Reusing Old Soil and Other Ways to Save Money Growing Weed

[0:06] What's up you wonderful listeners? I'm Chronic from the Cannabis Chronicles on Instagram and YouTube, as well as the host of this amazing podcast brought to you all by Homegrown Cannabis Co. Be sure to check out www.homegrowncannabisco.com and browse countless top-notch cannabis seeds. In today's episode, we'll be discussing reusing old soil and other ways you can save money when growing cannabis.
 

[0:29] So be sure to pack a nice big bowl, drop a nice glob, and let's get baked as we blaze into some amazing cannabis content. Let's begin. In this first segment, we'll be discussing reusing old soil and different methods of composting. Reusing your old soil can be very beneficial for any grower, especially those on a budget. This is why composting is one of the
 

[0:53] best things you could do for yourself as a cultivator seeking to reuse their soil and make the most out of their daily food scraps for re-amending their old soil. Now, you don't necessarily need a composter to reuse old soil. However, having your soil sit inside of a composter where you can add excess vegetable scraps and fruit scraps if you're using a composter like
 

[1:12] the JoraForm models, your soil will get up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit and potentially hotter. This allows that good bacteria to begin breaking down and composting all the stuff you've added, which adds essential nutrients back into that soil. This makes it much easier. This way, your old soil that your previous plants drained of its nutrients will now be much more nutrient-rich and bioaccessible to the next plant that uses
 

[1:36] the soil. So that's why a composter is handy. There are some drawbacks for composting, however. You do need the space for a composter, and it can be rather smelly of a process to balance your compost to the right blend so that you don't get that anaerobic smell. So composting isn't for everyone, which means if you can do it, do it. However, if you can't do it, how does one
 

[1:57] reuse the old soil? Well, the best way would be to clean the soil of all the debris from the previous plant that you can, making sure the soil is pretty much how you bought it. Now, you'll want to top-dress your soil or mix in amendments to make up for the lack of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, or many other
 

[2:16] nutrients that might be lacking. Good additives to use are blood meal, bone meal, kelp meal, bat guano, humic and fulvic acid, earthworm castings, molasses, and mycorrhizae. Those are all great options for amending your soil. Blending dry amendments back into your soil will allow your soil to slow-release nutrients for your plants during the grow and enrichen the soil. One really helpful way to really boost old
 

[2:40] soil is to add all your dry amendments like we just talked about and then feed the soil prior to use with a compost tea. This way you saturate the soil with a ton of accessible nutrients and nutrients still being broken down, along with a massive amount of microbial life. This will help give your soil a boost when it comes to
 

[2:59] the microbial population, which is important in organic gardening, as you want a very strong microbial population that can break down nutrients rapidly to make them accessible for your plants. Feeding your soil a compost tea will almost supercharge it full of microbes and beneficial macro and micronutrients that cannabis craves. This also helps the slow-release process start on all the dry amendments that
 

[3:22] you mixed in with the soil. This allows a consistent flow of nutrients to happen throughout the plant's life. Now, you do want to make sure that you don't use soil that contain pest, fungus, or any type of mold. You also want to be careful with reusing soil if you're a breeder and pollinated a room. That soil now contains pollen, and you will want to do a rinse prior to
 

[3:42] re-feeding your soil. This rinse generally is one-third 3% hydrogen peroxide to two-third distilled water, or the grower's preferred water source. This helps kill the pollen and clean the soil. The reason we do this prior to feeding the soil, though, is because hydrogen peroxide will kill your microbial life. So once you rinse your hydrogen peroxide, I would suggest doing a plain water flush
 

[4:03] at least three times the volume you're working with. Once the soil is flushed and clean, that's when you let it dry out completely and add your dry amendments. Then you feed it with a compost tea. You can use this cleaning method with fungus gnat-infested soil using a fungus gnat treatment to treat the soil prior to use. I have even seen large compost piles where growers will treat it with a
 

[4:26] full pest regiment that covers all the major ones that cannabis generally gets. Once they've treated the soil two to three times, they flush it and then re-amend with all their preferred nutrients. One can also create a super soil by essentially brewing your soil in a large container at 100 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 to 48 hours whilst adding mycorrhizae to create a
 

[4:48] large microbial life population within your soil. You can even brew it longer to increase the super soil effect. Keep in mind, though, these brewed soils are generally very, very hot soils, and I don't mean temperature hot, and that's why I recommend using just compost teas to re-amend your soil, as you can make your tea the proper dose versus accidentally making your entire grow
 

[5:09] medium too hot for your plants. For those listening, when referring to grow mediums, saying too hot means that there are far too many nutrients available and it will burn your plants or cause a toxicity from the nutrients that are inside the medium. So that's really it to reusing soil. You have composting as your first alternative, which generally is the go-to
 

[5:29] for most cultivators. Then you could sift your soil, re-amend it using dry amendments or compost teas, or get all super fancy and brew some super soil. Personally, my favorite is composting and re-amending using various greens, carbon, nitrogen, and some dry amendments to make up for some micronutrients and macronutrients. For those seeking a quality composter that can handle winter temperatures, the
 

[5:52] JoraForm models are amazing. My fiancée and I have the JoraForm 270, and it will keep your compost 160 degrees Fahrenheit in negative temperatures. So definitely check out those models if you're interested in composting Now we're going to take a short break with @natehammer420 from Instagram to give us the latest information on Homegrown Cannabis Co. Stay tuned. I want to pause for a moment to tell you about a new range of homegrown seeds and
 

[6:20] where they have come from. When Isaac Newton coined the phrase, "Standing on the shoulders of giants," he was talking about the amazing minds that came before him. It's a phrase that embodies the homegrown collaboration with Steve DeAngelo, Kyle Kushman, Nikki Lastreto, and Swami Chaitanya. They are your giants. These legends are sharing more than just their vast amounts of knowledge. However, they also have a range of homegrown seeds we have
 

[6:44] lovingly christened Cultivars with Character. Each seed is a personal favorite, especially chosen pheno selected for resilience, reliability, and ease of growth. Basically, they're more forgiving phenotypes of classic, time-honored cultivars with all of the quality. My advice? Choose their seeds, stand on their shoulders, and aim high. It's exactly what they're here for. Head over to homegrowncannabisco.com for more details.
 

[7:11] And we're back from that amazing break with @natehammer420 from Instagram. Be sure to check out his page where he posts some amazing behind-the-scenes content with Homegrown Cannabis Co. In this segment, we're going to go over other ways you could save money while growing cannabis. Be sure to pack that bowl again, grab another dab, and let's set sail into a sea of smoke. Let's begin.
 

[7:33] There are many ways growers can save money cultivating cannabis, and most of them are very, very simple. For instance, if you have an LED light or a light with a dimming switch, it really is best to veg your plants the first month or two months of their life at the 50% power or even the lowest power draw. This way you're saving money on utilities whilst not overdoing the
 

[7:54] light potency that your plants actually need. Seedling and vegging plants don't actually need much light to grow rapidly. They just need good quality light and the proper spectrums. So keeping your electric bill down is a good way to save extra money. Another big thing to get used to do is reusing anything plastic. For my fiancée and I, anything I can wash that is used in the
 

[8:16] garden gets soaked, washed, and reused. This way we are limiting how much excess plastic stuff I need to purchase, I limit how much is going into our trash, which saves us money on garbage bags. Reusing or making use of old items also helps to prevent from having to purchase new items, which ultimately saves us money as well.
 

[8:34] Now another one people don't think about with saving money in the garden is using nutrients to the fullest, not overfeeding or wasting excess nutrients basically. Nutrients are vital to cannabis cultivation and blowing through them is never fun. So being able to have your plant actually use up all the nutrients you feed will prevent you from wasting excess nutrients your plant would
 

[8:53] never have gotten to. This will add up over time, and it could save you quite the amount of money if you do this right. Basically, you need to allow your plant towards the end of their life to naturally flush or use the storage that they have and fade out. This makes sure that your plant is using everything they have stored, which is
 

[9:11] everything you fed. This keeps you from overfeeding when it isn't necessary and saving you some money on that food bill for your plants. Now one big one I want to talk about is the fan and filter system that you have set up in your grow. If you do not have a system like AC Infinity, it really is time for you to step up
 

[9:27] and make the purchase. It's hefty and more expensive than other options, but for a good reason. Having proper tech that can actually probe the temperature of your environment correctly is really amazing, as these fans have multiple speeds and will adjust based on the environment, which saves you so much money compared to having a fan run on full speed all the time.
 

[9:47] Light timers, having your fans on environmental temperature controllers, not overfeeding, not overwatering, and generally just not overdoing it in your gardens is really all it takes to save money. Being smart with your purchases and purchasing quality equipment at the start actually saves a lot more money in the long run as well. I know that $300 AgroMax or AC Infinity tent seems
 

[10:09] expensive compared to the rest. However, light leaks on your crop that you spent $300 on seeds and over $500 on other stuff like nutrients and lights can be way more detrimental when you get a tent full of seeded plants from a bad light leak. So spend money where it's necessary. I'm not saying go ball out and get everything top-notch, but for indoor
 

[10:29] growing, I think every cultivator should purchase a quality tent, quality light, and quality fans and filters, as these are literally the fundamentals for your plant's success as they create the environment it literally lives in. The cheaper you go with those components and any other components, the more you'll find yourself replacing them and spending more money in the long run.
 

[10:49] As that expensive light might be $500 once and kind of a hit for you, but if you choose to go with that $90 light that you replace every three months, well, that adds up to almost $400 in a year. That $500 nice LED generally has a longer lifespan, and if you were to break down the price over its lifespan, it's actually much cheaper
 

[11:08] than that $90 that you spent every three months. So my point is to make sure that you put your money where it matters with your grow so you don't have to spend it down the road on the same pieces of equipment. I would say that is where 90% of growers blow their money, buying cheap equipment to get them going, but never investing in quality items for the
 

[11:26] long run. There are dozens and dozens of ways to save money. Just get creative and be a little bit smart through the process. If growing is a massive part of your lifestyle like it is for me, and you spend a decent bit of money per year, maybe it is time to think about investing into a property for yourself to live on, to put solar panels on, and have well
 

[11:45] access to save even more money and have you grow reliant on natural energy. So the sky really is the limit when it comes to saving money and ways you can save money. You just have to get creative and have the environment in your mind. When you start thinking about leaving a carbon footprint on this earth, you begin
 

[12:02] to figure out so many different ways that you can reuse things, save energy, and so much more. I really do hope you enjoyed this podcast. Be sure to follow along on whichever platform you're listening from and check out www.homegrowncannabisco.com for your top-notch cannabis seeds. If you want a chance to win some free seeds or learn from Kyle
 

[12:21] Kushman himself, check out Homegrown Cannabis Co on Facebook and like their page where they host growing lives with Kyle Kushman and many other giveaways. Follow @homegrownworld on Instagram for daily updates and behind the scenes posts of Homegrown Cannabis Co. If you're a cultivator and you need an easy way to document your grow, head over to www.homegrowndiary.com and sign up for free
 

[12:42] today You can document and share your grow with ease, as well as browse countless other grows and learn what tips or tricks those cultivators are using. If you want to chat with over 4,000 other cultivators, including myself, be sure to sign up at www.homegrowncannabisco.community and begin chatting on our forum today. You can tag @kronic, that's K-R-O-N-I-C, to ask me any questions you have or just
 

[13:07] chat with me. I am Kronic from the Cannabis Chronicles on Instagram and YouTube, and I'll be back every single Wednesday to bring you all amazing cannabis content. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Much love, happy growing, and peace. If you enjoyed this video and want to learn more about growing your own cannabis at home, hit that like button, subscribe, and turn those notifications
 

[13:38] on to keep up to date with the amazing marijuana content Homegrown Cannabis Co. has to offer. See you next time.