If your growing in soil your going to eventually need to know how to build your soil.There's a lot that goes into creating soil that you can use generation after generation one of the great things about composting is that your constantly recycling everything that you use creating a self sustaining loop of food for you and your family,every part of your plant can be composted down essentially wasting absolutely nothing..Feel free to email me with any questions [email protected]
Creating your own living soil from scratch
In my opinion this is the best part about growing organically.Its awsome to be able to create a perfect soil recipe that will continue to feed your plants through there hole life then reused again and again...There are millions of recipes and ive tried ones with over 20 ingredients in the soil just experimenting.But there's no need to complicate things,you can have great soil just by composting just about anything. I will put my recipe on here just to give you ideas...I actually use coco as a base which is fined ground up coconut husk that you can buy from any grow shop..Coco is a soiless medium and is considered hydroponics when it's by itself and will grow faster than any soil plant because of the rootzone getting more oxygen than in soil...Do a side by side grow comparing coco vs soil and you will see what I'm talking about..But coco is just going to be my base medium here and we will be turning it into living soil with micro organisms invisible to the naked eye crawling all over it..however much soil your going to want to make is up to you but for this recipe you will use 30% coco..The next ingredient is perlite..Perlite is actually small heat expanded glass pellets that are super lightweight and excellent for aeration and draining,this will help make sure your soil doesn't get anaerobic causing bad bacteria to grow..perlite is very cheap and does an awsome job doing what it needs to do,I add 20% perlite insuring enough oxygen get deep into the soil..The next thing is worm castings..I mention below how to breed worms and make your own castings,you can buy casting at local grows hops but the most valuable thing about the castings is that the enzymes and beneficial bacteria are still living within the soil and when you buy them they could be old with nothing else beneficial in it but the nutrients themselves,seeing living worms slithering in your castings is actually a good sign and won't hurt your plants..I add 20% castings and also make teas out of the castings and feed with that every month or so....The next thing I add is 10% sphagnum peat moss,also at local hydro shops..peat moss is great for water retention assuring that your plants roots don't dry out to quick and it stores nutrients also roots get hungry and gives beneficial micro organisms a great place to make their home at..The last thing I will be adding is 10% of well broken down compost..This stuff slowly breaks down in soil over throughout the plants life slowly releasing available nutrients as time goes..So the recipe is..
30% coconut fiber
20% perlite
20% worm castings
10% sphagnum peat mos
10 % raw compost
This will create a VERY aerated soil resulting in the fastest growing plants that can be grown in soil..This recipe is also very "light" which means you will never see nutrient toxicity and signs of stress in the plants,however this also means that you should feed the soil once or twice a month to ensure there's no deficiencies..You can feed with teas you don't need to go out and buy anything special..there's a video on how to brew microbial nutrient teas below,it's real easy and the best thing you can do for soil grown plants.I put my worm castings in along with the compost though.
30% coconut fiber
20% perlite
20% worm castings
10% sphagnum peat mos
10 % raw compost
This will create a VERY aerated soil resulting in the fastest growing plants that can be grown in soil..This recipe is also very "light" which means you will never see nutrient toxicity and signs of stress in the plants,however this also means that you should feed the soil once or twice a month to ensure there's no deficiencies..You can feed with teas you don't need to go out and buy anything special..there's a video on how to brew microbial nutrient teas below,it's real easy and the best thing you can do for soil grown plants.I put my worm castings in along with the compost though.
The basics of growing in soil
Soil growing is about as simple as it gets.the 3 most common mistakes are probably over watering,under watering,and ph unbalances..Other than that If you have good soil there's not much that can go terribly wrong except maybe insects eating your plants..You always want to keep your roots from completely drying out,if the top layer of soil will always be the dryest part so never water if it's still damp or else the soil will become anaerobic..You can stick your finger in the soil and if it feels dry an inch or 2 in the soil then it's safe to water.You always want to keep an eye on your plants for wilting,it is the first sign to over or under watering.If your plant is wilting and the soil is dry it needs water..If your plant is wilting and the soil is wet than the soil is waterlogged and the roots are being deprived of oxygen and you need to let the soil dry out almost completely before watering again.Unless the plant has been transplanted or under new intense lights this will be the only reasons your plant should wilt real bad unless it's root rot which is also caused from overwatering..The type of your soil and how big your plants are will depend on how much you will have to water..It could be twice a day if you have big plants in a very aerated soil like perlite and coco,or it could be once every 2 weeks if you have small plants in big pots..I like to just pick up my pots and if they feel heavy I don't water and if they feel light than I water..Always check your ph before adding nutrients or water to your soil.You should always aim to keep the ph at 7 which is neutral..The ph in soil should be slightly higher than in hydro because in soil you are aiming to keep all the beneficial organisms happy as well as the roots and micro organisms don't like low ph.
Worm farm
A worm farm may sound odd to someone who's never heard of it but this is the best tip for organic gardeners that I have to offer..They call living soil "living soil" because of all the tiny micro organisms that you can't even see going to work helping your plant by forming symbiotic relationships with your roots and feeding your plants.Creating a worm farm not only speeds up the process of breaking down raw organic material into soluble edible nutrients for the plants roots to absorb but worms also add all kinds of enzymes and beneficial bacteria that even further breaks down organic matter and attach themselves to the plants roots forming a symbiotic relationship by feeding each other.The worms castings offer very rich high quality nutrient fertilizer that is so broken down that you can actually grow plants in 100% worm casting without burning the plant worms also help with soil aeration...You can incorporate worm castings into just about every soil recipe or use as a top fertilezer and you'll love the results.My favorite thing to do is make tea out of the castings and water my plants with it..Creating a worm farm is easy you can buy worms on the internet, red worms are the fastest decomposers and reproduce well but if your into fishing u can use bigger worms for the cause..You can add anything organic to your worm farm for the worms to eat except meat and dairy causes problems..Here's a link below to a good YouTube video on how to make worm bins and begin creating your own soil,you can take this idea and expand it if you have a large garden.
In ground planting
Planting in ground and using the natural soil is great because the roots stay cool which improves growth compared to potted plants and the plants will never get rootbound which drastically reduces growth..However most unnamended natural soil will not grow big healthy plants and will most likely turn out spindly and yellow from deficiencies or root rot..There are things you can do to turn ungrowable soil into well balanced super soil..The first thing and most important for any soil type is to till or flip the soil..This will make a huge difference in your plants health.When you brake up the soil your allowing oxygen to get deep into the soil and I like to go at least 1 foot deep.This will help the roots by helping the soil drain easier and prevent oxygen deprivation,it delivers oxygen to beneficial micro organsims and the roots,and lets the roots grow through the soil much easier..When tilling it also kills all the harfull organisms living deep in the anaerobic soil..Before tilling is also when you want to add all your organic nutrients and amendments to fix the soil and mix it all together..A lot of soil has either to much clay for oxygen to penetrate or it's to sandy and will dry out and won't hold nutrients for your plant..To find out what your soil is jst dig a foot hole and squeeze the soil,If it clumps together and doesn't break easy than your soil is clay,if it doesn't hold together at all and crumbles through your hand then it's sandy..One great tip I learned for clay soil is to cover your garden in woodchips and till it into your garden,after a season or 2 your soil should drain well enough to grow.Sandy soils need raw organics that retain water well which will keep your roots from drying and ensure the nutrients aren't just running away.Compost Compost Compost...There's nothing better for any type of soil,it will improve drainage in clay soil,hold moisture for sandy soil,and deliver time released nutrients in both for years.