Have some already used FFOF planning to run it with GH MaxiBLoom. Was wondering if anyone ever reuses soil after running it with nutes and if so is there an additional step in between the reuse of? Have been googling for the past 2 days maybe not searching the correct terms any help would be great.
you and me both, when I moved into my apartment and started growing in my closets I always had plenty of need for good used soil for my outdoor container non pot plants. But they are about maxed out and new soil is not that cheap so I am just starting to come up with a good new old recycle system. If you start out with good organic soil with some perlite, over time, the organics break down but the perlite remains and your soil can get a little stoney. I use two areas (in my case it is so small it is just two 30 gallon totes) one for new and one for old soil. So I lways have a tote ready with soil I feel is good to go, and the other tote is for the soil I just dumped out. And that is the problem. Hard to come up with a formula because who knows how much nutrients your old plants used up? And how many roots are left in the old soil to eat up nitrogen while they decompose? In my case it's pretty simple. I use Epsoma potting mix, peat and perlite. If after a few times through it gets too peaty or perlitey I can just add another bag of Epsoma potting mix. Plus, like all soil growers I have my secret bitches brew to add that produces "Astounding Results" just like the ad I clicked on said it would and it only cost me $19.99 (and I got a second one free and all I had to do was pay separate shipping and handling.)
I am using recycled soil on my current grow. It worked out really well. I added EWC and some dr earths organic ferts(bagged stuff) to the soil. Plants are growing similiar to previous ones.
i also like Loteks idea of using a large bin for recycled soil until you need it. I may start doing this if i expand my growspace.
Why ever reuse soil this baffles me! In what conditions and in what situations would it be more beneficial to reuse soil instead of just going to buy some more? Advanced Nutrients & My first real grow http://forum.grasscity.com/index.php?/topic/1372867-My-first-real-grow!
Well figured whats the point in murdering an organic soil with salty nutes REPEATEDLY. Already have a completely organic soil that wont be touched with anything but organic teas and some AgSil16H. The used FFOF will be used again running the maxibloom lucas formula. I want to know from anyone with actual experience running a soil over and over again using maxibloom throughout their grow, if there were negative effects from doing so.
What I'm saying is if your using Lucas formula, why even consider reusing the same soil again, IMO that asking for problems. Advanced Nutrients & My first real grow! http://forum.grasscity.com/index.php?/topic/1372867-My-first-real-grow!
I'd imagine that you'll want to flush the hell out of it. I second the idea that reusing soil is unnecessarily frugal. I run hydro and reuse my GS3 a few times before pitching it, but that's a medium that doesn't break down.
No I personally never done it before but I have read of people doing it before with negative outcomes.
I don't remember were, I've been researching cannabis for 20 years so it could have been any were, but every time I've come across the subject people who were reusing soil were having negative affects, what specifically I don't remember, but what I did was make a mental note to myself that reusing soil is not ideal.
If you were to garden organically you can use it over and over and over again with basic reamending every several grows. IMO soil is not a good medium for Hudroponic/chemical nutrients anyhow - if you're going to use chemical nutrients go with a soilless medium. J
I plan to get some coco soon but i have a bunch of used FFOF I know will be ok to run atleast once with maxibloom. Just wanted to be well informed before lackadaisically throwing some good genes in some old salty soil. Buuuut i guess i will just do it and report my results eventually. Thanks for the help everyone.
ah - Jeebus. I just lost a long post. Hell. Hey, OP, I was just thinking about something. I'm not going to get back into my long (lost) post but think about it this way - think about all the great big corn fields you're seeing right now with 6' to 8' heathy green corn stalks - these farmers certainly aren't farming organically which means that the corn is growing just fine in soil that has been reused and reused time and time again with the repeated addition of fertilizers. Ideal? No. Will it work? Absolutely and I wanna bet that you don't see any difference at all. Ideally I would go with coco, or coco and perlite, or perlite and vermiculite. That's what I did for many years (perlite & vermiculite) when I gardened with hydro nutrients. Check out "ItonHead"s thread - he kills it with coco and perlite mix. If you choose to garden organically in the future, you can definitely reuse your soil for years. I'm on my 5th year, or at least the soil I started out with is still mixed into what I am using now. Good luck with your garden. I just about guarantee you'll be fine - providing the mix drains well. If I were you I'd think about adding some aeration to the used soil to make sure that there is both plenty of aeration and as a result, proper drainage. Peace. J
Thanks for the info And I am currently running organic as well just wanting to see first hand what all the hubub about maxibloom is. I know what the ideal way to use maxibloom is but figured I'd give it a go in my used FFOF since i didnt put any work into making it. I planned on just poking holes through my medium every once in a while. Im honestly not willing to put any funds into making my used FFOF any better than it is. I will be layering my coco hempy buckets with perlite and then mixing a 80/20 or 70/30 mix of some coco/perlite to top it off. Gonna hand water em. I've read 150 pages of the K.I.S.S thread over at icmag so far got about a hundred more to go but I feel pretty confident in my ability to have some comparable results to the ones I've seen so far.
I've used used soil but not right out of the old pot into new, had to flush and cook it for a while and also used it for a small house garden with tomato, cucumbers, basil and oregano. Had decent results, not much to complain about.
Just in case anyone reads this and wonders what i wondered, there are people who do this and while i have not experienced it first hand the results I've seen on Icmag are pretty awesome.