compost not being veganic. If you're growing chem/diesel/og/afghanica type stuff they'll benefit from some fungus later on in flower... surprisingly grapey/purple stuff included, in particular the floral/herby purple stuff.

Dilute teas based on perceived needs and age of the plants. You're better off putting a small amount of compost with a couple amendments mixed in down once a week and feeding a mineral forward compost tea every other week than feeding your plants on some sort of a schedule if you haven't established a baseline for your individual situation.

More is not more with "feedings" in organics, be anticipatory with top dressings/re-amendments. Use your noggin on what you're feeding, when. You can totally steer things back in the right direction as quickly as salt based but the damage is still done. Calcium is numero uno, followed closely by micros. If you've got the mineralization down the npk is a non-issue as long as there isn't a gross excess somewhere.

Water less, more often.... sounds like you need to do some reading on drippers/blumats/soakers. Alternate 3-5 different foliars for pest management/micros. Hit your transplants at the right times and you'll have great growth rates.

300 plants sounds like a lot for 3 greenhouses, granted I dunno the size. Unless you're depping and hitting a full second harvest in the season you've got plenty of time to line your ducks up and veg 1/2 the plants and fill the same size space.