Quote Originally Posted by Farang
hello. I'd like to say I'm doing it all organically, but I'm not sure.

where I retired and live, potting soil (among many things) are not all that easy to locate. what I've been using hasn't been good through my first grows but very recently I found a soil comprised of mushroom substrate, trichodema sp fungus and chitosan. I'd never heard of the last two items before and Googled what I could without being able to find any direct connections to this stuff and my plants. there must be a hundred kinds of that fungus and I have no further information on this soil. (I can barely speak the local language much less read it.)

the bag brags of a pH of 7 but my meter says 6 and 6.5 which should be acceptable, right?

Actually better than 7.0 for cannabis.

I had a couple of auto flowering seeds left over from the second attempt at growing and I transplanted the seedlings into the new soil and they seem to have taken to it well. I've top dressed four more pots and the plants seem to have liked that. but I'm looking for someone else's take on it. the 3 little birds say they've used mushroom substrate with success but I gather they add it to soil and no mention of my found combination of stuff, for instance.

I'm also growing veggies as much to screen off my plants as for the food. I've transplanted some of them into this soil and they seem to be doing OK. the exception was one cloned celery plant which I don't think is going to make it.

when this soil is watered, the run-off is black, black, black. I haven't had the soil long enough to know when or whether this ceases after multiple waterings and I wonder if I'm flushing all the good stuff away. am I?

Probably not.
Easy to check though.
Use that run-off to water , say celery, in poor soil.
If it gets all perky, there's more than color in the run-off.

so a two part question: is this considered organic soil? I obviously don't want to produce ugly tasting smoke. second, is this OK as the sole growing medium or should I be mixing it into the miserable potting soil which is somewhat more available to me?

Sorry, have no clue.
Had you included the name of the product, including the manufacturer's name, we could then look it up and offer useful advice

I may have other questions and/or follow ups, but I'll leave this here and hope somebody has advice on this topic.
Suggest that you ask one clear question at a time.
There is still some talent on this board, but you have to work with them.

Give as much information as you can and be clear in your request.
We'll be tickled to help, if you make that easy to do.

Aloha,
(Helpful, but lazy.)
Weezard