I'm going to be running Peak's BB in about a month's time. I think I'm going to use Stepwell Super Soil with no added nutes whatsoever. I wonder how it'll respond and if anyone's done this.
In my opinion (based on what I know now-which is nt a whole lot compared to most people on this thread) I think Stepwell could benefit from some added perlite. I don't thinks its ability to aerate was very good using it right out of the bag. It was kind of dense and muddy ... but that's just my opinion.
I think weed grown in soil tastes amazing. My Crop grown is stepwell tasted amazing. I needed to top dress with GAIA 2-8-4 a week or 2 after flip. All this said, If I ever grow in soil again,
I will not use Stepwell. The remainder of my Stepwell bag is getting dumped into my Vegetable garden. If I ever grow in soil again it will be a light, fast draining mix which will be fed with a diluted compost tea at every water. The goal would be to have a mix that at least needs to be watered every other day.
My opinion of super soil grows is this: People on this thread have gotten some great results with ammended soil, but some of these guys have been growing 20+ years. Supersoil is always sold as "just add water..so simple". Kind of True, but if things aren't dialed in atmosphere wise, or your plant does n't like the mix - it becomes very complicated, very quickly. There's a guy on this thread named Greenhighlander. Look at his soil results on his grow journals- his grows are amazing. If there's anything you can take away from his journals it's this- 1) He's starts with not to "hot" a mix. 2) he always mentions that his RH is pretty low in his tent. 3) I think he starts with Pro-mix HP as a base which I think drains a little faster than stepwell does and he does n't bung it up with a shit ton of EWC- he adds this very conservatively. 4) he runs a 1000 watter so that it will definitely push things along. 5) Most importantly - he makes his own mix, so he has a good idea of what is in it. Stepwell has an ingredients list but does n't specify quantities, as a result it's tough to establish a base line that can be tweaked on future runs.
Currently I run the K.I.S.S. method with city tap water in a 60/40 coco perlite. I supplement with silica until week 2 of flower, 1/2 dose cal-mag and epsom salts as well. This is similar to what Saboo is running on his BB above, but he is using a coco/perlite/hydroton mix. K.I.S.S with Maxibloom is cheap, simple, and gives explosive results. Personally I think the K.I.S.S. method is far simpler than soil, because you know what the plants are getting every time. In a 60/40 coco /perlite blend you can't really overwater, so there's another variable gone. All you have to do is stay on top of your PH, and PPM and make sure you are there to feed the plant every day. I feed everyday in veg, and twice a day in flower. The amount of run-off I shop vac out of tent may be overkill, but the way I see it is that i'm "cleaning the media" with every feed. I have n't flushed once on my current run. Just very happy plants- these NL X C99 are fattening up nice.
There are some excellent threads out there that break down the K.I.S.S method step by step. There's a guy on the internet named Mick Foster who has a very simple thread on the K.I.S.S method. There is also a guy named HUSH on another forum who did a huge peak seeds grow in 4x4 with 1000 watter using only Maxibloom.
To be clear here - I'm not dissing soil at all. I just don't think it's as simple as it's made out out to be.
Hope this helps!