Soil: layer of earth in which plants grow, a black/dark brown material typically consisting of organic remains, clay, rock particles.

Soilless: provides structural support, retains water, allows gas exchange to roots.

Peat(Sunmix/Promix), coco = soilless, despite appearances.

Soilless media/substrate is great. It allows for rapid growth as long as nutrients are added.

Products marketed as potting soil are often soilless media with nutrients added.

But, if your substrate has no organic or humic materials, minerals, or nutrition, it is not soil.

We use soilless media/aeration materials like sphagnum peat moss, perlite, and pumice as 1/3-1/2 of our soil mix. It offers a texture that allows roots to breathe easily, doesn't become compacted, and provides a variety of spaces for microbes to live in happily.

Our soilless inputs are mixed with dense organic material full of microbes like compost, vermicompost, insect frass, and kelp as well as mineral dusts.

The microbes colonize the whole mix during what we call the "cooking" phase, creating a living soil.

Then all we add is water!