Using living soil has gotten a lot of attention in recent years and it’s not hard to see why. It’s been able to compete with hydroponic yields while making plants more nutritious and have a higher terpene count. Besides that, it is also a way of growing that gets better with age and produces less environmental waste. There are certain steps you need to do to make sure your soil will be able to perform at its very best. Some of these things are very basic but vital to getting your grow or garden off to the rights start. This guide is meant for our living soil blend but should work for most living soil blends as well.

What are your living soil pots/beds going to be made of

This question is simple enough but remember living soil is meant to last you for the rest of your life and even be passed down to future generations. So, making sure you have a quality bed for your soil is important. Going cheap might seem nice in the short run but will cause you to run into several issues later in your soil’s life. Most hard-shell pots seem to do great as well as metal containers, and wood containers. One that I have enjoyed using and gotten great results from are the grassroots fabric pots. They make living soil pots and beds that have a moisture lock fabric sewn into them. This feature helps to keep water from leaking out the sides. The bottom also has a breathable fabric allowing for more aeration.

Container Size

This is always a big issue for new growers. It comes down to what are you growing and how big you want your plants to get. The bigger the pot the more forgiving it will be for watering and feeding. You do have to factor increased costs for posts and soil as well as the space you have. I personally like a 4×4 foot bed but have gotten away with growing in 5-gallon pots as well.

To pH or not to pH

This is where you start to get your freedom from always having to pH your water. I’m not saying there won’t be instances of super acidic or alkaline soil that need to have its pH adjusted. But with living soil you have factors like beneficial bacteria that will develop and be able to buffer the pH of your soil for plant uptake. They can buffer a wide range but if your water pH is under 5.5 or above 7.5 it would be best to check your plants for any deficiency’s. If you are seeing deficiency’s then it would be best to start adjusting the pH.

What is the best water to use for living soil

While you do get your freedom from pH that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be cautious of water, even if it’s from a well. I recommend getting a water test done if possible, just to know what your chlorine/chloramine content is and if you have any heavy metals. I don’t recommend using plain tap water to use on your living soil. The chlorine will kill off a lot of you bacterial and fungal life. An RO filter might seem logical, but it will over strip the nutrients and microbial life. Getting a sediment filter and carbon filter are ideal. These two filters will help your soil continue to grow and flourish with microbial life. These are generally cheap and range from $50 – $150 but are worth every penny.

How much water do you need in a living soil

5% – 10% by volume is the ideal range of water in your soil. An example of this would be if you are using a 30 gallons pot 5% is equal to 1.5 gallons and 10% is 3 gallons. The goal is not to oversaturate your soil. If you have runoff coming out of the bottom of your bed, then you’re losing nutrients.

How to water

While the percentages of water are crucial the way you water is just as important. Our mix and many others contain sphagnum peat moss. This product is great at holding moisture when it’s saturated. The problem is when it dries out it will become hydrophobic, which means it will repel water instead of absorbing it. To correct this on a new soil you need to slowly add water instead of all at once. Try to achieve a 10% moisture content over 3 small watering’s in the first day. They can be spaced out every 15 minutes but make sure it isn’t all at once. Using a pump sprayer or other watering heads that give a good water spread benefits in getting everything saturated. You can also use wetting agents to assist you in this process. The three I like the most are Aloe, Yucca, and Soap nuts. Again, this process of spaced-out watering’s is for the first time you receive your living soil. After this process it gets easy to manage it and get a routine set on how often to water.

Adding worms

After the moisture content is good and the soil isn’t repelling water it’s time to add the worms. Worms are a key component to living soil and provide countless benefits to your grow. These little guys will till up soil and help decompose organic materials into nutrient rich castings. Without the worms your soil will build a top layer that won’t allow water to drain efficiently.

Cover crop and Mulch

Once the worms have been added its time to add a cover crop and mulch layer. Having a bare soil showing comes with a host of problems, from poor insulation, bad aeration, and pest issues. A cover crop and mulch layer will help bring nitrogen back into the soil. It increases number of worms, prevents soil erosion, allows water an easy entrance to soil, and provides organic matter back to the soil. When using a cover crop, I recommend making it as diverse as you can. A healthy system in nature isn’t going to only see one type of crop taking up all the space. It’s going to see a diverse network of plants, each providing a certain solution to natural problems in your system.

Adding Stones

This is a completely optional step, but I like it and see some benefits. Adding large stones (i.e., bigger than 3 inches in circumference) can provide housing space to some of the beneficial insects you want to attract. It gives a moist dark layer under the stone that turns into a breeding ground for beneficials’ to reproduce.

Setting a routine

I don’t know why this is overlooked so often but it is. Setting a routine for watering is vital for the performance of your crop. This is set by the conditions you grow in. Factoring in temperature, humidity, and plant stage/growth are the main factors to know if you need to water or not. There is no set schedule that will work for every grow, but for my conditions I water every other day and skip the weekend. Again, play around and see what fits your situation the best, you might have to water every day or once a week. If you don’t want to hand water, you might find some luck with drip irrigation. Be sure to adjust the placement of it every so often to you don’t get any dry pockets in your soil. If you are planting in small containers that can easily be lifted. Fill your pots with soil and feel how they weight without water being added. This will give you a good idea if your soil is dry or not. Also factor in the more plants you add to a container the more water they are going to suck up and the more you will need to add back.

Make it last

Living soil isn’t meant to be a one and done kind of soil. Sure, you can use it that way, but you are missing out on all the benefits you get from its aging. After the first year it will have a better water holding capacity, the microbe levels will increase, and fungal hyphae will start to benefit your plants nutrient uptake. But you won’t get this by watering only. Living soil needs to be cared for like nature cares for its forests. Adding more organic matter to the top to be broken down and used as nutrients for future growth. These nutrients vary greatly depending on their source. Cover crops will help with some, adding good quality compost is incredibly beneficial. Our soil blend is designed to be fed as a top dress as well, providing the nutrients and balance your plants need. I know this all sounds like a lot of work, but it’s way less work than you would have on other growing methods. With the added benefit of better-quality plants that are packed with nutrients. It’s also much better for the environment and will pull CO2 out of the air making it available for the plants to take up.

Additional tip for growing outdoors

If your growing outdoors and plan on letting your soil rest over winter, there are a couple things you should still do. Continue adding water to it over this time, it won’t require it as often, but we don’t want the soil and its life to dry up and die. Adding a mulch layer will help keep your soil insulated and retain moisture until you are ready to plant again.