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What's So Cool About Super Soil? The Super Soil Recipe Breakdown.

What's So Cool About Super Soil? The Super Soil Recipe Breakdown.

Jeremy Silva |

If you have been reading about cultivating indoors with organic soil then you've heard of SubCool's Super Soil. I admit to starting with this mix and thought I was really doing something special when I first went for it. I bought all the stuff and was really excited to use it.

My results were actually pretty good, but I've since moved on I think you should too. Make your own soil for better results. This is why I've stopped using other super soils like Subcool's.

Besides the "base soil" being purchased instead of made from scratch, I have many other issues. All in all, taking bagged soil and adding worm castings and nutrients isn't a bad idea, but the mix can be improved upon and money can be saved.

Here is the Recipe the other guys use:

  • 8 large bags of a high-quality organic potting soil with coco fiber and mycorrhizae (i.e., your base soil)
  • 25 to 50 lbs of organic worm castings
  • 5 lbs steamed bone meal
  • 5 lbs Bloom bat guano 5 lbs blood meal
  • 3 lbs rock phosphate
  • ¾ cup Epson salts
  • ½ cup sweet lime (dolomite)
  • ½ cup azomite (trace elements)
  • 2 tbsp powdered humic acid

Now I'll go through each item: 

  1. Bagged soil - WHY? when we are going to the trouble to mix all of this up anyways, me might as well save some money and increase the quality. The other factor here is having exact control over the inputs. These soils already have unknown quantities of nutrients and the quality control isn't perfect, what if you get a hot batch and then further amend it? I would avoid the potential room for problems and make a soil using many standard recipes but most go with 1 part peat, 1 part compost and 1 part aeration.

  2. Mycorrhizae: Adding this to your soil doesn't make sense and is a waste of resources. Anyone who works with mycorrhizae will tell you to apply to the rootzone at transplant or seedling stage. Obviously this super soil mix is for the bottom of the container and nowhere near the rootzone at the proper time. Basically just a complete waste of Myco.

  3. 25 to 50 lbs of organic worm castings: I agree with using wormcastings but that is a WIDE range to apply. Why 25 - 50? I think that when building your base mix you should be factoring in a certain percentage of castings and compost. Not adding to this all later on in a made up way.

  4. 5 lbs steamed bone meal - This is a by-product from the Cattle industry and is really not a good input for organic soil production. Fish bone meal however is great for this same purpose and is safer to use.

  5. 5 lbs Bloom bat guano - Guano is very expensive and really not necessary. This is a fast release nutrient and is more in line with the feed the plant regimen instead of soil building. That and harvesting guano is rarely safe and sustainable, there are many reasons to avoid this.... Plus the Fish bone meal that we just mentioned has you covered already along with all the other plant based amendments and worm castings that you should be using.

  6. 5 lbs blood meal - More slaughterhouse waste and sure to be unclean. Why use the blood from McDonalds cows when you can add nitrogen so easily through alfalfa meal, fish meal and or worm castings. Show your soil some better love.

  7. 3 lbs rock phosphate - This is the 3rd phosphate product and it makes sense because in a soil this rich and without the mycorrhizae actually working like it should there isn't going to be a very good way to access P. That's okay, in a properly built soil you don't need a million sources of P, the plants will get it and the biology and fungi will make sure of it. Not only that but soft rock phosphate is high in heavy metals like cadmium that are proven to be harmful. When growing cannabis, the trichomes will store the heavy metals and smoking the plant will not allow the typical body safety system of passing through the liver etc. before going into your blood. For this reason materials high in heavy metals are typically avoided.

  8. ¾ cup Epsom salts - Absolutely no reason to add more magnesium sulfate to a good soil mix. A little known fact about soil is that the Calcium to Magmesium Ratio will control the texture of the soil and adding epsom salts is a good way to tighten the soil and there are better ways to get sulfur, like gypsum.

  9. ½ cup sweet lime (dolomite) - Dolomite lime should be avoided as it is completely out of balance with the proper Calcium to magnesium ratios for proper soil building. Especially when considering long term no-till soil use.

  10. ½ cup azomite (trace elements) - This is good stuff and is just a "brand" name rock dust that has all the elements from A-Z hence Azomite.... thing is, that also includes heavy metals. While I'd use this in the veggie garden, many will avoid this in the medicine garden.

  11. 2 tbsp powdered humic acid - Good advice but humic acid typically purchased at the grow shop is from leanordite and isn't really helpful and is very expensive. Avoid this and get Ful-Power from Bio-ag and use it with waterings.

So then after all this work. You mix this up and let it sit for 30 days. Then use this in the BOTTOM of your soil container. What is interesting is that all though this makes sense at first glance... it's all way off. Nature doesn't have all the nutrients on the bottom in fact it's the opposite, all the plants in nature have the nutrients on the top. That is why building a soil (making your own soil), using mulch and topdressing work so well. It's things like this that make the real organic Gardner's and farmers laugh at all of us sometimes.

So if you've been using super soil, don't feel bad, I think we all did at some point and I owe Subcool a lot because he actually got this semi-organic mix discussed enough that the mainstream took notice... that alone was helpful at getting me to where I am today.

I hope this article helps!

Here is another article on a popular soil recipe called TLO: http://buildasoil.com/blogs/news/9885098-why-tlo-dissecting-the-rev-mix-line-by-line

10 comments

Thanks For Posting, Just What I Was Looking For!

coloradochem,

Man!!…. Hold the fuck up so called soil guys. I use Subcool’s super soil an just uses it as is, just adding water alone makes beautiful flowers without anything else but we all want the best of everything right… So what we do is add our two sence in and add a little bit of this and that too fit our desires that satisfies us… I used to use The Rev’s soil reciept’s but never was satisfied with the yield an many times tryed to copied the whole spiking just like him all in all Subcool’s super soil is by far the simples most effective method of growing amazing oil packed buds with just water… Subs did the guest work for us and figured it out for us and the reviews posted by real experts states that Subcool’s super is the most complete soil on the market… Unfortunately the TGA super soil was discontinued cause literally of to much demand… If you bash on Sucool’s super soil go fuck yourself. Peace!!!

Art Mendoza,

dood…when you start your own site and you think you have enough knowledge to do so, then you can go around trying to correct people. i think you need to do some more research to get your facts st8. everything you read on those mmj sites is mostly bs. most people have not a clue what they are doing and even if they do well, it is only what they think is good, and not even comparable to amazing. you should do your on research and trial and error to understand whats what in what. instead of wasting your time arguing with someone who is respected in this industry.

crave351,

Welp Shit.

I found this site literally a WEEK after i bought all the subdrool shit and mixed it up…

Now what?

Do i pitch it? Can i recycle it and go with BAS/LOS next time?

Deth2Bottles,

Thanks Pal,u solved my problem.am a soil scientist.

ikeh Raphael,

Hi Kieth! Working on the book with some awesome friends and hoping to get it done soon.

Here is a basic soil recipe that will work very well.

1 Part Peatmoss
1 Part Vermicompost
1 Part Aeration

Add to that per cubic foot:

1/2 cup Kelp Meal
1/2 cup Neem Cake
1/2 cup Crustacean Meal
4 Cups of a mineral mix including, Oyster Flour, Glacial Rock Dust, Basalt and Gypsum.

BuildASoil,

You are the best. The best. Where can I find a recipe you stand behind? Love your writing. Keep it up. Why can’t you have a published book????

Keith Sanders,

You are the best. The best. Where can I find a recipe you stand behind? Love your writing. Keep it up. Why can’t you have a published book????

Keith Sanders,

1. Bro – That’s like your opinion. But since you didn’t give examples I’m not really sure if you have even used this mix or if you are just on SubCool’s Jock.
2. You can smoke whatever you want but many people want to know what’s going on and then make educated decisions. Besides that you can pick and choose which industry you support. Some people get stuck on a recipe and think that it’s the only way. This way people can see replacements for any ingredients they want.
3. Especially Chemical Fertilizers? I guess we agree.
4. BTW I don’t add any Myco to breakdown the organic matter, Myco only lives in symbiosis with plants and is to increase the nutrient uptake and efficiency.
5. Activate for 60 Days, sure thing. Sounds like a ton of fun.
6. Dolomite Lime isn’t the only “liming agent” in the industry, but it does happen to be the one with way to much Magnesium that will ultimately tighten the soil and cause problems for long term no-till use. Try using a supersoil in a no-till setup and see what happens.
7. Humic acid doesn’t, “Boost Myco’s a lil bit.” I would suggest a lot more reading.
8. Glad it works for him. But putting a layer of hot soil on the bottom of the container doesn’t make any sense.
9. Why are you defending this guy? I don’t hear anything about your own personal success, my guess is you have heavily invested into all the ingredients of a Super Soil and currently have it sitting for 60 days…. It’s only natural to defend something we invest in.
10. 10-14 Zips Per plant indoor. Nice dude! I hope your results are even better.

Check us out at BuildASoil.com/instagram for a few photo’s.

I’ve never said I can produce 2 grams per watt or anything stupid like that. Just keep it simple and bang out quality medicine. There are many ways to grow this plant, if you didn’t like this article than it wasn’t for you… it was for the others out there hoping to find another way.

Thanks for taking the time to post here on my blog, and I really do mean that, regardless of what you think I’m just honered that you took the time to read this.

- MileHighGuy AKA BuildASoil AKA Jeremy Silva

BuildASoil,

Bro u have no idea what your even talking about .
U may have facts saying that some ammendments are bad for you.
but in a sense all things u smoke are bad for you. Especially chemical fertilizers….. btw you add the myco to break down the organic matter while he super soil “activates” for 60 days not 30 and if u dont add the dolomite lime the ph will be off and your plants will do horrible..and the humic acid is to help boost the mycos alil bit

Also the guy does it because it works. if you were having issues it was probably because you didnt wait long enough to use your soil,or you didnt wait long enough to develope a decent root system before allowing it to grow into that hot ass soil ….i mean come on he gets 10 -14 oz a plant indoors with 4k at 16 plants using only water whats your yields looking like?

robert brennan,

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