Prep

To use The Kit off-the-shelf, you'll need to purchase base soil and earthworm castings.  Our products work best when used with either Sunshine #4 or Promix Hp (both typically available at your local home or gardening store) and 30 pounds of earthworm castings with no added Potassium (we recommend Unco). You'll also want something to mix all your soil and amendments--a simple tarp works well.

Getting Started

To prepare the soil, we like to lay out a large (10x10 or, larger) tarp in a clean, open space indoors like a garage or basement. 

With the tarp laid out, dump your bag of soil, earthworm castings (EWC), and our First Run Amendment into the center of the pile and mix thoroughly. Ideally, any and all “chunks” of soil are broken up for consistency throughout your soil.  

Once thoroughly mixed, put the soil into one or more clean containers (an old trash can with a lid works great!) and "cook" by watering in with 3-5 gallons of water. Let the soil sit, off the ground or insulated on the bottom, for a minimum of 30 days indoors or in a temperate environment. If you live in a dry environment, you may need to add a gallon or two of water over the course of those 30 days to keep the soil moist.

Temps should be no lower than 62 degrees and no higher than 85 degrees. Lower temps tend to take another week or so to "cook", while higher temps might be ready sooner. Generally speaking, 1 month works well.

The soil pictured above has been cooked 30 days and is ready for planting.

RECYCLING (Re-cook) YOUR SOIL

What should you do with the soil left over from a previous High-Brix grow? Keep it!

We recycle our soil a minimum of 3 times--some users, add another bale of Promix or Sunshine soil and earthworm castings.  Below are some general guidelines for recycling soil. 
Please note:  Soil recycling products are not included in The Kit.  Separate items must be purchased, namely 3rd Run Amendment.

After your first grow

After the first crop is harvested, put all the soil (yes, including the roots), along with 20-30 lbs of earthworm castings, and a new bag of First Run Amendment back into the barrel to cook for at least a month.

After at least 30 days of 'cooking', use as normally directed, including use of Recharge during early bloom per the directions.   Please reduce the frequency of foliar sprays to every 10 days to 2 weeks on Second Run soil.

After your second grow

After the second crop is harvested, we take that same used soil and this time we add a bag of 3rd Run Amendment, and a light dusting of Roots! perhaps some healthy leaf scraps.  Let this cook for a month and then use as normally directed.  Please note:  3rd run "Recharge" is not needed nor is it recommended.   Reduce use of foliar sprays to every 2 weeks for the 3rd Run. 

After your third grow

We do not use soil for a 5th run, so in our garden this "fourth" run is the finale.  Salt loving hydro strains like this soil, as it has the highest organic content and the highest soil energy (ERGS) of all four runs.  Sensitive, light feeders.....not so much.

After the 3rd crop has been harvested from the soil, add 25% fresh, unused soil (Promix or Sunshine#4,)  along with just a few leaves and a light dusting of Roots! and re-cook.   As with 3rd run soil,  there’s no use for Re-charge product during use.

Others recycle past 6 runs and do so with good success - we suggest seeking them out and seeing if their methods work in your garden. 

In our garden, we tend to get our best results during the 3rd run of soil.