Living Soil

Living soil refers to the practice of growing cannabis and other plants in customized organically amended media containing active, living microbiology including beneficial microbes, fungi, insects, worms, and other vital organisms that interact to create a diverse, thriving soil food web. This biodiverse community optimizes natural opportunities for nutrient cycling, stress resistance, CBD and terpene expression, and overall plant health according to proponents. Living soil growers build nutrition through incorporation of composts, cover crops, and other organic inputs designed to feed microbe populations, not just to fertilize plants directly with soluble salts. By fostering intimate symbiotic relationships between roots and living soil biology, this environmentally sustainable approach allows leveraging the striking benefits of natural systems that evolved over eons for optimal growth. Overall, utilizing living soil reflects modeling cannabis agriculture on nature's holistic model of plants coevolving and coexisting interdependently with the surrounding soil environment. Enhancing beneficial microbiotic life ultimately begets more vibrant life above and within the soil.