Yeah it’s very high maintenance (for me at least).
I posted some of the details in a few posts in my first thread but there’s a lot of random gibberish to sort through to find it so I really don’t fault anything for not finding something difficult to search for. Don’t think I posted anything about it really in this thread or the SSDD one.
Here are 3 posts
Also found a few more pictures of the SSDD mom in that thread for you…
As for “living soil” -
I usually measure soil components in 1 or 5 GAL buckets and then mix them in a large sterlite container. From there I store the soil in garbage cans or 1.2 CU ft bags.
For small containers I use a pre-limed substrate that I get locally which is approximately 80% coarse Sphagnum Peat Moss, 15% Perlite & 5% vermiculite. I can get it cheaper than Pro-Mix, which I’ve used as well and is similar enough. This is ‘inert potting soil’
3 Parts inert potting soil
1 Part rice hulls
1 Part Compost (usually commercial worm castings lately)
When mixed together it looks like this
Then depending on the genetics I either
- fill up a 1 GAL 7x7x9" pot and transplant from plug directly
or - fill up 1801s (3" square inserts fits 18 to a tray) or 4" round pots and then transplant from those to 1 GAL pots.
1801 → 4" pot → 4" square pot → 5.5" .4 gal pots (fits 8 to a tray) → 1 GAL 7x7x9 pots
Currently I’m flowering out a Triple Sunshine A in a 4" square pot which only holds 3 cups of soil. TSA performs really well in small pots. Most plants would look terrible when constricted that much.
Sometimes I use these for moms & I used to flower in them as well, but I like the flexibility that the true 1 GAL pots give.
.4 GAL 5.5" nursery pots - a tray holds 8 of them. Dog for scale
For nutrition I’d say pretty much any proven recipe should work. I have access to a lot of bulk amendments so I often just go that route but I’ve tried the various popular organic recipes posted on ICMag and other places. A good rule of thumb is 1 TBS/GAL with most amendments but for some things less is more. I think the rock dusts are probably a waste of money for 1 GAL pots where you aren’t reusing the soil.
The mixes posted on ICMag are all good, coots mix is good, I’m sure buildasoil’s craft blend is good, etc. Whether or not you have to top dress or liquid feed would probably depend on your timing & the genetics you’re growing. I rarely topdress but sometimes my plants also suffer because of it.