When it comes to growing your own cannabis, there are a few key points you have to get right to achieve the best possible marijuana in the end. Besides the very important factors like cannabis grow lights, water, and ventilation, cannabis (like every other plant) requires a growing medium. If you don't choose to grow your cannabis hydroponically, the most popular and preferred medium is soil.
But for growing cannabis, you can't just walk in the next flower shop you see and buy an ordinary potting mix for ornamental plants and flowers. It’s not that simple! Of course, cannabis plants will grow in this kind of soil, but they will not reach their maximum potential. Cannabis requires a specific composition of soil to grow ideally.
Soil Setup
Get Soil and a Container for Your Cannabis Plants
Common cannabis soil mixes include Fox Farms Happy Frog and Fox Farms Ocean Forest. Any high-quality organic soil mix will do in a pinch.
Avoid Miracle-Gro soil or anything with “extended-release” nutrients!
To improve drainage, it can be beneficial to add 30% perlite to aerate and loosen soil.
Common cannabis containers include classic plastic pots, terracotta pots, smart pots (fabric grow pots) and air-pots.
Soil growing probably requires the least effort of any growing method (especially if growing in super soil). Your main effort will be spent watering your plants.
Containers allow you to care for your marijuana plants each individually. Weak, sick, and problematic plants can be easily removed from your garden. You can grow your soil-based marijuana in virtually any container. Examples include troughs, pots, buckets, aero-pots (my favorite) or the method of using a large growing container such as a wooden box/bed aka the “full dirt” method, which allows your roots and plants the maximum amount of space. Many veteran organic cannabis cultivators swear by this bed method when growing in soil.
Make sure your containers are a solid color, preferably black. This will ensure no light reaches your roots, and this is a critical step to ensure flourishing growth.
Nutrients for soil
Soil contains a wide range of naturally occurring ingredients because of its organic composition. A lot of the nutrients available in rotting vegetable matter and animal remains right away, however, requiring additional processes to break them down before they can be absorbed by the roots. Worms and insects aid in the decomposition process, breaking down the materials into a smaller form that the plants can absorb. Rain also helps in the decomposition process. Water is a very effective solvent; it can dissolve materials and make them available for absorption.
Unfortunately, all of these natural processes can be difficult to duplicate for indoor growers. The best bet is to start out with nutrient rich soil and to make sure the soil has been sterilized before you begin potting your plants. Sterilizing your soil with heat won’t guarantee that you’ve killed every possible parasite and disease, but it’s an important preventative step. All it takes is one nasty parasite to spread around and ruin your entire crop.
Finally, it’s important to remember that soil really is alive. So please avoid cooking the root zone with excessively high temperatures. If you are growing outdoors this summer, use white plastic pots, or better still, Air-Pots and Smart-Pots to help keep the root zone cool. Alternatively, you can create some natural shade for the ganja roots by adding a layer of dry straw to topsoil.
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