Questions about Super Soil

[Buds Buddy]

Hi Everybody ! I'm using SoHum Super Soil for my first time. I have some Super Soil questions from you knowledgeable growers.
First of all, I use Super Soil in the bottom 1/3rd of my pots. The remaining 2/3rds is FFOF fresh from the bag. I use Tap Water that sits for 24 - 48 hours to gas off. Every other feeding I use Re-Charge at 2.5 gr. per gal.
My first question is: Can I reuse this soil on my next grow since I've been using re-charge ? Or does it need to be amended ?

My other question has to do with Subcool's Super Soil Recipe. Can I use FFOF that's been used for one grow as my base soil & amend it to be Super Soil, or do I need to start with unused soil ?

I'm really liking the simplicity of using this soil. However, it's quite expensive to buy premade. So looking to find out how to build my own.
I'm really not sure what the differences are between Super Soil & LOS. When I hear of growers mixing soil for LOS I hear they add things like Eggshells, Coffee Grounds, Fruits & Veggies, etc. Can you make Super Soil using any common household scraps ?

Just trying to learn a few things so any & all help is much appreciated. Thanks !

 

[Buds Buddy]

Nobody ? Anybody ? @Emilya , I hate to keep bugging you.... But I'm sure you have the answers. Thanks !

 

[Vegan4life]

Hello, I have been growing in 100% Sohum for the last year. I just started my third grow in the same soil. I have been amending it "Clackamas Coot style". Last round I amended with neem meal, karanja cake, crustacean meal, kelp meal, worm castings and rock dust. This current grow I bought craft blend from build a soil, I added six cups to each 20 gallon pot along with about a gallon of worm castings that contain more worms and cocoons. I grow in 20 gallon pots. I also supplement with micro nutrients, SST's and and add microbes. I just started a journal last week, link is in my signature.

 

[Emilya Green]

Hi Everybody ! I'm using SoHum Super Soil for my first time. I have some Super Soil questions from you knowledgeable growers.
First of all, I use Super Soil in the bottom 1/3rd of my pots. The remaining 2/3rds is FFOF fresh from the bag. I use Tap Water that sits for 24 - 48 hours to gas off. Every other feeding I use Re-Charge at 2.5 gr. per gal.
My first question is: Can I reuse this soil on my next grow since I've been using re-charge ? Or does it need to be amended ?

My other question has to do with Subcool's Super Soil Recipe. Can I use FFOF that's been used for one grow as my base soil & amend it to be Super Soil, or do I need to start with unused soil ?

I'm really liking the simplicity of using this soil. However, it's quite expensive to buy premade. So looking to find out how to build my own.
I'm really not sure what the differences are between Super Soil & LOS. When I hear of growers mixing soil for LOS I hear they add things like Eggshells, Coffee Grounds, Fruits & Veggies, etc. Can you make Super Soil using any common household scraps ?

Just trying to learn a few things so any & all help is much appreciated. Thanks !

Hi Buds,
I will take this point by point. First, gassing off the chlorine. Chloramine does not gas off, that is why many municipalities now use it instead. Check with your water company to see if you are wasting your time and effort attempting to gas off. The point is moot though, because you are using Recharge to supply extra microbes, and you could be using straight fully chlorinated tap water... it doesn't kill as many as you are bringing in with every other watering.

Your plants are using massive amounts of the macronutrients built into your supersoil, and you will need to amend the soil between grows or it will fall flat sometime during the next grow. This is why that even though I use supersoil, used supersoil and ffof all mixed together, I still choose to use Geoflora Nutrients, because I know my soil could no longer support a full grow by itself.

There are kits you can buy or directions you can follow, to re-amend the supersoils between grows. After buying the components to build my first SubCool Supersoil, I still had plenty left over to amend the soil between grows, and I kept my supersoil going for about 6 years before I sent it outside to the plants out there. Between each grow I had to add large amounts of calcium, potassium and phosphorus. I added Azomite for trace minerals and many of the original inputs used to make the soil, and then I recomposted for several months, having enough soil to run two grows, so that half could be composting while half was being used. No, you can not make a supersoil out of kitchen scraps. You can make a great compost that way, but supersoil is a step beyond where you add in minerals. Supersoil is not made from scraps, it is a mineralized soil.

LOS is Living Organic Soil. Think, terrarium. It is a biosphere in a tub. The goal is to create a small slice of the forest floor, complete with all the microbes, fungi and even complex insect life that exists out in nature. The goal is to create a biosphere in a tub that is self sustaining, with the life cycles of all the critters in there complementing the soil. The problem with this type of grow is that it requires rather large containers to be able to get to the point of being self sustaining, and keeping the biosphere (soil) living requires a long term commitment.

Another term you often see in the organic world is TLO (True Living Organics). This method was devised by The Rev to allow you to grow organically in as small as 3 gallon containers. Rev does this by using a supersoil in the bottom third and then building up the container with layers of raw nutrients so the roots can find nutrient zones. He also uses vertical spikes of raw nutrients to provide even more zones of nutrient for the roots to find and adapt to. Then he instructs how to make proper AACTs (actively aerated compost teas) so as to bring in the correct microbes to support that stage of the grow. He came up with a system that allowed many more people to achieve organic growing, without having to build and maintain a living soil.

Products such as Dr. Earth and Geoflora Nutrients changed everything, allowing a gardener to regularly add in the needed raw nutrients and microbes. Products such as URB, Voodoo Juice and Realgrower's Recharge made bringing in the correct microbes and easy chore, and no longer we needed to brew our own teas. Organic growing has become available to anyone who wants to do it today, because of this new technology.

 

[Vegan4life]

You can definitely build your own organic soil, Look up "Coot's mix". Basically 1/3 sphagnum peat moss, 1/3 aeration (perlite, pumice stone or rice hulls), 1/3 humus / compost / worm castings, neem meal, karanja cake, crustacean meal, kelp meal and rock dust.

I put all of my kitchen vegetable and fruit scraps into my worm bin, the worms make great vermicompost out of it.

 

[Buds Buddy]

Thanks you two. Much appreciated. I'll pick up a compost bin soon & buy the amendments that subcool used. I'm not into having worms & critters in the house.... lol. If I grew outside it would be a different story.
I'll have about 10 -12 5 gal. pots of used soil after this grow to get started with. Need to do some math & buy enough amendments to do about 250 gal. to start. That I think should last about a year. Of course I'd only be amending 25 - 50 gal. each time. Not all 250.

 

[Emilya Green]

do a search for partial subcool recipes... I used a 1/4 recipe and didn't have to do any math.

 

[bobrown14]

Nobody ? Anybody ? @Emilya , I hate to keep bugging you.... But I'm sure you have the answers. Thanks !

You can re-use soil fer sure im in my same soil I mixed 10 years ago.

I amend mine between runs. We need to replace whats being used by the plants when growing in containers.

The amendments your talking about

egg shells kitchen scraps etc can be used in the soil they need to compost first then you add that compost to your soil as an amendment.

Coots mix is what my soil recipe is.


Best amendments

compost
kelp meal
EWC
Karanga/Neem meals
crustacean meal

Can add a source of Ca - gypsum powder is a good one thats short and long term Ca and Sulfur and goes will with crustacean meal (longer term Ca).

For microbes you can use whatever you like. Probably dont need to use them every week. If they are dying off there's probably better microbes.

I add microbes at up-pot and thats it. Can wild craft your own via local worm castings you source in the woods. There will be your native microbes which have been around a very very long time. From the woods they should be more fungal oriented. But there will also be bacteria there as well.

 

[SmokingWings]

Best amendments

compost
kelp meal
EWC
Karanga/Neem meals
crustacean meal

Yes. Pretty much the same sequence of what I like to mix back in after a soil has been used a few times.

I am now thinking that the #1 thing that should be added back is compost. Not only does it contain many of the macro and micro-nutrients plus also the trace elements. The compost does take awhile to finish breaking down and when it does, well, the organic material is gone and it needs to be replenished. The other items on our lists are important but compost is at the top. Plus the compost with its organic pieces, etc. help keep the soil mix loose and fluffy and makes it less likely to pack down.

Peat Moss, if used, probably takes 2 to 3 years to decompose and add back the nutrients that it stored which are not much as compared to the compost. Same with finely shredded coco coir if that is being used instead of Peat Moss though the coco takes 4-5 years to break down based on what I have read.

 

[jokerlola]

Hi Everybody ! I'm using SoHum Super Soil for my first time. I have some Super Soil questions from you knowledgeable growers.
First of all, I use Super Soil in the bottom 1/3rd of my pots. The remaining 2/3rds is FFOF fresh from the bag. I use Tap Water that sits for 24 - 48 hours to gas off. Every other feeding I use Re-Charge at 2.5 gr. per gal.
My first question is: Can I reuse this soil on my next grow since I've been using re-charge ? Or does it need to be amended ?

My other question has to do with Subcool's Super Soil Recipe. Can I use FFOF that's been used for one grow as my base soil & amend it to be Super Soil, or do I need to start with unused soil ?

I'm really liking the simplicity of using this soil. However, it's quite expensive to buy premade. So looking to find out how to build my own.
I'm really not sure what the differences are between Super Soil & LOS. When I hear of growers mixing soil for LOS I hear they add things like Eggshells, Coffee Grounds, Fruits & Veggies, etc. Can you make Super Soil using any common household scraps ?

Just trying to learn a few things so any & all help is much appreciated. Thanks !

I've been using Sohum Soil off and on since 2018. The first time I used it, I was a total newby and started growing as a lark because I had been given some cannabis cuttings. I didn't know anything about chloramines and just used our straight Denver water from the hose and I had no issues with my first grow. I now use filtered water. I have purchased new Sohum for the next grows, but I reuse my old Sohum for my tomato plants and ad some extra Dr. Earth ferts for those. Buying new Sohum soil every year could be expensive but I don't think it's any more expensive that using liquid nutes every year and if it is more expensive, I'm willing to pay for the simplicity and ease of water only.

 

[Buds Buddy]

I've been using Sohum Soil off and on since 2018. The first time I used it, I was a total newby and started growing as a lark because I had been given some cannabis cuttings. I didn't know anything about chloramines and just used our straight Denver water from the hose and I had no issues with my first grow. I now use filtered water. I have purchased new Sohum for the next grows, but I reuse my old Sohum for my tomato plants and ad some extra Dr. Earth ferts for those. Buying new Sohum soil every year could be expensive but I don't think it's any more expensive that using liquid nutes every year and if it is more expensive, I'm willing to pay for the simplicity and ease of water only.

I'm using Tap water, but adding Re-Charge every other watering. They seem to be loving it so far. Nice green, healthy plants. Going to order another bag on payday for my next grow.

 

[bobrown14]

Yes. Pretty much the same sequence of what I like to mix back in after a soil has been used a few times.

I am now thinking that the #1 thing that should be added back is compost. Not only does it contain many of the macro and micro-nutrients plus also the trace elements. The compost does take awhile to finish breaking down and when it does, well, the organic material is gone and it needs to be replenished. The other items on our lists are important but compost is at the top. Plus the compost with its organic pieces, etc. help keep the soil mix loose and fluffy and makes it less likely to pack down.

Peat Moss, if used, probably takes 2 to 3 years to decompose and add back the nutrients that it stored which are not much as compared to the compost. Same with finely shredded coco coir if that is being used instead of Peat Moss though the coco takes 4-5 years to break down based on what I have read.

"Get your compost right and there's not much to worry about." Coot

 

[jokerlola]

I'm using Tap water, but adding Re-Charge every other watering. They seem to be loving it so far. Nice green, healthy plants. Going to order another bag on payday for my next grow.

I have read several articles and seen a few tests and according to these, the amount of die off of good bacteria and beneficial microbes from using tap water with chloramines is very, very minimal and the few microbes that get killed off, bounce back very quickly. In fact, I've read at least one test that showed more beneficial microbe activity in the tap watered soil, probably from them feeding off the microbes that died. I do now use a water filter that filters out chloramines but I wouldn't worry about using straight hose/tap water. I've talked to our water dept. and got their water testing reports and the residual amounts of chloramines is in the very, very low ppm's and often times undetectable. I've never tried Re-Charge but have heard it's a good product but I think it's expensive. And so far, I haven't felt like I needed it.

One thing I want to add about using a super soil vs adding nutes to potting mix is; in the couple of side by side tests I've done, I've never had a pest problem with the Sohum but I've wound up with spider mites or aphids or thrips in the added nutes plants. I don't know if there is anything too this or if it's just a coincidence. BTW, I grow only outside during the spring, summer and fall in Colorado.

 

[bobrown14]

The problem with tap water is the heavy metals picked up in transit from the water company to your tap.

Pipes are made of steel that transmit from water company. The water company also adds chemicals to keep those pipes from oxidizing (Flint Michigan). That and the other chems added to the water .... you can takes your chances.

Fresh water is going to be the next big environmental issue world wide.

We live WAY out the the country farm country - no one thats on a well drinks the water or uses it for cooking. In the city it was worse.