How do you steam it?

I’ve been getting my plan together for my next grow. One thing I’ve seen mentioned sporadically by seasoned thumbs, and that I want to give a go, is sterilizing or steaming my media, as I’ve seen mentioned in passing here and there.

This leads to two main serious sleep-depriving questions on my mind tonight, and I appreciate any knowledge shared.

I appreciate any experienced tips or suggestions, I’ve googled it a bit, but what I find are guys that seem to take it a little too seriously, or their method just doesn’t seem practical or too relatable for a cannabis grow or the type of soil recipes and settups we commonly do.

1) How do you do it? How do you wish you can do it or improve it?… And more importantly how do you really end up doing it most the time, when it’s another short 24hr day? (I think most mortal stoners are happy with 90-ish% results without investing twice the time and effort for another 2% return/improvement)

2) How do you like to restore, revitalize, recondition, cure your now cleaned soil and before you put in the girls? Anything you were surprised to find was impacted more or less, the first grows you did with steaming your media before use?

Thank you for your time.

I use living soil and it’s literally just a case of re amending it, in my case I use big beds so I just top dress with amendments and cover it with all the waste plant material after harvest, then cover it with straw and let my worms do the work, worms eat dead roots, certain enzymes will also work to convert the dead plant matter into available nutrients. When I used hydroton we would soak them in enzymes first then drain them and soak in a hydrogen peroxide solution.

hope this helps

why are you sterilizing your medium? easiest way to get infestations and diseases is sterilizing something. you’re killing anything good with the bad and when something bad starts colonizing there is no competition no natural predator nothing.

plus its literally impossible to completely sterilize soil there will be microbes left hidden in there somewhere.

this is an exercise in futility unless you’re working with super small amounts of medium for shrooms. for cannabis totally unnecessary.

Steaming soil?

I have never heard of this. Not saying it doesn't happen but this is a first for me. I am assuming this is to kill unwanted pests? Personally if I even suspected my soil if I used soil was contaminated with anything I didn't want, it would get tossed. Or am I missing something here? I truly want to learn why this is done. Anyone?

Don't do it. Besides being extremely labor intensive, we want the soil to be alive. Grow hydro if you prefer a more sterile growing medium.

crimsonecho said:

this is an exercise in futility unless you’re working with super small amounts of medium for shrooms. for cannabis totally unnecessary.

Click to expand...

Exercise in futility=my thoughts exactly. With mushroom substrate, it is pasteurized not sterilized. Canna coco is superior for mushroom growing as it isn't steam sterilized and it's pre-charged with gypsum.