In this article we are going to talk about the best soil for weed. Any decent cannabis grower wants to know what are the best products for growing weed properly. Sometimes, there is a tendency to choose soils for weed based only on their price, when maybe spending a couple of extra quid would be helpful to solve future issues related to soil. This article is here to explain the pros and cons of the best soils for weed plants.
Soil is a mix of different compounds that humans have been using for centuries to improve their crops. In this case, seeing as we are talking about the best soils for growing marijuana we are going to look for compositions that cover this type of plants’ needs so they can develop fully and healthy.
Apart from mixtures that you can make yourself with different peats, mixtures like hummus, perlite and other additives, we’re going to focus on mixtures that come ready-made. This is the easiest way to choose the best soil for your grow. Some substrates are light (without any fertilizers, and almost 0.0 EC) and others come loaded with nutrients. Depending on what nutrients they have, they’ll be more suitable for the growing stage or the flowering stage.
Today, we’ll focus on some well-known light substrates (without additives):
Light Mix (Boom Nutrients)
Light Mix by Boom Nutrients is an excellent solution if we want to find a high quality, aerated and soft soil, perfect for autoflowering and feminised cannabis plants. Due to its moisture retention capacity, we recommend its use in rainy or very humid areas, as well as adding 5-10% more perlite or even coco fibre. It has a perfect texture for root development.
Thanks to its intermediate water retention capacity, it is an ideal substrate for high seed germination and the cultivation of young plants and cuttings. As it contains practically no food, it allows us to regulate the feeding according to our own criteria from day one. For this reason, it can be considered an excellent option for maximising the yield of our cannabis crops. This type of substrate is composed of blond peat, black peat, coco fibre, perlite and worm castings. Its EC values are around 0.5-1 and the pH should be between 6.0 and 6.8.
When using this substrate, 1L of water was enough to cover the needs of a flowering plant in a 7L pot for 48h.
Canna Terra Professional (Canna) soil for weed
This product is the most sold substrate because it has a great price and offers amazing results. It is a soil mixture that if well-treated, will treat you well in return. It’s extremely efficient in grows that have an automatic watering system, because it doesn’t hold a lot of humidity and it dries quickly, allowing for the plants to be watered frequently. This soil has Sphagnum peat and perlite in its composition. Placing clay pebbles, perlite or coco fiber on the bottom of the pots is advisable to ensure a good drainage.
Weed plants shouldn’t be left to dry out too much as it can be difficult to dampen them again. A tray with some water can be placed under the cannabis plants so the soil gets damp without any major difficulty. When dampening the soil, you shouldn’t compact the substrate too much because you’ll end up losing the perfect oxygen/water ratio, and you’ll end up with too much water. This is bad for the roots and can lead to rot.
An adult plant in the middle of its flowering stage will need 1L of water a day when using this substrate.
Light Mix (Plagron)
This soil has a spongy feel to it, similar to coco substrate but with the same consistency as soil. It’s a mixture of the best moss and it has no additives, so fertilizers can be used without any problems. Another special quality of this mixture is its capacity to retain nutrients. If this substrate is used in conjunction with an organic fertilizer (we recommend Top Crop or Plagron) grows will be considerably tall. This soil is formed with blonde peat, black peat, coco fiber and perlite. PH levels should range between 5.5 and 6.9 and the EC levels have to be between 0.7 and 1.1. Its mineral nutrients NPK composition is 12/14/24.
This soil will retain a lot more nutrients than other substrates. Your plants won’t need big amounts of fertilizers so that will be a saving. On the other hand it is easy to over-fertilize the weed plant, so you should be careful.
7L pot plant needed 1L of water a day during the flowering stage but fertilizers were only used every 3 days.
Janeco Light Mix (Atami)
This mixture isn’t as light as others as it contains some nutrients to help your plant with the first growing phases. Some growth liquid will still necessary, though .If you don’t fertilize your plant with anything else during the entire process, it will end up lacking nutrients. As far as humidity retention goes, this soil is in between BioBizz light mix and Canna’s professional terra. It doesn’t retain much water but it’s not too dry. It’s the preferred option for those who check on their plants every day and water them if needs be.
When using this type of soil, a 7L pot plant needed 1L of water every 36-48h.
Choose the best Soil for cannabis
We hope this article has helped to clear up your doubts about which is the best substrate for your crops. As we have told you, there is no infallible substrate for all crops, but rather each one has a particularity that adapts better than others, depending on the type of crop. Choosing the best substrate for marijuana is easy by following our advice and recommendations.
For more tips and tricks on growing cannabis, don’t hesitate to take a look at all our blog articles, as well as the videos on our YouTube channel.
