# Organic soil recycle question



## oldfogey8 (Oct 12, 2019)

I am reusing my soil from my previous grow. I use Roots Organics Green Lite and the GO Biothrive line of liquid nutes supplemented with EM1, molasses and a fulvic/humic acid mix. The plants I grew in this recycled soil were healthy with very slight fade at harvest. I have clones in 2 liter pots right now using unamended soil from that grow and the plants look very healthy. When transplant to their final containers(3 gallon felt pots) using the same recycled soil, is it necessary, helpful or not recommended to amend the same soil? I will be vegging another couple of weeks after transplanting before flipping to flower. Most of the organic soil threads I read say to ‘cook’ the soil for a couple weeks to months if amending and I don’t have that much time. I have cow and chicken manure, worm castings, blood meal and rock phosphate in the garage that I can amend with. It just sounds like I may have missed the cut off time for the amendments to be of any use...


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## docfishwrinkle (Oct 12, 2019)

blood meal and rock phos take around 6-8 wks to break down ime.  i'd just reuse the soil and hit em with teas and GO.  you could always amend with a organic granular.  do you foliar feed with h/f ever?


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 12, 2019)

Not sure what h/f is but I don’t foliar feed. The 6-8 week thing is kind of what I was gathering from the reading I have done. I also kinda thought that since the plants are really pretty much happy in the recycled soil I have them in with the GO nutes+ stuff that there might not be any benefit to amending at this point. I have enough recycled soil that I might amend a batch and let it sit for a spell for use on my next grow. No use changing horses midstream, right? Thx doc...


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## Rosebud (Oct 12, 2019)

Worm castings and bat guano will not burn any plants and great source of N and P and K. Some bat is for flowering and some high in Nitrogen for flower. Just


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## The Hemp Goddess (Oct 12, 2019)

The manures also take time to break down.  Both cow and chicken manures can be very hot.  I would be very concerned about burning up the plants without a chance for the amendments to break down. 

Have you read the book "True Living Organics"?  The Rev talks about using nutrient "spikes" when you transplant.  Basically you make holes in the soil and add a nutrient mix.  The theory is (and it seems to work) is that the amendments in the spike will have cooked enough that it is not too hot by the time the roots grow to where it is.  If you are growing organic inside, I think that "True Living Organics" is an excellent resource/reference.

I'm real partial to teas, too.


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 12, 2019)

Thx Rose and THG. I have been going about this growing thing on blind faith. I can’t identify by looking at a plant what it needs very well. My memory is pretty poor recently so the charts with pictures of leaves looks like a page of typed words to a dyslexic. The General Organics line of nutes makes ‘organic’ growing (I question the validity of their claim sometimes because I think General Hydro was bought by maybe MiracleGro?) idiot-insulated in that I just mix up the stuff and the plants grow and look healthy. I did determine that  using a Brita filter left my plants hungry for CalMg but I think that makes sense as I was removing dissolved solids like calcium and magnesium with the filter. I will look for that book though. I’d like to be a more intelligent grower.


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## docfishwrinkle (Oct 12, 2019)

humic/fulvic(h/f). h/f does wonders when wanting to boost the health of plants.  read up on fulvic acid as it somehow replicates photosynthesis, dumbfounding scientists.  whenever i foliar with h/f the plants always get deep dark green and the leaves pray to the sky.

https://www.royalqueenseeds.com/blo...ic-and-fulvic-acids-for-growing-cannabis-n965


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 12, 2019)

Oops! Now I see. I have humic/fulvic acid. My brain is slow. I will look into foliar spraying it...


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## umbra (Oct 12, 2019)

teas aren't about the nutrients, they're about the microbes they attract
microbeorganics.com


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## St_Nick (Oct 12, 2019)

And that my friend is why the main ingredient in "Store bought" teas like Boogey Brew is molasses.


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## St_Nick (Oct 12, 2019)

I reuse my soil every time.  Just so happens that today I harvested a plant that grew in an 11 gallon tote.  After I get done watching this ep. of Goliath I am going to go transplant a new plant out of a one gallon into that pot.  I amend with everything you listed and I do keep a couple of gallons 'cooking" for replacing what I can't knock out of the root ball.  I keep 5 gallons of compost tea brewing and every time I water, I water with that tea.  I keep the tea simple.  It has a cup of vegetable compost, 2 oz. of worm castings, 2 oz. of bat quano and a teaspoon of recharge.  I'll mix in some liquid seaweed and occasionally some molasses but the thing is I feed it every time.  Works for me anyways may not do for everyone.


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 12, 2019)

Good info. I am a bit hesitant to go ‘tea’. Looks like a fair amount more labor and does it smell when you are aerating it? More of ‘my stuff’ occupying more of the tool room(I assume there are buckets and air pump and stone as well as multiple bags of manures, guano, kelp and whatnot). Mrs Fogey doesn’t say it but I am pretty sure she would prefer I downsize rather than expand. The soil amendments are pushing the envelope as is. lol. I passed them off as stuff for our flowers outside but she knows...


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## 2RedEyes (Oct 13, 2019)

But she enjoys your weed too right ...lol


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 13, 2019)

That she does... And she honestly does not  bust my stones about it but after 26 years of marriage, we can read each other’s body language(however subtle it may be) and we both grin and bear the idiosyncrasies we each bring to the table...


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## St_Nick (Oct 13, 2019)

If you are capable of losing $29 every couple of months, you can buy Boogie Brew compost tea premix from amazon.  That's actually what I am using right now because I can't find any local compost right now.  It has no smell at all and you can mix it in a 5 gallon bucket in only 4 hours according to them.  I buy the 3lb package and it takes up all the space of a lb. bag of coffee beans.  Can't say for sure how it works though because I'm just now gonna give it a go.  Does come highly recommended from quite a few internet experts though!


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 13, 2019)

So it is just tea and no other nutes? $29 every couple months isn’t bad. I have a compost bin but it is in too shady an area so it doesn’t really get warm enough to compost very quickly. Thanks. I will look into Boogie Brew.


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 13, 2019)

A creeping grow room that gets larger over a year or so is harder to notice for Mrs Fogey. lol...


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## St_Nick (Oct 13, 2019)

If they ever go legal here I will build me a small shed to grow in so I can have the master bedroom back.  In this one respect not having a wife to compromise with is a blessing.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Oct 14, 2019)

LOL--or you need a wife like Rosebud, Stinkyattic, or myself.  I've cleaned out a bedroom to run a winter grow...and I have  space in the woodshed where I store things...and a corner of the garage...and some of the furnace room...and just a tiny bit of the other spare bedroom.  It's amazing how you can amass equipment and supplies.

I'll check out the Boogie Brew.  I am trying out a Roots Organic product called Terp Tea, the bloom formula (3-7-4).  It says that you can either bubble it for 24 hours or mix and feed.  I haven't used it long enough to give a review.  This is the product description from Amazon: 
 "Roots Organics Terp Tea Bloom delivers critical nutrition for heavy-feeding, high-yield plants. Recommended for both large and small-scale gardens, this high-quality dry fertilizer is simple, comprehensive, and completely natural. Our powerful one-part grow and one-part bloom formula can serve as base nutrition or as a supplement, and can be delivered in large batches or controlled point feedings. Amend any potting soil with this micronized flowering nutrient to activate the aromatic power of your garden’s natural terpenes. Derived from: Feather Meal, Dolomite, Soybean Meal, Langbeinite, Kieserite, Crab Meal, Fish Bone Meal, Bat Guano and Kelp Meal. "


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 14, 2019)

Mrs Fogey gets that I am a collector of stuff and that I have many places spread out over the house, garage, basement and shed where accumulate said stuff. I always proudly point out anything I have squirreled away and repurposed to fix something that is broken and use it as proof that I only keep useful things even though 90% of what I keep is useless or will be lost when I need it but found when I don’t...

I am reading up in tea aeration. Found a video where a guy found air pumps and stones at the dollar store so I will be hitting Family Dollar tomorrow. It looks like that Boogie Brew is a stand alone. I have bottles of GO nutes hanging around so I can use those on the event that the plants look hungry.


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## St_Nick (Oct 14, 2019)

I'm kinda studying these store bought teas myself. My tea brewing setup is left over from before and its built from a 35 gallon trash bin by Rubbermaid.  I always was feeding 10-30 plants at  a time.  Nowadays I just want to feed 2.  I'm thinking an igloo drink cooler (the big yellow ones) would make an awesome brewing vessel.  The boogie brew comes in two parts and they say mix 1/2 cup of each to 5 gallons of water.  Bubble for 4 hours to 48 hours and feed once every two weeks.  I always fed my teas every time I watered so we will see how it goes.


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 14, 2019)

That is one of my problems. I am watering about every 36 hours. Seems like that is the norm for me. With my 7 plants in 2 liter pots, 1 gallon is enough. When I go to my 3 gallon felt pots, the frequency stays similar but I was using 2 gallons for 3 pots. This grow will have 4 plants so about 2.5 gallons. I will have to make smaller batches  which I know, the math is pretty easy but every 2 weeks sounds too infrequent. Maybe not though. I am still doing my thinking for now. Another thing in the back of my mind is since EM1 has some beasties that like decreased oxygenation, would using it be counterproductive?


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## umbra (Oct 14, 2019)

It's hard to say what the interaction is. Do other microbes feed on the EM1 and that is the mechanism, I don't actually know. I had an excellent discussion with MassProducer about this very issue in his thread about hempy buckets, but I deleted all my responses and photos from the site when it changed ownership.


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 14, 2019)

My intuition is the anaerobic microbes die off in the soil since there is oxygen in there. But I also wonder if they benefit the soil prior to dying off. I will probably never know and the answer is probably moot as it won’t help me to know the answer. If I get some tea brewing this grow, I will probably alternate tea with waterings laced with EM1 and molasses.


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## St_Nick (Oct 14, 2019)

I use em1 in my soil a couple of weeks before I plant in it, actually when I mix it up.  Occasionally I'll  mix up a gallon and wet down the bin if I notice it drying out.  I wasn't sure of any reason to use it after the first or second application.


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## umbra (Oct 15, 2019)

I use some with nutes every other watering


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 15, 2019)

I use a little bit with most waterings. I have noticed that I would see a white build up (salts even though GO nutes are ‘organic’?) on the outside of the felt pots before I began using EM1. Since I started using it, there is very little of the white build up. I am thinking that the EM1 is doing what it is supposed to do(making the macro and micro nutes more available) so the roots absorb more of what the plants need. I am also seeing ‘fade’ towards the end of flower which I had not seen in the past.


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 16, 2019)

Hey St_Nick-would a small aquarium pump and air stone be sufficient to aerate a couple of gallon names of tea? Reading the Boogie Brew site, they recommend 45 l/m of air. That would be a fairly expensive pump($50 or so). I want to keep it cheap obviously. Thx...


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## St_Nick (Oct 16, 2019)

Don't know why not, I'm using a big one with two air stones but I already had it.


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## 2RedEyes (Oct 16, 2019)

Here’s one for $30.99, I think it’s the one I have...
https://www.amazon.com/Lewisia-Comm...H+32W+60L&qid=1571264444&s=lawn-garden&sr=1-5


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## umbra (Oct 16, 2019)

https://www.o2grow.com/store


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## St_Nick (Oct 16, 2019)

Umbra, where do you come up with this stuff.  You kinda reminding me of Tom Hanks buying luggage when he thinks he's gonna die from a "brain cloud"!


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 16, 2019)

umbra said:


> https://www.o2grow.com/store


Thanks but, uh, yikes! I’ll be brewing 2 gallons or so at a whack. I will probably be looking at dollar stores or mosey over to Walmart. $20 for a pump, some hose and a stone sounds better to me so I can try out brewing.


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## pcduck (Oct 17, 2019)

https://www.marijuanapassion.com/threads/5-gallon-micro-brewer-diy.71394/


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## oldfogey8 (Oct 17, 2019)

Thx pcduck. I skimmed over the microbeorganics website umbra references on your thread. Looks like I could use a submersible pump to create the Venturi effect but one test showed damage to the microbes but another one said an impeller won’t significantly damage the biology in the tea. Your build though I see uses an air pump similar to what 2RE linked to. I am pretty confused lately by even simple things(something medical that I won’t go into) so I will need to do some more thinking and reading.


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## 2RedEyes (Oct 17, 2019)

I have the same one pcduck linked...it works well but I don’t think this is too complicated...you just need to introduce oxygen and keep things stirred up...


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