Recycling super soil question

Hi everyone.

I decided to try out a version of subcool's super soil for the first time. I filled the bottom of the 5 gallon pots 1/3 of the way full with my super soil mix. The top 2/3 is just a local peat-based soil straight out of the bag plus perlite. My plants absolutely love it!

Unfortunately, 2 of my "girls" turned out to be boys. They've been removed and now I'm wondering about the best way to recycle the soil they were in.

Should I try to dig out and separate my super soil from the local mix or should I just mix it all together?

Do I need to add any amendments to what I have or just keep cooking it until I'm ready to use it again on my next batch of plants?

Thanks for your help and happy growing!

I would just plant right in the old pot, maybe top dress with some ewc! How big were they when u found out sex ?

This ^^^^^^^ is what I'd do.

Thanks for your input, guys.

setitandforgetit said:

I would just plant right in the old pot, maybe top dress with some ewc! How big were they when u found out sex ?

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They were bigger than I'd like to admit when I found out sex... maybe 2 1/2 feet tall, 10 days from the flip. Space is getting crowded and these 2 were in the back corner.

It's going to be a while until there are 2 more plants ready to go into these pots. Would you guys still just leave the soil in the pots while I wait? I guess I'd need to keep watering the soil to keep it active?

Thanks again.

Ham Claw said:

Thanks for your input, guys.



They were bigger than I'd like to admit when I found out sex... maybe 2 1/2 feet tall, 10 days from the flip. Space is getting crowded and these 2 were in the back corner.

It's going to be a while until there are 2 more plants ready to go into these pots. Would you guys still just leave the soil in the pots while I wait? I guess I'd need to keep watering the soil to keep it active?

Thanks again.

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Yep, keep it moist and all those roots will breakdown if you have microbes in there. I'd throw a little organic fertilizer on top too, so that in 2 months you have soil that's probably better than the first time.

Fuck the "top 2/3 this bottom 1/3 that". Just mix that shit up.

JoeBlow5823 said:

Fuck the "top 2/3 this bottom 1/3 that". Just mix that shit up.

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I've been wondering if it really mattered. I tried to follow the information I found as closely as I could, since this is my first time using super soil.

It does make some sense to me to put the hotter soil down where the roots won't get to it until the plant is just a little bigger.

Maybe I'll do a comparison and see if I find any difference.

Ham Claw said:

I've been wondering if it really mattered. I tried to follow the information I found as closely as I could, since this is my first time using super soil.

It does make some sense to me to put the hotter soil down where the roots won't get to it until the plant is just a little bigger.

Maybe I'll do a comparison and see if I find any difference.

Click to expand...

Roots get to the bottom a lot faster than youd think.

Agree with joeblow don’t get that reasoning behind hotter soil lower down malarkey would top dress and pending how long it’s going to sat there perhaps bang a cover crop in there something like clover and treat the soil exactly like the soil that’s got your ladies in then when your ready your good to go

Most of the time if you just add in some EWC that should recharge it for more use. Especially if it was in a container that has not gone a full bloom cycle. Should have plenty of npk value but if you are not sure you can always add a slow release fertilizer. For me a handful or two of chicken manure and worm castings usually does the trick. You don’t have to fully amend with everything after each use; some things literally take years to break down.
I do a high N bottom layer my final bloom containers but only because it’s easy to build them that way. You can do it no till style and leave it undisturbed or toss it all in there and let it set for awhile; all up to you.

Thanks, everyone for the advice. I'll be putting it to use.

I've been looking into adding a cover crop, as suggested above. Some of the information I've read suggests that this would be a waste of time unless I'm growing in huge pots. I'm in 5 Gal pots right now.

Does anyone here use a cover crop in 5 Gal pots? Does it help?