How are you supposed to 'reuse your soil' when it's completely full of roots?

Hi all, novice grower here

The Black Swallow / KIS Mix soil costs a LOT of money here, like around 30 bucks a bag for just 7 gallons, so $30 just for the MEDIA on a SINGLE plant not accounting for all the other stuff you need throughout the grow.

They market it as “invest in good soil and then reuse it” but I am perplexed on how I could possibly re-use it. I just cut down 2 plants that made it to harvest and dumped the pots & soil into a big wheelbarrow, and lo and behold, the thing is literally ALL roots. Like if the dirt is in there suspended somewhere, it’s absolutely rock solid compacted with roots as well

I’ve let them sit out for a week or two trying to see if maybe just simple “time” would release this bundle of roots and dirt, but it doesn’t appear to be doing anything. Still an incredibly compacted ball that hasn’t even lost the shape of the pot it was in.

Is reusing soil just a meme if you aren’t doing no-till beds? Or is there something I need to do?

I’ve debated adding them to some kind of vessel and trying to add some sprouts and worms to it to see if maybe over the course of many months the worms would eat the roots up, but this is quite a different tale than we are told at purchase time… So I come to the experts

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For me I made a homemade 1/2 in screen hand shaking box. For me I ended up letting my soil dry a little bit on cardboard broke up all the roots first. When I do the shake most of the Roots come out like a hay bale.
I just reuse the soil, I’ve let the soil vacuum sealed for a good year. used it on this grow and all is fine. I did not let it dry out 100% more like only 30% moisture.
Next time I’m going to add a bag of fox farm frog conditioner soil. It’s just because it’s going to be the 3/4 time reusing the soil.
I’m sure you’re going to get a lot of different people’s suggestions on reusing soil and rejuvenating it. I say make a good screener that can hold a good gallon + shake it a box. Good luck

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I dump mine into 30 gallon plastic bins with a few holes drilled in the bottom. I add some leaves, lawn clippings, coffee grounds, banana peels , egg shells, fruit and vegetable trimmings, the usual organic debris. Mix it around occasionally and let it compost. The roots will break down and add to the soil.

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You can also break up the soil and remove just the main stem/root ball. Fill back in with some dry amendments mixed with fresh soil or compost. Also add a layer to the top of the entire pot. Give it time to break down, a few weeks or more, and then plant again. I usually plant in a different spot than the last main stem came out.

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I recycle my Happy frog soil. After harvesting six to seven pots I let the soil and the root ball completely dry in the pot for about 3 weeks.

HOW I SEPARATE SOIL FROM ROOTS
I put on some Ozzy Osbourne, got a 5 gallon bucket and I just put on a pair of rubber gloves and grab a handful of dirt and sift it through my hands.

The dirt and pearlite fall to the bucket and any root material stays in my hand. When the five gallon bucket is full by dump it into a large tote. By letting the soil dry for weeks this task is incredibly simple. I can hand sift 4 cubic feet in about 45 minutes. (That’s two of the big bags)

HOW TO REUSE/REFRESH THE SOIL
It’s very important to understand that all of your microbial/fungi life is dead in the soil and needs to be replaced.

When it comes time for a new grow I go into Solo cups for 10 days. On the 9th day I start to prepare my soil.

1.) I take the old dirt and I dump a bag of worm castings directly into the old soil and mix well. I fill up my pots with the used soil and worm casting mix.

2.) I prepare a couple 5 gallon buckets of R/O water and 300EC of calcium and magnesium and pH the mixture to 6.5

3.) I place each pot on and upside down Pepsi/Coca-Cola crate one at a time with a turkey pan inside of the upside down crate. (I do this with 6 x 3 Gal bag pots.

4.) I pour about 1.5gal - 2.5gal of the water slowly into the pots until the soil is totally saturated and running off into my turkey pan. I dig around the dirt just to make sure everything got wet.

5.) I remove the pot from the crate and pull out the turkey pan and measure my ppms and pH and document it. I repeat step four until all six pots are done.

6.) I prepare 6 gallons of RO water with 300 EC of calcium magnesium, a few shots of B-52 by Advanced Nutrients, few shots of vegetable yield enhancer, a few shots of photosynthesis Plus, a few shots of Voodoo Juice by Advanced Nutrients and a few shots of Bud Candy by advance Nutrients and I ph the water to 6.5. **Every product above is live microbial/fungi life/humic acid & microbial life feed.

7.) I pour 1 gallon of microbial Life feed through each of the 6 pots. And document the runoff of each individual pot.

This simple process above just created the finest live microbial/fungi thriving soil you can find. And you made it yourself!

Each pot measures 6.4 - 6.6ph and has enough nutrients to get you through about 10 days with just watering while you transplant your Solo cups into the soil.

This is called The Lost Girl technique of soil rejuvenation

It’s very important to keep your microbial life alive and feed with your favorite microbial manufactured products throughout the grow. If you’re microbial life is happy your roots are too. This is the stepping stone to an incredible harvest. Happy growing

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Always music 1st, then work. :rofl::rofl:
Glad to see you have your priorities straight. Lol

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Add recharge and let sit. Will degrade fast. Reusing soil works well. Mine is 2 years old or more this time.

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That seems like way too much work for me. This is the 3/4 grow for me with Fox farm soil. Instead of doing all of what you said I was going to grab a bag of Happy frog conditioning soil. The Price is Right and I know I can get a couple of extra grows out of my soil. Thank you though for all that info you mad scientist :sunglasses:

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My next grow I’ll be trying for the first time, sub cools super soil recipe, and the root balls from my last grow will be part of the recipe.

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Can you post that info? I have not heard of it

Thank you!

I started taking a spade shovel thing and hacking a bit of the outside root ‘shield’ up

8 large bags of a high-quality organic potting soil with coco fiber and mycorrhizae (i.e., your base soil)
25 to 50 lbs of organic worm castings
5 lbs steamed bone meal
5 lbs Bloom bat guano
5 lbs blood meal
3 lbs rock phosphate
¾ cup Epson salts
½ cup sweet lime (dolomite)
½ cup azomite (trace elements)
2 tbsp powdered humic acid

You can always size this down to 1/2 which is all you need for 6 plants