SoHum Living Soils Best Practices
SoHum Living Soils has been scientifically designed to provide all of the nutritional requirements of a heavy demanding crop for its entire annual life cycle. It works equally well in top-watering or bottom watering systems, but there are some handy tips to optimize SoHum Living Soils potential for your crop:
Seeds can germinate well in SoHum Living Soils (SLS), but ensure the soil is moist (not wet). Please note that SLS has been developed for high nutrient demanding crops and therefore clone transplants are preferred.
Transplant only healthy (nice green leaves), well-established clones with nice white roots (1/8” to 1/2” of root showing through the root plug).
Timely transplanting is essential. If you transplant too early your plant will not have a strong enough root system and leaves will wilt rapidly. If transplanted with roots an overly extensive root system, a clone could experience some root death causing delays in vegetation.
Keep transplants in a slightly humid environment of at least 70 to 80% relative humidity (RH) until they have shown an increase in vegetative material.
Ideally, SoHum Living Soils should be watered with dechlorinated or reverse osmosis (RO) water. Tap water or rain water should be analyzed to ensure that there are no extremes in pH. If chlorinated water is to be used, it must be allowed to off gas for at least 24 hours.
Your desired size of plant will be affected by the size of pot you choose. SoHum Living Soils are fully amended but if you choose a pot that’s too small your plant will not have enough nutrients to complete its life cycle. The larger the pot, the larger the supply of amendments available for the plant to feed. A general guide is to have up to 5 gallons of SLS per 12″ of height. Plant growth will vary by strain and genetics, but if your final (desired) plant size is: 12″ ~ 5 gallon container; 24″ ~ 10 gallon container; 36″ ~ 15 gallon container; 48″ ~ 20-30 gallon container; or 60″ ~ 30-40 gallon container.
In watering your plant during the vegetative phase make sure you are not overwatering. The soil needs to be damp not wet. This is very important for those growers who will “pot up” (e.g., transplant from a 10-gallon pot to a 25-gallon pot) between the vegetative and flowering period and those moving from a top-watering to a bottom watering system. Overwatering from the top may leach out nutrients and may result in diminished root systems. The lack of root growth may result in flowering plants with an insufficient root system to access the nutrients.
Overwatering may also encourage the presence of fungus gnats. Fungus gnats can be damaging to plant roots so if soils are being overwatered, it is recommended that diatomaceous earth be sprinkled on the soil surface around the plant to inhibit gnat populations
