Growing mediums

It goes without saying that here at Living Soils have a massive interest in soil!! Getting your substrate right by developing and sustaining a strong, healthy microbial population is key to successful organic cultivation.

Soil or coco?

We recommend using soil as your base, rather than coco - our products do work in coco but, as we are all about using the power of microbes to feed your plant, and as coco contains little or no microbial life, it means you have to work harder to get the same result. Another advantage of using soil for our products is that it's better at retaining nutrients than other media’s.

Helping your roots

In order for your plants to grow and thrive they need a good mix of both water and oxygen at the roots at all times: too much water and the roots can't get enough oxygen but if there's not enough water they can be injured from drying out too quickly. What gets the best results for growing your plant is a soil with a light texture that is good at retaining water - but not too much!

Breathable pots

What also really helps with getting oxygen to the roots of your plants is using a breathable pot (see here for our page explaining the benefits of these compared to standard plastic pots).

Avoid "time release" fertilisers 

There should be absolutely no "time release" chemical nutrients in the soil – these types of soil slowly release nutrients over the course of months, which provides too much nitrogen in the flowering stage and could impair overall bud growth.

The importance of a light mix

Our products should be added to a light mix soil (I.e one that is not heavily pre-fertilised) as you want maximum control of fertilisation levels using our organic dry amendments.

Also you don’t want the initial mix to be too ‘hot’ for seedlings to settle into, so you have to wait 2 weeks before planting seedlings/ clones or to germinate seeds in.

 

Create your own soil mix?

If at all possible, we would recommend mixing your own base soil using something like 25% peat free ericaceous compost, 25% coco coir, 25% lava rock or perlite and 25% wormcasts. Even better if you can add a small amount of your own compost, and/ or some malted barley powder.

If you don't have the time or capacity to make your own, we've done all the hard work for you in our range of pre mixed living soils, shown below:

Ready made soil mixes

If you would prefer to purchase soil mixes from the internet or hydro shops, we think those below are some good options:

Plagron Promix

No nutrients have been added to Promix, only worm castings. The worm castings stimulate the growth of soil organisms and activate the organic fertilisers which have to be added as from the first day. This makes Promix the perfect potting soil to fertilise organically according to your own judgement and choices.

Plagron Lightmix

The addition of various types of fibre and perlite results in a very light and oxygen-rich substrate. Only a minimal amount of nutrients have been added to Plagron's Lightmix. 

Biobizz Light-Mix

BioBizz Light-Mix is an ideal potting soil for organic gardeners who want to have control over the growing process through the application of dry amendments. With a low dose of fertiliser, it ensures a fast development of roots and vigorous new growth. The soil composition is ideal for optimum drainage throughout the medium, which is essential for usage with automatic watering systems.