RO soil for seedlings

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BC KushKing

Member
Hey guys, im makin a 1/2 batch of supersoil and ill be using roots organic in my mix. My question is, is RO too hot for seedlings? Ive been looking for some biobizz lite mix to mix with the RO for a good base soil but cant find it anywhere. Should I use an alternative soil to mix with the base like FFLW or is RO fine by itself? Ive heard somewhere that just using RO as the base allows the seedlings to adjust to the hot soil more. What do you guys recommend?
 
bshdctr

bshdctr

Well-Known Member
RO works great by itself. My current TGA seed-grow was started directly (no rapid rooters) in plain RO soil with no probs at all. :)
 
Medshed

Medshed

Well-Known Member
bshdctr said:
RO works great by itself. My current TGA seed-grow was started directly (no rapid rooters) in plain RO soil with no probs at all. :)
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Ditto - except I start in rapid rooters and plant in Roots as soon as the plants develop roots.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
I followed Sub's protocol pretty closely. 1 gal pots with RO. In my case, in the very center of the 1 gal pot, I put maybe 1/2 cup of Promix Starter Soil. Placed the cracked seeds in that, and the roots took off and into the RO where they really thrived. I started a thread on this exact topic three months ago and received all the same answers. Roots Organic soil is perfectly safe for seedlings.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
I did the Nematode dunk in both the "cooking" SS and the straight Roots O. for the seedlings. I also mixed in DE, Neem Meal and crab. All of things do something different, but all target the same pests. Just in different ways. Overall a very forgiving protocol on not only the plants but the micro-herd also. I did not cover the soil with a couple of inches of perlite as I have in the past. The soil is exposed.

Maybe I got lucky, but I have no bugs at all. You occasionally see a gnat, but they can't do anything. The soil is really quite inoculated.
 
B

BC KushKing

Member
Im still a bit confused on how to treat for mites. Should I add nematodes or Gnatrol while cooking the supersoil? Im also considering using DE and neem meal but im not sure on which products to use.. can azomax be used when cooking or is it only for soil drenches? Im gonna pick up 5 bags of roots for the mix and base and I really dont want to end up with gnats so im going to use sticky traps to monitor the grow area. Thanks for the advice guys, and thanks for the videos sub, they are very informative and I cant wait to grow me some organic dank.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
Personally, I think less is more. The DE, neem, and crab are all mixed in when mixing the soil. I would only resort to heavy drenching of Azamax, etc, if you are overwhelmed.
 
A

Afka

Active Member
Why do you guys endorse a product which is clearly infested every time. Wtf kind of crap consumerism is that!?

Oh this soil is soooo great! You just "add water" till harvest! Oh and treating for sciarids.

edit: Just to precise, I make my own biologically active soil, and all it takes is a bale of pro-mix bx. I'll add the stuff myself thank you, I don't need roots' "fancy soil powders" + insects.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
Well, I never saw a single bug. I also hear that Roots resolved their issue. No idea if that's true but I would use the products I did regardless of the potential pre-infested soil. I assume everything's contaminated.

Having said all that I think it's great that you're building your own soil.
 
A

Afka

Active Member
Now, just to be precise I'm not shittin' on anyone especially not Sub nor his recipe.

I just would NEVER recommend anyone use a product known to have infestation problems. What's wrong with the salubrity of their production facility compared to other soil manufacturers? If they can't control something as simple as sciarid flies, what about potential pathogens? Will their soil be infested with Rhizoctonia/erwinia/pythium?

Sciarids are easy to control, exactly my point! Why can't a reputable company make sure of that themselves?
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
Per Sub's video, they had a storage issue. The soil company that mixes soil for many companies was storing soil improperly. Or so the story goes.
 
BeaverHuntr

BeaverHuntr

Well-Known Member
Rrog said:
I did the Nematode dunk in both the "cooking" SS and the straight Roots O. for the seedlings. I also mixed in DE, Neem Meal and crab. All of things do something different, but all target the same pests. Just in different ways. Overall a very forgiving protocol on not only the plants but the micro-herd also. I did not cover the soil with a couple of inches of perlite as I have in the past. The soil is exposed.

Maybe I got lucky, but I have no bugs at all. You occasionally see a gnat, but they can't do anything. The soil is really quite inoculated.
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I love using predatory nematodes in my mediums, they really work and dont cost much money. Bugs wont try and plant larvae in your soil/medium if you have nematodes in them to them its like landing in a big pool of hungry sharks. I read and am amazed at some of the things people spray on their plants.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
nematodes are great as long as you don't introduce something that will kill them or keep them from reproducing. For example nematodes + mosquito dunks combined can really clean things up. The bacteria in the dunks (BTI) keep the nematodes from reproducing
 
B

BC KushKing

Member
so if I mix in neem meal, crab meal, and DE in the supersoil, top it with some beneficial nematodes and cook for a month. should that be good enough to take out any gnats in the soil and will these products affect anything like ph?
 
subcool

subcool

Well-Known Member
Roots still has gnats and were still using it.
Biobiz was ok Happy frog was adequate but nothing works in the SS recipe like Roots

Sub
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
BC KushKing said:
so if I mix in neem meal, crab meal, and DE in the supersoil, top it with some beneficial nematodes and cook for a month. should that be good enough to take out any gnats in the soil and will these products affect anything like ph?
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That's what I did, and never had an issue with any pests at all. With a good soil like this with microlife there is no need to pH balance anything. In fact nothing will happen if you pH balance. The microlife will determine the pH, not you.
 
A

Afka

Active Member
subcool said:
Roots still has gnats and were still using it.
Biobiz was ok Happy frog was adequate but nothing works in the SS recipe like Roots

Sub
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Hey sub, have you ever tried mixing a batch just as a comparison with a run of the mill pro-mix bx? I understand the benefits of biodiversity and multiple sources of rapid/long term nutrient release. Do the fancy amendments in those expensive soils really change that much considering you're amending it yourself after, supplying all macro-micro-trace elements.
 
subcool

subcool

Well-Known Member
I have made super soil with over 2 dozen base soils and I am sure that there are comparable soils out there now to Roots but I swear any time I deviate I am not as happy with the results.

Sub
 
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