Living soil has become one of the most talked-about growing methods in recent years. Some growers swear they’ll never go back to bottled nutrients, while others prefer the precision and control that synthetic feeding offers.
The idea behind living soil is simple: instead of feeding the plant directly, you feed the soil. A thriving community of bacteria, fungi, worms, and other beneficial microorganisms breaks down organic matter and makes nutrients available to the plant naturally.
For many growers, this means:
Less frequent feeding.
A healthier soil ecosystem.
Potentially improved terpene and flavour profiles.
Reusing the same soil for multiple grows.
A more sustainable approach to cultivation.
Of course, it’s not without its challenges. Building or maintaining a healthy living soil takes patience, and troubleshooting can be very different from growing with bottled nutrients. Some growers also find that it takes a little longer to understand what the soil needs compared to more conventional methods.
So we’d love to hear from the community.
Do you grow in living soil or have you tried it before?
Did you build your own mix or buy a ready-made blend?
What ingredients do you consider essential?
Have you noticed any differences in flavour, aroma, yield, or overall plant health?
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned from growing organically?
If you’ve tried both organic and synthetic methods, which do you prefer and why?
Whether you’re a seasoned organic grower or simply curious about making the switch, share your experiences, tips, successes, and even the mistakes you’ve learned from.
Let’s help each other learn what really works when it comes to living soil.
Living soil is “probably” the best way to go. But as described, it can be a little tricky to get right, and to maintain.
@freebird919 seems pretty knowledgeable in this area. I personally, have not tried it for several reasons, one of which is the amount of physical labor it requires. But if you’re able to do it, I think I would recommend it. After all, I don’t care for artificial food either.
I think it’s worth the effort if you are able. It is a lot of work mixing and potting large amounts. You can get around that if you can run larger no till beds, only top dressing once a month or so is not hard.
I’ve been reusing the same ‘living soil’ for a few years now in 5.5gal airpots. Dumping mixing and reamending between runs. I made my own using 1/3 high quality compost and worm castings, 1/3 coco coir and 1/3 aeration- I used pumice and ‘hydrocorn’ as they don’t break down over time like perlite.
The only real essential ingredients are Calcium minerals. Cannabis is a Calcium hungry plant but it is also essential for Cation exchange and nutrient cycling of most other nutrients. You can get some from bone meal, but really you need a dedicated mineral source. Lime will help keep pH up if you use peat moss based mix, I use mainly Gypsum as Coco is not as acidic.
All other NPK and micros/macros can come from whatever sources you have easily and cheaply available. The important thing is having a decent variety of inputs and a proper balanced ratio of nutrients. Too much of one thing will cause problems.
If you can keep the soil healthy, generally the plant growing in it will be healthy. Most plants want a slightly different feeding schedule, with solubles that means you either tweak the feed for each plant or settle for something they all tolerate. Healthy soil is more like a buffet the plant can take what it needs from that you can add specific ingredients to depending on stage.
I’m not a snob about ‘Organic’ only. I grew for over 10 years in Coco and had no problem getting great burning and tasting flower. I do think it’s easier with Organic, if you don’t get salts right the flower will burn bad and you can taste it.
Growth is definitely slower in soil, if you give them an extra 2-3 weeks of veg you will get a similar yield per sq.ft.
Biggest lesson with ‘living soil’ is you are not feeding the plant, you are feeding the soil. You need to provide the environment and inputs the soil biology wants and they keep the plant happy.
I’m a big fan of coco and ‘Living soil’, they offer different advantages. Coco you get rapid growth, precision feeding/crop steering and ease of transplanting. ‘Living Soil’ is more set and forget, after the initial work of mixing it’s pretty much water only for hard to beat quality.
Hard to say what I prefer, I switched from coco and liked the fact I could reuse and amendments are fair bit cheaper in bulk than liquid ferts, but I also liked the control I had in coco. With recent health complications the mixing and potting big pots could be a bit too much for me so will see if I go back to coco.
I love growing with living soil.one thing about growing that way is if you have any problems with your plants and fix the problem you won’t see results for two weeks.i use self watering wick bases so I can keep the microbes happy(if you’re plants dry out the microbe colony will parish.i also like to add microbes every two weeks(recharge).when I make up my mix I add guys green or roots organic living soil and ad 1/3 worm castings and I added it with guya green 444 also if I’m reusing my soil but don’t add 444 if you’re using new soil but add it every 30-45 days.you can also get salt build up in the soil and will need to flush if you see your plant struggling.they say you don’t need to ph your water but I always keep mine at 6.2-6.7.this is a more hands off approach and people always mess up trying to add synthetic nutrients to an organic grow.make sure you’re not blending two different grow styles together.
Living soil is literally just nature. For me it’s been as simple as reusing my soil which was originally just ocean forest. I re amend with Dr earth products which are meant for tomatoes and herbs. Just add some worms to your old soils and reuse them. Add a cover crop next time. It’s fairly simple. I used to try to grow with bottled nutrients but everything kept turning out the same. It all looked, smelled, and tasted exactly the same. I thought I was just bad at growing. Then I tried some organic dry amendments because it was the most cost effective. Now my grows are cheaper. My flowers all have unique smells and flavors and they all show their own unique characteristics which I didn’t get when I was using bottles and coco. It could be experience. I’ve thought about trying out synthetics and coco again but I haven’t had to buy anything new in years. Still using the same bags of nutrients. I reuse my soil. My stems go back into the old soil and the worms eat them and poop out more nutrients. Each cycle I’ve had to use less. So I haven’t made the switch back yet. The only thing I spend money on is new clones. Which hypothetically you could make your initial purchases and grow for years this way.
I am doing a side by side comparison this year and it’s obvious which is the living soil. Three are living soil(Tilth Soil from Cleveland), the other six are a super soil recipe. The plants in the super soil are telling me they want more cowbell(cal-mag). 12, 1, and 2 o’clock are the Tilth and they are way happier. Everything is going in living soil from now on. All are being fed with King Solomon nutrients and Recharge.
More branching, more leaves. Just all around a more robust plant. Will translate to the buds and the flavors as well. I love a good side by side. I have yet to do any but I think they’re super cool to see
I’m on my 4th grow, all soil all the time!
I started with Fox Farm Ocean Forest, and I reuse that soil for each grow. It gets Build A Soil Craft Blend fertilizer and BAS Build A Flower top dress every 30 days. I do not use worms since I learned that my 10 gallon fabric pots are not big enough for worms.
During seedling & veg, I add Rootwise mychorrize to their water weekly, and then during flower they get Rootwise BioPhos weekly. I also add saponin weekly, a BAS amendment, it’s soap nuts. I hand water them, which is a daily activity. I’m concerned that if I don’t check in with my plants daily, I might miss catching anything amiss like pests or that one time a planted hermied on me.
To reammend the soil in between grows, I give the soil more Craft Blend than for the 30 days during the grow. And the some top dress and water it, and 2 weeks later the soil is all set for new plants.
. 12, 1, and 2 o’clock are the Tilth and they are way happier. Everything is going in living soil from now on. All are being fed with King Solomon nutrients and Recharge.
