super soil Subcool's Super Soil

[subcool]

This is yet one more Soil Mixing tutorial. This one is going to focus on making a batch in the city while keeping it neat and tidy. First we use a tarp and a sheet of plywood under so the shovel will slide easily as we mix and scoop. This was created over 35 years of soil growing and blows away any method I have tried. Hydro growers that swap over never switch back to water.

 

Here is the recipe to make this concentrate!

You cannot grow plants directly in this super concentrate!

 

8 Bags Roots soil or equivalent high quality supped up grow soil

25 pounds Pure Worm Castings

½ cup Azomite trace minerals

2/3 Cup Sweet Lime IE Dolomite

1 Kilo Bone meal / IE 5 Pounds

1 Kilo Blood meal ( I use a bit more bone than Blood in this recipe)

1 Kilo Bat Guano bloom formula preferably Fruit bats

3/4 cup Epson Salts

The Perlite and Coco I happen to have and it will make a better mix but it is not necessary.

 

 

First we take the tarp and the Lucky rug and lift the edges to form a 2 sided pan.

 

So for the last year Sticky Lungs and Joe Blow have been prompting me to try a new soil called Harvest moon. It really doesn't have a name or a label but these guys carry a product line called that and they seem like really nice people.

The main complaint with Roots is the fir bark that is used as a filler. It gives you splinters and makes us wonder if the mix is the best it can be. So the Harvest Moon people don't use Fir bark but high quality Coco Fiber and no spinters.

They hand wash the coco untill its extremly low ppm and then hand mix there soil. They do this outside which bothers me somewhat.

I love there soil mix so far and we have made an entire batch of Super Soil using 8 bags of there mix as a base.

 

 

Here are the two products.

 

So lets take a look at the ingredients of a product called Roots Organic

 

Lignite*, coca fiber, perlite, pumice, compost, peat moss, bone meal, bat guano, kelp meal, Green sand, soy bean meal, leonardite, k-mag, glacial rock dust, alfalfa meal, oyster shell flour, earth worm castings and Mycorrhizae.

I have always believed in giving my plants a wide range of soils and additives I figure it's like a buffet they get all they need

 

“Lignite, also known as leonardite, mined lignin, brown coal, and slack, is an important constituent to the oil well, drilling industry. Lignite, or leonardite as it will be referred as hereafter, is technically known as a low rank coal between peat and sub-bituminous. Leonardite was named for Dr. A.G. Leonard, North Dakota's first state geologist, who was a pioneer in the study of lignite deposits. Leonardite is applied to products having a high content of humic acid. Humic acid has been found to be very useful as a drilling

mud thinner.”

 

Another local product we are trying now is called Harvest Moon

 

Washed coco fibers, Alaskan peat moss, perlite, yucca, pumice, diatoms, worm castings, feather meal, fishmeal, kelp meal, limestone, gypsum, soybean meal, alfalfa meal, rock dust, yucca meal, and Mycorrhizae fungi.

 

So the Harvest Moon boys also believe in just add water for people that are growing medicine and have less experience. There solution is an additive called One Shot which I am still awaiting data on.

 

You add 1/2 to 3/4 cup to a bag of there soil and its good to go.

I used a small 1/2 cup for a 7 gallon pot for this trail

[subcool]

Continuing to build my mountain behind the fence I built just for stuff like this

 

So we add water and let it cook in the sunshine. 30 days is best for this concentrate and it can be used to condition soil as detailed in the soil 101 thread. Do Not Put Clones or Seeds in this mix!

 

I will use this for a full year just adding like 30-50% in the lower potion of the container and plain roots in top portion. As the concentrate gets older I can use more. To re use I just recondition.

 

Do not put seeds or clones directly in this mix. It is an advanced mix used in conjunction with base soil. It is used to place in the bottom of each finishing container and fully rooted established clones are placed in a bed of base soil. As the plants grow they slowly push their roots into the super soil drawing up all nutrients needed for a full cycle. The Super Soil can be used also to top dress plants that take longer to mature.

I will use this mix for a full year just adding like 30-50% in the lower potion of the container and plain base soil in the top portion.

[subcool]

So both of these plants were transplanted on the same day and were the same size. They have been vegging under a 1k Hortilux Blue for 10 days.

 

There Tiny bomb clones rooted in 5 days by MzJill.

 

Lets compare the results

[freddie]

Great info, subcool.

 

A couple of questions. Do you check the ph of the mix?

Do you check and adjust the ph of the water you use to water the mix?

Do you water with any liquid organic fertiliser?

Do you re use the mix for a number of crops?

 

We don't (as far as I know) have the same products here. I have tried what I thought was a premium organic mix and I'm having problems with it. Are these the ingredients of the roots soil (as described at the beginning):

Lignite*, coca fiber, perlite, pumice, compost, peat moss, bone meal, bat guano, kelp meal, Green sand, soy bean meal, leonardite, k-mag, glacial rock dust, alfalfa meal, oyster shell flour, earth worm castings and Mycorrhizae.

 

Thanks.

[Reverend]

It looks a good mix, only problem ingrediends in my neck of the woods is anavailable.

Cheers

Gills

[subcool]

Great info, subcool.

 

A couple of questions. Do you check the ph of the mix?

 

I did many years ago when I was fine tuning the mix, It performs so well as you will see that I would only worry about ph if I saw problems

Do you check and adjust the ph of the water you use to water the mix? I adjust my well water to 6.2

Do you water with any liquid organic fertiliser? Only If I see signs of deficiency

 

Do you re use the mix for a number of crops? I re use this mix once before composting it into my garden outside.

 

We don't (as far as I know) have the same products here. I have tried what I thought was a premium organic mix and I'm having problems with it. Are these the ingredients of the roots soil (as described at the beginning):

Roots and Harvest Moon are both just premium mixes designed to grow high energy plants and the base ingrediants of both are listed.

I have also made this same mix with Sunshine mix or light warrior as a base soil.

 

 

Thanks.

[subcool]

Once the soil has cooked or sat for a month or so were ready to transplant into the final pots. I use #10 nursery pots now that will hold a full 7 gallons of liguid. I 7 may not sound bigger than a 5 but let me tell you these slanted #10 pots hold a bunch of soil!

So I store the soil in large cans and then use the same kiddie pool/or tarp I mix in to transplant in. Helps keep the mess down. I fill each pot ¾ full with the super soil. I then fill the top half with plain potting soil. This buffers the roots and gives the plants time to get used to the hot soil I use.

 

Lets set up our pots on our trusty tarp the same one I used in mixing this soil. We line all the pots up and place 1/2 a container of concentrate into the bottom of each container:

 

Ok the veg room has reached the size when I wont to change pot size.

 

 

We then layer some plain commercial potting soil on top about 2" worth then use your hand to lightly mix the two layers slightly. This allows the plant to be buffered as it hits the hot soil on bottom.

 

It’s important to water the plants well before transplanting. This helps prevent shock a nice damp root ball will make a happy plant. Make sure the roots do not touch direct super soil use you hand to mix the plain potting soil around with the super soil. Place a hand full of plain soil in the hole you transplant in. Gently flip the plant upside down. Wack the bottom with palm of hand to loosen the root ball. Support the plant by placing hand on pot allowing stem to protrude though fingers. Remove from pot and support the base. Flip upright and place in hole made into the soil.

 

 

Then top off with Roots soil or equal

Edited May 12, 2008 by subcool

[SukonmiSkunk]

im purely a hydro grower... but make my own seedraising mix.. this is excellent information.. and deserves pinning.. great thread sub...

[brick]

Continuing to build my mountain behind the fence I built just for stuff like this

 

So we add water and let it cook in the sunshine. 30 days is best for this concentrate and it can be used to condition soil as detailed in the soil 101 thread. Do Not Put Clones or Seeds in this mix!

 

I will use this for a full year just adding like 30-50% in the lower potion of the container and plain roots in top portion. As the concentrate gets older I can use more. To re use I just recondition.

 

Do not put seeds or clones directly in this mix. It is an advanced mix used in conjunction with base soil. It is used to place in the bottom of each finishing container and fully rooted established clones are placed in a bed of base soil. As the plants grow they slowly push their roots into the super soil drawing up all nutrients needed for a full cycle. The Super Soil can be used also to top dress plants that take longer to mature.

I will use this mix for a full year just adding like 30-50% in the lower potion of the container and plain base soil in the top portion.

 

Sorry if I am off topic, I just wanted to know if you are the Subcool who wrote 2 Decades of Growing. If you are . What a journey!!!!

[subcool]

Suko thanks

 

Brick I am that subcool and that thread became a book thats sue on in Sept

 

Plant Bondage 101

One of the things that is very important in a garden is canopy management. There are so many ways to grow cannabis but in the US in legal medical gardens we have number restrictions. This means we have to learn to get the same yields to supply our meds from less plants. We accomplish this by employing several methods that I will cover here today. Once we have our plants topped properly with multi heads and our girls grow up a bit we should have 18-24” plants with at least 3 heads or more. Cleaning off all lower growth and using as clones is how we do it. The light can’t penetrate this far under the canopy anyway.

 

I take a small drill and some twine. Drilling a hole in the rim of the pot under each branch I carefully secure the twine and gently spread open each plant. Be careful not to split the main stem and if you do so you can bind it with wire ties. It doesn’t seem to hurt things even if you do. Each plant is now much wider and takes up a lot more room but all lower buds are exposed and we have reduced the total height of the canopy.