Organic soil recycle question

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oldfogey8

Very grouchy and ornery today…
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I am reusing my soil from my previous grow. I use Roots Organics Green Lite and the GO Biothrive line of liquid nutes supplemented with EM1, molasses and a fulvic/humic acid mix. The plants I grew in this recycled soil were healthy with very slight fade at harvest. I have clones in 2 liter pots right now using unamended soil from that grow and the plants look very healthy. When transplant to their final containers(3 gallon felt pots) using the same recycled soil, is it necessary, helpful or not recommended to amend the same soil? I will be vegging another couple of weeks after transplanting before flipping to flower. Most of the organic soil threads I read say to ‘cook’ the soil for a couple weeks to months if amending and I don’t have that much time. I have cow and chicken manure, worm castings, blood meal and rock phosphate in the garage that I can amend with. It just sounds like I may have missed the cut off time for the amendments to be of any use...
 
blood meal and rock phos take around 6-8 wks to break down ime. i'd just reuse the soil and hit em with teas and GO. you could always amend with a organic granular. do you foliar feed with h/f ever?
 
Not sure what h/f is but I don’t foliar feed. The 6-8 week thing is kind of what I was gathering from the reading I have done. I also kinda thought that since the plants are really pretty much happy in the recycled soil I have them in with the GO nutes+ stuff that there might not be any benefit to amending at this point. I have enough recycled soil that I might amend a batch and let it sit for a spell for use on my next grow. No use changing horses midstream, right? Thx doc...
 
The manures also take time to break down. Both cow and chicken manures can be very hot. I would be very concerned about burning up the plants without a chance for the amendments to break down.

Have you read the book "True Living Organics"? The Rev talks about using nutrient "spikes" when you transplant. Basically you make holes in the soil and add a nutrient mix. The theory is (and it seems to work) is that the amendments in the spike will have cooked enough that it is not too hot by the time the roots grow to where it is. If you are growing organic inside, I think that "True Living Organics" is an excellent resource/reference.

I'm real partial to teas, too.
 
Thx Rose and THG. I have been going about this growing thing on blind faith. I can’t identify by looking at a plant what it needs very well. My memory is pretty poor recently so the charts with pictures of leaves looks like a page of typed words to a dyslexic. The General Organics line of nutes makes ‘organic’ growing (I question the validity of their claim sometimes because I think General Hydro was bought by maybe MiracleGro?) idiot-insulated in that I just mix up the stuff and the plants grow and look healthy. I did determine that using a Brita filter left my plants hungry for CalMg but I think that makes sense as I was removing dissolved solids like calcium and magnesium with the filter. I will look for that book though. I’d like to be a more intelligent grower.
 
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And that my friend is why the main ingredient in "Store bought" teas like Boogey Brew is molasses.
 
I reuse my soil every time. Just so happens that today I harvested a plant that grew in an 11 gallon tote. After I get done watching this ep. of Goliath I am going to go transplant a new plant out of a one gallon into that pot. I amend with everything you listed and I do keep a couple of gallons 'cooking" for replacing what I can't knock out of the root ball. I keep 5 gallons of compost tea brewing and every time I water, I water with that tea. I keep the tea simple. It has a cup of vegetable compost, 2 oz. of worm castings, 2 oz. of bat quano and a teaspoon of recharge. I'll mix in some liquid seaweed and occasionally some molasses but the thing is I feed it every time. Works for me anyways may not do for everyone.
 
Good info. I am a bit hesitant to go ‘tea’. Looks like a fair amount more labor and does it smell when you are aerating it? More of ‘my stuff’ occupying more of the tool room(I assume there are buckets and air pump and stone as well as multiple bags of manures, guano, kelp and whatnot). Mrs Fogey doesn’t say it but I am pretty sure she would prefer I downsize rather than expand. The soil amendments are pushing the envelope as is. lol. I passed them off as stuff for our flowers outside but she knows...
 
That she does... And she honestly does not bust my stones about it but after 26 years of marriage, we can read each other’s body language(however subtle it may be) and we both grin and bear the idiosyncrasies we each bring to the table...
 
If you are capable of losing $29 every couple of months, you can buy Boogie Brew compost tea premix from amazon. That's actually what I am using right now because I can't find any local compost right now. It has no smell at all and you can mix it in a 5 gallon bucket in only 4 hours according to them. I buy the 3lb package and it takes up all the space of a lb. bag of coffee beans. Can't say for sure how it works though because I'm just now gonna give it a go. Does come highly recommended from quite a few internet experts though!
 
So it is just tea and no other nutes? $29 every couple months isn’t bad. I have a compost bin but it is in too shady an area so it doesn’t really get warm enough to compost very quickly. Thanks. I will look into Boogie Brew.
 
If they ever go legal here I will build me a small shed to grow in so I can have the master bedroom back. In this one respect not having a wife to compromise with is a blessing.
 
LOL--or you need a wife like Rosebud, Stinkyattic, or myself. I've cleaned out a bedroom to run a winter grow...and I have space in the woodshed where I store things...and a corner of the garage...and some of the furnace room...and just a tiny bit of the other spare bedroom. It's amazing how you can amass equipment and supplies.

I'll check out the Boogie Brew. I am trying out a Roots Organic product called Terp Tea, the bloom formula (3-7-4). It says that you can either bubble it for 24 hours or mix and feed. I haven't used it long enough to give a review. This is the product description from Amazon:
"Roots Organics Terp Tea Bloom delivers critical nutrition for heavy-feeding, high-yield plants. Recommended for both large and small-scale gardens, this high-quality dry fertilizer is simple, comprehensive, and completely natural. Our powerful one-part grow and one-part bloom formula can serve as base nutrition or as a supplement, and can be delivered in large batches or controlled point feedings. Amend any potting soil with this micronized flowering nutrient to activate the aromatic power of your garden’s natural terpenes. Derived from: Feather Meal, Dolomite, Soybean Meal, Langbeinite, Kieserite, Crab Meal, Fish Bone Meal, Bat Guano and Kelp Meal. "
 
Mrs Fogey gets that I am a collector of stuff and that I have many places spread out over the house, garage, basement and shed where accumulate said stuff. I always proudly point out anything I have squirreled away and repurposed to fix something that is broken and use it as proof that I only keep useful things even though 90% of what I keep is useless or will be lost when I need it but found when I don’t...

I am reading up in tea aeration. Found a video where a guy found air pumps and stones at the dollar store so I will be hitting Family Dollar tomorrow. It looks like that Boogie Brew is a stand alone. I have bottles of GO nutes hanging around so I can use those on the event that the plants look hungry.
 

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