Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
All natural additives, and especially guanos, need to be cooked before adding them to your soil mix
REV'S TIP
ALL soil mixes and soil elements, including mineral elements, need to be
cooked BEFORE living roots arrive on the scene. Even Dolomite lime needs to be cooked first, so
when you are getting your soil mix or your containers all put together, don't be tossing in extra bat
guano, or Dolomite lime, or even kelp meal, because if it is not cooked in yet it can cause problems.
My motto for TLO growing is this: always cook everything first.
Put simply, what cooking the soil does is allow massive amounts of microbial life to colonize the soil
mix and work its magic on it, just like they would do in a compost pile. What else do composting and soil
cooking have in common? High levels of nitrogen (N) are really effective when cooking your soil mix,
just like in composting. This is where things like alfalfa and blood meal really kick it up a notch, and your
soil mix should actually heat up a little while cooking. This is absolutely normal when some elements that
are higher in N, like blood meal and alfalfa, are added. Things like feather meal are all good too, but the
N release of feather meal is a lot slower than that of the alfalfa and the blood meal. You could also use
guanos and manures effectively here as a catalyst to cooking, as these supply high amounts of available N.
The bottom line, folks, is that you MUST cook your custom soil mixes, period. Failure to do this will
almostalwaysresultindisappointment,soreallymakesureyoutakethisseriously.Trytounderstandwhat
each element brings to the table in a custom soil mix, and right after I give you my latest and greatest mix
I will go over all additions, and why they are there, in order to help you to fully understand the processes
at work. Substituting things in the mix is usually a bad idea unless you know what you are doing, so try
hard to stick to the recipe for your first few grows, so you can use a proven successful soil mix as your
benchmark before you start modifying it.
