True Living Organics - The Ultimate Guide to Growing All-Natural Marijuana Indoors (2012)

The Soil Mix Recycling Container
When I basically toss old root balls (soil and all) into a container to recycle them, I prefer the
container to be a tough plastic cooler, but a plastic tote, or a plastic kiddie pool will also work fine. I
only need one recycling container because my cannabis garden is just my own little personal one,
taking up only a single small bedroom and a couple of grow-tents. If your grow is larger, then you
might need a couple of containers or more. Essentially recycling is easy: break up the root balls with
a shovel and then add water. It’s that simple. Don’t get it too wet, but make sure it is well moistened.
Aerate the recycling soil mix with additional perlite as needed. Add a dry nitrogen source, such as a
50/50 mix of blood meal and feather meal, just before adding water. A good approximation for the
amounts of dry high-nitrogen mix to add is this: around 3 tablespoons of the blood/feather blend per
cubic foot of recycling mix. One cubic foot of soil mix equals about 6 gallons of soil mix.
My recycling containers of choice are plastic totes and coolers
Two big advantages when using the cooler are the insulation and the drain plug, the latter of which
is fantastic to have if you add too much water. It is very important to either have a drain plug or make
one. Too much water will turn anaerobic fast and start to smell really horrible. Anaerobic soil mix
kills roots on contact due to things like alcohol that are produced by these anaerobic microbeasties
that don’t need any air to breathe. Indoors, I use some shower curtains or a good tarp underneath these
containers and that has always been great for containing small spills. With time you will get a “sixth
sense” about how much water to add, and how often, to keep it just a little moist and not soaking wet.
You need a bit of space in a garage or shed to recycle soil mix, but I have recycled with tarps and
coolers in a 15x20x8-foot bedroom with a small closet, and that was large enough for me!