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Super Soil - to layer or not to layer?


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Hi everyone,

my soil is cooking (first time I made my own super soil) and I read up on the layering part. Subcool recommended to layer the soil and put a layer of super soil into the bottom of the container and cover it with regular soil. Background is not to burn the roots of the young plants during early stages of their life. 

After reading some forum posts on other growing forums I saw that many growers do not layer their soil and still have decent outcomes. 

What is your take on it? Do you layer your soil mix or do you think it's not really necessary?

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When I first started mixing my soils, I too layered, sometimes still do. My soil mix on here was inspired by subcools soil.

I aim as far as possible with my growing to not need to fertilize as often as with less alive soil.

I do it because my soil mix is much hotter than any commercially available soil, and young root systems do have a hard time in it. 

It's going to come down to how long you "cook" the soil for, and what you put in it. My soil at 2 months is way hot. 4 months better, 6 months even better.

 

Edited by Totemic
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15 minutes ago, Fridgedoor said:

Hi everyone,

my soil is cooking (first time I made my own super soil) and I read up on the layering part. Subcool recommended to layer the soil and put a layer of super soil into the bottom of the container and cover it with regular soil. Background is not to burn the roots of the young plants during early stages of their life. 

After reading some forum posts on other growing forums I saw that many growers do not layer their soil and still have decent outcomes. 

What is your take on it? Do you layer your soil mix or do you think it's not really necessary?

Hey bro! Hope this Sunday morning started with a spark 🔥😬

I layer mine. Hot mix at the bottom. And I let it “cook” for about 5-6 weeks, I leave it in the garage. Still get nice and steamy in there. The next round will be sitting for longer so should be just better as Tote explains. If you do layer your mix. Try remember this, the roots will only engulf the mix once they seek the nutrition. Usually during flowering. So make sure to have a mix suitable for flowering. So lowish on the N spectrum. If you going for veg and flower in the mix. The recipe and layering strategies will need some tlc

good luck bro!

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12 minutes ago, SkunkPharm said:

I add rice to speed up the cooking process. I cook it for 2 weeks and plant straight into it. No problems. I dont layer but I do however dilute my soil 1~4 with compost worm castings peat and perlite. 

Cooked rice or dry?

Wonder what adding cooked whole grains such as barley would do ito fodder for the herd:poke

I add quite a lot of the cheapest dog pellets to my soils. Contains 60% plus of maize as filler. Great food source for the phosphorus freeing fungi for flowering.

Edited by Totemic
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Cooked rice or dry?
Wonder what adding cooked whole grains such as barley would do ito fodder for the herd:poke
I add quite a lot of the cheapest dog pellets to my soils. Contains 60% plus of maize as filler. Great food source for the phosphorus freeing fungi for flowering.
Dog pellets are good fungi fodder. 10min soak in water and left outside to be colonised, then into the mix.
Still want to try the cooked rice.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

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Thanks guys, really appreciate your input!

@ORGANinc.,jep it's a beautiful morning here in WC... and it's even better after a nice breakfast vape 😁.

I mixed my soil in the beginning of June and intend on germinating my first batch  of seeds on the 1st of October and the second on 31st of October. So the first batch will get soil that cooked for 3 months.

I'll keep you guys posted how it goes.

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3 hours ago, Totemic said:

Wonder what adding cooked whole grains such as barley would do ito fodder for the herd:poke

I add quite a lot of the cheapest dog pellets to my soils. Contains 60% plus of maize as filler. Great food source for the phosphorus freeing fungi for flowering.

Good morning all. Personally, I wouldn't put rice or dog food anywhere near my mix. I do use malted barley though. Its packed full of fungi, starch and enzymes such as phosphotase.

Cooked barley won't be as potent as malted barley. The malting process maximises all the enzyme activity at its peak and then germination is halted.

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@oros da bossI totally missed this one... I've checked malted barley and it looks quite promising. I'll give it a go and add it to my mix.

In the meantime I started testing my soilmix (now just about 30 days) using my 'test plant'. I transplanted the 4 week old plant directly into the soil without layering as I want to see if she can take it. That was 3 days ago and it seems she likes it. Getting more and more excited and can't wait for spring (damn there’s snow on the mountains around here...)

 

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