SoilBible · Episodes · Ep 003

Ep 003: How to Make Living Soil from Scratch

· Jeremy walks through making the BuildASoil Take-and-Bake recipe from scratch outside the tent — 70 gallons of living soil in a 100-gallon Grassroots fabric pot destined for a 3x3 plastic-lined planter inside the 10x10. He lays out every component of the kit (peat moss, Earthy Mountain fish compost, pumice, rice hulls, biochar, worm castings, pre-measured mineral kit, pre-measured nutrient kit, Saponaria wetting agent, Kashi blend), explains the ratios (roughly 50% peat / 25% compost / 30% aeration), demonstrates a lasagna-style layering method, mixes by hand volcano-style, then wets evenly at 5% by volume with saponin-foamed water. Six days later he returns to inspect — showing white mycelium on the surface, a crumb texture, and a stable temperature — the readiness indicators that the soil is alive and ready to plant.

Topics

BuildASoil Take-and-Bake recipe from scratch · Base ratio: 50% peat / 25% compost / 30% aeration · Lasagna-layer mixing method in 100-gallon fabric pot · Saponin wetting agent for even moisture · Pre-inoculating biochar so it gives instead of takes · 5% by volume watering rule for living soil · Cook-and-check method: mycelium, temperature, crumb texture as readiness signals · Peat moss vs coco vs perlite — why Jeremy chooses peat and pumice · Storing leftover living soil long-term · Yard-waste compost caveats and quality testing · Pre-measured kit vs DIY — transparency of the ingredient list · Less-is-more moisture philosophy — underwater is reversible, overwatering is not

Sections

0:00 — 2:08

Intro: Filling the 3x3 Bed from Scratch

Jeremy introduces Episode 3. After the transplanting in Episode 2, the next job is to fill the 3x3 plastic-lined planter that will sit under a table in the 10x10 for four female plants. He will mix the BuildASoil Take-and-Bake recipe from scratch outside the tent, get enough to fill the bed, and send it to a lab for testing. He frames this as 'going back to our roots' — making soil from scratch is how BuildASoil started, and this recipe was specifically designed as a target window for the home grower most likely to give them success.

  1. 1. Stage the 100-gallon Grassroots fabric pot outside the tent in indirect light.
  2. 2. Confirm destination: the 3x3 plastic-lined planter with PVC supports inside the 10x10 tent.
  3. 3. Plan volume: 70 gallons of finished soil, enough to fill the 3x3 bed.
1:13 — 2:22

Container Choice and Mixing Vessel

Jeremy selects a Grassroots 100-gallon fabric pot as the mixing vessel. He explains alternatives — a tarp, Rubbermaid tubs — but prefers the 100-gallon because it is a good volume for 70 gallons of soil, holds heat and moisture as the mix warms from soil biology, and breathes. He keeps it out of direct light while it cooks.

  1. 1. Grab a Grassroots 100-gallon fabric pot (or tarp, or Rubbermaid tub — as long as it holds 70 gallons).
  2. 2. Open the pot and stand it up — walls will be floppy until material weighs them down.
  3. 3. Place it out of direct light so the mix will cook evenly.
  4. 4. Decide to mix by hand (or use a shovel if you prefer).
2:22 — 5:16

Peat Moss: The Base Layer

Jeremy dumps the first layer — peat moss. The Take-and-Bake kit comes with four 4-cubic-foot bags of Canadian peat moss that BAS has already run through their peat-fluffing machine so the texture is beautiful and free of big clumps. He opens the durable feed bags by pulling the top corner stitch, pours the peat in as the bottom layer, and explains that they source fresh peat directly from Canada (not compressed old bales sitting at local stores). He briefly covers why he prefers peat over coco coir — sustainability, shipping, and several other reasons he will save for a future episode.

  1. 1. Open the peat moss bag by pulling the top-corner stitch thread.
  2. 2. Dump the first 4-cubic-foot bag of fluffed peat moss into the bottom of the 100-gallon pot.
  3. 3. Let the peat hold the fabric walls open.
  4. 4. Break up any remaining large chunks with your hands — differences in texture are OK.
  5. 5. Hold back one bag of peat for a later layer so that the mix isn't all peat at the bottom.
5:53 — 9:15

Saponaria Wetting Agent Prep

To keep dust down and ensure even moisture, Jeremy pre-mixes a wetting agent. He uses BuildASoil Saponaria — a saponin extract powder (the organic version, paid extra for). He takes 3.5 gallons of water (5% of the 70-gallon soil volume), adds about a pinch (less than a teaspoon, roughly a tenth of a teaspoon) of saponin powder, stirs until foamy, and pours into his sprayer. The foam helps spread moisture through the peat, which naturally repels water until saturated. He sprays the sides down and lightly moistens the first peat layer to knock down dust — not to saturate it.

  1. 1. Fill a bucket or sprayer with 3.5 gallons of water (5% by volume for 70 gal of soil).
  2. 2. Sprinkle a pinch (about a tenth of a teaspoon, 'a little less than a teaspoon' max) of BuildASoil Saponaria powder onto the water.
  3. 3. Stir until it foams — the saponin-rich foam is what carries moisture into hydrophobic peat.
  4. 4. Pour the mixed foamy water into your sprayer.
  5. 5. Lightly mist the peat moss just enough to keep dust down — do NOT try to saturate it yet.
9:15 — 12:22

Aeration Layer: Pumice and Rice Hulls

Jeremy adds the aeration. The kit includes 2 cubic feet of pumice and 1 cubic foot of rice hulls. His pumice is a 3/8-by-1/4 grade (the clean version without sand), sourced from New Mexico, used in the beauty and food industries and heavy-metal tested. He explains ratios — a rough baseline is ~33/33/33 peat/compost/aeration, but this recipe is closer to 50% peat, 25% compost, 30% aeration. The rice hulls are parboiled (nothing germinates), organic certified, and tested for heavy metals — they are made almost entirely from silica so they behave more like glass/rock than straw, adding aeration and a silica source for yield and trichomes. He explicitly refuses to use perlite because perlite is mined obsidian that is puffed like popcorn (not renewable, not sustainable), floats to the top over time, and is bad for long-term no-till living soil. Pumice stays around forever.

  1. 1. Dump 2 cubic feet of pumice (3/8 by 1/4 clean grade) as a layer over the peat.
  2. 2. Dump 1 cubic foot of parboiled organic rice hulls as the next layer.
  3. 3. Do not use perlite — it floats and is not sustainable for no-till.
  4. 4. Layer — don't stir yet; keep building your lasagna.
12:22 — 14:04

Compost: Earthy Mountain Fish Compost

Jeremy shows off the compost — Earthy Mountain fish compost. It's produced by a hardwood company as a by-product of their milling operation; hardwood takes years to break down, so they add whole fish from Alaska plus some yard waste to accelerate the breakdown. He is upfront that BAS normally dislikes yard-waste compost, but they have invested heavily in testing this product and it always tests clean. The result is a dark, black, humic-acid-rich compost that will literally stain your hands black. He warns you may occasionally find a small piece of plastic or glass because large-volume screening machines aren't perfect — he has found one piece of plastic in one bag across hundreds of truckloads.

  1. 1. Layer Earthy Mountain fish compost on top of the pumice/rice hulls.
  2. 2. Expect a dark black humic-rich texture — it will stain your hands.
  3. 3. If you find a tiny piece of plastic or glass, remove it — it is a screening-machine artifact, not a contamination issue.
  4. 4. Notify BAS if you find anything bigger than that.
14:36 — 16:00

Biochar: Pre-Inoculated Beetle-Kill

Jeremy adds biochar made from local beetle-kill wood, pyrolized (burned without oxygen) into a high-carbon charcoal. Raw biochar will absorb nutrients from soil like a sponge and steal from the plants, so BAS pre-inoculates theirs with Roots Organics Microbe Complete (root wise microbe complete) plus organic amino acids and nitrogen so that the char delivers nutrients rather than taking them. He adds the whole 2-gallon bag — at 70 gallons total that works out to roughly 3–5%, comfortably inside his target range of 2–10%. He also mentions you can make biochar at home but professional production lets you test the resulting char for ideal properties.

  1. 1. Only use biochar that has been pre-inoculated with microbes and nitrogen — never raw biochar.
  2. 2. Dump the 2-gallon bag of pre-inoculated beetle-kill biochar as a layer.
  3. 3. Target 2–10% by volume; at 70 gallons, a 2-gallon bag is about 3%.
  4. 4. Re-mist the peat with the saponin sprayer to keep dust down and start conditioning the mix.
17:14 — 18:44

Worm Castings: BAS Double-Bagged

Jeremy layers in the worm castings. These come by the truckload from a producer BAS has a dedicated relationship with; the worms are fed organic vegetable material for consistency. BAS double-bags the castings — an outer breathable feed bag plus an inner plastic liner — because these bags will naturally breathe and the castings need the liner to stay moist in transit. He dumps out the black-gold humic-rich castings and explains how worms actually enzymatically break material down and slurp it through their system rather than 'eating' it — which is what makes the nutrients bioavailable.

  1. 1. Unbag the worm castings — note the double-liner (outer breathable, inner plastic) that keeps them alive in transit.
  2. 2. Layer the castings over the previous layers.
  3. 3. Recognize: worm castings = 'black gold', humic-rich, made by worms enzymatically, bioavailable.
18:44 — 20:26

Pre-Measured Mineral and Nutrient Kits

Jeremy adds the minerals first (rock dust, calcium, etc.) and then the nutrient kit on top — sprinkled evenly across the top surface so it ends up distributed through the final mix. Both kits are pre-measured for 9 cubic feet of soil. He emphasizes transparency — the full ingredient list is published online, so anyone can buy the inputs separately and make the same recipe themselves. He contrasts the BAS nutrient kit — no bone meal, no blood meal — with 'lower-priced quasi-organic companies' that use those 'fake organic' inputs, noting that they only reached this quality because they educated themselves and knew what to avoid.

  1. 1. Open the mineral bag by the top corner stitch; sprinkle the entire bag evenly across the top surface.
  2. 2. Do the same with the nutrient kit — sprinkle over the whole top surface for even coverage.
  3. 3. Because nutrients and minerals are small volumes, always top-sprinkle rather than bottom-layer so they distribute evenly during mixing.
  4. 4. No need to weigh anything — kit is pre-measured for 9 cubic feet (70 gallons).
20:26 — 23:30

Hand Mixing: Volcano Method

Jeremy mixes the whole pile by hand. His technique: mound material from the sides toward the middle like a volcano, which drops loose material through the center; then alternate going down the sides to the bottom and back to the center to make holes, reaching every pocket. He works his way around the container in a circle, then from one side to the middle to the edges, repeatedly. He can grab the fabric pot edges and lift-flip them as another mixing technique. He warns not to try to do it all in one go — it's a lot of work even for 70 gallons, and you can take breaks. Having the mix on the dry side at this stage makes hand-mixing much easier than mud.

  1. 1. Mound material from the sides into the middle, volcano-style.
  2. 2. Reach all the way to the bottom of the pot — make a hole in the center.
  3. 3. Move around the container in a full circle, then work side-to-middle, middle-to-edge.
  4. 4. Grab the fabric pot edges and lift-flip sections for additional mixing.
  5. 5. If you find a pocket of un-mixed rice hulls or peat, push it back through the middle.
  6. 6. Take breaks if you need to — no rush.
  7. 7. Keep it on the dry side while mixing — saturated soil is sticky and won't flow.
23:30 — 29:20

Final Watering and Kashi Topdress

With everything mixed, Jeremy levels the surface (so pools don't form), sprinkles a half-pound of Kashi blend across the top for probiotics and organic inputs, and slowly waters in the last of the 3.5-gallon saponin sprayer. He explains the 5% by volume rule: for 70 gallons of living soil, most you'd ever water is 5–10%, so 3.5 gallons is 5%. Slow watering with the wetting agent forces moisture to find every pocket evenly. He demonstrates how even after spraying a while, the dry soil is still dry just an inch below — water moves slowly, which is why you wait 30 minutes after watering before deciding whether to add more. The whole kit including wetting agent, biochar, Kashi and everything is included in the Take-and-Bake.

  1. 1. Level the top of the mix so pools don't form when you water.
  2. 2. Sprinkle the full half-pound of Kashi blend evenly across the top surface.
  3. 3. Slowly spray the remaining saponin-foamed water (approx 3.5 gal for 70 gal soil = 5% by volume).
  4. 4. Water slowly — let the wetting agent pull moisture into every pocket.
  5. 5. Target: almost no water running out the bottom.
  6. 6. Rule: less is more. If in doubt, underwater — you can add more tomorrow. Overwatering is not reversible.
  7. 7. Wait 30 minutes and squeeze a handful — you should get at most a drop of water, not a stream.
  8. 8. Cover with straw or a tarp if desired, or leave open so it breathes.
30:23 — 39:00

Six Days Later: Readiness Check

Jeremy returns six days after mixing to inspect the cooked soil. He grabs a thermometer (optional — you can use your hand) and explains the cook-and-check method: mixing organics produces a composting response where carbon and nitrogen combine and biology heats up. If the middle is hot to the touch, it's not ready — wait a day or two and mix the cool outer material into the hot middle. He notes this recipe is unlikely to go hot under 1 cubic yard; above 1 cubic yard (or if you combine multiple kits) it becomes more likely. He shows the white mycelium fuzz growing on the surface — a strong sign that beneficials are alive. He sticks the thermometer in the middle; it reads room temperature. He highlights the 'crumb texture' — brownie-like chunks holding together — as the perfect moisture indicator. He closes by mixing it all one more time to ensure no wet or dry pockets, shares long-term storage tips (keep out of direct sun, don't let it go bone dry, don't seal it airtight — poke holes in the lid), and warns that going anaerobic (too wet) is worse than going bone dry (which he'd rather, since heat sterilizes). Then it's ready for the 3x3 bed.

  1. 1. Wait 6 days (or longer — 2 weeks is fine) for the mix to cook.
  2. 2. Put your hand (or a thermometer) into the middle of the pile — if hot, wait another day or two.
  3. 3. If hot: mix cool outer material into the hot middle, let it cool, check again.
  4. 4. Look for white mycelium fuzz on the surface — a sign beneficials are alive.
  5. 5. Check for 'crumb texture' — the soil holds together like a brownie chunk, not sand.
  6. 6. Mix one more time to eliminate any dry or wet pockets.
  7. 7. If using immediately: transfer to the bed and water in there rather than pre-watering (keeps the mass lighter to move).
  8. 8. If storing: put in a tub, keep out of direct sun, don't let it go bone dry, don't seal airtight (poke holes in the lid or leave it ajar).
  9. 9. To revive stored soil: bring it back to moisture, plant something in it, re-inoculate with Kashi blend and root wise.

Notable quotes

"This recipe was specifically designed to fit a target window for the home grower that's going to be most likely to give them success."

Jeremy framing the purpose of the Take-and-Bake recipe — it's tuned for the home grower's likely success window, not for a commercial facility or a perfectionist.

"We don't use perlite because perlite is mined obsidian that's then spent a lot of energy to expand and puff like popcorn... it's good for shipping and it's good to make money and profit but it's not good for long-term living soil."

Jeremy's core case against perlite for no-till, stated as a sustainability and long-term performance argument.

"If you just dump biochar in your soil it'll actually absorb your nutrients like a sponge and steal from your soil."

The core warning about raw biochar — the reason BAS sells theirs pre-inoculated.

"It'll stain your hands black it's so rich in humic acid."

Jeremy describing the Earthy Mountain fish compost as he dumps it into the mix — his shorthand quality marker for 'humic rich'.

"Beautiful — no bone meal, no blood meal, none of that fake organic that you get from a lot of the other lower priced quasi-organic companies."

Jeremy contrasting the BAS nutrient kit with cheaper 'organic' lines that rely on bone/blood meal.

"Don't drown your soil — don't make a soup."

Jeremy's one-liner rule of thumb for first-time living soil builders. Often reused in BAS content.

"With moistening the rule is less is more. I can always come back tomorrow and add a little more water — what I can't do is come squeeze this like a sponge if I over water it."

Jeremy's reversibility philosophy — the reason every BAS watering recommendation errs dry.

"The key to living soil is growing plants in it."

Jeremy's answer to the most common question about how leftover Take-and-Bake soil stays alive between uses — soil stays healthy when roots are growing in it.

Glossary terms from this episode

5% by volume watering · Aeration (in potting soil) · Anaerobic soil · Base ratio (50/25/30) · Biochar · BuildASoil Take-and-Bake · Cook-and-check method (heat test) · Cooking soil · Crumb texture · Earthy Mountain fish compost · Fake organic inputs (bone meal / blood meal) · Humic acid · Kashi blend · Lasagna / seven-layer-dip method · Less-is-more moisture rule · Living soil · Mineral kit · Mycelium / beneficial fungi · Nutrient kit · Peat moss · Pre-inoculated biochar · Pumice · Pyrolysis · Rice hulls · Rock dust · Saponin · Silica (in rice hulls) · Squeeze test · Storing living soil · Volcano-style mixing

Products mentioned

BuildASoil Kashi Blend · BuildASoil Take-and-Bake Kit · Therm-X 70 · Grassroots 100 Gallon Fabric Pot · BuildASoil Saponaria Wetting Agent · Canadian Peat Moss (BAS sourced) · Earthy Mountain Fish Compost · Pumice (3/8 by 1/4, New Mexico) · Parboiled Organic Rice Hulls · BuildASoil Pre-Inoculated Biochar (beetle-kill) · Roots Organics Microbe Complete · BuildASoil Worm Castings (double-bagged) · BuildASoil Mineral Kit · BuildASoil Nutrient Kit · Pump Sprayer (Jeremy's soil sprayer) · Thermometer (soil temperature probe) · Coco Coir · Perlite · Rubbermaid Tub (alternative mixing vessel)