super soil is redundant. Way too much npk. Has alot of nutes that do the same thing.
I started with super soil years ago. But I still recycled my soil and that was before I new about rols no till gardening. I get better results and better flavor and better quality flowers and more / better icewax than I did with super soil
I just think it's important to reiterate that point.
I reaaaally like that
every nutrient that we use is for a particular purpose, not just dumping mass amounts of food at it, that, in my opinion is hydro-logic.
Crab meal, for example, not only helps control ph, but add chitin to help with bugs, and that's ignoring the actual nutrient value of a slow release of 4-3-0, (an example)
Kelp meal, people look at it as a humble 1-0-2 and think it does little for you, but the real magic is in all those micronutrients, 60 diff chelated minerals, etc, etc.
Neem meal, possibly maybe the best overall nutrient available, with my respects to kelp meal and alfalfa meal, does so much more beyond the NPK value it has.
Alfalfa meal, another magical nutrient, triacantrol, is worth so much more than the nitrogen it provides. 16 amino acids and a plethora of micronutes also
Point is... bat guano? does one thing and is fairly soluble, blood meal? the same. only MORE soluble, and they both have similar NPK numbers.
The key is getting a good understanding of what you are trying to accomplish.
I have problems with mites (normally, this run was a LOT better, i'm thinking the insect meal I used helped with that)
so I concentrated on a recipe that had IPMs as a primary goal. Chitin in particular, crab meal, and insect meal.
i will tell you one thing. I
really am liking the insect meal I used last soil mix.
I had lil to no mites, and keep in mind, I could find probably mites on every plant, but i'd have to look hard.
So why did I have mites but not an infestation? I don't know, but logic (and a lil hope) would lead me to believe it was the soil makeup that I used.
I have NEVER seen that, every damn time, if you get mites, you get "webbed" if you don't act fast... me and mites go back decades...
I did NOTHING this time.
I monitored, ohhh believe me, I watched those fuckers like a hawk... but they just didn't do anything except a tiny sprinking of pinpricks, but nothing more than maybe two or three leaves, and even still those leaves were barely affected. No need to do anything. I even had a plan to emulsify some neem oil with the advice of
@Pattahabi But I didn't ever have to.
Interesting shit.
Keep one thing in mind, it was humid, and somewhat cold, sooooo in 80 degree warm, dry weather?
probably would have problems...
Either way though it's interesting and even in the cold and humid, if you got mites, you got webbed if you did nothing.
I did nothing and didn't have ANY problems.
This is progress for me. I have my growing technique pretty much honed, but the bug battle is eternal.. in a redwood forest anyways.