Is all soil not living soil?
I’m using Real Growers Recharge for my first grow.
My basic understanding is, boosting microbiology with a compost tea or instant compost tea helps break down nutrients in soil and added dry amendments.
Is this what makes it living soil?
Are microbes not present in soil regardless?
Is tea just an energy drink for the microbes to work harder and make the nutrients available faster?
Does adding worms make it “living soil” lmao 
Yes.
They are but if you don’t feed them or add more, a small amount of soil biology is mostly useless…
Pretty much yea… Almost like the semi breaking down of their food before they do their thing.
Not at all… The worms more help break down the roots and other material in the soil but also to aerate the media… Also their castings help make for great food for the soil life
Yes and no… The living implies that the soil life can sustain itself without much outside help and continue to help support the plant life without you needing to add much to it
Most bagged soil is full of synthetic fertilizers.
Coco + perlite + synthetics + a little bit of compost is not living soil.
If you want living soil get 100% compost.
Mine is over two years old, never left my pots.
Having a whole bunch of tiny insects crawl in your soil, worms, rolly pollies, covercrops and topdressing that decomposes non-stop, that’s living soil.
And the best thing about it?
You can do it all for free.
Yes all true soil is a live active “living” soil…also even soil-less mediums like peat moss and coco could be considered “living” as well…
It all comes down to the microbiology living in your medium and how you feed!
You will get a lot of different answers to this question…
Alaskagrown
There’s some good info on here about No-Till, Korean Natural Farming, L.A.B., and other “living soil” techniques…
Also Build-A-Soil has some priceless info as well!
Alaskagrown
Like folks have said, technically, the definition of soil is that it’s alive. “Dirt” with no life is a soil-less medium.
Soil-less mediums like peat moss, coco and other forms of organic material do contain microbes…some do not as sterile like perlite, vermiculite, expanded clay pellets…typically a soilless medium contains no nutrient value’s to it other than the medium itself and the nutrients that occur when it breaks down.
When in doubt wiki…most of the time the info is pretty solid…
Alaskagrown
Thanks for the response, appreciate it!
Do you pick and chose what items you compost? You do this indoors?
Since I’m using recharge as a compost tea, and only adding dry amendments to my soil through my grow is it considered a “living soil” grow ?
I wouldn’t think of recharge as a compost tea… More like a biology booster in relation to using compost and dry amendment
From my perspective it mostly revolves around the shift in the Cannabis community (forums at that time) that was seeking to differentiate organic gardening via “organic” bottled nutrients and a traditional living system that shifted the focus more towards the plant-soil relationship. The living soil paradigm sees the soil as a functioning system where the plant is interacting with the soil through exudates to extract what it needs, as opposed to pouring bottles of Pure Blend Pro, Earth Juice, Fish hydrolysate/emulsion or some other liquid “organic” fertilizer when the gardener deems a plant needs a PK boost. You are correct that all soil should contain life as well.
Tad Hussey of KIS organics did a great podcast discussing ODA’s findings a few years back with respect to microbe claims from various companies. Worth a listen for sure…
“Bennys” are mostly a waste of money in my view and bundling mycorrhizae with fertilizer seems bizarre as well. Same thing for carbs like molasses. As usual almost all of this comes down to marketing and fashion with the various camps trying to separate themselves and be seen as either Gurus or superior to the other “camps”. A lot of what you see are just attempts to become influencers in an emerging market by posting about absurdities like avocado techs (?) or “exotic” ferments on IG or youtube. I think the more experienced people get the more they drift towards the Ruth Stout and Fukouka side of things. It’s empowering to step aside and humbly allow the plants and soil to run the show.
Disclaimer : Not attacking KNF or anyone here delving into the more involving methods of gardening.
Yeah, it sort of is. When you use natural ingredients in raw, dry, form, you need a healthy microbe community. They are what breaks the nutrients down into a form of food that the roots can uptake easier.
If the ingredients are synthetic, there won’t be any bio life really. The nutes are already processed to a form that the roots can uptake without help.
A good “living soil” as people call it, will normally have the all of raw ingredients mixed into the soil mix, and the microbes break down what they need when they need it. Not feeding, just watering. That type of system is, a lot of the time, a “no till” soil network that replenishes much of what it needs after the main plant has been taken, like white clover and nitrogen rich plants.
So, if your dry nutes are natural raw ingredients, you definitely want to create a good environment for microbes to do the job in the life of the plant. Often you will add microbes a few times a grow to boost the colonies. You can get a lot of the trace elements and other amendments in the bottled form or make teas, and the microbes thrive, especially with humic acid.
I’m too stoned to stop talking… I bet I read this tomorrow and give myself a face palm. peace 
Also to add on the point about bundling mycorrhizae with fertilizers, there is a chapter in Teaming With Fungi that details "How arbuscular mycorrhizae form " and may be of interest. :
The process of forming arbuscular mycorrhizae is initiated by the plant when soil nutrient conditions, specifically phosphorus levels, are low. Such conditions increase the production and release of strigolactones from the host plant’s roots. These specialized hormones attract fungal spores or hyphae in the soil. Once the strigolactones are discovered by the fungus, they guide the fungal hyphae to the host plant’s roots. An arbuscular mycorrhizal spore has about seven to ten days to reach a root to get carbon before its own on-board supply runs out and it dies.
Why again are we bundling mycorrhizae with fertilizers? That’s if there’s even any mycorrhizae present as they claim.
https://www.ogcsa.org/oda-finds-big-problems-with-little-organisms/
The KIS podcast delves into this a bit more. This has always stood out as interesting to me :
Of the 14 products tested for Trichoderma, none met their guarantees. Last year, the program began testing products with mycorrhizal fungi, which form partnerships with plant roots for mutual benefit. Of the 17 products tested, only three met the guarantees made on the product label.
Everything that ever lived, can live again.
Just dumped orange and banana peel, old boiled potato and bell pepper insides in there,
all chopped up roughly.
The seeds from the bell pepper often sprout and then die again, very nutritious, enzymes and such.
I don’t know the “sciunce” behind it but it all feeds the soil very efficiently, that I observe.
Funnily enough, the more often you add fresh stuff, the faster it sinks.
I don’t like adding powdered dry stuff because it’s pretty much dead.
Fresh stuff is still alive and cooperates faster, somehow, some way.
And since fresh stuff often contains 80-90% water, the fungi absorbs it all like a sponge and spreads it throughout the soil.
I haven’t watered in 2-3 weeks.
Pot still weighs a ton when I lift it up to put it to sleep in the bottom of my closet to keep it warm, I sleep with the window open, I like sleeping in a cold room.
And yes indoors, sits in the corner of my bedroom.
Does it smell it your bedroom? Hahaha
Sometimes like bananas 
On rare occasions a funky scent pops up but then I topdress with grass and it’s gone the next day.
Haha fair enough!
Please read…
Teaming with microbes
By
Jeff Lowenfels
And educate yourself-
And thank you for asking this very important question!
