Perfect Grow S02 EP03: Everything to Know About Soil

Soil is one of the foundational parts of growing cannabis. It’s also the oldest way to grow, because it really replicates what happens in nature. It’s where your roots are, and it’s pretty much where everything will happen in terms of nutrition. Is there good soil and bad soil? Yes, there are. There’s cheap soil and a little bit more expensive soil. Let’s go through some of the most important questions that Max discusses in the video dedicated on potting soil mixes. 

Why You Shouldn’t Save on Soil? 

The key question to ask here is whether you want to have a cheap foundation? Probably not. Whenever you buy soil, if you go for a cheap option that you don’t know where it comes from, and there’s no information on its composition — you’re taking a risk. 

The top three main possible risks with cheap soil: 

1. It may retain too much water
2. It may come with insects and pathogens
3. It may come with too much nutrients 

All of these things could ultimately kill your plant, or may require extra management efforts in your grow room and thus complicate your life. When you go for more expensive or high-quality options, rest assured that there won’t be any pathogens that may contaminate the entire grow room or that could cause issues with water retention and such. 

Why It’s Recommended to Use Familiar Brands? 

When you are looking at soil for your cannabis grow operation, it’s good to use a brand that you already know about, that you or a fellow grower already has positive experience and outcomes with. What you shouldn’t do is take soil that is coming from an unnamed source. You don’t want to open the bag and realize that it already has insects in it. Those insects are probably hungry and they’re going to eat the only plant that will be around. In this case your cannabis. So, you want soil that is clean, that has good water retention, and that you trust where it’s from. 

What’s the Difference Between Soil, Coco and Hydro?

Soil works as the foundation for your plants. It’s going to be the place where the plant is resting and takes its grab; whenever there’s wind or some movement, it needs to hold onto something and it’s holding on the soil. As a medium, soil also works as a buffer zone through which everything goes into your plants. 

Coco behaves similarly to soil. It can as well retain water and store minerals in it. Coco as well comes from a natural source and it’s easy to use for growing. But when you do hydroponics, you give straight to the water and the plant in that case sucks it up very fast. Hydro does not have any substrate. You don’t have to bring in any type of substrate and you can only work with rockwool. 

What Does Growing Organic Means? 

It means that you’re bringing in organic nutrients and organic matter, and you’re looking at bacteria that’s going to break down, eat it and transform it into minerals. Fungus and bacteria live with the plant and they work together. But the actual mineralization is happening in the soil. When you bring minerals to your plant you know exactly what it eats and at what scale. Organic is pretty much letting life do its things. And minerals are all about controlling exactly what is happening in terms of nutrition. It takes about two weeks for organic feeds to be absorbed by the plant. 

What is Living Soil? 

Living soil is a soil that is first organic and has many organisms in it. It can be worms, can be other insects, and that’s the kind of soil that takes a lot of time to build, sometimes months. Some people will do living soil indoors, but that could be a danger because you can bring insects into your grow room/tent which may not be a good idea. 

How Do You Know What’s the pH in Your Soil? 

One more important aspect related to soil is pH. pH is important because it helps the plant assimilate nutrients. If it’s too low, the nutrients cannot travel to your plants. Therefore, managing your pH is also critical. The ideal pH range: between 6.2 and 6.5 for soil. Optimizing the pH could further depend on whether the plant is in vegetation or flowering. It’s important to get the right pH, and in this regard soil is ideal for beginners. Remember, soil is a buffer. So if your water has a pH variation, the soil is going to help and reduce that variation. Which means better assimilation of nutrients. 

What is Soil Moisture? 

Another most important. That’s an indication when to water your cannabis plants. You can do a manual check to see how moist the soil is. You can inspect soil moisture by touching the surface with the finger. You can also inspect visually how it looks from the outside. And you can also do weight checks and see if the pot weighs more than usual, which could indicate excess of water. Or you can leave all these check-ups on technology, i.e. sensors that can help you determine how moist your soil is. That’s another way to go about it. 

Too Many Soils to Choose From? 

Having plenty of choices is not a bad thing. Just you have to know what you are after. With rich soil, you put in as little nutrients as possible. Other soil mixes will come a little bit light, which means that it doesn’t have that much nutrients. Depending on what type of soil you use, you eventually have to determine how much nutrients you feed to your plant. It also comes down to how you want to feed your plant. Do you want to feed the plant little by little yourself, or do you want the soil to do the better part of this task for you? 

Found these Q/As useful? There’s much more to take from the third episode of Perfect Grow Season 02. Don’t miss it out on our YouTube channel. Click on the link HERE.