Too late to cook SS?

[captain crunch]

I'm getting ready to restart my garden. I'm completely out of SS. How late is too late to cook a batch outside?

It's been low 90's for the last week still, but our weather can change quite rapidly.

How warm does it really need to be to effectively cook a batch?

 

[Organic Altruism]

I'm sure I'll have 1,000 people disagree with me, but there's no need to "cook" the soil. People think that if you don't let the nutrients and amendments break down, the plant won't have everything it needs. I never cook my soil mixes (mine is about 80% the strength of subcool's) and my plants are lush green right up until the last 2-3 weeks of flower. Never had an issue. I put my 5-6 week old plants in a full pot of the stuff, veg for another week or so and flip to flower. In addition, I would love to see a scholarly article about soil "cooking" and comparing it to "uncooked" soil. The study simply doesn't exist. It's an old subcool fable that started in the early 2000's when he released his personal "super soil" recipe.

 

[ANC]

Only time I would consider a cooking is when I added charcoal as it has a habit of stripping nutrients until it is fully loaded.

 

[Organic Altruism]

Only time I would consider a cooking is when I added charcoal as it has a habit of stripping nutrients until it is fully loaded.

That's a good idea. That being said tho you can add pre-activated charcoal (already has absorbed nutes) that was activated with worm castings or other forms of compost. The down side to this though is activated charcoal is soooo much more expensive than letting it sit yourself.

 

[wolfpack4ever]

There's more benefits to cooking it rather than not cooking it. You're not giving the soil time to break down the beneficial microbes and bacterias that basically help the roots absorb more of the good stuff in the soil (amendments) .. so everything is more readily available .. I've grown with uncooked SS and supersoil cooked for 5-6 months, and I'd have to say the batch that was cooked grew very VERY happy plants. But to each his own , if that's what works best for you than that's great, I'm just sharing my experience. To answer the question about weather or not you have time, it's been 3 weeks since you posted and I bet there was plenty of time, I would cook my soil in the basement where it was constantly between 65-68 and it does just fine cooking down there.

With that being said I have not been able to have a place to grow for the past 3 years until now. And it feels good to be back!! So happy I can finally grow my own meds again! I love being in control , I have plenty of experience with SS and TGA as that's what was the majority of what was in my garden before I had to shut it down. Sorry for rambling I'm just excited to be back to this forum and back to the yaarrrden

 

[Hippie hipper]

It's nutrient cycling! Lol and you're waiting for the things to be bio available. You want your microbes to be established before planting...thats not to say you can't plant before though. Just make sure it's turned plenty, or even go a little light on the amendments and top dress the rest through the grow. To much raw amendments could burn even if 100% organic.