Super Soil worth it?

Hi everyone. I currently have
3 autoflowers going right now and 1 will be finishing next week, another one in the next month or so, and the 3rd sometime after that (hadn't started flowering yet). So far I've used very little nutes, but I wanted to try and do a water only super soil organic grow next. I only have a 2x2x4.5 ft tent for veg/flower, so I plan on continuing autos and only have maybe 2 at a time in 2.5 gal air pots. Right now I have 3 in 3.5 gal and it's too big for my tent. With my tent being so small, is it worth it to make my own soil? All the recipes I see are for giant batches. I'm Looking at only 5 gallons if I do 2 at a time. If it is worth it to make my own, are there any recommendations for smaller recipes? Thanks everyone!

maybe not what you're lookin for but you can buy pre-bagged/mixed super/living/water only soils from a few places like build-a-soil 3.0, sohum, redbud. i personally decided to try redbud since they're local but really want to try the 3.0 from BAS however shipping on soil can be a deal killer but if you only need one bag it might not be as bad just remember to either re-ammend/recycle the soil or try no-till that way it is a one time purchase.

Is it worth it? I grow using a supersoil mix and i love it. First batch i made was 10 gallons. i had to buy a ton of stuff to make that first 10 gallons. so yeah, it's expensive to get up and running. maybe not worth it if you're talking about dollars and cents.

I like the fact that i don't have to mess with my plants. just add water for the duration of the grow. To me, that's worth it.

cirE said:

2.5 gal air pots.

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Just to be clear, I've been using 5 gal fabric pots. I don't know if 2.5 gal will be sufficient to take you to harvest, you'll have to try it and top dress at the end of the grow if the plants run through the initial charge of nutrients.

MoroccanRoll said:

Is it worth it? I grow using a supersoil mix and i love it. First batch i made was 10 gallons. i had to buy a ton of stuff to make that first 10 gallons. so yeah, it's expensive to get up and running. maybe not worth it if you're talking about dollars and cents.

I like the fact that i don't have to mess with my plants. just add water for the duration of the grow. To me, that's worth it.

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What mixture are you using? 10 gal is not too much, I can always use it for other non cannabis plants I have, or keep it stored.

MoroccanRoll said:

Just to be clear, I've been using 5 gal fabric pots. I don't know if 2.5 gal will be sufficient to take you to harvest, you'll have to try it and top dress at the end of the grow if the plants run through the initial charge of nutrients.

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Right now I have regular 3.5 gal pots, next run I was thinking either smaller 2.5 gal air pots or fabric or square pots so I can maximize the space. I definitely dont mind top dressing and recharging.

Saving money by using dry fertilizer like gaia or dr earth.
I use the simple mix (first one) on this.
https://forum.grasscity.com/threads/easy-organic-soil-mix-for-beginners.1116550/

Only change is use less compost/ewc and more peat perlite.I mix 15 g at a time it just sits in a tote in my garage.water every so often aand in 40 days you got some good stuff.

MoroccanRoll said:

Just to be clear, I've been using 5 gal fabric pots. I don't know if 2.5 gal will be sufficient to take you to harvest, you'll have to try it and top dress at the end of the grow if the plants run through the initial charge of nutrients.

Click to expand...

MoroccanRoll said:

Is it worth it? I grow using a supersoil mix and i love it. First batch i made was 10 gallons. i had to buy a ton of stuff to make that first 10 gallons. so yeah, it's expensive to get up and running. maybe not worth it if you're talking about dollars and cents.

I like the fact that i don't have to mess with my plants. just add water for the duration of the grow. To me, that's worth it.

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what do you toss in your mix? i am always looking to improve but yeah homeade soil is the best way to go using as much organic as possible

just dont use anything with the words miracle grow they have a black gold soil i saw the other day the word miracle grow was all but hidden but the ingridients were all chemicals

myke said:

Saving money by using dry fertilizer like gaia or dr earth.
I use the simple mix (first one) on this.
https://forum.grasscity.com/threads/easy-organic-soil-mix-for-beginners.1116550/

Click to expand...

That is way less complicated then I thought!

1/2 part peat moss
1/2 part humus (compost and/or ewc- can do all compost or all ewc or some mixture of the two)
1/2 part aeration amendment
1 cup lime (per cubic foot)
Nutritional amendments: you want to add about 2-3 cups total of all your nutritional amendments per cubic foot (7.5 gallons) of soil. Note that this means 2-3 cups total, a combination of all your nutritional amendments, not 2-3 cups of each amendment.
1 cup kelp meal
1.5 cups dry organic fertilizer

That is not much at all. I will have to write it all out, but for a small grow like mine, I dont see this going over $100 and then I can have a water only grow. That would be great.

cirE said:

That is way less complicated then I thought!

1/2 part peat moss
1/2 part humus (compost and/or ewc- can do all compost or all ewc or some mixture of the two)
1/2 part aeration amendment
1 cup lime (per cubic foot)
Nutritional amendments: you want to add about 2-3 cups total of all your nutritional amendments per cubic foot (7.5 gallons) of soil. Note that this means 2-3 cups total, a combination of all your nutritional amendments, not 2-3 cups of each amendment.
1 cup kelp meal
1.5 cups dry organic fertilizer

That is not much at all. I will have to write it all out, but for a small grow like mine, I dont see this going over $100 and then I can have a water only grow. That would be great.

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Yeah my thoughts is the mix in the organic fertilizer should be better then what i can do.I use Gaia,theres over a dozen ingredients.Makes it easier.As i said just reduce the humus part so 40,20,40.Not so thick then.I also did the 4 cups rock dust.

How does this look? If I follow the 40/20/40 and 7.5 gal total, this would all work.


3 gallons peat moss (This would leave 13.5 gallons unused if the below is purchased)
1.5 gallons ewc (This would leave 2.25 gallons unused if the below is purchased)
3 gallons perlite (I already have perlite)

1 cup lime (Only making 1 cubic foot, so only 1 cup is needed. Approx 4 cups unused if the below is purchased)
1 cup kelp meal (This would leave roughly 4 cups unused if the below is purchased)
1.5 cups dry organic fertilizer (This would leave 18.5 cups unused if the below is purchased)
4 cups Azomite rock dust (Unsure how much would be left over)


Total would be $76.94 before any taxes/shipping. All of this is enough for not only creating the soil, but for amending the soil as well. Even after amending, there is still plenty of everything and the only thing needing to be purchased somewhat soon is more EWC and maybe more kelp meal.


Re-using Your Organic Soil
-additional humus (ewc and/or compost) at the rate of 1 part humus to 4 parts old soil.
-additional aeration amendment: add about half as much additional aeration amendment as you do additional humus (so if you add 4 gallons of compost/ewc, add 2 gallons of aeration amendment). You may need to add more to keep the level of aeration amendment consistent with that of the original soil-go with what you think is best.
-kelp meal: 1 cup per cubic foot of soil.
-dry organic fertilizer: about 1/4-1/2 cup per cubic foot.
-liming amendment: approximately 1/4 cup liming amendment per cubic foot of soil



Sphagnum Peat Moss
2.2 Cubic Feet (16.5 gallons)
$10.99

Perlite
I already have several cubic feet

Earth Worm Castings
10 pounds (1/2 Cubic Foot - 3.75 gallons)
$16.99

Dr. Earth Pure Gold All-Purpose Fertilizer
8 pounds (20 cups)
$11.99

Dr. Earth Kelp Meal
2 pounds (Unsure how many cups, but roughly 5 cups)
$16.99

Epsoma Garden Lime
6-3/4 pounds (1 pound is approx 3/4 cup; approx 5 cups)
$4.99

AZOMITE
5 pounds (Unsure how many cups)
$14.99



I chose tractor supply because they are local and i could get it shipped to the store for free, but when I am ready to do this I will check amazon for everything as well; I was trying to keep it as local as I could.

My glacier rock dust worked out to 8 cups=5lbs
SEE if you can get basalt rather then azomite

Someone gave me some great advice when I started using my coots mix soil. Pick up a bottle of Aqua Power (5-1-1), and a bottle of Neptune's Harvest (2-4-1) Both are organic fish hydrolyzed fish fertilizer. Its hard to remedy a deficiency in soil that pops up, because you need the microbes to break down the dry ammendments, which in turn can be used by the plants. These bottles of liquid can help you quickly correct a problem without killing beneficial bacteria.
I have noticed with all my organic grows (4 grows so far), around week 4 or 5 I start seeing K deficiency. On my last potting of soil into my final pot, I added a couple tablespoons of langbeinite to a 10 gallon pot. The problem wasn't as pronounced, but still there. I think I'll add 3 next time.
Seems like it takes a couple runs before the soil really hits its stride, so don't get discouraged. Good luck!!

myke said:

My glacier rock dust worked out to 8 cups=5lbs
SEE if you can get basalt rather then azomite

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I will look and see what I can find!

GrassBurner said:

Someone gave me some great advice when I started using my coots mix soil. Pick up a bottle of Aqua Power (5-1-1), and a bottle of Neptune's Harvest (2-4-1) Both are organic fish hydrolyzed fish fertilizer. Its hard to remedy a deficiency in soil that pops up, because you need the microbes to break down the dry ammendments, which in turn can be used by the plants. These bottles of liquid can help you quickly correct a problem without killing beneficial bacteria.
I have noticed with all my organic grows (4 grows so far), around week 4 or 5 I start seeing K deficiency. On my last potting of soil into my final pot, I added a couple tablespoons of langbeinite to a 10 gallon pot. The problem wasn't as pronounced, but still there. I think I'll add 3 next time.
Seems like it takes a couple runs before the soil really hits its stride, so don't get discouraged. Good luck!!

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Thank you both!

osowhom said:

what do you toss in your mix? i am always looking to improve but yeah homeade soil is the best way to go using as much organic as possible

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It's likely any of the mixes above will work. Mine is below. A couple of notes:

• I probably won''t use Kellog's again. It has massive amounts of wood chips and sequesters nitrogen while the wood breaks down. After about 6 months, it composts down a little better. Next time I'll probably try using one of the department store Promix variants.
• I don't put my supersoil in the bottoms of my pots, just mix it in with everything else.
• Final potting mix is:
  • 1/3 composted Supersoil
  • 1/3 aged garden compost
  • 1/3 Promix potting mix (the one with peat + coir + some amendments)
  • A few extra handfuls of perlite

MoroccanRoll said:

It's likely any of the mixes above will work. Mine is below. A couple of notes:

• I probably won''t use Kellog's again. It has massive amounts of wood chips and sequesters nitrogen while the wood breaks down. After about 6 months, it composts down a little better. Next time I'll probably try using one of the department store Promix variants.
• I don't put my supersoil in the bottoms of my pots, just mix it in with everything else.
• Final potting mix is:
  • 1/3 composted Supersoil
  • 1/3 aged garden compost
  • 1/3 Promix potting mix (the one with peat + coir + some amendments)
  • A few extra handfuls of perlite

Click to expand...

Im using Kellog's Patio Plus right now, and its alright, but definitely nothing great. Is there an advantage to doing it your way with the blood meal , bone meal and bat guano instead of using a fertilizer like dr earth? Are those prices from somewhere local, or at a store like home depot/tractor supploy/amazon?

cirE said:

Im using Kellog's Patio Plus right now, and its alright, but definitely nothing great. Is there an advantage to doing it your way with the blood meal , bone meal and bat guano instead of using a fertilizer like dr earth? Are those prices from somewhere local, or at a store like home depot/tractor supploy/amazon?

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Kelloggs Patio Plus was problematic for me at first. They source their base "soil" locally. I normally consider locally sourced a good thing but there's evidence that the composition varies significantly by region. The stuff I got here in the Midwest looked like it came straight from the woodchipper. As a relatively new gardener (and a notorious cheapass), I bought in to the "from the forest floor" marketing. My bad. My backyard compost breaks down faster than that stuff. Well composted and as a much lower percentage of my mix, I'm okay with it and will continue to recycle the soil.

Blood meal, bone meal and bat guano are called out in some of the early "Supersoil" recipes available on the 'net. Worked for me. Prices are what I found at the local home center/hardware store. Azomite was ebay.

I'm generally skeptical of all the high priced, heavily marketed organic nutrients out there. Small batch from some local guy? Sure, maybe, but there may be very little to differentiate that from any other organic fertilizer supplier. I'm seriously considering pre-amending a future grow with only Espoma Organic Tomato Tone just to see what results i get.

Pre-charge with enough slow N-P-K and minerals of your choice for 12-20 weeks of growth and you're set.

MoroccanRoll said:

Kelloggs Patio Plus was problematic for me at first. They source their base "soil" locally. I normally consider locally sourced a good thing but there's evidence that the composition varies significantly by region. The stuff I got here in the Midwest looked like it came straight from the woodchipper. As a relatively new gardener (and a notorious cheapass), I bought in to the "from the forest floor" marketing. My bad. My backyard compost breaks down faster than that stuff. Well composted and as a much lower percentage of my mix, I'm okay with it and will continue to recycle the soil.

Blood meal, bone meal and bat guano are called out in some of the early "Supersoil" recipes available on the 'net. Worked for me. Prices are what I found at the local home center/hardware store. Azomite was ebay.

I'm generally skeptical of all the high priced, heavily marketed organic nutrients out there. Small batch from some local guy? Sure, maybe, but there may be very little to differentiate that from any other organic fertilizer supplier. I'm seriously considering pre-amending a future grow with only Espoma Organic Tomato Tone just to see what results i get.

Pre-charge with enough slow N-P-K and minerals of your choice for 12-20 weeks of growth and you're set.

Click to expand...

Thank you! I wont be doing this grow for another couple months at the rate this grow is going, but in trying to learn all I can so I run into as little hiccups as possible!

GrassBurner said:

Someone gave me some great advice when I started using my coots mix soil. Pick up a bottle of Aqua Power (5-1-1), and a bottle of Neptune's Harvest (2-4-1) Both are organic fish hydrolyzed fish fertilizer. Its hard to remedy a deficiency in soil that pops up, because you need the microbes to break down the dry ammendments, which in turn can be used by the plants. These bottles of liquid can help you quickly correct a problem without killing beneficial bacteria.
I have noticed with all my organic grows (4 grows so far), around week 4 or 5 I start seeing K deficiency. On my last potting of soil into my final pot, I added a couple tablespoons of langbeinite to a 10 gallon pot. The problem wasn't as pronounced, but still there. I think I'll add 3 next time.
Seems like it takes a couple runs before the soil really hits its stride, so don't get discouraged. Good luck!!

Click to expand...

Agree with the langbeinite, I have one strain that has a similar deficiency/slight fade and found langbeinite is a nice quick remedy.
I also use a fish hydrolysate.
In my opinion I’d definitely go a coots style mix over a super soil - no “cooking” with a coots.
Happy growing mate!!