Super Soil 2019-2020

Hey there everyone, I'm 207 and I'll be sharing my personal grow with you.

I'm a medical cannabis user and long time farmer; I love growing anything and cannabis is no exception. Right now I am refining my methods and still trying to learn as much as I can, like many of you are.

I have had some great successes and also a lot of bad, frustrating, tragic grow situations that I have learned a lot of hard lessons from. I've spent a lot on hydro and chem nutes and have taken advice from guys at the grow stores (almost always a bad idea)

After mixed results with chems and years of working against nature, I'm starting to see the light of sustainable growing. Im tired of buying soil and nutes. Tired of pH pens drying out on me and ppm getting too high/low if I don't check often. Im tired of paying $$ for distilled water that I'm just going to change out in a week or two. I'm not throwing my DWC stuff out just yet, but I am retiring it for the time being.

I have decided to go full organic indoor for the first time since 2012 and I'm pretty happy to see the AN bottles in my stock room start gathering some dust!

After months of research and trials, I have decided on a mix I like.

I'm using roots 707 as a base and have added the usually array of trace minerals and meals, dry COM fertilizer, a bit of DOLO Lime and mixed it well.

After the soil was thoroughly amended and stirred up, I watered it down and have left it to break down (cook) all of the "hot" amendments (yeah, alfalfa and guano, I'm looking at you)

On a whim, I grabbed some roots organic liquid base fertilizer, back when I only had inert soilless mix. It did a great job bringing life into my old pro mix! The sick plants that I had saved from an old grow have sprung back with full vigor.

I'm quickly seeing success and I have only started recently with the indoor organics.
Usually I save the 'stinky stuff' for outside in my big raised beds, but if I mix it outdoors and bring it in carefully, it's not so bad.

The point of this thread is to entice fellow gardeners into sharing some success stories and info about organic growing indoors. There are plenty of old threads etc etc but I wanted to have a fresh place to share with you all.

I will be posting pics occasionally but mostly interested in conversation about ratios, cook time, amendments, teas, and other organic methods that medical cultivators may wish to share.

Please stop by and leave a comment if you like. I have barely used my new RIU account!

Happy growing

i love organics. Something that ive only recently used which i wish i would have found years ago is Bokashi. Like adding a turbocharger to the microbes in cooking soil or your compost pile/container.

madvillian420 said:

i love organics. Something that ive only recently used which i wish i would have found years ago is Bokashi. Like adding a turbocharger to the microbes in cooking soil or your compost pile/container.

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Thanks for chiming in!

Bokashi seems pretty cool from the small amount of info I've seen.

Do you have to buy starter or is there a diy recipe?

Also, I would be interested to know how/if fermentation is more beneficial to a gardener than traditional aerobic composting.

I assume it isn't meant to be a replacement, but an accent to aerobic composting.

Are there "special" microbes that can only be multiplied by this process?

Is it the anaerobic bokashi tea from the fermentation process(liquid), or the actual anaerobic material(solid) that you use/prefer?

The way I understand it is that you dilute the tea in water and pour it on your soil, and that the material left behind still needs to be traditionally composted after.

I've been meaning to learn more about fermented teas, and it seems so foreign to me... But I think it's a pretty neat concept and welcome any input on it

Im familiar with the dry bokashi, which is a pretty versatile mix of oats, a ton of microbes, and usually a couple other ingredients including molasses. It can be added to compost bins, which will create an amazing liquid runoff tea as well as speeding up the compost process. it can be added to soil mixes as well as even topdressing plants. If you have instagram, follow homegrown_bokashi you can see some pics of it in action

madvillian420 said:

Im familiar with the dry bokashi, which is a pretty versatile mix of oats, a ton of microbes, and usually a couple other ingredients including molasses. It can be added to compost bins, which will create an amazing liquid runoff tea as well as speeding up the compost process. it can be added to soil mixes as well as even topdressing plants. If you have instagram, follow homegrown_bokashi you can see some pics of it in action

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I see, you use it in compost! Nice
The method I was researching involved an airtight, sealed container with some bokashi and table scraps, which was left without oxygen to encourage anaerobic bacteria.

I like the way you're describing it better, I think.

I would consider using some in my 'normal' aerobic compost!

not only in compost, but the actual bokashi itself can be applied as a top dress to containers as well as the method you described with scraps.

madvillian420 said:

not only in compost, but the actual bokashi itself can be applied as a top dress to containers as well as the method you described with scraps.
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Have you noticed it burn plants as a top dress?

From what I could tell, the mix isn't supposed to be near roots of live plants.

Honestly what changed the game for me and made growing in living soil a breeze was my worm factory 360. Free vermicompost for life; smartest move you can make as a grower imo. I literally feed my plants kitchen scraps and my mix is supernaturally active. I don't even do teas anymore just add fresh ewc and a few amendments after each run to recycle it and it's good to go after a month or so. I get a sweet worm leacheate from the spigot which is basically a natural liquid plant food; must be diluted as it's too "hot" to add as is. I give it to all my plants even houseplants love it. Plants are always healthy and happy and all I do is water them.

Been running living super soil for 2 years now and don’t think I’m going back to anything else. Im water only kind of I have many large fresh water fish tanks that need regular water changes so I use that in veg and into early flower sometimes when I’m not being lazy about it if not though it’s water only I add no bottled nutes only use them for comparison photos next to nugs now lol

Just did my first try at a batch of living super soil, has anyone ever got this kind of reaction from it? Hot spots maybe? Deficiency?

Pineapplegelato said:

Just did my first try at a batch of living super soil, has anyone ever got this kind of reaction from it? Hot spots maybe? Deficiency?

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look I have something similar https://rollitup.org/t/dead-spots-on-lower-leaves.1000248/#post-15179769
Do you supply mag?

I haven't supplemented with anything yet, just been giving plain water from a zerowater filter. I posted the same thing on another forum and I think it's pH issues. My Apera pH meter shows pH readings from 6.8 - 7 so maybe I need to lower it. I'm currently naming some worm casting tea from my worm bin, maybe that'll help. Otherwise I think they look ok overall, getting ready to go into flower.
Hopefully I can rectify the situation before they get too far into it.

I'm new to organics but have had great results with tm7 and recyclesil I use tm7 up to week 5 of flower as a soil drench and the recyclesil up to the end of the strech in flower tm7 helps stimulate growth and recyclesil helps straighten cell walls. I've also started a worm bin seems like most organic growers suggest either making your own or finding a local fresh source

What components and ratios does everyone's living soil/super soil comprise of?

Sounds very Interesting ,as I too am new grower wanting to learn about good Composts and living soil/ super soil. at the moment my seedlings are a week old and started in roots 707 mix, and given RO water if anyone can give some pointers will be most appreciated.