Living soil?

I've heard with living soil you don't have to do nutrients or PH buffering, is this factual? Also what are the pros and cons of using a living soil? Thanks!

Edit: Saw the reply on your duplicate thread, pretty sure you didn't mean the same thing I was thinking, now.

If you mean something like Fox Farm Ocean Forest, you do not do nutes right away, correct. You do still need to mind your pH. You will still need to feed in a couple weeks unless you transplant and add more dirt.

I use FFOF and don't feed until flowering, unless I do a long veg (mainlining, for example), but I also transplant up a couple times along the way.

What I like about FFOF is all the natural goodness in there. Worm castings, bat guano, decomposed fish. Plus, I've used FF trio for ever, so trying out their other products just felt natural.

Con... It's easy to burn your plants and get nutrient lockout, if you feed too early. Get yourself a TDS meter, and be patient, though, and that won't be an issue.

My mate uses ecothrive living soil and uses no nutrients at all and doesn’t ph either. He has put worms in his soil and also just uses ecothrive bio something which is a microbe tea every 2 weeks. He also reuses it every grow, He’s done like 10 grows in the same soil. He does amend it at the end of every grow with another eco thrive product and top dresses it with all the old leaf trimmer and stalks some straw/hay. Check out ecothrive website for more info, it’s quite interesting learning about this living soil and how it works. I have inly
Just started looking into it myself and want to give it a go

Mattmaximus said:

My mate uses ecothrive living soil and uses no nutrients at all and doesn’t ph either. He has put worms in his soil and also just uses ecothrive bio something which is a microbe tea every 2 weeks. He also reuses it every grow, He’s done like 10 grows in the same soil. He does amend it at the end of every grow with another eco thrive product and top dresses it with all the old leaf trimmer and stalks some straw/hay. Check out ecothrive website for more info, it’s quite interesting learning about this living soil and how it works. I have inly
Just started looking into it myself and want to give it a go

Click to expand...

You guys should join us on the Organics section of this site if you're interested in it. Here is my latest grow thread where I'm growing one plant (don't ask! lol) in a 5X5 tent in a single pot that I've not disturbed the soil in for more than 2 years now: https://www.rollitup.org/t/one-pink-lemonade-no-till-cycle-7-in-4-foot-diameter-pot-5x5-tent.1028655/

It's still going, maybe another 2 weeks from harvest now. But I haven't used "nutrients" in conventional form since I've grown over and over again 7 times so far in the same soil. I don't ever disturb the soil, just cut off the stalk of the plants I harvest at soil level and do it again. All I do is apply hay mulch, water, and every few cycles some alfalfa pellets that you can buy from a rural animal feed&seed store for $18 for a 50 pound sack full. I'm still on the same sack for years now. The nice thing is that this style of growing is super easy, great for lazy people like me, as well as super cheap. And being all organic, you can get some very nice dank and smelly top-shelf bud in amazing amounts.

For example, in this "no-till" I was using just regular LED household lightbulbs before in my 5X5 tent. Harvest with 4 plants was well over one kilogram. That grow is here: https://www.rollitup.org/t/my-budget-5x5-setup.982183/

All the information you need to succeed at this is in those threads. Hope to see you there