Dead soil

Hey y’all. Ima cut right to the chase. I have organic soil that I made and reused multiple times. I used 15 gallon pots and just re amended them with every new run. Well, I left the state for a year or so, and I shut down my operation for while. I’m back in Michigan, and I have 30, 15 gallon pots full of my soil. My question is, if I just reamend all the pots and soak them with a nice comfrey or nettle tea with some good compost, is that all I need to do to get my soil back to being microbially active and healthy? Or do I need to do something extra.

I bet they still liven give them some Molasses and compost also very easy to just add life back in too

I'd throw some ewc's in there and malted barley powder.

Mix some compost and EWC for benicical bacteria and some mushroom compost for fungi.
Like they said feed the soil organisms some molasses water. Or brew those things into a AACT

Thanks all. I’ve got a nice compost and ewc blend in the make. I’ve never thought of throwing the mushroom compost, but that would be great to get some more fungal activity going on in there. Thanks for the input!

OrganicCarrot420 said:

Thanks all. I’ve got a nice compost and ewc blend in the make. I’ve never thought of throwing the mushroom compost, but that would be great to get some more fungal activity going on in there. Thanks for the input!

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Weed is bacterially dominated but I see a benefit of having some of everything in the soil and let it sort itself out.

grass is bacteria dominated that’s why it loves EWC and composted manure.Most trees and shrubs are fungal dominated and will see a big benefit to mushroom compost

Yes. I’ve read before that there are some advantages to fugal soil. I put wood mulch in my soil as well. Here’s another thing I might add, I have these 60 gallon grow beds and I’m going to use them and possibly turn my soil no till. Any thoughts on that?

I'd give them some good fresh aact or some compost extract https://www.icmag.com/forum/marijuana-growing/organic-soil/326163-compost-tea-extract?t=327123

I'd also topdress with malted barley, cover it with straw, and keep it moist! Good luck!

OrganicCarrot420 said:

Yes. I’ve read before that there are some advantages to fugal soil. I put wood mulch in my soil as well. Here’s another thing I might add, I have these 60 gallon grow beds and I’m going to use them and possibly turn my soil no till. Any thoughts on that?

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I have some no till beds outside that work well for my veggies and flowers but I haven’t made the step to bring it into the grow room yet.

I do the same as you,re use my soil each run and re-amend it. Re amending with EWC,compost and mushroom compost gets it alive again but I’ll usually hit it up with a tea while it’s chilling in bins waiting for the next run
Edit- there is a couple threads about no till you can check out,people are doing it with great success

OrganicCarrot420 said:

I put wood mulch in my soil as well.

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There is nothing wrong with this. I'm a Linda Chalker-Scott fan too. It's a great source of carbon for fungi and then bacteria and then protozoans who eat them. However ensure you have a nitrogen source for those bacteria to draw upon if you actually mix it with your soil. Linda basically advises its use as a slow release mulch rather than incorporating it in your soil. Otherwise bacteria will be gobbling up every available ion of N they can get their grubby paws on to munch on that ample carbon supply

Because we grow indoor, I'd suggest the very best top mulch you can use is plain old timothy hay. The reason is that many of us are growing indoors, not outdoors, and it has a much higher N:C ratio than arborist wood-chips. This allows fungi, bacteria, and then even worms to eat it more quickly aiding faster cycling of nutrients. Cannabis life-times are short, so things need to get eaten as quickly as possible to cycle nutrients IMO.

OrganicCarrot420 said:

Yes. I’ve read before that there are some advantages to fugal soil. I put wood mulch in my soil as well. Here’s another thing I might add, I have these 60 gallon grow beds and I’m going to use them and possibly turn my soil no till. Any thoughts on that?

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A Fungi dominated top dress is best during flower .