Living soil is a cannabis cultivation phrase for a type of growing that uses enriched soil alive with symbiotic microbes and fungi, as opposed to a ‘dead’ soil medium enriched by bottled nutrients.
Living soil practitioners say the more natural root zone of living soil enables better root uptake of nutrients, leading to more diverse, higher terpene production than hydroponic growing. (Many common, salt-based bottled nutrients kill natural fungi and bacteria in soil, potentially reducing nutrient uptake in the root zone.)
Living soil gardeners will create soil, amend it, and test the amendment to achieve optimal levels of nutrients for cannabis. They may practice ‘no-till’ living soil, where the soil beds are not tilled after each grow cycle. No-till living soil growers achieve multiple vegetative and flowering cycles from the same soil through amendments that replenish soil nutrients. Living soil growers often aim to grow organically, with no bottled, or manufactured nutrients. Instead, they opt for compost, and compost teas, ideally sourced from the gardening site.
Living soil gardens usually are outdoors. Indoor living soil grows exist and have produced very high-quality cannabis.
‘We’re growing in all living soil, man. The terps are way better.’