Most super soil recipes online use around 40 lbs of organic and inorganic fertilizer
inputs per cubic yard of mix. Here, we're going to use around half that. I want to
create a grower-friendly mix for cultivating fast-growing, light-loving,
fruiting annuals in containers indoors with a vegetative period of
around 3 to 4 weeks before switching to flower. My basic indoor organic
soil mix for container plants is based on 17 easily obtainable ingredients that
fall into four main categories. And although it is basic, I am not. Fibrous
textures, humic matter, aggregates and nutrients-- I will deal with each category
in turn, and you'll find the full recipe in the video description below, for those of
you who think I talk too quickly. A concrete mixer is an ideal tool to blend
all the ingredients together homogeneously. First, fibrous textures:
really important. In fact, they make up half of the overall potting mix. 3 parts
peat, 1 part aged redwood bark, and 1 part coconut coir, or 30%, 10%,
and 10% respectively, in terms of the overall potting mix. Essentially, these
ingredients provide a physical structure for your potting mix. All these
components should feel light and airy, so if your peat is compressed you'll need to fluff it
up a bit first, and who doesn't enjoy a little fluffing when they get the chance.
Look for grower's white spaghnum peat moss; I like the Canadian stuff, eh. Redwood
bark should be ground up,
aged at least 9 months, and from a sustainable source. It should feel really light and
soft. Coco coir should be hydroponic-grade, not the ornamental stuff, so that means
well-washed, and buffered to ensure low salt levels. Next, humic matter. This makes up a
quarter of the recipe. In terms of the overall mix, we're gonna need 5% humus
and 5% worm castings. Humic matter is essentially all about adding beneficial
biology into your mix-- friendly bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and protozoa all work
together to break down all the organic nutrients into a form that plants can
assimilate, which makes your soil alive! Aggregates make up the other 25%.
They help to improve the physical structure and porosity of your
soil. They're great for improving drainage and air content--so important
for healthy roots--and they allow you to feed your plants more often. The 25%
aggregates is made up of 4 parts perlite to 1 part lava rock. Lava rock is
denser than perlite, so it doesn't rise to the top.
This helps to create homogeneous drainage throughout the media. So, that's
our base. Now it's time to add the main organic inputs, and this is where it gets
very interesting, and there's a lot of scope for experimentation and discussion,
but remember though, my goal is simply to provide a broad spectrum of both quick,
easily-assimilated, long-lasting fertility for a quick veg period and then
straight into 8 to 10 weeks of flowering. I'm going to give you the
doses in terms of pounds per cubic yard, grams per cubic foot, and
grams per liter. Bat Guano, AKA bat poop, is an organic nitrogen powerhouse.
Choose sustainably sourced stuff from Indonesia. It contains up to 50% soluble
nitrate-- be careful it's highly soluble, so if you use too much, you'll burn your
plants. Some guano is low nitrogen and high phosphorus, it depends
on the bats' diet, so always check the label. Seabird Guano-- cool! Fossilized sea bird
poop, usually from Peru. Okay, it's a less soluble form of phosphorus, but slow
release. Steamed bone meal. This is a byproduct of the meat industry. It provides
twice as much phosphorus as seabird guano, and also calcium with a small
amount of nitrogen; it's less soluble than the guanos, but compliments them because it's slow
release. Potassium sulphate: it's a mined mineral available in refined inorganic,
or organic form. And as you'd expect, it provides sulfur and lots of potassium, so
it's great for both flowering and vegetative growth. Highly concentrated, so do take
care.
Fine Dolomite Lime. We primarily add this for pH stabilization, but it's also a great
slow-release source of calcium and magnesium. Don't overdo it, or you'll lockout
iron, which is a big no-no. Feather meal is basically powdered protein-- very high
in slow-release nitrogen to keep your plan green throughout their lifecycle.
Azomite: nothing comes even close to delivering all those super important
trace elements at the right levels. It's mined from the Midwest, USA. It isn't cheap,
but it's incredible stuff, hence you'll see it on almost every Super Soil recipe, and it
also works great as a top dressing. Dried, powdered Sea Kelp provides B-vitamins,
growth hormones, and trace elements. Watch out for elevated sodium though, and this stuff
should be well washed. Finally there's alfalfa meal. This is relatively low
nutrients, but it has good slow-release nitrogen content, as well as Triacontonol,
a natural plant growth hormone. Okay, that's it. Obviously, there's a lot of
other stuff you could add, too. I'll flash this up on the screen quickly, so get
ready with that pause button. If you're starting off seedlings and cuttings, then
I suggest you change my recipe so that it's faster draining, and less dense in
organic matter. A quick fix would be to blend it one-to-one with a soilless mix,
such as VermiPro or coco coir. Alternatively, you could buy a bag of
medium-strength potting mix. Something like VermiSoil would be ideal.
The truth is you'll have a hard time finding true organic super soil in bags, hence all
the DIY recipes on the net. At this point, I should point out that there are
amazingly rich and wonderful potting soils out there, and yes, they come in
sealed bags, which makes the ride home a lot less messy. VermiSoil by VermiCrop
Organics is widely regarded as friggin' awesome, and definitely a favorite with
growers. Notably, there's also its stronger and super potent
big brother, VermiFire, which is arguably right up there at the top end of what you can buy
in terms of quality, decadence, and richness. Proponents of super soils
claim the stuff is so nutritionally dense that it can take a transplant right
through to harvest with no need to top dress or to add any liquid fertilizers
further down the line. Sounds great in theory, but bear in mind that super soils
are too rich for cuttings, seedlings, and young plants; you'll need a lighter mix.
Questions and comments down below, as always. Please log into YouTube and
subscribe to my channel. Thanks for listening, and happy growing, amigos. This
is Everest: star-shaped, spread-eagled, smeared head to toe in seabird guano, and
lightly dusted in dolomite lime. Bye-bye.