Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

I'm bored and I admire Indian farmers and their 1000s of years of knowledge.

[video=youtube;zUI1PI-YgC0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUI1PI-YgC0[/video]
 
Couple weeks ago, I posted about 200plus pounds of cooked soil (in my basement) that became infested with seedling eating mites. Of course I got great advice from the gurus here. I hauled all damn 12 cft outside...ugh. After medicating my lower back, I dug up 5 gallons of foot deep humus from nearby woods, and mixed it in my dirt...along with some leaves. I went out to check on the pile today and snagged up a bucket to bring in for my aloe plants. Inspected it closely with a loop and didn't see anything crawling or dead. I let it warm up and propagated my aloe plant. Now my question is what really killed those effers? Was it the natural predators in that dirt I added, the cold weather, a combination, maybe something else I can't think of, or eggs are about to hatch soon :o
 
Rrog said:
Red- What's in the ininitial soil for pest amendments? Crab? Neem?
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Neem, crab shell, bagged EWC. I think I over saturated it. It was also half HF soil conditioner. Here's the HF description:
finely screened, pH-balanced forest humus, earthworm castings, and bat guano, not to mention beneficial microbes that stimulate root development and help plants access nutrients in the soil. We also add humic acid to help increase the uptake of important micronutrients.
 
I think huge air is big-time important. 1/3 of my soil volume = aeration. A few years ago I was farting around with having air pumped through the bottom of the soil. Air brought moisture with it. Was a fun fling, but I'm here to tell ya... all that air really pumped up the fungal volume. Whew!

I guess I was left with the more-air-is-better attitude. Fabric Geopots, lava rock, pumice, biochar.
 
Agree 100%. I turned my cooking soil well every 3-4 days for 6 weeks. I threw in some left over hydroton and grow stones I had laying around...along with the perlite crap that was already in mix.
 
DANKSWAG said:
Could this be done with a different pre-colonized ground cover or is there something special about bahiagrass?
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I've learned why Bahiagrass was selected...

On-farm production of mycorrhizal inoculant in test enclosures at The Rodale Institute’s farm. Douds chose bahiagrass as a host plant "because it's a tropical grass and the first frost will kill the shoot growth"--so it won't escape to become a new local weed and won't harbor any pests or pathogens that might affect either resident crops or northern native grasses.
bahiaall215.jpg
 
Rrog said:
I think huge air is big-time important. 1/3 of my soil volume = aeration. A few years ago I was farting around with having air pumped through the bottom of the soil. Air brought moisture with it. Was a fun fling, but I'm here to tell ya... all that air really pumped up the fungal volume. Whew!

I guess I was left with the more-air-is-better attitude. Fabric Geopots, lava rock, pumice, biochar.
Click to expand...
Rrog, speaking of aeration of the soil, where can I find rice hulls bulk cheap? Feed store? Who besides us organic fanatics would use this product on a large volume?

DankSwag
Grow On My Friends Grow On
 
Feed store, yes. Another great amendment. Not local, but really good nonetheless. Makes good biochar, too
 
I hate buying bacteria... When I'm literally sitting at the bottom of an ocean of them already... In every breath I take... millions.
 
Rrog said:
I hate buying bacteria... When I'm literally sitting at the bottom of an ocean of them already... In every breath I take... millions.
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That's how I'm starting to look at everything...unless I can talk to sales and get a deal ;) Lava rock is a pain to get into little pcs. I've used this stuff and it's much more uniform and porous than Lowe's LR.
 
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