i recycle my Super Soil by necessity. I live in an apartment and can't be hauling in bags of base soil without drawing too much attention. I've been running the same soil for over six years now. I mostly taught myself (it is not difficult), but Rroq's topic here was very helpful too. You do not have to go in for cover crops and all the no-till stuff. I'm sure that gives great results, but excellent results can be achieved very simply. Here is the process that works for me:
- I have two large plastic Rubbermaid bins with tops. One contains the Super Soil that is ready to use. The other contains the soil for my next batch. (I use about 18 gallons of Super Soil a year; three crops of four plants in three gallon planters. I'm small time for sure.)
- When filling a planter, I'll use half Super Soil and half soil from a plant that recently finished. I don't worry about any small roots in the soil. The plants don't mind.
- I add the rest of my used soil plus the root ball, cut up stems, and dry fan leaves to the next batch bin. I let the stems and fan leaves get dry before adding, because you do not want too much water in the plastic bin. The lid is tight, so there is not a lot of evaporation. Too much water will favor anaerobic microbes, which is bad. Anaerobic=bad microbes, aerobic=good microbes. The soil will smell like ammonia and you will have to toss it. (This has never happened to me!)
- I lightly turn the used soil once a month to add oxogen and break up clumps.. This takes about five minutes.
- I also add some organic coffee grounds because I have it on hand, it's free, and it has a lot of nutrients. More is not better, don't over do it.
- I add a bit of worm casting for the microbes. Some commercial worm casting are treated to kill anything living in it, so you have to make sure you know what you are buying.
- When the roots/stems/leaves are mostly broken down and I need a new batch of Super Soil, I use an inexpensive home soil test kit to check my N/P/K levels. I rarely need to add anything for P/K. I will add a few pounds of some worm casting and some humus (I like
General Organics Ancient Forest). If the soil is getting too heavy, I'll add some perlite. (Perlite breaks down over time, so it needs to be re-added from time to time.) I'll also add the high calcium and N ingredients from the Super Soil recipe. Based on how my plants looked last time, I'll add maybe 1/4 of the original recipe amounts.
- I skip the other ingredients, like Azomite. My plants don't seem to miss it and I think it is wise to be careful about the potential buildup of heavy metals in the soil.
- Re-amending is the only tricky part of the process. Your plants will tell you what they need if you pay attention. The main thing is to not over do it. The recycled roots, leaves, and stems provide most of what you need.
- On rare occasions when a plant looks unhealthy, i'll toss the soil, just in case. To make up for the lost volume of soil, I'll add coco coir. It breaks down over time, has excellent water retention, and comes in compressed bricks that are easy to discreetly bring home.
- When I water, I add Cal/Mg once per week at half strength. I sometimes add compost tea once, after week three of flower. The plants definitely like it, but I don't see any difference at harvest time. I mess around with some other organic products in flower, but they are mostly sugar and I don't think they do all that much. Maybe they boost flavor.
There may well be better approaches, but that is what works for me. Attached a quick snap of a Super Lemon Haze that is getting close to harvest, a Darkstar bud from 2014 that was grown in the same soil, and one of me mixing my Bathtub Super Soil.
