Reusing Soil Opinions?

[Floridian]

How do you separate the rice from the hulls?Lol

 

[TKO]

I reuse soil for years. I do however flush at the end of each run and try and put it in 28gallon tubs and let it sit for a couple months. I add some organic to it before I let it sit and a shot of black stap mollasis to help with bacteria and fungal growth.
I like to fluff it up with some new peat and chunky perilite if it starts to break down.
I would stay away from the miracle grow stuff and try and find the promix at lowes. You can add bone meal and blood meal and black strap molasses and that will replace the nutrients in the miracle grow and give you a better final product.
Overall if you flush your soil at the end to get the extra salt and buildup leached and the soil didn't have a diseased plant in it then in my humble opinion you can reuse it for years.
It all comes down to what works for you.
TKO

 

[coronasmith]

yep that's what i'm going to do, it's too expensive otherwise to keep buying it pre bagged and i can't find quality EWC locally.

i've used roughly the same mix before with different compost inputs and without the biochar and coco with excellent results. the plants basically grow themselves it's so easy.

Depending on how big your garden is you may want to stick with buying castings. I have a worm factory and it takes at least several months to get any usable castings and you won’t have more than a gallon of castings to use.

 

[Biologist]

I know I have read in one of the cannabis growing books I have that yields are often better the 2nd time around for soil mixes that you reuse. I believe it suggested that the soil builds a healthy population of fungi and bacteria from the first grow.

 

[Hastings]

Depending on how big your garden is you may want to stick with buying castings. I have a worm factory and it takes at least several months to get any usable castings and you won’t have more than a gallon of castings to use.

I'd rather die than buy worm castings. LOL

I've been running 3 nested worm bin setups for years in the basement. It's where all my kitchen waste and Amazon Prime boxes go, among other things. I can say I feed my worms every egg shell, every coffee grind, and every green waste our house has produced. They like the tree leaves outside too... which I stock pile in the garage because we don't produce enough waste in the kitchen.

At around 25% worm castings along with 25% perlite, and the rest soil, I can take plants literally from seed to harvest without anything but tap water. My TDS and pH meters are not used for the purpose of growing weed now.