Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

sullivan666

Active Member
Can't seem to track down that link...maybe I imagined it. Anyway, in doing some reading on botanical teas, I'm a bit confused on whether I should aerate or not. I was planning on aerating like an AACT for 48 hours; however, LD says:

The 2 processes are completely different and the only thing that they have in common is that they involve water.

In an AACT you need air to shake the microbes loose from the humus and by having foods like molasses, alfalfa meal, kelp meal to the mix you will be growing on microbe colonies in some cases and in the case of fungi you'll be increasing the size because the brew time isn't long enough to launch spores. That's my understanding anyway.

In a botanical tea the process is one of various microbes, enzyme activity, etc. which is decomposing the plant material thereby releasing the elements and plant compounds.

One could accomplish the same thing without water in the case of botanical materials and that is where fermenting comes in. Even farmers when they store the harvest to create silage add certain lactobacillus strains to prevent rotting which would turn the plant material into a sludge - i.e. composted green (Nitrogen) plant material without the benefit of brown material (Carbon) having been added. A real mess actually - a smelly mess at that.
 

headtreep

Well-Known Member
I find bubbling dry herbs with humic acid works great. I don't make FPE personally. Making a little topdress mix would do the same but a little slower.
 

Rrog

Well-Known Member
Bubble a tea for sure. Keeps things aerobic and smelling nice. Different with long-term fermentation, but I've never done that.
 

hyroot

Well-Known Member
Looks beautiful.. Ive been pondering grabbing that strain. I want a kush strain again.. How's it grow in veg?. My master kush ( Dutch passion ) grows way to slow. I have to veg it for 3 months just to get 2 zips. Its fire though. I crossed it with a sativa with hopes to get a fast growing kush. Ended up with a cheese strain. Grows a little faster. Branches out more and yields much bigger.
 

sullivan666

Active Member
I find bubbling dry herbs with humic acid works great. I don't make FPE personally. Making a little topdress mix would do the same but a little slower.
Thanks for the heads up. I was thinking around 1-2 cups dried material per gallon, yeah? I was gonna add homemade lacto b as well. How much humic acid do you add?
 

hyroot

Well-Known Member
^^^^ Depends on the humic you buy. You can use compost instead. Its the same thing. Cheaper too. Use a couple handfuls.
 

Rrog

Well-Known Member
Humics are great and I suppose some are better than others. I also really prefer the idea of humus from my VermiCompost. Again though, Humics are really great.
 

fattiemcnuggins

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the heads up. I was thinking around 1-2 cups dried material per gallon, yeah? I was gonna add homemade lacto b as well. How much humic acid do you add?
doitup dude!


I just got some 90% humus 10% manure and topdressed a tiny bit on everything. That kosher?
 

headtreep

Well-Known Member
I love natural organic pics but please do post the strain name. Also a few here and there. I just like to show off to the chemical/bottle crew hehe ;)
 
Looks beautiful.. Ive been pondering grabbing that strain. I want a kush strain again.. How's it grow in veg?. My master kush ( Dutch passion ) grows way to slow. I have to veg it for 3 months just to get 2 zips. Its fire though. I crossed it with a sativa with hopes to get a fast growing kush. Ended up with a cheese strain. Grows a little faster. Branches out more and yields much bigger.
If you like TGA, I would absolutely recommend Jesus OG if you can get your hands on it. I'm about a week after bud set right now and the level of frost is very impressive so far. And they grow pretty quick and aren't finicky like a SFV or something along those lines.

Edit:
Hopefully that didn't sound like I'm plugging TGA. I know a lot of people have issues with TGA strains and PM.

I also just realized you said kush and not OG strain. Mind the brain fart there.
 

Rising Moon

Well-Known Member
I have two compost piles...

One that I put "good" things in, in order for them to break down, and feed my plants.

And another pile, for simply eliminating bio mass, and reducing my garbage footprint, this finished product gets spread on the lawn/flower beds.

Dryer lint, newspaper, cardboard ect go in the 2nd category.
 

fattiemcnuggins

Well-Known Member
I have two compost piles...

One that I put "good" things in, in order for them to break down, and feed my plants.

And another pile, for simply eliminating bio mass, and reducing my garbage footprint, this finished product gets spread on the lawn/flower beds.

Dryer lint, newspaper, cardboard ect go in the 2nd category.
I'm liking that idea. So far I just have the "good" pile going but I'll start that other one. Didn't think it was something I wanted in with my nugs so I had been throwing it away. but had heard you could compost it.
 

Rising Moon

Well-Known Member
Rising Moon: how much space do do u dedicate to your composting operation?
It ends up being a pretty simple system, that flows with the season...

I have a 4x4x4 cedar plank box that all my food waste goes into, and I add either grass/clover clippings or coco/peat/used soil on top of the fresh waste every time.

Then once a month or so, when I clean my chicken coop, ill dump the working compost pile onto a tarp, and layer it all back together, with the chicken litter, greensand or other rock dusts.

Overall I like to run at least a 3 bin system. A working pile, a finishing pile and a "bio mass reduction" pile..

The "bio mass reduction" pile is simply made of garbage that is compostable, but I wouldn't necessarily want to use the resulting humus directly on food crops/meds.

If you have access to fresh plant material (grass/clover clippings) you can break down all the junk mail, boxes and other garbage relatively easily.




I have found that I get really amazing compost if it goes through a series of stages...

The initial heat build-up and break down of material, then a cooling/slowing down of the pile, after it has heated up, been turned a few times and allowed to sit for a few weeks. At this point I "harvest" the compost by screening it into a wheel barrel, layer in rock dusts and alfalfa meal, and run a secondary composting stage for a few weeks.

Finally, I shovel it all into rubbermaid bins, throw in a handful of worms, and call it good. The worms will break down anything left over, and keep the pile alive and thriving while it quietly waits for us to use it.

I just harvested some compost last weekend, and now have it in the secondary cooking stage...


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