Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

'ome Grown

Well-Known Member
I see some veganic growers posting in this thread...

Is there a vegan ROLS recipe you guys could let me in on? I'm thinking of getting some ROLS soil ready for intended use 7 months away.
 

hyroot

Well-Known Member
I see some veganic growers posting in this thread...

Is there a vegan ROLS recipe you guys could let me in on? I'm thinking of getting some ROLS soil ready for intended use 7 months away.
semi vegan. Most on here top dress with kelp meal, neem meal, rock dust (glacial or basalt) and crab meal. Of course vermicompost. Crab meal being the only animal product...
 

Rrog

Well-Known Member
I like to topdress my VC with those goodies, then just topdress the plants with the super-VC.

Hyroot- what are you subbing for fish / bone meals?
 

NickNasty

Well-Known Member
When you top dress and water a lot of stuff will leach down into the soil also new roots will grow into the top dress
 

hyroot

Well-Known Member
I like to topdress my VC with those goodies, then just topdress the plants with the super-VC.

Hyroot- what are you subbing for fish / bone meals?
I buy the Neptune brand crab meal. 3-4-0. A while ago cann told me kelp has phos. Barely if any. I later understood he meant its a phos accumulater and basalt has some phos and is phos accumulater also. Basalt I have to order. Glacial I can get locally.


I just put some fungified pureed oatmeal and pureed romaine lettuce spines and dried shredded canna leaves. Took a trader joes grocery bag. Shredded it and wet it and rang it out and covered with that in my bin yesterday. I don't like to use newspaper due to the bleach in most newspapers.

I recently started using weed mat as a lid for my bins. Its breathable and blocks out some light. I had some left over from a couple years ago when I used to do Soma style beds.
 

'ome Grown

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the replies!

This is copied and pasted from Rrog here

Pre-charge the biochar with N so it doesn't rob your soil of it initially.

Rather than a jar of inoculants of microbes the plant doesn't care about, consider a shovel-full of soil from a local clean grassy field. The microbes there will kick the jar microbe's ass.

The Base - This is the core of the soil

1/3 Sphagnum Peat from Premier Peat or Alaska Peat
1/3 Aeration material (pumice and lava rock) http://www.ebay.com/itm/Normal-Pelle...item48573e3886
1/3 EWC Much better to use your own worm compost, but you can do that later.

Per Cubic Foot of that Base Soil:

The Mineral Package: Very important. This helps balance pH and provides years of slow release.

3 cup Charcoal (activated) GET LOCALLY. Crush Bagged charcoal (not Kingsford)
4 cups Rock Powders (4X Glacial, 1X Bentonite Clay, 1X Pyrophyllite Clay, 1X Basalt)

Glacial- http://www.gaiagreen.com/rockdust.html
Bentonite (Calcium)- http://www.groworganic.com/fertilize...ments.html?p=6
Pyrophyllite - http://www.vitalityherbsandclay.com/...-products.html
Basalt- http://cascademineralsnw.com/consumer.html

1 Cup Sul-Po-Mag http://www.amazon.com/Natures-Wisdom...words=sulpomag

1/2 cup this 3 part lime mix:
1 part powdered dolomite lime http://www.sea-of-green.com/nutrient...mite-lime.html
1 part agricultural gypsum http://www.amazon.com/Espoma-Organic...ultural+gypsum
2 parts powdered oyster shell http://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Pearl-...m/B007DL0AGI/2

The Nutrient Package: The microbes will get busy storing this stuff.

1/2 Cup Neem Meal (2 g / L) http://www.neemresource.com
1/2 Cup Crab Shell Meal www.OrganicGrowers.com
2 Cups Kelp Meal www.OrganicGrowers.com
2 Cups Fish Meal http://www.amazon.com/Down-to-Earth-...arth+fish+meal
2 Cups Fish Bone Meal http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Earth-722-3...ords=fish+meal
1/2 Cup Alfalfa GET LOCALLY

1 cubic foot = 7.5 gallons.

Optional: Moisten with Fresh Aloe (2 Tbs Juice with 1 gallon water) and Accelerant Tea (Comfrey, Yarrow, Horsetail or Nettle)
So for the base I can I use growstones and rice hulls? Along with the VC and peat.

How about the long term mineral and nutrient packages? There are different varieties of rock dusts available to me, as well as azomite, soft rock phosphate, fossilized sea bird guano (which I am happy to use). But how about a replacement for the crab meal, fish bone meal, fish meal etc? I've got some kelp meal which should be ok and some soybean meal...but nothing long term like oyster meal etc.
 
Anybody try top-dressing with some ocean beach sand? How about using sand mixed into a soil/potting mixture - does it promote increased aeration? prevent moisture from evaporating out of the soil when used as a topdress? I am considering putting down a fine surface layer of sand (sourced from Long Beach Island, New Jersey) on top of a R.O.L.S. pot, and following with a soil flush using distilled water to reduce salt accumulating in the soil horizon. I appreciate any and all input!
 

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the replies!

This is copied and pasted from Rrog here



So for the base I can I use growstones and rice hulls? Along with the VC and peat.

How about the long term mineral and nutrient packages? There are different varieties of rock dusts available to me, as well as azomite, soft rock phosphate, fossilized sea bird guano (which I am happy to use). But how about a replacement for the crab meal, fish bone meal, fish meal etc? I've got some kelp meal which should be ok and some soybean meal...but nothing long term like oyster meal etc.

Down To Earth makes a "Vegan Mix" that I've used before. I tried a few runs going vegan, and I wasn't confident that I had all of my bases covered so I added a few cups of that to be sure. Of all of the animal based products, the one that I caved on and now use is the crab shell meal. It is pretty nutrient rich (including P), but more important is the chitin it contains, and how that interacts with your soil microbiology and the plant.
 

foreverflyhi

Well-Known Member
I will be going shopping tuesday, so this gives me a day to put my list of ingredients with the help of the community.
These are from my notes of 125 pages of this thread. plEase feel free to correct me, add, or even subtract ingredients from my list.
(When i say more i mean more for my arsenal because i see these as important ingredients for no till;)
- more aloe
-aloe extract (powder or oil?or both?)
-more kelp (will be making my own extract)
-more alfalfa
-neem cake (can i add top dressing or tea?)
-barley seed
-dr bonners peppermint soap
-dutch white clover
-more coco nut water
-coco extract (powder i believe?)
-tm-7 (can i use other humic acids?)
-dyna proteckt (.......... not sure how I feel about this, but I do know the benefits of silica)
-ful power ( is there others or "raw" ingrediants that i can make my own instead of bottle nutes?)

other items like jars for fermentation.. (any special or cool ones?)
more air stones
design vortex or constant air bubbles for more "structure" water. (blumats seem cool)

Have soo much more notes and questions but thats all for now...

Btw i do have the base mix for no till
i do have my own compost worm bin....

Please add anything or comments or thoughts thanks.
much love
 

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
foreverfly .....

A few things. Be careful with the neem cake. I top dressed with that once, and burned the plants pretty good. I add it to my soil mix now and let it sit for 60 days, and haven't had an issue since. You can cross the coconut water from the list (unless you have access to fresh, young coconuts). Also, The TM-7 contains both humic and fulvic acid, so the Ful-Power is kinda optional, imo.

Best of luck!
 

viewer1020

Well-Known Member
Actually you like'd the following post to my question....

  • My understanding is that the first phase of the process collects a whole lot of random micro-organisms. The second phase ...

I think I can explain the confusion.

My response above was in response to your question:

So my question any reason I can't just bypass IMO 2 and amend IMO 1 right back into my soil especially when I am ready to transplant?
I gave a description of the reasons why the process you were following might recommend a second phase fermentation; these can be worth doing.

I wasn't saying that collecting random local organisms and adding them to your soil would be likely to cause harm to your plants; in fact I said "if you've got a healthy soil ecosystem already, the existing balance should dominate over anything poured in from the top, good or bad".

Your plants can still benefit from adding these things; there are beneficial symbiotic relationships all over the place in the soil, and you might bring in a missing organism which allows something which was already there to be even more helpful.

If you want to add some rice from a microbe-collecting expedition to new soil, go right ahead.


 

boblawblah421

Well-Known Member
I will be going shopping tuesday, so this gives me a day to put my list of ingredients with the help of the community.
These are from my notes of 125 pages of this thread. plEase feel free to correct me, add, or even subtract ingredients from my list.
(When i say more i mean more for my arsenal because i see these as important ingredients for no till;)
- more aloe
-aloe extract (powder or oil?or both?)
-more kelp (will be making my own extract)
-more alfalfa
-neem cake (can i add top dressing or tea?)
-barley seed
-dr bonners peppermint soap
-dutch white clover
-more coco nut water
-coco extract (powder i believe?)
-tm-7 (can i use other humic acids?)
-dyna proteckt (.......... not sure how I feel about this, but I do know the benefits of silica)
-ful power ( is there others or "raw" ingrediants that i can make my own instead of bottle nutes?)

other items like jars for fermentation.. (any special or cool ones?)
more air stones
design vortex or constant air bubbles for more "structure" water. (blumats seem cool)

Have soo much more notes and questions but thats all for now...

Btw i do have the base mix for no till
i do have my own compost worm bin....

Please add anything or comments or thoughts thanks.
much love
A few things you may want to consider amending, mostly for mineral content... diatomaceous earth, glacial rock dust, granite dust, bentonite, french green clay, dolomitic lime, oyster shell, crab meal, expanded shale...

Also...

Anybody know what this super soft, sandy layer is in my compost? All sorts of cool stuff has went into my compost (wood ash, local clay rich in granite, diatomite rock) and it hadn't been turned all summer. This stuff looks fucking awesome!
compostlayer.jpg
 

GreenSanta

Well-Known Member
Headtreep, I noticed from looking at your pictures that you are doing ROLS in small containers? Anyway, recently I thought of a way to do ROLS for small containers!

So I have 2 ROLS small containers going atm. One reason why this might work better for some people ( the small containers...) is not only for small space but for people who, like me, grow multiple strains all the time, it's way better when you can move your plants around.

Anyway, what I have done with the 2 ROLS small containers is simple. I harvest a plant grown in my own SS, instead of replanting and top dressing, I flip the container upside down (a bit harder with smart pots but I did it!) and empty the container very gently, making sure not to disturb what was in the container ... if you know what i mean ... then I prune some of the roots that were there.

After I simply put 1/4 to 1/3 fresh supersoil (eventually will be using compost) at the bottom of the container and I put the soil that was in there in the first place right on top. This way the soil is still very much alive, the upper layer is very mild in nutrient but rich in microbes, and I believe it will help grow healthier plants.


What do you guys think?
In case someone wants to know,

This technic is working pretty good so far, I am just trying it out with compost now but so far using fresh SS at the bottom and reusing what was in the container has saved me a lot of fresh promix and I have grown pretty nice plants, and also the plants seem to do better after transplant. I usually transplant and place them in the flower room the same day.
 

foreverflyhi

Well-Known Member
foreverfly .....


A few things. Be careful with the neem cake. I top dressed with that once, and burned the plants pretty good. I add it to my soil mix now and let it sit for 60 days, and haven't had an issue since. You can cross the coconut water from the list (unless you have access to fresh, young coconuts). Also, The TM-7 contains both humic and fulvic acid, so the Ful-Power is kinda optional, imo.


Best of luck!

thanks!!
will add neem cake to next batch, 60day cook
Will cross coco nut water
will consider ful power if price is right..



A few things you may want to consider amending, mostly for mineral content... diatomaceous earth, glacial rock dust, granite dust, bentonite, french green clay, dolomitic lime, oyster shell, crab meal, expanded

thanks fort he input, have all those ingredients and did add a tiny bit to my mix.

would those ingrediant mix well toghther as a topdress? or is that too heavy?
im aware that vermi is main top dress/no till ingrediant, but curious if i can mix some of these ingrediants along with my vermi? Over doing it?
updated list

- more aloe
-aloe extract (powder 200x ?)
-more kelp (will be making my own extract)
-more alfalfa
-neem cake
-barley seed
-dr bonners peppermint soap
-dutch white clover
-coco extract
-tm-7
-ful power

anything else? Still got a couple hours?
thanks
 

boblawblah421

Well-Known Member
I'm never top-dressing in the traditional sense again. In my mind, all these ingredients are not for my plant, but for the microbes.

I'm just going to always have well aged compost, with all these amendments, at hand. That will be my topdress. Just a new layer of a fresh, thriving ecosystem.
 
Top