So I am attempting at living soil for my first grow and have what I think is a 20 gallon(I’ve had for a while with other plants in it).
I’ve put in worm castings, compost, perlite and like 30 red wrigglers.
From what I am reading is you need to keep the soil moist for the microbiology and the worms to stay alive and active. How do you got about keeping the soil moist while also not overwatering your plant?
Please help
@ChittyChittyBangin @GreenJewels can help with this Growmie 
Frequent small amounts of watering, and ensuring that water is spread throughout the container.
I’ve seen/heard to water no more than 5-10% volume of water at a time, so for you 1-2 gallons of water. Better to stay closer to 5%.
Edit - adding a wetting agent to your water can help make water “wetter”. This means it spreads out more easily, especially if soil gets a bit dry. Yucca extract is common. Not required every time you water, but can help.
Mulch or cover crops help a lot with water retention, especially to avoid the top layer from drying out repeatedly while lower layers stay moist or too wet. Mulch can be cardboard layers, plastic cover, straw. I think most people avoid wood chip mulches as it can promote soil acidity and favour microbes that use up nitrogen - but I’m not sure on that part. I recently used rice hulls on indoor pots and its working super well, also eliminated the small fungus gnat population I had.
Living soil can be a tricky thing to get down at first. It can change periodically and daily depending on a lot of factors. Temps, humidit, rain ect.
With living soil I don’t like to let it ever fully dry out. Yes cannabis likes to dry out from time to time remember, you are working on growing the soil and everything that lives in it. The he plant will fall into line.
Using a cover crop like straw can help in many ways. It helps retain moisture longer which allows for less watering. Less evaporation is happening!!
Thank you for the response! I am just curious if the living soil being moist aspect is just the first couple inches?? I am currently using garden debris and straw for mulch because I read it’s nice for myko growth but I’m not sure.
Yeah I have a soil moisture reader that has stayed at the wet side of the gauge for the better part of a week. I also know I didn’t do a proper mix of perlite and sphagnum so this could possibly be the reason for the extended hold of moisture.
I am about to receive some seeds and am going to reammend with the proper 33%’s that I’m seeing.
I also bought some craft blend from buildasoil and was curious if this would be all the extra nutrients I would need for the grow with some teas in between
I agree. I use a garden sprayer to make it easier to accomplish 
Slow and even watering.
Cover crops chopped and dropped, pruned leaves and/or barley straw is what I use for mulch.
Yes, and I use the sprayer for smaller amounts daily to keep the top of the soil moist. I don’t ever let my living soil totally dry out. I never water to run off, just keep it moist and not soggy. It takes time but you’ll get the hang of it.
Anything else in the mix like a rock dust, fish bone meal, kelp etc ? Do you plan on topdressings?
None of those other materials unfortunately but I’ve debated on just mixing some of this craft blend from buildasoil into my soil blend. Do you know if that would be a good idea?
I was just going to top dress with the craft blend and use some worm teas with molasses and some liquid kelp watering but I have no clue on when I should. Seems like people are different on their approaches with teas and top dressing. I also was talking to a guy who recommended “Fish Shit” for the biology but I figured worm tea and the liquid kelp may do the same thing but also not sure lol. I’m like fresh fresh to this
Any help is greatly appreciated, I love to learn
Can you give a full list of what’s in your soil so far? Craft blend will probably be OK, but let’s make sure you don’t put in an excess and create problems down the road.
You want to keep the entire soil moist as this lets the soil stay alive - living soil. Worms, bugs, bacteria, fungi, diatoms, everything alive in the soil needs a certain amount of water to live. Optimal amounts of water, and ideal temperatures, keep the microbes and all the other soil life happy - happy soil life cycles nutrients.
Dry soil severely slows down and can even stop making nutrients available. Soil that’s too wet drowns the microbes. Too cold. Too hot. You get the idea.
Living soil can take some time to start cycling nutrients, and even to get the ideal microbe populations. Be patient and enjoy the process!
Thank you for response Dan
I started with a bag of Kellogg raised bed and potting mix, some compost I have from my vermicompost, worm castings and worms. All I had was miracle gro perlite so I went really light on perlite and regret it, I also think I need to add more sphagnum because I read somewhere about a ratio of 33% of perlite,sphagnum and soil mix.
I’ve done one soaking of the soil with molasses and worm castings but I didn’t brew it properly I think, I just kept in a jug and shook so probably killed everything. I have perlite (non miracle gro) and more sphagnum coming,I am receiving seeds soon so I have time to try and amend things but trying not spend anymore. The setup for tent put a little hole in my pocket lol
I have some red/white soil mites in my compost and I think springtails. I was really hoping I could get through a grow with the occasional worm tea and maybe liquid kelp for watering. Then top dressing with craft blend every two weeks once the plant gets mature enough for fertilizers, but I don’t know.
I’ve ordered 30 gallon grow bags but currently have my soil in a wooden plant pot. Do you think I should just throw my soil into that to help with airflow?
Sounds like you’re on the right track.
Add in more perlite and peat moss to get closer the 1/3 each. I’ve even seen people say the compost can be down to 20%. My point is, there’s a decent range where it will work.
Top dressing with craft blend sounds like a good strategy. I found I had to set it on my calendar or I’d forget, that’s just me.
I haven’t done teas, but lots of folks on here have and there’s plenty of ways to do it. Liquid kelp will help too - but don’t think of teas and kelp as interchangeable. They have different purposes. Kelp will help provide micronutrients, nutrients, natural growth hormones, and help with heat/drought tolerance. Teas will mainly provide microbes and limited nutrients. Both can help a lot, but aren’t required either.
Yes I’d use the big grow bags if you can.
I’m not sure if my reply was tagged to your message I’m new to this site
I don’t think my response was posted under your question. Sorry I am new to this site
Good idea. I use the craft blend every 2 weeks until flower. Scratch it in the top of the soil and topdress with worm castings or compost or it tends to cake up when watering. I use build a flower topdressings during flower. I also recommend BAS big 6 micros
Here’s the ingredient list for craft blend
I would use the cloth grow bags.
For money purposes do you think the craft blend would suffice the entire grow??
Also curious on your take/experience of mixing the craft blend into the soil prior to planting due to worms and other things feeding on it.
Sorry, i just saw the tag. Looks like everybody has you covered. Only thing i would add to everyones comments is to make sure you use plenty of perlite and/or agricultural vermiculite. You want plenty of drainage and plenty of space to allow your roots/soil oxygen exchange. I cooked 100 gallons last year, but did it outdoors and brought the soil indoors after a few months. I dealt with all kinds of issues since i grow indoors. Next time i cook any soil, ill do it all indoors under a controlled environment to help with bug issues… if i grew outdoors it wouldnt be an issue since Momma Nature could help control things naturally…
No worries @ChittyChittyBangin i appreciate you stopping in. Outdoors seems more intimidating to me with bugs than inside my grow tent lol
What I’m curious about with indoors and outdoors is how does bud go through flowering outside with high humidity and temperatures without molding. It’s like the biggest fear of mine because I’m having hard time getting humidity below 72 with a dehumidifier outside of tent. Inside would just create a lot of heat I believe
If youre in 30 gallon bags, with living soil, you should be able to grow the whole cycle with your blend. I would add molasses to your watering once a week to give the microbes a boost.
Yes, that will work great. I like pumice and rice hulls for drainage. Perlite always ends up working its way to the top after a few runs in the living soil.
