Grow Q&A: Improving Soil Using Mulch

Dean Dan, I’m a big fan of your Free Weed show on iTunes! I’m starting my own first-time grow here soon. I’m doing my seed plants outdoors and the soil seems to be great for growing. Do you have any advice on what type of soil or nutrients I should use? Any other tips or advice would be much appreciated. – Craig

Dear Craig,
Thanks for the kind words about the podcast! We’re having a blast learning how to do radio and teaching people how to grow their own cannabis.

Even if your outdoor soil is rich with nutrients, it may be too compacted to grow out a proper outdoor pot plant. My suggestion is to dig a deep hole in your soil and dump a bunch of soilless mix into it. Mix the peat- or coco-based bale of soilless mix together with your native soil and add some supplements such as seabird guano, greensand, manure and compost.

Each year, you can improve on your soil mix by adding compost and mulch on top of it. There’s no need to till your soil after the first time you dig up the hole, in fact, you’ll end up damaging the long microfiber strands of beneficial mycelium that help roots uptake nutrients.

Have a grow question? Ask away at deardanko@hightimes.com