Growing With Super Soil

Choosing your genetics

This soil was designed for all species of plants
Use it as a potting soil for your organic vegetables and flowers.
After harvesting, you can take the used soil and top dress your flower/vegetable garden.

Each Bale is 3 Cuft Compressed, Loose Volume is approximately 34 gallons or 127 Litres
Check our pot size guide , see how many weeks of veg and the proper size pot for that amount time. The sizes are in gallons.
We recommend minimum 7-10 gallon pots for indoor growing with a veg time of 3-4 weeks.
Minimum 15 gallon pots for outdoor growing
Choosing a small pot will have less nutrients and like humans the bigger you are, the bigger the straw you need to drink from. The straw being an example of the pot size

Make sure your soil is moist before transplanting, transplanting dry can cause transplant shock.
Conditioning the soil is the best way to ensure the soil has properly expanded from the bale and it will help the soil absorb water easier
Condition by putting the soil in a pale or tub and mix about 500 ml of water per gallon of soil
Clones and most seedlings are able to go straight into the soil
Plants can be started in small pots and transplanted up to their final pot with the exception of Auto Flowers

Every light will have its pros and cons. Choose the best light that suites your growing target
HPS/MH, CMH are excellent lights to get great yields and has been proven to work really well. The upfront cost is fairly economical. The downside is the heat it produces and the electricity it consumes
LED’s are the next wave of grow lighting technology. There are different varieties of LED grow lights. Some LED’s cause harder feeding on calcium, magnesium and iron due to the colours and light spectrum. Use organic supplements such as Kelzyme from Kootenay bio soil or an organic top dress if your garden show’s signs of deficiencies. EM1 Water mix can be used as a foliar spray to help with these issues as well.
Natural sunlight is free energy that produces much more power then any artificial light on the market. Nothing beats Mother Nature.

For indoor growing maintaining temperatures between 22 to 28 Degrees C would be most ideal
Humidity should be around 50–60 %rh
If your growing outdoor. Make sure your plants have been hardened off (acclimated) to the outdoor weather. Temperatures can fluctuate more. The light intensity will be much stronger. It is best to leave them in full shade for a few days before putting them in the sun to reduce chances of bleaching. At the Start of the season when there is frost at night, bring the plants indoor at night the first week so they don’t stress in the cold.
Growing in partly sunny with shady spots is said to get the best results.

Having an excellent source of water is very important, use chlorine and chloramine free water such as rain water, Reverse Osmosis, Distilled, or Filtered water.
Water usually does not need to be ph balanced for our soil. If the ph is too high, Lime juice or apple cider vinegar can be used to bring down the ph lightly. If you choose to balance your water, ph the water to around 6.4.
Check with your municipality on how they treat the water.
Leaving water out can help evaporate chlorine but not chloramine. Use a water filter that can eliminate it.
EM1 can be added to your regular watering schedule at least once a week. It can be used as a foliar spray as in Veg. Mix 1-2ml of EM1 to 1000ml of water for watering in the soil or foliar spraying.
Keeping the core of the soil moist will help microbial life stay active and produce nutrients efficiently
Water approximately 500ml per gallon of soil in each pot. Water frequencies will vary on temperatures, humidity and the size of the plant. Typically, we water every 2-3 days with fabric pots indoors.
Outdoor watering can vary from every 2-3 days or even once a week. This depends on the pot size and temperature and the frequency of rain.
Using blends of cover crops such as clovers, legumes, barely, buckwheat and alfalfa will help create armor for the soil and pulls nitrogen from the air. Having cover crop also benefits the rhizosphere and aids spikes in temperature.

In most of StepWell’s gardens we do not add any extra nutrients because we use the larger sized pots to grow in. Our preference is water and microbes from beginning to end.
Growers may use organic supplements to enhance their grows to hit certain targets. Products such as Compost teas, top dressing, and fertilizers that do not contain salts and chelates.

Using an Ipm in your garden is crucial to keeping unwanted pest from harming your plants
Adding nematodes to your soil will help prevent or get rid of fungus gnats and other soft bodied larvae
Contact your nearest IPM suppler, they will be able help you with your pest control. We use Natural Insect Control.
If using bugs to fight bugs isn’t your preference, natural Insecticidal soaps sprayed on your plants will help deter or kill off unwanted pest. Use Method 1 pps or Safers Insecticidal soap.

Check for swollen calyx’s and receded hairs. This is a way to check for plant maturity or another method would be checking for cloudiness and amber trichomes.
When time gets near to harvesting your plants, Flushing is not required. There are no synthetic chemicals or fertilizers to flush out like in hydroponics. This is one of the biggest reasons why terpenes are more announced with organic growing.
Hang dry for 10-14 days at 60F/60%rh