What should I be doing to my soil during a grow?

[EyesOfTheWorld]

Say I’m using 5g grow bags with potting soil. I’m considering using “refreshed” soil so I don’t have to lug as many bags around, but for the sake of the argument pretend it’s some new high quality potting soil.

Other than water, what shoild I be adding to the soil during the 2-3 months my plants are growing. I keep seeing the generic nutrients (nutes) thrown around, but don’t know what that actually entails. Fertilizer? Nitrogen, “food”?
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[Wayzee]

Personally, if it's a high quality made for cannabis soil, I wouldn't add anything at the start except maybe a root booster to help get her established but if I didn't have any I wouldn't bother. Depending on how long you veg her for depends on how much nutrients she will suck out of the soil longer veg period i.e 4+weeks and you will probably have to add some nutes or you will start to see deficiencies in the plant.

For best results use a brand of nutrients that's developed for cannabis and soil.
Basically you want nitrogen and a little phosphorus for veg and potash for flower, and a little bit of cal-mag when flipping from veg to flower. Always start with half the recommended dosage on the packet or bottle.

Once in flower I start boosting with any " budbooster" that's suitable for soil or you can get powdered form that you can sprinkle onto soil then water in.

You will learn to read your plants and identify any issues it just takes time and learning from mistakes. There is also a bunch of info on this site about " water only " supersoil that is quite helpful.

Hopefully there's something in all that that you find useful. Goodluck.🤞🏾

[bdeegan]

There are a lot of choices on cannabis nutes. The choices can be divided apart depending on what your fancy is. Liquid or dry and then organic or not. If you chose to grow in something other than soil, organic is not really an option.

I grow in soil and started with liquid non organic nutes. It did fine for a few grows and then changed to a liquid organic brand. I am now using organic dry. I am toying with the idea of going in coco or straight hydro and will have to venture back to the salt based nutes if I decided to.

Hope this helps. Best of luck!

[dirtymike]

Potting soil is usually a little to hot on the nitrogen side to start with. I've reused it a couple grows with mixed results. Your issue is going to be chasing nutrient deficiency or toxicity and sometimes both. After all is said and done your going to wonder why didn't I just use fresh "potting soil". The price of good nutrients for cannabis isn't cheap either. After a run with good coco and simple nutrients I was hooked. Paz

[FenoHntr]

I’ve been thinking about using my old soil from previous grows as I’ve got a nice size pile going from previous grows. I’m creature of habit so primarily ingredient in my pile is Ocean Forest. Until now I always used fresh soil for every grow but at this point I’ve got more leftover than I would need I just need to find more info on if/ how to proceed with the leftover product. Any information on this would be appreciated and I will also share any results with a side by side. Thank you all

[Wayzee]

https://www.drgreenthumbs.com.au/pages/turbodirt-grow-guide-how-to-reuse-turbodirt

This might be helpful, and you should be able to find similar products in other countries if you not in Aus

[kingfish]

I use Root Organics soil and Fox Farm Trio for soil. Once I change to 12/12, I add Molasses during my watering cycle. That is all. I also reuse my soil.

[BreezyGreens]

The articles on the GWE website and comments here in the forum are great places to start. I'm new to weed but not to gardening, so if whatever you're refreshing your soil with has some pre-supplemented fertilizer in it, your plants will likely get through it in ~2-6 weeks, depending on how much you added. I doubt you'll burn them with too much nitrogen.

Some brands of weed-specific fertilizers also have manufacturer's recommended rates and directions right on the containers, which you can also follow. You can get away with even the most easy to find (and loathed) water soluble All Purpose miracle gro and Bloom Booster miracle gro. You have to have a feel for it, but with water soluble miracle gros, you can change how concentrated it is so you don't overfeed. All-Purpose is high in nitrogen, so it'll get you through vegetative, and after a few weeks, Bloom Booster shifts the proportions to support flowering. Is it perfect? It is not. Is it adequate? Yeah, and you can find it anywhere.

I found that some kind of calcium-magnesium supplement was necessary. I winged it last year with miracle gro because I had it on hand, and even with pests and very imperfect weather outdoors, the plants grew and did ok.