Anyone hace any thoughts on recycling the soil from previous grows? If so whats the best way to condition the soil so it wont be harmful to seedlings? I have been using the happy frog foxfarm soil. Does anyone have any other soil options that work better or just as good but a little cheaper of an option mabe?
7 Likes
Best bet is to get a bag of starter soil for your seedlings honestly.
But as far as recycling soil I’ve been doing it for the last couple years and it’s great. It only needs a few amendments to be great soil again. Depending on your style grow add some trace minerals and veg amendments and you’re all set for another grow. Might need to add a bit of compost and perlite too.
10 Likes
And if you wanna make you own soil for a bit cheaper do it. 1 part peat, 1 part compost, 1 part perlite and some amendments and you’re set.
4 Likes
Id get ya bag a seedling starter for your beans to start. I personally use Coast of Maine seedling starter mix and innoculate it with mycos. As far as recharging your soil. Of course you can! Only reason i mix now is to save $$. There are alot of recharge choices on the world wide web. I usually recharge with a dry amendment such as Coast of Maine Stonington Blend nutes but recently have started using Green Mountain Veg from @Roadsideorganics.ok
This is a new mix i just threw together yesterday for my winter grow, but ill throw all my used soil in there with it.
8 Likes
Great question, I’m interested in this also.
3 Likes
I got a little bag of seed starter mix and 3 out of 4 of my seedling fell over and died in it. They were not over/under watered. I rescued one that was about to fall over and die too. It perked right up when I put it in FFOF, it’s the plant that I’m growing now. I’ve never had that happen before, as I’ve always started them in FFOF. The bag of seed starter just says, Seed starter mix on it, and it was made in China, which may be the reason they died. I got it on Amazon.
5 Likes
Me too until recently I started trying to reuse my ffof for seedlings and I can definitely tell they don’t like it LOL I just put one in there yesterday already germed but I doubt it’s going to make it but we will see but yeah I need to just go ahead and get a fresh bag to roll with cuz I’m not having luck with reusing it for seedlings
2 Likes
Thank you for that, Jayjay504. I was going to try to reuse my FFOF for my next grow seedlings. I will be using fresh now.
3 Likes
Flush it down to less than 200 PPMs and add back organic dry amendments or start feeding synthetic fertilizer once the plant passes the seedling stage 
6 Likes
Yeah that could be. I try and get any soil locally if possible just to avoid anything weird. But find whatever works best and go with it.
You can still reuse soil. Just gotta be sure to add amendments and get rid of any leftovers if you’re using synthetics. Reusing soil really works best if growing organic. Synthetics leave salt buildup so you gotta flush it.
4 Likes
Well i have been only using the ff happy frog soil which is awesome the first time out of the bag but after pulling the plant out of it and flushing it out till it has almost clear runnoff it still seems to be hard for my germinated seeds to stay alive in… i just had a grandaddy purp seed not grow past the day i put it in the recycled soil but had an inch long tail before putting it in the soil. So i may have to just buy some new soil unfortunately. I did get one girlscout cookies extreme to sray alive for now in that same soil but it doesnt look like its growing very fast at all for how long it has been popped out the top soil (4 or 5 days) its only like a few inches tall and only has the 4 leaves on it so far..
4 Likes
Fox farms Happy frog is good for seedlings, it is not as hot as ocean’s forest. It has available nutes for starting plants and has mykos for root growth! I use it and I’ve used ocean’s forest both to start seedlings and I’ll tell you there was a definite difference in the growth rate, speed and overall health of the seedlings! My plants were the size of a 1 month old plant at almost 3 weeks in the Happy frog! Just my two scents!
4 Likes
Mine were GDP that died in the seed starter and I was only able to save one. I transferred it to FFOF and she perked right up. It’s the beautiful single plant that I’m growing now.
2 Likes
I have always started mine in FFOF, and done ok, but if they do better in Happy Frog, i’ll try that next time. Thanks!
3 Likes
See the reason I started to try to reuse the soil is because I noticed when I would buy Fox farm soil from my local feed store there was fungus gnats every time
5 Likes
You can put it in a tote, stir it about and dry it out a lil better to kill the larvae. Those lil creeps. Keeping the soil too moist can lead to fungus gnats too.
4 Likes
Alot of nurserys and feed n seed stores leave their soils outside in the rain uncovered. During the warmer months they all tend to have gnats down here.
2 Likes
Thats the way I would go. All my soil has several years on it. Started just non ammended organic potting soil. Dry ammended. Used. Rebuilt dry ammend,perlite,worm castings, epsom, maybe some compost. Cook a few weeks then plant in it. The cooking time allows the soil life to render the dry nutes into an easy uptake state for the plant. Alleviates a hot planting.
5 Likes
That is what I do. When flowering plants come down this black gold is used for new plants. Old soil put in here. Ammended. Watered a bit, not too much just sorta moist, and cooks till next exchange. I also add back ALL my pruning to soil for organic matter. Including roots and stems. It breaks down before use completely.
5 Likes
This is the way lol
4 Likes