Morning buddy and welcome. I’m happy your getting something out of the thread, it’s my pleasure to share some insight where I can.
You certainly CAN use megacrop, the base is predominantly amino and that’s a solid source in all situations and styles beit dry or liquid. Alot of chelated nutrients there too. With living organics, you want to provide a food source for the microbes first and foremost, the plant is more less a secondary thought. But yes, you could always top dress with it as a booster if needed. You’ll be surprised tho, alot of the nutrients are still there from dry ammendments, so reving up the microbial action can provide that boost. But every application has its benifits. You may have an instance where you fell short on 1 or more ammendments or just need a little pick up based on a finicky strains preference. Just remember tho, if your not encouraging or boosting microbial activities, they have nothing to do and you may get pH swings that lean heavily in one direction or the other. The microbial loop is a food chain essentially, and if your not encouraging the microbes to multiply, populations get diminished and the natural harmonious balance will get outta wack.
I leave my soil where it is, but for me… I have approximately 1.8 cubic yards worth just in the 4x8 bed @20" deep so it’s not feasible really to remove and re-fortify. I just add to the top, or once a year till in New ammendments within the top 10"
You could certainly save substrates from previous grows, bin it up, ammend the shit out of it and add that once it’s had a 30+ day cook. Organics is very forgiving in that aspect, the main thing is to not have a shortage of anything, and abundance is ok and the plant will take what it needs, when it needs it.
I use wood mulch for a couple reasons. The main reason is to help facilitate the nitrogen cycle and also to make humus as the soil ages. The other would be to help lower the rate of evaporated moisture of the soil. It helps to lock in and maintain moisture making a more even distribution throughout. I also found that by removing the plastic pallets from under my fabric bed and putting it directly on the floor, I can maintain a multi-layer moisture levels, similar to an auto-pot or sub-irrigation. Gravity works with me now instead of against. With all that room in a big bed for roots to grow, they now have options and created a multi functioning root system. Some for the damp airy soil, some for the moderate and some for the more wetter at the very bottom. But for anyone who is going to run a large bed in the manner that I do, I would definitely recommend using blumats and incorporate the blusoak hose. I use the Maxi 9" probes/sensors which works well for the 20"deep bed.
I do run worms, I have a worm tower I made out of a 30" long, schedule 80 pvc pipe. Drilled holes in the bottom 20" and have a threaded cap on top. This is where I’ll toss scraps and other goodies. But even without a tower, the worms will still find the soil to be a happy home, just make sure you feed them and don’t over water or they’ll try to escape.
I don’t use tea now, as much as I have in the past. Mainly because of the constant level of hydration controlled by the blumats. But if you incorporate them, you can always dial them back to maintain a dryer soil that can be irrigated with a tea. Teas can be used every other week or every 3 weeks. Multi facet with that either to give a boost of particular elements for veg/ bloom or just to simply increase their populations for a heavier dominance and the benifits they each provide, not just to the plant but to the soils health.
But I for the vast majority of any grow give just plain water 0ppm.
