A common type of question we get is,
“I am using Soil Charge Packs, should I add anything extra besides water?”
“What kind of bloom boosters can I use in combination with Soil Charge Packs that won’t hurt the soil life?”
“Any tips to ensure a strong harvest with maximum yields and terpenes?”
These are great questions. So, let's take a moment to talk about adding bloom boosters. The first thing to know is that when using any boosters in combination with Soil Charge Packs is that they should be based around adding more life and microbiology into the soil, and not based around adding large amounts of N-P-K nutrients.
When using Soil Charge Packs your soil will have an all-access pass to an ultimate buffet of premium organic nutrients, minerals, and soil conditioners - of the highest quality available on the market today. Clean, gentle, and strong ingredients your soil will pick and choose from as requested from the plant roots, just like plants grown in nature. The living soil will break down the ingredients and provide them as nutrients as your plants request them, for the entire plant life cycle. From seedling to harvest, the plants and soil are in constant communication with each other. To work together as a team and grow your plants to their full genetic potential without us being the middleman and directly feeding plants with water soluble nutrients from charts.
How amazing nature can be when we let it. It all revolves around having healthy life in your soil paired with the premium blend of nutrients, minerals and soil conditioners that have become to be known as Soil Charge Packs. One product that has everything needed for full plant genetic expression.
Adding boosters to your living soil can be a lot of fun and exciting!
Only adding water can get a bit boring, we understand the struggle.
So, here is our list of favorite boosters to add besides just water.
Booster #1 - Actively Aerated Compost Tea (AACT).
We believe this to be the most important tea that any organic gardener should have in their toolkit. It is hands down the ultimate tea you could add when using Soil Charge Packs. Even if you are not using Soil Charge Packs, we believe it to be one of the best teas you could add to any garden program. Apply this tea at any growth stage, veg or bloom. Adding this tea every 3-4 weeks is great. Although it can't be over applied so have some fun with it.
The goal with this tea is quite simple. Extract living microorganisms from the worm castings or high-quality compost; put them in the perfect environment to multiply by adding an air pump to provide oxygen, and then after 24hrs this tea is watered into the soil or sprayed onto the foliage of the plants. We do this by putting worm castings or high-quality compost into a bucket of clean water, add molasses or oats as a food source, add an air pump to supply oxygen and let the microbiology populations grow and then finally be watered into the soil. Click Here for the Actively Aerated Compost Tea recipe.
We are not doing this tea to add nutrients although there will be some water-soluble nutrient content in the worm castings or compost. We make this tea to increase the nutrient cycling in the soil resulting in healthier soil and healthier plants, and of course a nice growth boost. Think of compost tea as adding more “workers” into your living soil because that is exactly what it is. After all these little “workers” are unlocking certain nutrients and minerals as the plant requests them.
Booster #2 - Compost Extract (CE)
The compost extract tea is quicker and easier to make than the compost tea recipe. The goal is simple. Extract microbiology off of the compost or worm castings, and then water this extract into the soil.
Take a 400micron compost tea bag or strainer bag and add a large handful of worm castings or compost from your worm bin. In a 5-gallon bucket submerge the bag into 4 gallons of clean de-chlorinated / de-chloramine water. Massage the bag vigorously by hand for at least 30 seconds. This water extract will now contain the beneficial microbes and any water-soluble nutrients from the compost, turning the water dark brown. You can massage it longer if the extract continues to darken.
Apply this to your soil, evenly disperse it around your plants. Apply more water as needed to finish the watering of your plants. Simple, easy, and it works very well to ensure high life activity in your soil.
Booster #3 - Water Soluble Mycorrhizal Fungi
Mycorrhizal Fungi is a beneficial soil fungus that colonizes plant roots and then expands into the surrounding soil that the normal roots can’t access. It greatly increases the absorptive surface area of root systems and promotes enhanced activity in the rhizosphere. This is a great way to add Mycorrhizal Fungi to the soil after planting.
Booster #4 - Oats
That’s right. Plain organic rolled oats from your local grocery store. Rolled oats are a whole grain food made from oat groats that have been DE-husked and steamed. They are then rolled under heavy rollers and then lightly toasted for shelf stability.
Oats are great food source for the fungi and bacteria in the soil to boost nutrient cycling in the soil. Boosting the microbial population in your soil will boost the plants growth as the microbes are responsible for breaking organic matter down into plant available food. Fungi and Bacteria play one of the largest roles as composters in the soil ecosystem and nutrient cycling. They are a big part of a complex ecosystem going on inside of your soil. So, as you can imagine having them not only living, but thriving inside the soil is a great thing to do. Not only are oats a great microbe food source they also contain a good amount of silica to boost the cell wall thickness in plant leaves and stems.
Add 2-4 Tbls of ground up oats per gallon of water. Stir up and water it into your soil. Or you can also simply sprinkle some oats on top of the soil surface and let them work down into the soil through the mulch layer during normal watering.
Tip – Add oats to your compost teas as an excellent replacement microbial food source for black strap un-sulfured molasses.
Tip – If you are letting newly mixed soil rest before using it, then sprinkle the top surface of your newly mixed soil with oats to really boost the fungi response, in turn inoculating your soil with more soil “workers”, before you even grow plants in it.
Booster #5 - Insect Frass
Insect Frass is a great product, we really like it. It is derived from the larvae manure and exoskeletons of black soldier flies and sometime other insects. Insect Frass shares some of the same traits as worm castings. Add a dash of it to your compost tea or top dress it in the vegetative growth period. This provides a great boost to the soil life and is also a great gentle source of natural water-soluble nitrogen as a little treat to the plant in the vegetative phase of growth.
The more you know
Did you know when using Soil Charge Packs in bloom you are giving the soil access to phosphorus (P) from 5 different sources, and potassium (K) from 6 different sources!? It’s prefect for bringing out large organic harvests. Soil Charge Packs is a premium blend of organic ingredients to bring out the highest quality, flavors and terpenes from your plants by creating and maintaining a premium quality living soil.
*General Tip – Adding high P-K water soluble synthetic bloom boosters with hydroponic methods of gardening are common practice, but when applied into a living soil can build up and throw off the natural soil balance that you have worked hard to create. Instead, the idea is to create and maintain a premium healthy soil that is alive and being controlled by nature – not us. This is done by using Soil Charge Packs, water, and sometimes a microbiology booster if we feel like it. Nothing else is needed to have a premium organic harvest.
If you have a favorite booster that you use in combination with Soil Charge Packs, then please feel free to click on the contact us page and message us your favorite soil or plant booster.