Expanding my living soil grow

by2 said:

So up until now I only had 1 tent to both veg and flower in, but have recently upgraded so I now have 2 tents. 60X120cm for veg and 77x150cm for veg
I have used 2x75l grassroots living soil pots in the tent and it's been fine but I don't like that I have o veg for so long. So thought about to go down in pot size.

But I am not sure what size to go with or if it is worth paying the premium price for grassroots fabric pots.
Does any one have experience with living soil in smaller pots?
And can't I just get normal fabric pots and then wrap them in some plastic to get the same result? or does it really make a big difference?

I will use Blumat watering for flowering so I don't need to water manually so often.

Part nr 2...
I will also need more soil then I have now so will be blending my old soil with new soil so its the same in all pots.
Only problem is that UK left the EU since I last ordered my amendments and I don't want to pay premium just to get them same amendments as the original soil.
Would there be a problem to use another Amendment blend when mixing new and old soil?
Any recommendations of available ones in EU?

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GenericEnigma said:

Cheers to living soil! And I'm jealous of your second tent.

Bigger pots are easier for living soil, but smaller can be done. 75L is about the size I use. I've gotten away with 20L, but keeping the moisture level correct requires vigilance and/or automation.

Wrapping the sides of fabric pots with plastic is a good way to more easily maintain proper soil moisture. I would keep the bottom open for drainage and circulation (anaerobic conditions in living soil can arise and jack your soil pH).

I can't help regarding EU/UK markets. I doubt it's an issue to substitute similar products. I've been recycling my soil for years and it's a Frankenstein mishmash of all sorts of stuff.

You mentioned not wanting to veg for so long. Many of us here are fans of SIPs (living soil ease with hydro growth).

SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

Sub-irrigated planter From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sub-Irrigated Planter Sub-irrigated planter (SIP) is a generic name for a special type of planting box used in container gardening and commercial landscaping. A SIP is any method of watering plants where the water is introduced from...

www.rollitup.org

Might help resolve your "pot dilemma."

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GenericEnigma said:

Cheers to living soil! And I'm jealous of your second tent.

Bigger pots are easier for living soil, but smaller can be done. 75L is about the size I use. I've gotten away with 20L, but keeping the moisture level correct requires vigilance and/or automation.

Wrapping the sides of fabric pots with plastic is a good way to more easily maintain proper soil moisture. I would keep the bottom open for drainage and circulation (anaerobic conditions in living soil can arise and jack your soil pH).

I can't help regarding EU/UK markets. I doubt it's an issue to substitute similar products. I've been recycling my soil for years and it's a Frankenstein mishmash of all sorts of stuff.

You mentioned not wanting to veg for so long. Many of us here are fans of SIPs (living soil ease with hydro growth).

SIP thread -- (Sub-Irrigated Planter)

Sub-irrigated planter From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sub-Irrigated Planter Sub-irrigated planter (SIP) is a generic name for a special type of planting box used in container gardening and commercial landscaping. A SIP is any method of watering plants where the water is introduced from...

www.rollitup.org

Might help resolve your "pot dilemma."

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by2 said:

I know bigger pots are generally easier and that's why I am so hesitant to downsize.
Did you flower in 20L pots? how long did you veg for?

I would love to go with 10x25l pots in flower and 3x25l in veg. I could then harvest 3 at the time and have a good rotation. And the 25L pots fits perfectly on the Tray to Grow (already have it) so that's a bonus. This seems like the most fun way to go with but I'm afraid it's too much work.
I guess some other options would be 3x75l, 5x56l or 6x38l. I have read some where that 180-250L of living soil per m2 light is a good amount so all the options should be fine.

I can't justify the price for Grassroots pots so will try the getto style this time. Maybe even try some without to make a comparison. Lets see how motivated I am.

I have been looking in to the whole SIP bucket thing and it is crazy how well it performs for most growers. But it will be less expensive for me to stay with Blumat for now since I already have most part.

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GenericEnigma said:

I just switched some sativa-heavy clones to 11/13. They're in 20L fabric pots. These will stretch at least 2x, more like 3x - so not much veg. I'd keep it short in a smaller pot anyway.

This one will be a challenge. Keeping the plant count down.

View attachment 5427313

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Rufus T. Firefly said:

5 gallon pots are way too small for growing LOS, the plants will deplete the soil. You can feed but if you really want to do a water only type LOS youre going to have to go at least 20 gallon IMHO.

You can search the organic threads here for other opinions.

Yes grassroots pots are worth it, but if you are working on the bluemats and keeping the soil at the right moisture they are less of a benefit.

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• Kelp Meal - brown algae powder
• Insect Frass Pellets
• Neem Cake
• Sheep's wool pellets
• DIABAS primary rock flour
• Andesite primary rock flour
• Betonite
• Algae lime
• Dolomite lime
• Plant pellets
• Naturpur semolina
• Horn meal
• Horn shavings
• Soft earth raw phosphates
• Sulphur granules

• N: 2,57 %
• P: 1,1 %
• K: 1,29 %
• Ca: 5,47 %
• Mg: 2,11 %
• S: 0,88 %
• SiO2: 13,1 %
• Tonerde: 1,3 %
• Fe: 1,06 %
• Na: 0,39 %

by2 said:

I have 3 options regarding soil amendments. It is interesting to see that the recommendation to use is so much different from the 2 companies.
They all recommend the same base soil. 33%peat 33%EWC33%aeration.

Option 1
True soil Reg - 1kg/10l soil - 25l=119€ (0,476€/l)

• Kelp Meal - brown algae powder
• Insect Frass Pellets
• Neem Cake
• Sheep's wool pellets
• DIABAS primary rock flour
• Andesite primary rock flour
• Betonite
• Algae lime
• Dolomite lime
• Plant pellets
• Naturpur semolina
• Horn meal
• Horn shavings
• Soft earth raw phosphates
• Sulphur granules

• N: 2,57 %
• P: 1,1 %
• K: 1,29 %
• Ca: 5,47 %
• Mg: 2,11 %
• S: 0,88 %
• SiO2: 13,1 %
• Tonerde: 1,3 %
• Fe: 1,06 %
• Na: 0,39 %

Option 2
True soil Veg - 1kg/10l soil - 10kg=119€ (0,476€/l)

Kelp Meal - Brown Algae Powder
Neem Cake
DIABAS Primary Rock Flour
Andesite Primary Rock Flour
Betonite
Algae Lime
Dolomite Lime
Plant Pellets
Naturpur Semolina
Soft Earth Rock Phosphates
Sulphur Granules


N: 1,88 %
P: 1,2 %
K: 1,02 %
Ca: 6,09 %
Mg: 2,05 %
S: 0,83 %
SiO2: 14,59 %
Tonerde: 1,18 %
Fe: 1,18 %
Na: 0,48 %


Option 3
Life-Cycle - 200g/10l soil - 5kg=31€ (0,124€/l)

Mealworm Frass
Neem
Premium Seaweed Meal:
Gypsum
Insect Meal
Rock Phosphate
Basalt Rock Dust
Humic and Fulvic Acids

N/P2O5/K2O/+ Mg/Ca - 2 /4.5 /2.4/ + 1/6


Price is also a big difference. I would not say it is expensive in any way but it is a significant price difference.
Option 1 and 2 is from the same company while option 3 is from another company.
They both state to use premium amendments.

What would you choose?

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GenericEnigma said:

Personally, I go for the simplest and most effective. 1 part peat, 1 part perlite, 1 part balanced compost, and some Dolomite. Keep some 4-4-4 and some 2-5-3 both on hand for topdressing!

Though I must admit these sativas need something more along the lines of 0-20-11 for topdressing (2 part bone meal, 1 part langbeinite).

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Rufus T. Firefly said:

I combine my thirds (peat, compost, pumice) and get it tested. Then you know what to amend with instead of throwing the kitchen sink at it blindly.

Science!

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GenericEnigma said:

Personally, I go for the simplest and most effective. 1 part peat, 1 part perlite, 1 part balanced compost, and some Dolomite. Keep some 4-4-4 and some 2-5-3 both on hand for topdressing!

Though I must admit these sativas need something more along the lines of 0-20-11 for topdressing (2 part bone meal, 1 part langbeinite).

Click to expand...

Rufus T. Firefly said:

I combine my thirds (peat, compost, pumice) and get it tested. Then you know what to amend with instead of throwing the kitchen sink at it blindly.

Science!

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GenericEnigma said:

Hell yeah! I like the Rapitest product. Tests N, P, K, and pH, and is done at home. It's perfect for proper soil!

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Medskunk said:

Nice OP! You got me with the bed situation, cant wait to get into it.

Ive grown many plants in 15L pots with the coots recipe but a variable with dried yarrow, comfrey, angelica root, some other root, alfalfa dust and like around 40% perlite and equal parts ewc and sphagnum moss plus on top of that the gk line to be sure cause of the pot size. So yeah go for more than 10gals imo

In my latest grows i went with 3x 15gal fabric pots the perlite close to 55% and almost no ewc, 1-2quarts max.. I get no fungus gnats like this ill notice 1 maybe 2 the whole grow.

Hope you get to the bed quickly!! Hahah subbed

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by2 said:

I like it simple. That's why I thought to just continue with some general mineral mix.
I been using living soil for 2 years and still feel like an idiot when it comes to amendments.
So you add the dolomite lime to adjust the PH and add calcium and magnesium and then relay on the nutrient in the compost for all the other macro and micro nutrients?
And just use the 4-4-4 when needed?

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by2 said:

I would love a Bed as well but now is not the time for me unfortunately, I will stick with the 20 gallons. I will just add 2 more so I can have some rotation.
40-55% perlite sound like a lot. How do you manage to keep up watering?
Only had some fungus gnats once and solved it with some nematodes. I guess that there still might be some in the soil that keep the gnats away.

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by2 said:

I would love to test and amend accordingly but I don't fell smart enough and I don't have that kind of money right now.

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