Q: How to re-use soil?

[greenspiritz]

I've been thinking of re-using my soil, its Biobizz light mix.

I was thinking during the last week give all the plants a good flush with zero nutrient, almost identical run off to whats going in, then adding Cannazym for 1 week and allowing the plants and soil to dry just to the point where the plant wilts then harvest them.

Then break all the soil out the pots and remove the root ball and then add 4 teaspoons of dolomite lime to every 5 litres and give it a good mix and add 25% fresh new soil back to this mix.

Then pot on 4 inch cuttings and start to feed with ionic Formulex and either Rhizotonic or H&G Root Excellorator

Anyone have some help and advice on this, thank you

 

[Dropped Cat]

Keep in mind that Pulverized Dolomite Lime takes at least 6 months to become fully effective

As I have stated, if you're indoors, and unwilling to create your soil mix a few months in advance,
you are better off using Cal/Mag suppliments and monitor your pH manually.

DL is good stuff, but IMO, more grows are damaged by too much DL rather than not enough DL.
DL is not a Magic Bullet in all cases, and if misused, it can really screw up your garden.

Snippets from this thread:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=123087

Good stuff.

 

[greenspiritz]

Thanks dropped cat, I was thinking of just adding the DL to help keep the PH stable rather than for the calcium and magnesium and supplement that during the grow on a low dose and feed at a PH of 6.5. I found this comment in that link you posted, what are your thoughts on this? Will it do the job i intend? I'm just thinking if the old soil has been dramatically flushed then it'd need some form of PH buffer and the only thing i know is DL?

hey Ulysses- im with you on the benefits of dolomite!

and the interests of getting this buffering/time thing nailed down I performed me a little experiment this morning. (slightly concerned that the 6 months thing may discourage folks from using it)

I took a glass of water and put a tiny shot of my citric acid solution into it .
I measured the pH with my pen and it read 5.1.

(YES, I am an organic grower with a pH pen, part of a rebel alliance of heads that like to know the acidity of their water, the pHorce is strong within us – deal with it! )

I then took a half teaspoon of powdered dolomite lime and stirred it into the acidic water. Here is what happened to the pH :-
Original pH before addition of Dolomite = 5.1
1minute - pH had risen to 5.3
5 minutes – pH had risen to 5.8 – so within minutes we have a much more desirable pH plant-wise!
15 minutes – pH was 6.0 – doing its job nicely.
1 hr – pH was 6.3
2 hrs – pH is 6.4

ETA: 3 hrs - pH is 6.5
4hrs - pH is 6.6
5hrs - pH is 6.7
8hrs - pH is 6.9 - job pretty much done!

now I don’t claim that this experiment is mimicking the conditions in a pot perfectly, but I am very confident to conclude that powdered dolomite lime, well mixed into the soil, will do the job of buffering the pH of the soil possibly within minutes, certainly within hours of watering.

And bear in mind that the pH scale is logarithmic so a pH of 5 is many times more acidic than a pH of 6, and thus will react faster with the dolomite as can be seen in the experiment. As the pH gets nearer to 7 the buffering effect will slow down, but the pH is nearer what we desire anyway, and considering that the optimum availability pH for most macro and micro nutrients it between 6 and 7, the job that the dolomite is doing is, imo, exactly what we want from it.

Hope this helps. I’ll keep measuring throughout the day and update the results

May the pHorce be with you
V.

 

[greenspiritz]

I'm thinking this is a bad idea already but for the next grow, i'm going to need around 1200 litres so i was thinking a recycle would be a good way to reduce the amount of bags i need lol

 

[Grapefruitroop]

I would definitely add a 5% of the best quality EWC you can find..(If the mix has not enough perlite maybe also add a bit)
That will bring lots of good life in the mix and a tiny bit of every nutrient.
Plus good EWC tends to be on the slightly alkaline side 6.5-7 and that's what you are looking for....

As DroppedC. stated fucking around with the dolomite or any calcium supplement without have an idea of how has been previously added could be dangerous...

 

[aridbud]

We reuse soil, baking it, then add alfalfa meal,earthworm castings, buffaloam and azomite. Only need to add diluted bloom nutes, when needed.

 

[nickman]

U can’t really flush out organic amendments.

 

[Grapefruitroop]

Arid, do you literally bake it? :jawdrop:

 

[Americangrower]

I just break it up over my soil mix and throw out main root ball. Everytime I take a plant down. Been doing it for years. I am to cheap to waste good soil.
I would add D lime for sure, even if it takes months to break down it doesn't matter since we are talking about a never ending cycle so the lime added now works later while stuff added 3 or so pots ago starts works now.

 

[davidw44]

Been using my left over soil for my raised beds in my garden. So far I have five 5 b12 garden beds. I add amendments to get the soil ready for gardening.

 

[Benny106]

Been using the same dirt nearly 10 years now, adding things like rock dust and castings and leaving the roots in. Sometimes even no till straight up planting in the narly roots from the last run.

 

[Fitzera]

You could send out a sample of soil to k ow what's left in it and amend from that. Or if your cheap/poor like myself, you can use a cheap store bought test that shows results like a ph test. Coloured water to match to what the kit shows. It doesnt tell you much other than "poor" up to "optimum" but it's something to work with. You also know you soil ph, so you can decide how to add calcium amendments.

I used to remove as much of the root mass as I could, now I dont bother. I pull out what comes out, the rest gets broken down. I amend with a mixture of ewc, new perlite, bone meal, fish bone meal, feather meal, blood meal, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, neem meal, mineralized phosphate (guano), lime, oyster shell, greensand, glacial rock dust, rock phosphate. And in the future I'll be adding some langbeinite, but the supplier was out when I tried to get some recently. I then top up the tote with some fresh soil that I used as my original base.
Then I mix up some ewc tea and moisten it with that. It sits in a tote to cook for 6+ months before I use it, smells great.
*Do note that the soil does not require all of these amendments every time, some last quite a while so do research before you just throw a bunch in and end up with an unsuitable soil*
The last soil run I did, I over amended the soil (didnt test it) and had nitrogen toxicity throughout the grow. After that I tested it and still had "optimum" levels so I was able to reuse that soil a 2nd time without amendments.

I only threw out my soil once after I got a very bad fungus gnat infestation. Well I didnt actually throw it out, I built a new vegetable garden bed and used that soil and let nature destroy the gnats.
I tried neam meal as a top dress when I got the infestation and noticed how much it helped, I now add it to my soil mix and havent had another gnat inside since. I also have better soil moisture management so I'm sure that helps keep the fuckers away.

 

[SwabianExtracts]

I can't see if Mineral nutrients were used? If so I wouldn't.
But if grown organic you can use the Soil a lot of times and it just gets better every time.
Re-using Soil makes so much sense "if possible"

 

[Muarco]

Lately I've been trying to reuse soil and I've ran into all types of micro deficiencies. Mostly calcium and magnesium. Also I underestimated how fast the soil pH would drop after just one cycle. I'm getting 5.8pH at runoff and almost losing a harvest due to this. My suggestion would be to leave recycling soil to the pros and stick to bag soil until you don't have a good understanding of soil chemistry and composting.

 

[gladysvjubb]

Since I discovered Fox Farms Ocean Forest, I just spread the used soil out in the pasture. Start with fresh Fox Farms Ocean Forest again. The results are fucking spectacular!!! Used Pro-Mix for many, many, many years. No more.

 

[Sunshineinabag]

U can’t really flush out organic amendments.

nothing a thirsty hemp culivar cant fix

 

[Veggia farmer]

I have used the same soil for 4 years.. Plants are still good..

 

[Sunshineinabag]

locally the farmers i threw hay for always had manure piles they would store......at the age of 12 i thought they were weirdo chit hoarders lmao..........
then i aged a bit.....hung around folks with lots of wisdom ....realized they were saving money and fertilizing their soils/fields with one of the best methods known to man!
A well balanced manure compost derived from many animals "recycling" has served me pretty damn well. Having no salt build up in my soils is pretty nice.

 

[TNTBudSticker]

Tried to use soil but the whole soil in the pot is just roots.Roots all over and I can even take the plant outside of the pot just by grabbing the stalk.Only time I re-use soil is when in Veg and the plant must be chopped for reasons then re-use that soil with added bone,blood,perlite.