Yes, there are good bagged soil products out there. But are they as good as (or ideally even better) than DIY mixes? Other than saving money, having the satisfaction of doing it yourself, being self-sufficient, are there any good reasons to mix it yourself vs. buying bagged products?
Building organic soil
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The down to earth line is amendments to build your own soil although I’m using peat moss an coco as my medium an adding many down to earth amendments an other stuff as well as fermenting various things I don’t have any experience buying a already made soil or medium every thing I grow is 100 organic an custom made from years of my own experience growing organically I grow in my medium dubbed living coco organics an haven’t changed my medium in 3 years I just add new amendments an remove most of the root ball an plant again so the idea of having to change out what’s in my containers all the time for someone’s else’s idea of a quality grow medium makes no sense to me an besides that the quality I get using abnormal growing styles an my own custom organic concoctions is some fire
for sure
@Bill I believe there are some very good organic soil mixes out there , -- But -- and it is a big one -- are you a organic grower - The whole point of making your own soil is in the learning process as will get a better understanding of the inputs and what They do . Then there is a cost factor , but not as high and just in the first time building , then you will have inputs on hand when making more which brings the cost way down . The main work is in making the soil . After that it is dead easy , Now I like to have my soil at least 3 months old it does not matter if you go longer , you jest feed the soil every now and again . , I believe it gives time for every thing to settle down and work there magic . So used soil - I add it to the soil I am building for next grow . Now why .
This is only my opinion --- Top of the list is flavor -- I get a lot of comments about how good it is from friends I share with - Yield - I also have no problems there - Ease of grow - another big plus , - Pride - Hang your head up high . I gre w this . Now if you decide to go down ether path , just let us know and we can guide you down the path .
This is only my opinion --- Top of the list is flavor -- I get a lot of comments about how good it is from friends I share with - Yield - I also have no problems there - Ease of grow - another big plus , - Pride - Hang your head up high . I gre w this . Now if you decide to go down ether path , just let us know and we can guide you down the path .
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Following along buddy 
@Bill Part 2 
- Urban environment , Depending on how much space you have to store your soil .if you have room for say 2 x 100 liter to start off with so you will have 1 grow going on , then you will have the next one ready for the next grow and as you are reusing your soil the cost per grow comes down . So then you end up with only 100 liters getting ready for your next grow . -- Inputs -- All can be purchased at a store or on line , and again you should have enough for the second batch of soil maybe more --- Commercial bagged soils --- I have to say I have not used them , BUT I use a cheap one for the base if I need to start a new batch --- Quality and performance --- I can not comment on this [ have not used them ] but I get both, Now lets call in a Bagman .
@KIS you comments are most welcome .
Some thoughts I have
--- Bag soil --- Why not , there is no reason not to if you don't have the space to make your own .
--- Soil environment --- This I believe is a big part of the grow , Temp , Humidity , and saturation level all play a big part in soil health
--- Microbes --- Is a bigger part , the more biodiversity the better the interaction in the system .
--- Seasons --- Yes can play a part in the soil out come , Cold weather will slow the microbe activity and may allow pests to enter the soil . Lucky I am in the Tropics and that may be the factor I have been soil pest free .
--- Time frame --- Learning organics to build your own soil takes a lot of time , I have been doing it for over 8 years and still leaning . It is a passion . There is never a day I do not have dirt under my fingers ,
- Urban environment , Depending on how much space you have to store your soil .if you have room for say 2 x 100 liter to start off with so you will have 1 grow going on , then you will have the next one ready for the next grow and as you are reusing your soil the cost per grow comes down . So then you end up with only 100 liters getting ready for your next grow . -- Inputs -- All can be purchased at a store or on line , and again you should have enough for the second batch of soil maybe more --- Commercial bagged soils --- I have to say I have not used them , BUT I use a cheap one for the base if I need to start a new batch --- Quality and performance --- I can not comment on this [ have not used them ] but I get both, Now lets call in a Bagman .@KIS you comments are most welcome .
Some thoughts I have
--- Bag soil --- Why not , there is no reason not to if you don't have the space to make your own .
--- Soil environment --- This I believe is a big part of the grow , Temp , Humidity , and saturation level all play a big part in soil health
--- Microbes --- Is a bigger part , the more biodiversity the better the interaction in the system .
--- Seasons --- Yes can play a part in the soil out come , Cold weather will slow the microbe activity and may allow pests to enter the soil . Lucky I am in the Tropics and that may be the factor I have been soil pest free .
--- Time frame --- Learning organics to build your own soil takes a lot of time , I have been doing it for over 8 years and still leaning . It is a passion . There is never a day I do not have dirt under my fingers ,
I'm not ready to fully abandon feeding nutrients, particularly during bloom. I know with feeding that it's not organic, but can anyone recommend DIY "light" soil mixes, such as similar to BioBizz Light (claims to be 'organic')and other soils that mostly just support first 2-4 weeks? Are light mixes simply regular mixes diluted/mixed with a relatively inert medium, such as peat, sphagnum moss and/or coco? For ex., can I mix coco (on hand) with a good bagged 'organic' soil?
@hecno nailed it in his response. I think there are some good pre-mixed soils out there, shoot that's what I do for a living. One advantage I have is that I will have done a lot of heavy metal testing as well as fertility testing on my mixes. I've also looked at it under the microscope and have a pretty good idea of what the balance of fertility is in every bag, and I know I'm hitting my targets for NPK for cannabis.
That being said, one of the best reasons for mixing your own soil is you get to control every input and can use high quality inputs (not all companies do). Also I think the process of mixing your own soil can be good for better understanding the various properties of the soil (physical, chemical, and biological) and just connecting with the growing process even further. Be sure to wear PPE if you do, because it's not good for your lungs to have all that particulate.
My formulation process is to mix based off my experience in making way too many soils over the past couple decades (and this is all formulated around your compost source), and then getting a soil test. Based off the soil test, we will make some tweaks (sometimes they come back way different than I expected), and testing again. Once I have consistency on my soil tests, then I'll run some plant trials to make sure the growth I'm getting matches what I would expect. Then we will release the mix. This typically takes me 1-2 years, and it's overkill for a home grower but the thought process can be the same.
Hope that helps!
I really don't have a lot of input to what has already been said. I do want to stress something that KIS said, you need to be careful of the sources that you use.
I never have bought any type of bag media nor have I ever grown in containers, until I started growing cannabis. House plants don't count!
My Forte has been improving soil of good old mother Earth. That was with gardens and large acreage.
That can be quite challenging to do economically! With the sandy to sandy loam soil I had, the biggest thing was carbon carbon carbon carbon carbon! That type of Soil just eats it up!
One of the larger methods of adding carbon was with compost, but it was not my largest source of carbon. Even though I made compost with multitudes of dump truck loads, my largest source of carbon was grown. I started out with very simple L bond rye and hairy vetch as a winter cover crop to root feed crops like turnips and beets. Plants were selected for their various attributes. With some plants most of the material was in their root systems. Some plants had very deep root systems which would bring up nutrients from the more clay soil deep down.
I had pasture divided up into paddocks and would rotate livestock in and out of the paddocks. This helps thicken the grass and the cows were always eating prime vegetation! You could easily run 10 to 15 percent more cattle on the same amount of land.
My re-amending of my media is done in totes and for the most part is thermophilic. I guess it's because of all the compost that I made in the past and it's reasonably simple. It's also quicker.
In my mind's eye, the really only downside is that it will kill all the worms and the cocoons and your beneficial small insects. That's no really big deal, since I reintroduce the worms and beneficial insects with my earth worm castings.
Now there is one area that most of us can improve our soil with is earthworms and their castings. And what I'm mainly talking about is what I feed to my worms in the worm bin. My worms get a quite varied feed. I think one of the biggest things is that they get most of the recycled cannabis material. The most obvious is defoliated leaves. I also feed them what I have leftover from making dry ice hash and in the making of infused oils. They also get fed the Left over bulk material from making various fermants.
They seem to particularly like my specially made feed. I'll get some avocados from my local grocer that he was going to throw out and combine that with several other ingredients. I'll either use the store bought worm food or sprouted barley ground up. I'll combine that with some of the ingredients above and blend it all together and then put in freezer bags and placed in the freezer for later use. I spread it out fairly thin in the plastic bag And just cut the bag and lay out the frozen material on top of the bin and then cover with the cardboard. The worms go absolutely nuts! I mainly direct my feedings toward flowering nutrients. I know that my earthworm castings are quite a bit more nutritionally dense than what you can buy in the store.
I never have bought any type of bag media nor have I ever grown in containers, until I started growing cannabis. House plants don't count!
My Forte has been improving soil of good old mother Earth. That was with gardens and large acreage.
That can be quite challenging to do economically! With the sandy to sandy loam soil I had, the biggest thing was carbon carbon carbon carbon carbon! That type of Soil just eats it up!
One of the larger methods of adding carbon was with compost, but it was not my largest source of carbon. Even though I made compost with multitudes of dump truck loads, my largest source of carbon was grown. I started out with very simple L bond rye and hairy vetch as a winter cover crop to root feed crops like turnips and beets. Plants were selected for their various attributes. With some plants most of the material was in their root systems. Some plants had very deep root systems which would bring up nutrients from the more clay soil deep down.
I had pasture divided up into paddocks and would rotate livestock in and out of the paddocks. This helps thicken the grass and the cows were always eating prime vegetation! You could easily run 10 to 15 percent more cattle on the same amount of land.
My re-amending of my media is done in totes and for the most part is thermophilic. I guess it's because of all the compost that I made in the past and it's reasonably simple. It's also quicker.
In my mind's eye, the really only downside is that it will kill all the worms and the cocoons and your beneficial small insects. That's no really big deal, since I reintroduce the worms and beneficial insects with my earth worm castings.
Now there is one area that most of us can improve our soil with is earthworms and their castings. And what I'm mainly talking about is what I feed to my worms in the worm bin. My worms get a quite varied feed. I think one of the biggest things is that they get most of the recycled cannabis material. The most obvious is defoliated leaves. I also feed them what I have leftover from making dry ice hash and in the making of infused oils. They also get fed the Left over bulk material from making various fermants.
They seem to particularly like my specially made feed. I'll get some avocados from my local grocer that he was going to throw out and combine that with several other ingredients. I'll either use the store bought worm food or sprouted barley ground up. I'll combine that with some of the ingredients above and blend it all together and then put in freezer bags and placed in the freezer for later use. I spread it out fairly thin in the plastic bag And just cut the bag and lay out the frozen material on top of the bin and then cover with the cardboard. The worms go absolutely nuts! I mainly direct my feedings toward flowering nutrients. I know that my earthworm castings are quite a bit more nutritionally dense than what you can buy in the store.
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