Soil Suggestions

After remembering what the soil is like around here I believe I will need an alternative medium to grow in the soil is black and absolutely full of small roots for about a foot down then it turns into clay. How would you work around this if you had to I don't want to use buckets because I feel that the 5 gallon bucket won't provide enough area for the root system which should be large due to the 6 months of veg and the 60-70 days of flower. Please help as this grow will be starting in a few weeks and I do not want to start these seeds and have no medium to grow in.
My idea was to dig a bed about 12 ft wide 60 feet long and about 1 foot down and put a good soil into the bed raised about 3-5 inches so a total of 17 inches is that deep enough.

i would dig individual holes. instead of digging the whole plot out, you could dig 2x2x2 holes for each plant. also black soil is not a bad thing. it usually indicates decomposition which means free compost. maybe you could collect all the black soil from different areas in the forest and use that with some amendments to fill your holes. coco coir is ph neutral,light weight and great for aeration and water retention. you could mix it with your native soil and make out very well.

farmerjoe420 said:

i would dig individual holes. instead of digging the whole plot out, you could dig 2x2x2 holes for each plant. also black soil is not a bad thing. it usually indicates decomposition which means free compost. maybe you could collect all the black soil from different areas in the forest and use that with some amendments to fill your holes. coco coir is ph neutral,light weight and great for aeration and water retention. you could mix it with your native soil and make out very well.

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I was going to dig out the whole plot because I read that the root system can get up to 6 feet so I was going to do 3-4 rows of 10-15 plants all with 2 sq meters of space around them. Also 2 feet deep? Would that be enough I was looking at root systems of of some hydrophonic grows and some looked well over 2 feet .

Oh did I just see u say the word rows? lol I dont know where ur located bud or if ur legally allowed to grow but the last thing u wanna do is plant in rows if ur worried about getting busted. Not trying to sound dick or anything but just looking out. Im gonna just dig holes in the ground and put my sweet soil mix in the ground. Im kinda baked right now and Im not even sure if Im even making any sense, if not forgive me lol. Well happy growing bro!

Ganga Cook said:

Oh did I just see u say the word rows? lol I dont know where ur located bud or if ur legally allowed to grow but the last thing u wanna do is plant in rows if ur worried about getting busted. Not trying to sound dick or anything but just looking out. Im gonna just dig holes in the ground and put my sweet soil mix in the ground. Im kinda baked right now and Im not even sure if Im even making any sense, if not forgive me lol. Well happy growing bro!

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Good looks almost forgot about that.

Dj1209 said:

I was going to dig out the whole plot because I read that the root system can get up to 6 feet so I was going to do 3-4 rows of 10-15 plants all with 2 sq meters of space around them. Also 2 feet deep? Would that be enough I was looking at root systems of of some hydrophonic grows and some looked well over 2 feet .

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yes 2 feet would be more than enough. buy the time your plants develop a root system the size of a 2x2x2 hole, believe me they will have no problem spreading through the ground to gain more root space. hydro is a different beast in itself. you may see over 2 feet of root in a dwc bucket but those roots dont ever grow into a ball like in soil so your 2 foot hole will have plenty of room to compensate when it grows to the bottom and they branch out. just imagine what a 15 gallon root system in soil would look like without the soil being there and the roots being in a ball, huge