Organic is old now. It’s been commercialized and it’s not the way! Regenerative!!! Quantify and build!!! Stop pouring salts on your soil it’s poison!!! Nitrogen is literally the most prevalent element on the planet why would you need to buy it in a bottle!!! Plants can’t use it anyway. Organisms in the soil can but they do not need it in a water soluble form. Plant cover crops!!! Legumes have bacteria in there roots that pull Nitrogen out of the air! Fungus pull everything else out of rocks. That’s right rocks. I put all sorts of stone in my soil mix!!! And Fungus pull out the minerals then some other bigger organism eats that Fungus and the minerals become available in a form the plant can use. Plants produce exudates that attract the organisms it needs. It literally calls for what it needs from the living soil!!! Fungus act as the neuro-network of the living soil living earth itself!!! Check out Teaming With Microbes!!! Great book! Another is The Hidden Half of Nature. That looks at the human animal Android microbiome. Every organism in the soil is in your body right now!!! It’s imbalance that causes the problem. We must first become aware. Then be humble enough to be wrong and learn!!! Again favorite book. For The Love Of Soil!!! By Nicole Masters
Awesome advice and I will go check out those books and courses for sure! I want to learn about all of that!
Thanks for sharing that and how sad it is that he is no longer with us, clearly knew his stuff!
It’s quite the rabbit hole!!! I’m literally changing my whole life around to put myself in a place to be a part. I’m working on setting up a compost facility in my area and want to help agriculturalist switch from conventional methods. Cannabis to me at this point is just an experiment ground for what I’m learning! It’s really cool stuff and I’ll very happily talk about it all day everyday with anyone interested!!! I discovered compost teas about a decade and a half ago but I never really got it all right and completely cut the cord from the bottles! One fit in the biological approach and one foot in the conventional! Doesn’t quite work that way. Again I’m still learning and I’m doing things differently than I ever have. My costs are lower and so far things are more healthy and vibrant than I’ve EVER seen! I’m not joking get some worms! You don’t need a fancy farm. I just use a Rubbermaid tote. I use compost as bedding give them my fruit scraps mainly. I bokashi the rest then compost it thermophilicly. I give them a scoop of worm food every few days it’s just different meals and minerals for grit in there digestion. There’s no smell it doesn’t take much space. The only smell is the of the Streptomyces!! What an interesting bacteria that is! I’m swimming with things I want to say about them:rofl:! Needless to say it’s a very good thing! I fell in the love with the concept of living soil/earth. Then the concept of HEALING EARTH itself!!! Sign me up! I’ll take 6 please 
! I transitioned last season to not using commercial inputs and grew the best crop I’ve ever grown in 26 years. Truth is I’ve already learned a bunch of ways I was messing up then too so I’m stoked for this season . It honestly has reinvigorated me to growing. I’m just way more into the soil now. I told my buddy I’m going to be rancher of underground livestock. Anyway I hope you enjoy and I’ll gladly talk about anything regenerative soil health and gratefully learn with ya my friend!
I just love your energy 
That’s so fascinating, I could do the worms that sound pretty easy enough, I would have to look up how to extract the castings to use but I would love to learn.
Given that I am where I am for this new grow do you think it will be okay to use the mixture I have for now? I know you’re not a fan of Epsom salts but would you suggest any other organic or beneficial materials I should be using on top of the Coast of Maine, Earthworm castings, Gaia 4-4-4 and Mykos??
More than happy to learn more about creating compost and worm farms in the meantime but I do have two big bags of Coast of Maine that I need to use!
I should mention that we are staying with the in-laws whilst our place is being renovated so I don’t have too much space to work with.
My last grow was in the basement, no tent, autoflowers with FF synthetic nutes, this time I wanted to go organic and photo so I got myself a nice 5x5 with HPS and MH bulbs.
Watch the Temps with the tents or any indoor space in my experience. Most all water soluble fertilizers are salts. I’ve never used that mix so I can’t really say for certain. It sounds like it should work. I would definitely not you the Epsom unless I had an issue that required it. I’ve never used it for anything but soaking sore muscles
Hahah I’d like to try that too but I suppose you’re right unless I see cal/mag deficiency signs I shouldn’t need it and even then can top dress.
I have a lovely tent from AC Infinity with their controller and S6 fan drawing straight from the ballast so I can keep the temps exactly where I need them!
Great advice though, dealt with some leaf burn in my last grow.
Also harvesting the castings is easy get a second tub and drill 1/4 in holes in it the put some fresh compost and fruit scraps in it. Put it on top of the finished castings and they’ll crawl up in the new one for the food. Stop feeding the finished one’s a few days prior. Take the casting put the second tub back in the first and your on batch 2!
Winter is when I always had my best indoor yields. I always run my lights at night for cooler Temps. Less is more I’ve found with all of it. When I did use water soluble nutrients I always went with half of what was recommended. It’s a simple formula though. Bigger root bigger fruit. Give the a lot of good soil keep moisture and temperature ideal and you’ll get a bunch of fruit!!! It’s all in the soil! I’ve grown hydro, areo, deep water culture, even fogaponics. To many issues to much maintenance. Just try to sell more poison. The magic is alive and in the soil!
A beautifull lush forest or savanna have no fertilizers program just natural rotational grazing and natural decay of organic matter to return carbon to the soil. Nature knows how to take care of herself and even heal herself. You can learn about your soil by what grows in it naturally. Problem is our timespan. Nature speaks slower than most listen!! Be quiet be still be grateful. Hear her speak 
I pulled an 8 lb plant down last year with the methods I’m talking about! These pics are from a 3rd harvest of two plants I kept cutting back and letting go. I was playing with compost heat systems in my greenhouse.
Best method I found indoors was fabric pots with soil and 60%-70% perlite and flood and drain system. No small fittings to clog best of both worlds in my experience. In a simple system like that I was once pulling down 4lbs in a 3×6 flood table and I found the difference between two 1000 watt lights over the table and two 600 wat lights was the 1000 would be an ounce or two about 4 lbs and the 600 would be an once or two under. In full disclosure I had one strain I could do that with consistently. Most strains were in the 2.5-3.5lb range. I think we adapt to some strains and they adapt to us. Finding the right strain for your system and preferences is huge! It can take a while. I ran the strain I was speaking of for 11 years by clone🤣! I still haven’t found anything that dies it for me quite as much. I just started a bunch of different strains and well see. I will also say that the seeds I got here were the largest and most vibrant seeds I’ve ever gotten. They’re just babies though so we’ll see! Good luck!!! Have fun with it!!! Test play question experiment see where your folly takes you. Cannabis cultivation led me to SO MUCH MORE!!!
I’m also on my 1st time with living soil. I bought some Happy Frog all purpose 6-4-5 living fertilizer to about 8x as much soil as I observed in your picture. 1 hour after piling it up in a 60 degree fahrenheit room the temperature sensor read 90 degrees.
I’m about weeks into my cycle and it’s more vibrant and healthy with closer budding sites than the last two cycles which was the 3rd cycle using the same fancy/expensive/retail soil. I’ll see whether I can figure out how to post their pictures.
I guess I’m really late to the party. @Dxbbred, I’m also in NY. Happy Hydro (Buffalo) carries Gaia green. Also check out Buffalo Worm Works if you’re looking for bulk compost or castings.
Thanks for sharing that! I will need to refine my soil building process but I’ve just transplanted my photo’s into 7g cloth pots and they are loving it so far! Thanks for sharing and keep it coming, I need to learn as much as possible.
They are looking great! Thanks for sharing, never too late to learn more, I did actually find Happy Hydro as well coincidentally but thank you for the suggestion. Can you let me know what your recipe and method are? Given that you’re in the same state I’m sure any of your experiences will be useful. I’d like to get a head start on the soil befoore this grow ends!
@Dxbbred, I was actually planning on making up a new batch in the next couple of days. I’ve got about 80 gallons of root balls which are going to be my next batch of vermicompost. I’ll tag you when I’ve got some pics.
That’s really my key ingredient- composting worms. I just feed them my old root balls, some kitchen compost, and dry organic fertilizers, make sure they don’t dry out too badly, then 2-4 months later start growing some weed in it.
That’s awesome, I haven’t grown enough to have root balls and I don’t compost from the kitchen! Think I should start there haha