The three ‘R’s of sustainability have been sung and rhymed in classrooms for decades. Now we’re translating these principles to your grow tent, by giving your soil a second life. Living soil is so much more than just rich in microbes. It’s soil that can go further than a single grow. Whether you’re amending IndiCanja to give it a second life, or converting it to a soil blend for your outdoor garden, it’s easy to reduce waste, reuse mixes, and recycle soil for another garden, especially when you’re using high quality ingredients.
Reduce: Lowering waste with a better blend
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don’t put that IndiCanja in your trash can. Living soils are evergreen if you take proper care of them, meaning that you do not need to continually buy new and fresh soil for healthy plant development. Reusing your soil means that you can reduce the amount of waste that grow tents produce.
Reuse: Bringing Soil Back to Life
Amending soil back to its original nutrient content can be a bit tricky. However, there are some general guidelines (and a few products) you can lean on to get your soil back in shape.
Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium (otherwise known in tandem as NPK), are the three macronutrients that your plants need in the highest quantities. This means that these are also the nutrients that your plants will deplete from the soil and are crucial to replenish. Using a balanced slow-release fertilizer to refresh IndiCanja will supply macronutrients to your soil at planting, as well as feed your cannabis well into the grow cycle. Our All-Purpose Fertilizer is a 4-6-4 that’s perfect for returning macronutrients to the soil and provides lasting nutrients to help your plants get through harvest. It is also inoculated with mycorrhizal fungi to improve root development and nutrient availability.
Though plants need the ‘big three’ in the largest quantities, cannabis also relies on secondary and trace nutrients for balanced and healthy growth. Calcium and Magnesium are perhaps the most well-known secondary nutrients that cannabis relies on, as they’re both important for when your plant goes into bloom.
As with all things, diversity is key to strong development, so your plant also needs nutrients like sulfur, iron, boron, manganese, and zinc. These nutrients are consumed less readily by your plants, though they are still important to healthy growth and development. Our All-Purpose Fertilizer contains some secondary and trace nutrients, we recommend using our BIOACTIVE® Supercharger to revive secondary nutrients and feed the microbes in your soil. You can also add our BIOACTIVE® Liquid Biology Bundle into this nutrient program to resupply microbes, feed and invigorate existing populations, and add fulvic and humic acids to improve soil structure. After several grow cycles, we recommend adding Activated Compost to rejuvenate the organic matter in your soil mix and restock on essential micronutrients.
Reusing your soil is an easy way to save money on growing mixes and get more out of your IndiCanja. High quality amendments and premium base soil can help you build up your soil for a better harvest, every harvest.
Recycle: Give Your Soil Another Purpose
Soil never needs to be thrown away. Even if it isn’t going towards another cannabis cycle, your soil can go so much further than the grow tent!
@VegOutPharms on Instagram shared how they reuse their IndiCanja by turning it into a soil blend that they use to fill and top off their gardens.
“We focus a lot of the posts discussing the growing aspects of the plant. But we don’t spend much time discussing what happens afterwards.
We get our [OMRI Listed] soil, thanks to Purple Cow Organics, in these super sacks, which are 54 cu. ft. each. We use them for every step of our grow. We only use the soil once.
We then dump it in a huge pile out back and let it sit. We turn it multiple times. We add organic matter from the gardens we maintain throughout the growing season. It is absolutely full of worms and worm castings. We then use this soil for the gardens we install and maintain. We will add some minerals to help with various deficiencies and then it is good to go. But really we don’t want to waste anything. We try to be as sustainable as possible with as little waste as possible in everything we do.” Veg Out Pharms
Want to grow tomatoes or other veggies on your porch? Add a little fertilizer or compost to the soil to refresh it and turn it into a universal soil blend for produce and herbs. IndiCanja can also be combined with ingredients like bark, chunky perlite, horticultural charcoal, and compost, to be refreshed and repurposed into the perfect soil blend for houseplants!
It's easy to give your soil a second life when you're starting with a high-quality living mix. Rather than wasting soil after your first grow, it can go on to grow greener raised garden beds, create healthier container gardens, or build a better home for houseplants. Reach out to our experts to learn more about repurposing your soil!