I’m new to non gorilla growing. I have read that people sometimes have gnats and/or mold when purchasing potting soil. If I baked the store bought soil in the oven set at 250 degrees for about 20 minutes or so would that solve those problems or would it somehow change the nutritional value ?
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I know some people bake their soil, but I personally just chance it. Maybe I’m just a risky kinda guy, but the idea of literally baking my dirt is more than I can handle and yeah I think it does bake out good stuff as well as bad stuff that may or may not be there
I say that, but to date I’ve only ever used ffof, but I have 5 bags of all purpose soil (not amended) from dollar general that I have no intention of baking.
Thanks for your reply. I’m not sure if I will try it out or not. Just looking before I leap. I’m only going to grow a couple of plants at a time. Might try one out and not the one next to it but that’s not a sure thing either, from what I’ve read, because no two plants grow the same unless they are clones.
I was hoping that someone else might have tried it and had a definitive opinion one way or another. I just don’t want bugs or mold in my home.
Nah, don’t waste your time. Purchase a reputable soil from Coast of Maine or Fox farm. I grow alot and have never had issues.
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Thank you IG76. I guess that I’m over thinking things.
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Yeah, if you’ve not even bought it yet then if you go with a reputable brand that’s designed for weed, you shouldn’t have any problems and baking it will probably mess up the soil’s amendments
I’ve used fox farms with great success
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Mix some Mosquito Bits into the top inch of the soil.
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This would work but would kill all those beneficial microbes, which you could re-introduce with no problem. Seems like a lot of work and agree there’s been a pest issue lately with a lot of amended soils particularly FF mediums. Coast of Maine makes the best soil I’ve seen out there, I’ve grown a few plants in this medium but switched up to coco years ago, definitely worth the switch 
Can’t get that same terp complexity though with coco and salt heavy nutes.
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Respectfully disagree and agree if that’s possible 
. All strains are different with some exhibiting stronger profiles than others. I’ve grown in soil, coco and hydro with mixed results
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Im starting to push Coast of Maine. Been using this for years and never steered me wrong. Other will attest… i guarantee if you follow thier cannabis feeding schedule and have proper lighting and environment youll have a successful grow.
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I have found that when using organic soil i deal with gnats i use to grow in 5gal buckets i would put about inch of green sand on top but they still would surface in drain hole so i started using feed sacks now with the bags and sand they cant surface and it kills them so i would say grow bags with little sand on top will take care of gnats
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The key to controlling gnats is controlling the environment they thrive in. Allowing a good dry out of the first few inches of soil prevent fungus gnats from laying their eggs and if they do lay eggs they wont survive. Fungus gnats need moisture in soil to breed and if the moisture isnt there, then they will slowly die off. When i bring in new soil, ill hang a few sticky fly things and within 48 hours i have them under control.
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I have to respectfully disagree as well.
Theres no evidence supporting this other then anecdotal evidence makeing this “bro science” my freind.
Plants can’t tell where the nutrients come from and since nutrients are minerals and there is only 1 form of minerals and it’s not an organic form. The minerals are exactly the same when the plant takes it up and uses it as a building block.
Either microbes turn organic matter into these building blocks or a laboratory isolates the minerals (often from the same organic sources) and makes the building blocks.
But the blocks are the same elements found on the periodic chart.
Here’s a cool chart showing what those elements are that plants need.
@BB3 heating the soil as you described is not going to alter the molecular structure of any nutrients in the soil.
It will kill anything alive both good and bad though.
This is a sure fire way to guarantee you start with a sterile growing medium, but it would be a good idea to reintroduce beneficial microbes.
It’s a crap shoot with bagged soil no matter the brand. Manufacturers may do a great job at building a soil with no pests but they have no control of distribution and storage after that.
I’ve had many of fungus gnats come from FF soil and their coco-coir.
In fact i stopped buying it locally because they store it outside and It seem to always have pests 
I switched to coco-coir and h2o2 with no microbes at all and have better results now then ever in soil.
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I just believe that sun grown, living soil no salt based nutes, produces flavors that are above and beyond. I absolutely respect your opinion. I just think mother nature does it best.
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I have no dog in the race, but I must admit, I wanna try a more natural approach and see how that all compares
The jacks nutes are great at simplicity, but I can’t help but wonder how a purely organic grow would be
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Potentially better, and Potentially worse 
Is so many variables involved in growing a good product.
Since the minerals are exactly the same when the plant takes them up, (its my opinion) it’s more about the grower.
If everything was the same, genetics and environment, both organic inputs and non-organic inputs both supply the exact same elements to the plant.
We see lot’s of great natural grows and lots of great non-natural grows.
Some people are better at letting microbes do the work and some are better skipping that step.
But both can produce the same end product if done correctly…
Ask an organic grower what’s better and they say organic.
Ask a synthetic grower and they will say salts.
Both can show you ridiculous fire weed so whos right 
Ask a scientist and they will tell you there’s no data suggesting this question has an answer as the building blocks are exactly the same.
It could be that one is better then the other, but as of our current understanding from years of studies. There’s no difference in a controlled setting where nothing but the imputs are different and the grower has an extensive understanding of both methods.
I believe everyone should try both and go with whatever method works better for them 
I grow lots of veggies outside naturally but my cannabis indoors is all salts.
Organics for me is way to hard indoors, some will disagree with me on that to, but each grower is different and like the idea knowing exactly what my plants get and the mechanics of what they do with it 
and it works best for me.
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I would like to thank everyone for sharing their experiences/opinions with me on the question of whether to bake or not to bake. It’s all very interesting. Thanks again to everyone.
BB3
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I’ve grown hydro and using chemical fertilizer and organic and i love growing organic soil i make my own compost worm farm and that’s fun itself. me myself i get better smoke growing organic
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