Lots of postings on the internet about the superiority of worm castings over steer manure compost, but where I live, steer manure compost is about $2.50 per cubic foot and a worm castings blend is >$12 per cubic foot. The information I’ve found so far doesn’t really factor in the cost. Is this extra cost worth it? Is there something I can add to a mix in addition to the steer manure compost to make them more equivalent?
Composted steer manure is much ‘hotter’ than worm castings. You can pretty much grow a plant in pure worm castings but not so with manure. If you use it be sparing, mix in with any other amendments and allow it to ‘cook’ under a tarp before use.
If you are building a soil there is a LOT of additives that are needed. Balancing all of that with a near neutral PH is tough for the home grower. You’ll need things like dolomite lime or oyster flour to buffer any mix to the correct PH range for cannabis.
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I’m only in Kelloggs organic potting mix with my compost and worm castings. I have worms and mites crawling through it so it’s considered a living soil. I worm tea and top dressed with Craft blend from BuildaSoil, two week intervals for a month prior to planting it . Plants doing alright at 22 days.
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Looks like you are on top of it. I would do a slurry test to make sure your soil PH is in range for cannabis. 6.3 to 6.8 PH.
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Was really hoping was something I could avoid for the time being due to cost, want a nice one and they’re like $80 from what I’ve seen. I may not fully understand living soil because I started only that many days ago but I think ph monitoring isn’t as big an issue, at least I hope 
. I have been using API tap water conditioner in my tap so I may need cal mag due to all the hard minerals being dissolved.
Curious about something. There are a lot of cheap soil testers on Amazon. I bought this one
What I had in mind was to use this on the soil before doing anything and use aluminum sulphate or lime to get to that range before I start. I suspect it can then ‘drift’ during the grow from adding nutrients, so I will use PhUp or PhDown as needed during the grow, still using the Amazon gizmo to monitor it.
Do they not work?
I’m just adding my 2 cents. Don’t buy that 10 dollar toy.
At the very least I suggest this piece of junk it gets job done up till harvest then it gives false readings for a while and you mess up your whole grow .
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hmm. Well, I’m a complete noob with little experience on this, but the link I included has quite a few positive Amazon reviews, and perhaps more to the point I already bought it. I’m going to give it a try.
I just started about 6 months ago. I got a couple of grows to work in MiracleGro moisture control potting mix and MiracleGro seed starter mix. But for many reasons, not related to the mix, my success rate is terrible. Once I get a plant well into the vegetative stage I’m OK usually, but the fraction that gets there is low. For example, I haven’t successfully freed a seedling from helmet head yet, I always botch it. And there are pests I’m not handling well yet. Something in my yard loves to munch on seedling leaves. I just bought cloches to try. Using a bad mix hasn’t been my biggest problem. I guess I’m just looking ahead and hoping I can acquire the other skills to get there.
BTW, MiracleGro seems to have neutral Ph, and I haven’t tried adjusting it downward. I know I should, I just haven’t done it.
Those cheap soil probes are not worth the money they charge for them. They can tell you moisture levels but PH is worthless.
A decent PH meter is the most used tool for the grower. That said; living soil, once buffered to correct PH won’t need monitoring. But you have to get your soil right and there is no shortcut to doing it.
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OK, so I can start saving, what would be suitable? If I just up my budget, these two seem to stand out to me:
I’m just basing that on some surfing, though. Could be on the wrong track…
Something wrong in the first link. I copied one for a soil tester. Anyway, there is a soil version very similar.
The apera I was looking at is GS2. The link for some reason shifts to GS4 which is a hydroponic model. This site seems most favorable to the apera PH20, which is way cheaper but again a hydroponic version. Does the GS2 actually work without using slurry, or is that junk too? If it actually works it looks like a convenient tool.
I would recommend the Apera 20, super reliable and accurate.
I would recommend using this type, you’ll be checking the nutrient mix, Run off or an occasional slurry test which all are liquid. I would recommend a Blue Lab TDS pen for checking the PPMs of the same above 
Thanks to all of you for your help! I’m learning a lot, I think. But a few things are causing me to go hmmmm.
First is the notion that a good PH meter is the most important tool. So far I’ve been ignoring PH altogether, and while my plants don’t look nearly as good as many of the images on this site, they do yield enough for me. I’m wondering to what extent this has been dumb luck, and to what extent the plants are somewhat tolerant?
Second is the thought that once you get PH right it doesn’t drift much. I suspect that won’t be true for me. I live on an island in the middle of the Pacific and most of the time we have about the purest air you can find on the planet. The data on purpleair is remarkable. But I also live 50 miles downwind from an active volcano. When the rift is open it spews stuff into the air. We call it ‘vog’ which I think is for volcano smog. When that’s going on purpleair says we have air worse than Los Angeles. What recently occurred to me, and I checked it on google, is that the sulfur content of the vog causes acid rain. Seems like volcanic acid rain is in the 2.5 - 5 level. Doesn’t happen all the time, but does happen. Bear in mind that I grow outdoors and the rain does fall on my plants.
That got me to wondering about our tap water. That comes from deep wells so I suspect it’s heavily filtered, but I should probably test it. I’d hate to have to buy bottled water just to water my plants. That would take quite a lot of bottled water.
I’m kind of thinking I should test the soil a lot, and the Apera GS2 looks like it would easiest for that. But now I’m really curious about both rain water and tap water. Amazon does have PH test strips very cheap for testing water. How effective would a soil meter like GS2 combined with test strips for liquid be?
Another BTW. It takes Amazon nearly 3 weeks to deliver here. So too much experimentation wastes a lot of time. I really appreciate getting information here instead, so thanks again.