What’s up OG growers! Just looking to pick some brains now that I’m able to spread my wings a little bit more. I’ve been using a 1:1:1 ratio of Fox farm, Coco, and perlite for about 18 years. (Saw in high times when I was a teenager on a strawberry cough grow I’ll never forget) I say all that to say it’s always done me pretty well but I’m not opposed to switching I just need something simple if I do. I guess my real question is what do you guys do with your giant 3,5,7 gallon pots of used soil? I don’t have a room for a giant compost bin or anything like that but is there any suggestions that saves me money and still turns out great meds?
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I’ve just got two bins - one for unamended soil, one for amended. When I harvest, I dump the pot(s) in the unamended bin, leaving some smaller root clumps in there. Then I’ll add my amendments, transfer it to the amended bin, and let it sit for a week or two. That’s pretty much it. Far from a perfect system but it’s low effort and works just fine.
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Would you be willing to share your mix? I’m literally going out soon for some dirt and looking for some inspiration
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And with these bins do they sit out in the sun compost at all?
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Soil mix? Started life as promix HP (not sure if you can get this in the US, it’s peat+perlite+microbes), added maybe 20% worm castings and 3tbsp/gallon 4-4-4 all purpose organic fertilizer. I don’t have any specific mix really, sometimes I add different microbes, use liquid organics, crushed up eggshells, whatever.
I usually top dress every 21-28 days depending on the plant
The bins don’t sit out in the sun, no.
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I use Promix HP and consider it disposable. It’s cheap.
Edit: I should add that by the time I’m done with it the roots have grabbed onto all the mix that I can’t get any out. I’ve tried stomping on it and it’s futile.
All the best
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I have reused FFOF soil before. I don’t remember off the top of my head, but I added Dr. Earth dry/granular tomato and veg fertilizer to the manufacturer’s recommendation to the used soil. I still give Urban Farms Texas Tomato food during veg and Garden of Eden during flower. Add the liquid stuff every other watering or so.
This worked great for my Whiskey Zulu auto grow. I’m still a pretty new grower but it was the best stuff I’ve ever grown. Not the biggest plant, but really fantastic flower.
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I recycle my soil like @BasementBeans described: two bins, one for old root balls that I keep moist and keep chopping at as the roots break down. I water them with some Recharge and LABS to help break down the roots, will probably try the Hygrozyme or pond zymes in the future that many use. My mix is a lot like yours, except a mix of FFOF and CoM Stonington, with lots of extra Root Kandy washed and buffered coco and perlite. I find that after a few weeks the roots balls are fragile and chop up easily, at that point I add some dry amendments and wet it down hard and it becomes a cooking bin. Usually that’s neem or karanja cake, kelp meal, lime, silica, and maybe some hydrolyzed fish. Should probably add crab or shrimp meal too for chitin TBH. Once that’s in and it’s nice and wet (can just squeeze out a few drops from a handful) I just turn it once a day and leave it uncovered to aerate. It gets quite warm for a week or two as long as you keep it nice and wet and then once it cools down you’re done!
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I don’t use any perlite or coco, the roots from the previous grow do what those do, plus providing extra food for the microbes.
Keep topdressing with fruit and veg kitchenscraps, bananapeels, grass, nettles, thistles, tree leaves, dandelion.
Keep sowing in the same soil. Sow covercrops along with your cannabis seeds.
Think like a forest.
Haven’t had the slightest problem for over 3 grows now.
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Chopped up root balls are a big fav of red wigglers. Enlist an army of worms to process that stuff for you. then mix it back in with whatever you plan to plant in.
Just another way to go, thought i’d share.
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Shake off what falls off the root ball, discard the rest. Black contractor bags are your friend.
Naw, organic roots are good food!
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Couldn’t tell ya, don’t use organics. Too much actively rotting fresh material I wouldn’t want around though, tanks pH and attracts bugs.
I do have some outdoor pots for non cannabis plants I use waste media in. Great way to recycle if you have a yard. 200 gallon smartpot holds a lot of grow waste.
If my media was more expensive or I wanted to recycle it, I’d use pond enzymes to dissolve the root mass in a tote and then reuse.
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Reuse it. Like @BasementBeans said, but 3 bins would be best. 1 to dump your pots into as needed, 1 with soil that is amended but cooking and 1 with soil that is re-amended and ready to use
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I was going to recycle my soil from the males I pulled last week. Unfortunately my cats have peed in them and now I’m not even sure if I’m gonna reuse the grow bags 
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Thank for the tips guys. I might use the bin method. Just seeing what some experienced dudes such as yourself are doing
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rememeber when we talked about this – going to start to re-use soil , so it will reduce my over-all cost (save $50…00 every grow - that $200.00 a year) Now-a-days every penny counts !!
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