Living soil doesn't work like a bottle-fed grow. There's no EC to chase and no pH to correct — you feed the soil with dry amendments a few times a cycle and the biology feeds the plant. This page condenses Ecothrive's own grow guide into one place: how much soil you need, how to water it, the three-level feed chart, a worked cycle for a 45–60L pot, and how to re-use the soil. Everything mentioned is in our Ecothrive living soil range, genuine UK stock.
How the system works
- Ecothrive Living Soil is a coco, worm-casting and biochar base, pre-loaded with organic nutrition and lab-tested batch by batch. It is ready to plant straight from the bag — nothing to mix in on day one.
- The starter charge runs out. Ecothrive are clear that living soil is not a "no input" grow: in a 40–60L pot the soil carries the plant for roughly the first 3–4 weeks, then you top-dress with Soil Food Grow, later Soil Food Bloom, and rebuild it between crops with Soil Food Re-Gen.
- Top-dress rates are calculated on the top 15 cm of soil, not the whole pot. Ecothrive call this the Target Top-Dress Volume. Using the full pot volume is the single most common way to over-feed and create a "hot layer".
- Biology is the engine, so water that kills it (chlorinated tap water) and watering to run-off (anaerobic, waterlogged soil) are the two things to avoid.
Pot size and how much soil you need
Ecothrive's minimum is 20L per plant; the sweet spot is 45–60L. Bigger pots buffer moisture and nutrition, so they need less frequent feeding and are far easier to keep stable. Under 30–40L works, but you'll be watering and top-dressing more often.
| Pot | Top-dress frequency (Ecothrive) | Grassroots pot | Bags of 40L soil |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~26L | Every 1–2 weeks | 7 US gal | ~⅔ bag |
| ~56L | Every 2–3 weeks | 15 US gal | 1½ bags |
| ~115L | Every 2–3 weeks | — | 3 bags |
For a 1.2 × 1.2 m tent Ecothrive suggest four plants in 45–60L pots (180–240L of soil, so 5–6 bags), or two plants in 90–125L, or nine in 20–25L. Soil is bulky to ship — standard delivery covers one bag and each additional bag adds a per-bag charge, shown on the product page.
Fabric pots made for living soil (the Grassroots range) have a moisture-retaining liner so the root zone doesn't dry from the sides the way a standard fabric pot does — which matters when the aim is steady moisture rather than wet-dry cycling.
Watering
- Moist, not wet, and never to run-off. Run-off in living soil means you've flooded the pore space the microbes live in.
- How much: start at about 5% of pot volume per watering (2.25L for a 45L pot) and work up to 10% as the plant fills out. Frequency is whatever keeps the soil evenly moist — small pots may need daily or automated watering.
- Measure it. A soil moisture meter such as the Blumat Digital takes the guesswork out of "moist".
- Water source: rainwater, RO, or dechlorinated tap water. Chlorine and chloramine damage the biology you're paying for. Neutralise fixes tap water instantly — 1 drop (0.05 ml) per litre, or 1 ml per 20L in a tank; double it if your water company reports total chlorine above 0.6 mg/L. Use it with every watering. Letting water stand 24 hours removes free chlorine but not chloramine, which is why Neutralise is the simpler route.
- Mulch is optional. You can run a straw mulch layer or leave the surface bare; if you mulch, lift it or shake it after top-dressing.
The three-level feed chart
Ecothrive structure their programme as three levels. Level 1 alone is enough for a straightforward grow; Levels 2 and 3 are additive.
| Level | Product | Rate | When / how often |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 — Essential nutrition | Soil Food Grow | 1–2 g per litre of top-15cm soil volume | Late veg / early transition — 3–4 weeks after planting in 40–60L pots. Scratch into top 2–4 cm, water in. |
| Soil Food Bloom | 1–2 g per litre of top-15cm soil volume | Early flower, once flowers start forming. Some plants benefit from a second dose 2–3 weeks later. No top-dressing in the last 4–5 weeks. | |
| Soil Food Re-Gen | 2–4 g per litre, mixed in | After harvest, before re-planting. Pots up to 25L: tip out and re-mix the whole volume. Larger pots/beds: work into the top 20–25 cm. 2 g/L if the plant faded only slightly at the end; 4 g/L if most big leaves yellowed before harvest. | |
|
2 — Beneficial biology (optional, recommended) |
Biosys | 0.5 g per litre of water as a drench | Every 1–2 weeks. 1 g/L at potting-on, and 1 g/L twice, 3–5 days apart, for stress recovery. Use within 24 h of mixing; dissolve 10 g in 250 ml tepid water first for big batches. |
| Bio-Blend (compost extract) | 50–100 ml per litre of dechlorinated water | Pots up to 25L: Biosys and Bio-Blend weekly. Over 25L and beds: alternate weeks. Not currently stocked here — Biosys alone covers Level 2 in pots. | |
|
3 — Nutrient uptake (optional) |
Flourish (seaweed biostimulant) | Root: 0.25–0.5 ml/L with every watering or foliar: 10 ml/L every 2–4 weeks |
Pick one route, not both. |
| Trace (micronutrients) | Root: 0.25 ml/L for the first two weeks, then 0.5 ml/L through week 7 of flower or foliar: 10 ml/L in veg weeks 1 and 3 and flower week 2 |
Pick one route. Stop foliar spraying by late flower. Trace elements are the first thing living soil runs short of over repeated cycles. |
Where does Charge fit? Charge is the mealworm frass that's already inside Soil Food, sold on its own. In a living soil grow it's the gentle general-purpose top-dress: 3–6 g per plant every 2 weeks in 15–20L pots, 9–18 g in 50–60L pots, last application 5 weeks before harvest. Use it if you want a lighter touch than Grow/Bloom, or to feed a long veg between the starter charge and the first Grow dose. 1 teaspoon ≈ 3 g, 1 tablespoon ≈ 9 g.
Working out your top-dress dose
Measure the inside diameter of the pot, work out the area, and multiply by 0.15 m. For a ~45 cm-wide 56L fabric pot: 0.225² × π ≈ 0.16 m² × 0.15 m ≈ 24L of target volume, so a Grow or Bloom dose is 24–48 g (not 56–112 g). A ~37 cm-wide 26L pot gives ≈ 16L → 16–32 g. These are our worked examples from Ecothrive's rule, not Ecothrive's own figures — their feeding schedule calculator will do the sums for your exact pots or beds and warns you if a pot is too small for the dose it needs (the ceiling is 2 g/L).
On those numbers, the 1 kg Grow / Bloom / Re-Gen bundle comfortably covers four 56L pots for a full cycle: ~150 g Grow, ~300 g Bloom across two doses, and ~300–600 g Re-Gen to rebuild the top 20–25 cm afterwards.
A worked cycle — 45–60L pot, 4 weeks veg, 9 weeks flower
| Week | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Water |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transplant | — | Biosys 1 g/L | Flourish 0.25 ml/L, Trace 0.25 ml/L | ~5% pot volume, Neutralise-treated |
| Veg 1–3 | — (starter charge feeding) | Biosys 0.5 g/L every 1–2 wks | Flourish 0.25–0.5 ml/L; Trace 0.25 → 0.5 ml/L | Rising towards 10% |
| Veg 4 / flip | Grow 1–2 g/L top-15cm | Biosys | Flourish, Trace | 10% |
| Flower 1–2 | Bloom 1–2 g/L once flowers form | Biosys | Flourish, Trace 0.5 ml/L | 10% |
| Flower 3–4 | Optional 2nd Bloom (week 4 = 5 wks before harvest) | Biosys | Flourish, Trace | 10% |
| Flower 5–7 | No more top-dressing | Biosys optional | Trace stops after week 7 | Hold moisture steady |
| Flower 8–9 | — | — | Flourish root only if used | Plain treated water |
| Harvest | Re-Gen 2–4 g/L mixed in | Biosys to re-seed | — | Water thoroughly, rest 1–2 wks |
Switch on what the plant shows you, not the calendar: Grow goes on when the lower leaves start to pale as the starter charge fades, Bloom when flowers are visibly forming. Shorter flowering plants simply lose the second Bloom dose — the 4–5-week-before-harvest rule wins.
Re-using the soil
This is the point of living soil — you buy the bags once. Ecothrive's between-cycle routine:
- Pull the stem and the largest roots; leave fine roots to break down.
- Check for compaction and fluff the soil back up. If it's packing down, blend in 4–5% extra pumice or perlite — typically every 3–4 cycles.
- Mix in Re-Gen at 2–4 g/L (whole volume for pots up to 25L; top 20–25 cm for bigger pots and beds). Deep mixing is for between crops only — never while roots are live.
- Drench with Biosys to re-seed the biology.
- Rest a week or two if you can, keeping it moist, then plant.
Beds can run indefinitely this way. Small pots are harder to recycle because the root mass is so dense — another argument for 45L and up.
The mistakes Ecothrive see most
Watering to run-off. Fine in coco, wrong here — it drives out air and the microbes with it.
Untreated tap water. One drop of Neutralise per litre is the cheapest insurance in the grow.
Feeding on total pot volume. Top 15 cm only. Over-amending builds a hot layer and, once it's used up, springtails, woodlice and fungus-gnat larvae turn to the roots.
Undersized pots. Below 20L the soil can't hold enough nutrition or water to stay stable.
Expecting zero inputs. Living soil needs fewer inputs, not none — micronutrients in particular deplete over repeated cycles.
Get the full system
Starting from scratch? The Living Soil + Grow & Bloom combo is Level 1 for one pot; the Living Soil Full Combo adds the Level 2 and 3 additives for the complete three-level chart. Already have soil? The Soil Food 1 kg bundle covers a full cycle in four large pots, including the Re-Gen to reset them. Browse the complete Ecothrive range — genuine UK stock.
Prefer the originals? Ecothrive's full grow guide (PDF), their feeding schedule calculator for your exact pots or beds, and the Living Soil Academy for the deeper reading.