Newbie with questions on soil

[sullivan666]

Thanks freemason, I've heard of diatomaceous earth before but didn't know its basically silica. Is there any benefit to using it versus the Agsil potassium silicate?

Also, mixed up the soil today. I came up a cup shy on the Kelp meal but hopefully that won't be too big a deal. Got some of the mix in a plastic garbage bin and some in a plastic storage bin (roughly the same amount in each). Used about 1.5 gallons of RO water in each. Also got some rain water in each thanks to the beautiful weather we had today. Got the lids on loose to allow for some air. I have them both set to where they'll be in the sun most the day...is that preferred? (temps should be around 60s/70s in the sun)

Awesome side note...my roomates had raked up a couple good size leaf piles a while ago and never threw the litter out. For the first time, it hit me that these were probably decomposing. I kicked over the top layer and sure enough was greeted with some nice, dark compost. Grabbed a handful and got the sweet smell of humus. Not only did I throw a handful into each soil bin (had to add a bit of local magic I also raked up a large pile and threw it in the compost bin I made a few days ago. Just gonna add some grass clippings, some coffee grounds and veggie scraps and let that cook as well.

Tomorrow I start IMO and LAB growing. Then hopefully a worm bin soon.

 

[FR33MASON]

I don't think Diatomaceous earth has any super advantage over potassium silicate however, Diatomaceous earth is around 90% silica and the rest is clay type minerals which would contain a wide variety of minerals and trace elements. Where as the latter is just potassium, silicon, and oxygen. Potassium silicate is also very alkaline so be aware of that when using it.

 

[sullivan666]

Checked on the mix today...its still pretty moist...after lightly digging into the top layer, I realized the soil is pretty compact...is that normal?

 

[Rrog]

How much DE did you add?

 

[sullivan666]

• Diatomaceous earth? None yet...pretty broke at the moment unfortunately...​
  
  
  
  

 

[sullivan666]

lol, didn't mean to put that in bold...musta done that because i copy and pasted diatomeceous earth

 

[FR33MASON]

Gravity does tend to compact things.

Is the bin on a floor or on cement or the ground.

Can you get ahold of any straw? If it is a real heavy mix, that is a great way to lighten it.

 

[FR33MASON]

Vermiculite works well also but the straw has the added benifit of feeding and supplying microbes to the mix.
Optimally barley straw is what you'd go for but any straw really works. The one thing is you would want it at no larger than 1/2" pieces. I have an old school paper cutter that was built to last forever that I bought from a surplus auction from a regional school board for $20. I can chop 1/4" consistently. Any sharpening service can keep the blades razor sharp something to keep an eye out for I guess. I can fill a 20 gal. container in about 30 min. to an hour depending on what I smoke lol.

 

[Rrog]

Aeration is such a big deal. It's great you're discussing it Fr33mason. I'm moving to med / large horticultural pumice. For those doing several generations of no-till, it's proven to be their preferred aeration amendment. Also biochar really should be used by everyone. For many reasons beyond great aeration.

 

[POH Organics]

I've found diversity in my aeration to be my 'trick'. Use multiple forms, shapes, sizes, consistencies, and 'half life. Also, whenever I'm filling a pot, I like to take just a small handful of rice hulls and mix it into the bottom 3 or 4 inches of the pot.

 

[Rrog]

That is all super-cool!

 

[sullivan666]

Freemason, both bins are on the ground in the backyard. Straw sounds great and i can probably get some at the local feed store; however, cutting it down to 1/2" sounds tedious. Probably gone try and get some rice hulls (where might I find them?) and pumice and add that to aerate a bit more. I read that some bonsai growers use dry-stall (horse litter) instead of horticultural grade pumice...anyone here used it?

 

[POH Organics]

Freemason, both bins are on the ground in the backyard. Straw sounds great and i can probably get some at the local feed store; however, cutting it down to 1/2" sounds tedious. Probably gone try and get some rice hulls (where might I find them?) and pumice and add that to aerate a bit more. I read that some bonsai growers use dry-stall (horse litter) instead of horticultural grade pumice...anyone here used it?

You can find the PBH at a grain and feed store, it's often sold as animal bedding. Never heard of dried horse poo for aeration, lol

 

[FR33MASON]

Freemason, both bins are on the ground in the backyard. Straw sounds great and i can probably get some at the local feed store; however, cutting it down to 1/2" sounds tedious. Probably gone try and get some rice hulls (where might I find them?) and pumice and add that to aerate a bit more. I read that some bonsai growers use dry-stall (horse litter) instead of horticultural grade pumice...anyone here used it?

Lol, even with my fancy hand cutter, it is a bit tedious. I have never seen rice hulls in my area but someone here will know the best places to find that and I have never tried meadow muffins either but it sounds interesting so I'm gonna have to look into that...cool.

The reason I asked the bin's location, is because a friend of mine put some compost bins in his mud room which was fine and dandy but had a serious issue with compaction. he added pumice, vermicultie, straw, and just about everything he could think of to keep the mix from compacting and nothing was working. He called me over one day to see if I could figure out what the problem was. I was standing there over the bin mulling on what could be the problem when my friend walks in, stomping his feet to knock off excess mud and I could feel the vibrations just from my friend walking in, let alone the stomping. Soil compaction problem solved.

 

[sullivan666]

Lol, sorry I caused a bit of confusion...the dry-stall is a primarily pumice medium that is used as a horse/kittie litter, not horse shit! haha!

As always thanks for the info guys. Gonna stop by the feed store later and see what I can find.

The young ladies are growing fast so Im gonna be transplanting this week too into 2 gallon dirt pots!

 

[hotrodharley]

Aeration is such a big deal. It's great you're discussing it Fr33mason. I'm moving to med / large horticultural pumice. For those doing several generations of no-till, it's proven to be their preferred aeration amendment. Also biochar really should be used by everyone. For many reasons beyond great aeration.

I use horticultural grade pumice in my DWC units and in soil in place of some perlite. Buy it at Wally even.

 

[sullivan666]

Feed store didnt have rice hull bedding or dry-stall, but they did have Alfalfa pellets which I picked up for my compost. I was thinking of maybe adding some of them to the soil for aeration...any thoughts on that?

 

[Rrog]

Alfalfa is a neutron bomb of free Nitrogen. You would want it composted down for sure. Not sure how long it would hold up as an aeration amendment. Maybe quite a while, which means it might take a while to cool off. I'd be careful with those pellets unless composting with them for several weeks

When re-using the soil as no-till to me it makes sense to have the primary aeration plan be hard material, such as pumice and biochar and Perlite. With the high sphagnum component being 1/3 of the starting soil volume, I'd avoid vermiculite. This way you can avoid dumping and mixing the soil. Simply plant the next plant and keep going. You just keep top-dressing with amendments, which should likely include the chopped roughage mentioned earlier all throughout the various planting cycles.

I sure hope that everyone has a basic understanding of the value of biochar. It's amazing and cheap and fantastic for your aeration, microbes and cation exchange capacity. And it's just plain old charcoal crunched up nice. Hard to beat the value.

 

[sullivan666]

Thanks Rrog, I definitely plan on re-using as no-till so I'm going to skip using alfalfa for aeration. Haven't had much luck finding pumice unfortunately, but I'm definitely going to look into Biochar and see if I can find some at my local hydro store.

 

[Rrog]

For a poopload of biochar, you can start with a bag of charcoal. Not kingsford. Charcoal from hunks of wood. Crush it up. pieces the size of a green pea or so. Get rid of the dust. There ya go.

Soak the char in water with some Alfalfa pellets. This will charge N into the char, so it doesn't suck it outta your soil. You can also add some EWC to that Alfalfa bath to get microbes growing and living in that char also.

I can hear your plants from here all excited about this.