Super soil is a mix of a base soil or potting medium with large amounts of compost, worm castings and organic amendments such as bone meal, blood meal, kelp, rock dusts and guano. It is "cooked" (left moist for several weeks) so microbes begin breaking the amendments down. The aim is "just add water" growing.
In practice
The usual setup is layered: a hot, amended layer in the lower part of the pot, topped with milder soil where seedlings or clones start, so young roots reach the strong layer only when the plant is big enough. Nutrient release depends on temperature, moisture and biology, so feeding is less precise and late-flower demands can outrun it. Many growers top-dress partway through.
Super soil and living soil overlap; the difference is emphasis. Super soil is defined by a strong amendment recipe, living soil by managing biology over many cycles.
Don't confuse with
- Hot mix burn: seedlings planted directly into the rich layer can show nutrient burn.
- Potting mix: light starter fertiliser only.
An organic fertiliser supplies nutrients from plant, animal or mineral-rock sources that soil microbes must break down into ions before roots can absorb them.A seedling is a young cannabis plant from emergence of the cotyledons until it has several sets of true leaves, typically the first 2-3 weeks.Top dressing is spreading dry fertiliser or amendments on the soil surface, usually under mulch, so nutrients release into the root zone as the plant is watered.Living soil is an organic growing medium managed to sustain an active soil food web, so microbes and invertebrates release nutrients and the soil is reused across cycles.Nutrient burn is browning and crisping of leaf tips, then margins, caused by a root-zone salt concentration (EC) higher than the plant can handle.Potting mix is a manufactured container medium, usually peat or coco with perlite, lime and starter fertiliser, designed to drain and hold air better than garden soil.No-till growing reuses living soil from cycle to cycle without turning or replacing it, cutting out the old root ball and replenishing with top-dressed amendments.
