I use "Foxfarms" Ocean Forest mixed 2 to 1 with coco and was wondering if I should swap it out with new dirt each season, or if I can get a second season out of it??? Thanks everyone.
i recycle all my dirt. but then again i still start off lots of stuff on fresh soil. Im not afraid to run old soil cause it just gets thrown on a compost/dirt pile. when you think about it the soil on my farm has been reused every year for 100 years or so Just takes knowing what was taken and what it needs. This is where compost/cooking/finishing piles for dirt come in real handy. Lots of methods for getting the most out of old dirt. simplest being dump and mix it with a bag of manure or compost at end of season. If memory serves(dont quote me) i think its something like 4:1 ratio old dirt with manure you can mix for enrichment each season. Which in my case is usually cutting it down with compost and ill throw perlite or vermiculite in when i see its concentration start to diminish. I probably have a metric ton of soil i will do nothing to this year but maybe add some bone meal as the crop rotation will balance out the nutrients without the need for me to amend.
its my belief lots of people buy new soil year after year because its the easiest thing for them to do to meet their needs. Honestly id love to buy 100 cu ft of ph'd amended soil each year. But for my needs its just not practical(large scale for my produce not just my MMJ).
if it does then the worms i have around me my whole life havent seen it. would they survive in pure perlite? idk... but soil with 30% or something. I dont think they would mind. every time i turn my pile over its loaded with fat suckers. thats how i get worms for fishing.
i
I throwin about 20 worms in a 15 ĺ fabric pot WHEN i do start a New pot which is VERY rarely i just cut the old plant off at the soil and cut a hole same size as a rapid rooter and pop the seedling in it then amend around her and a dose of microbial tea and boom im on 5 th plant in 1 pot n each 1 has yield more the worms eat all the last plants roots as they breakdown, the New plant then uses the pathways created by the last plants roots and worms diverting excess energy into upwards growth only thing that worries me was sheer numbers i thought they might overpopulate but from all my enquories they naturally stop breeding when populace races a certain density