A Growers Guide for Balancing Media-Based Soils: A Practical Guide to Interpreting Tests of Modified Growing Media

Soil balancing—the practice of ensuring proper ratios of soil macro- and micronutrients—is a time-tested and efficient method for maintaining healthy soil and growing productive crops. But if you’re growing in media in containers—or even in field soil that has been amended so heavily that the organic matter content is now higher than 12 percent—normal soil balancing equations don’t work properly. That’s because soil test results are reported based on a typical mineral field soil. Since growing media have much lower densities and lack the cation exchange capacity of mineral soils, a different approach to interpreting soil test results is necessary. Based on years of interpreting test results and making adjusted fertilizer recommendations for growers, Bill “Crop Doc” McKibben explains how to read the results from a standard soil test and apply them to growing media. Whether it’s cannabis or tomatoes, a 12-inch pot or a quarter-acre field, this book will teach you how to properly manage nutrient levels to grow the highest-quality crops possible.