What is Living Soil?
Living Soil is a cultivation method that focuses on the microbial life in the soil. Through thousands of years of evolution, nature has developed a symbiotic relationship between plants and the microbial life in the soil: Fungi, bacteria, protozoa and many other species. These microorganisms form a soil food web that helps nourish the plants in exchange for carbons and sugars that the plant releases (extrudes) into the soil through its roots. In this organic style of cultivation, the power is returned to the plants, which as living beings have evolved over time to learn to meet their own needs by finding what they need in the soil in which they live. It is this ecosystem in the soil and its relationship with the plant that we call “Living Soil”.
I’m sure you’ve heard about Living Soil a lot lately and it seems like a new boom, the truth is that cannabis has been growing in nature for thousands of years. For most of that time, it’s been in one form: organic. But in the last 50 years, and especially in the last 10 years, indoor cannabis cultivation has grown to a commercial level and industrial growing methods such as hydroponics, aeroponics and synthetic mediums have become increasingly popular.
Industrial propaganda and its promise of optimal results has led many growers away from growing in soil or mineral fertilized soil, but most cannabis connoisseurs and organically minded growers and consumers prefer naturally grown cannabis.
Living soil is very different from synthetic nutrient solutions and chemical additives. We harness the power of microbial life in the soil so that the plant can feed itself and decide what it needs and when it needs it. We as growers simply provide the right conditions to help the plant and the soil food web do its job.
Plants feed mainly through their root system in an area called the rhizosphere (the area immediately surrounding the roots). There, the plants communicate with the microbial life that lives underground and form symbiotic relationships.
With Living Soil, we try to mimic nature to bring out the best potential of the plant. This natural method allows us to maintain a sustainable system with minimal effort, waste and maximum productivity, sustainability and quality.
The symbiosis in the soil can be disrupted by the addition of mineral fertilizers chelated with organic acids or salt-based nutrients.
The use of such products reduces the microbial population, resulting in a less healthy soil. This creates a system that constantly needs human input and thus encourages more human error. This is exactly the wrong path our conventional agriculture is still on, polluting groundwater and leading to the death of fertile soils.
Chelated nutrients are nutrients locked into chelating elements that are then easily (or rather, forcibly) absorbed by the roots of the plants, along with all the nutrients locked into them. We want natural chelates from the Living Microbial to work for us and our plants, but we do not force excessive chelation because it is not natural and is not long-lasting nor sustainable.
Those who master cultivation on Living Soil will be richly rewarded with the highest quality and purity of the end product. This cultivation method is also the most ecological, sustainable, convenient and inexpensive. When you consider how much mineral fertilizer-contaminated substrate conventional growers have to dispose of after each grow, it should be clear to everyone that this is neither environmentally friendly nor cheap. In addition, the end result is a second-rate and heavy metal contaminated crop that can never reach the quality of the plant grown naturally on Living Soil.
The future is organic! Go Living Soil!
Pablo
