I always start with at least 6-8 large bags of high quality organic soil. The selection of your base soil is very important, so don’t cut corners here. I cannot possibly discuss all the different products, but I will mention a few notable favorites. I have had tremendous results with both Roots Soil and BioBiz Lite Mix. I currently use equal parts of both in my recipe, another good choice is Happy Frog. To give you an idea of what I consider a good base soil check out the ingredients of Roots Soil:
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. A well-rounded mix I’d say, and just the kind of recipe I am looking for in my base soil.
The mix is placed in the bottom ¼ to ½ of the container and blended with base soil. This allows the plants to grow into the strongly concentrated soil and, in the right size container, they need nothing else but water throughout the full growing cycle. With strains requiring high levels of nutrients like Cheese and Space Queen and other high energy demand strains, we go as strong as ¾ of the container with Super Soil but this is only with a small percentage of strains.
Here are the amounts we have found that produce the best tasting buds and strongest medicines:
- 8 large bags of high quality organic potting soil with coco and Mycorrhizae (I am currently using 4 bags of Roots (40l) and 4 bags of Biobiz Lite Mix (50l).)
- 25-50 lbs. of organic worm castings
- 5 lbs. of Fish bone meal
- 5 lbs. Bat guano (Bloom formula)
- 5 lbs. Blood meal
- ¾ cup Epsom salt
- 1 cup Sweet lime (Dolomite)
- 3/4 cup Azomite ( Trace element)
- 2 Tbs. powdered Humic acid (Optional)
I could type out a few hundred words here on methods of mixing this up but I hope at this point all I have to really explain is mix it up really well! Make damn sure all the ingredients are properly combined and don’t be scared to be anal about the process. Do it well.
Once the recipe is stirred properly, I store it in large garbage cans. Water each with about 2 gallons of water and then let each sit around for 6-8 weeks in a non frozen environment. The warmer the better, but in previous articles I used the word “cook’ and “sunshine” and these aren’t needed. I do prefer to make mine up in the summer as I feel the “Soil Web” comes alive faster in warmer weather.
Do not put seeds or clones directly in this mix.
It is a concentrated mix used in conjunction with base soil. Place it in the bottom of each finishing container. Fully rooted, established clones should be placed in a bed of base soil that is layered on top of the concentrate. As the plants grow, they slowly push their roots into the Super Soil, drawing up all nutrients needed to complete their life cycle. Super Soil can also be used to top dress plants that take longer to mature.
