My Challenge with Living Soil

[PeterMatanzas]

I have a few grows under my belt but this is the first time using living soil (Coco Loco + Kind). Some of my plants are suffering from over watering, some are not - this is going to be difficult to illustrate with photos because of photo contrast and how color prints, but I'm giving it a shot.

Is this something anyone else has run into with living soil, that's it's more of a challenge in watering than regular soil? Do not over water. I have not let any runoff though. (As a side note, I know I've got defoliation ahead.)

[crucialbunny]

Drainage is always a problem when mixing coco and soil. My first attempt at making a living soil using worm castings and coco a few years ago resulted in oxygenation issues to my root system big time from water saturation. It was a struggle but the plants made it through the full season. I ended up coring some holes top to bottom through the soil with an auger and carefully filling the voids with coarse sand to enable better drainage. I still use a small amount of coco in my soil mixes but only 5 - 10%. I now use lots of sand in my soil (20-25%) and watering is never an issue any longer. Inevitably I need to water more often but that's okay with me. Good luck -

[SoOrbudgal]

Man i also make use of the perlite i mean i add nearly 40% of my soil mix is perlite. It helps me tremendously

[crucialbunny]

Getting fresh oxygenated water to our root system is really key to healthy plants. Without perlite and sand it's like trying to grow in adobe. With proper drainage I can over water all I want with no consequences.

[Cali]

Next time just make your own its a lot cheaper and 💯 better quality. I use a 3 part soil base. I grow in 20 gallon pots so it’s easy to do the math. Just drop a cubic foot bag of pumice/rice hulls for aeration or lava rock I mix all 3. Also 1 cubic foot of compost. And 1 cubic foot of Sphagnum peat moss. That’s it total of like 22 gallons something like that then I just add my 3 nutrient amendments kelp, Neem/karanja and oyster shell flour. For minerals just use gypsum, basalt and crustacean meal. I also use malted barley in the mix. That’s it. Maybe I’m missing an amendment but it’s easy just look up the Clackamas Coot mix. If you can get quality worm casting to use instead of compost your soil would be even better. Don’t use castings from a bag not the quality you want. But to answer your question I guess it is a bit of an issue watering living soils. On Buildasoil.com on the blog page you can read on how to water living soil they explain it there. Basically just 5 to 10 percent your soil volume so in my case 20 gallons I use 1 gallon of water max.. sometimes just half depending on how the ladies are drinking.. Also most likely you need aeration pumice is great over perlite also I use rice hulls because as they break down it’s a natural source of silica just have to keep in mind you will have to add more aeration as they break down though it takes a while I haven’t in 2 years but I have a lot of pumice/ lava rock

[PeterMatanzas]

I transplanted the worst of the droopy plants from a 2 gal to a 5 gal. The root ball was hard as a rock, almost no soil fell off it when I pulled it out of the 2 gal; it was solid roots. I filled the available space in the 5 gal with a mix of coco loco and perlite.

I agree with SoOrbudgal, the original mix should've included a lot more perlite.

The droopy plants definitely have oxygenation issues as crucialbunny says. I do have a 5/16" auger, and coarse sand, so I have that option of drilling aeration holes.

The plants not suffering from oxygenation issues are growing well.

I did check out Buildasoil.com per recommendation by Cali. The guideline for watering 3 gallons of grow medium is 2.5 cups. Good lord that is a lot, a real lot more than I've been giving them.

[EDIT add] I have an aquarium air pump and have used that to aerate water before applying to plants.

[Anansi]

I've been using store-bought potting soil forever. Define what 'living' soil means and why is it better than regular potting soil?

[PeterMatanzas]

Yeah I've been using soil for years, Fox Farm + perlite, with great success. This is my first living soil grow. I first read about "living soil" from the flower community on Instagram and I had to google "living soil" to get more information on it.

[RetiredGuy]

Anansi my understanding is that living soil is 100% organic, no salts added. I see you have 2 Sp3000. I am close to ordering one for my 2 x 4 cabinet. Are you happy with the lights?

[Anansi]

Very happy with the lights. My first that weren't blurples. They make a difference.

[PeterMatanzas]

Cali recommended https://buildasoil.com/ and that is a good resource to get up to speed on living soil

[Rwise]

Its called living because its alive, there are living bacteria and all kinds of good organisms (that I cant get even close to spelling) in that there living soil

[cybersmib]

Living soil (or hot soil, super soil) is designed for providing plants nutrient needs from seed to weed. Just add water makes it own trichromes (“and I helped”, sorry old shake and bake reference as a shout out to old timers)(remember gravy train dog food). Any way back to topic, there are tutorials available on groweedeasy.com (or something like that, what do you expect from a stoner). Any way I am on my first grow using super soil, and while it has eliminated or minimized problems such as pH fluctuations and nute burns so far, I still have issues as a result of the grower. Any input/advice would be appreciated.

[crucialbunny]

D.A.A.S.69 It's interesting that you don't water to runoff. I use my own homemade living soil and water to runoff nearly every time so that I am certain that my entire pot and root system is getting wet. However, during late veg and flower I do water once a week with compost tea made from my worm bin along with molasses and Epsom. I have seen instances where growers I know were watering to a schedule and with measured amounts of water. When I would pop the rootball out you could clearly see that the water was only flowing to certain areas of the pot leaving the rest bone dry. Water will follow the path of least resistance so sometimes it just keeps following that same path. I always leave ample room at the top of my pots in initial potting to top dress like you mention. Many growers I have found tend to only use molasses only during bud but it's key to feeding the beneficial bacteria and organisms so I use it throughout my grow to feed the soil. For me the biggest benefit to this whole living soil thing is not having to chase PH issues continually. This year I did end up with a couple plants giving me PH problems in the last couple weeks but I think that had more to do with my pots cooking in some very harsh heat days we experienced here in California that may have killed off much of the organisms.

[D.A.A.S.69]

crucialbunny that's why if you water your soil real slow, you want have that problem, your whole pot of soil gets equally wet, no dry places.
Most all of the old living soil growers, that ive known for years ,dont water to runoff either, your depleting your soil if you do, you can always topdress though, if you got plenty of your soil left, that is.
I been using Molasses well over 40years, an always from the beginning to harvest, 2tablespoons a gallon of water, for feeding bennies, plus it's got lots of micro nutrients in it too, for the plants.
Like you said ,most folks use it only a little before harvest, they claim it helps the buds swell up more, I've never noticed that happening in all my years, but imo, it does help maybe a little with taste an smell, but I can't swear to that either.
HappyGrowing

[D.A.A.S.69]

We don't make our soil, we just dig it up, an add perlite, a handful of lime maybe, an that's it.
It comes from our hunting woods in Mississippi, it's called LoessBluff soil, close to the Mississippi River, Super fertile, about as fertile as you can get in the USA, each shovel full is loaded with worms of all types, mostly redworms, but some earthworms as well.
The outdoors plants we've grown over the years in our woods, are unbelievable, stalks as big as beer cans..
All the old timers I know from here go there to get their soil for weed growing, an for their vegetable gardens..
I've done several side by sides with autoflowers with our soil an with KindSoil, an our soil does just as well as KindSoil, maybe a little better.
Google Mississippi Loess,Bluff soil, an read up on it, it is much better than the Mississippi Delta Soil, that is also very fertile.
It's a fluffy, loamie, soil. Full of living critters.
HappyGrowing

[D.A.A.S.69]

cybersmib ,I tried to tag you above, but it didn't work.

[cybersmib]

Ok. Thanks for the comments. Not sure what being tagged is. I focus more on learning to grow than social media.. Not so old fart who cherrypicks what suits him.. As far as watering goes I have been following a schedule Ms. Haze (The “Devine” Ms Haze that is, you heard it here first( Don’t worry Ms. Haze, not a stalker just a grateful student) when the student is ready the teacher appears)). Any way I have been following her post watering schedule with good results so far (THM (Thanks Ms..Haze))

With regard to soil from the Mississippi delta. Can’t help but be envious. ( as much as men try all we can do is mimic not match nature..

[Cali]

There is also www.thebuildasoilway.com it’s a step by step tutorial on growing weed in living soil. Best part about it is free just sign up and take the course. Jeremy the owner is the guy doing the step by step and I believe he is getting ready to do the how to harvest, dry, and cure your buds part. He was just waiting for his plants to be ready to get chopped if you follow them on Instagram you can see how he has been growing he usually updates at least once a week. He is growing 1 tent with 30 gallon pots and the side tent with earth boxes. Those earth boxes are super simple and takes all the guess work out of watering. Talk about Grow Weed Easy I recommend everyone to check it out for any one just getting started this would be ideal those earth boxes produced nicely. I’m taking the free course and the info is great.