So who here is growing in true organic living soil?

Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
Here's more fun. Per Coot you can use corn seeds to make a sprout tea if coconuts are a hassle.

2 tablespoons of seeds (1 oz.) Soak for 12 hours. Drain that water and throw away. It’s full of growth inhibitors. Add 1/2 gallon of water to the sprouts for the 48 hour soak. Strain and use 1 cup of this to 1 gallon of water.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
So who has any updates? Anyone tried the Aloe yet? Any worm raising stories? Mine are happy as clams. I continue to amend with kelp, crab / shrimp shells, biochar, neem, etc. Smells like moist soil when you stick your face near it. Otherwise odorless.

The worm bag is in a corner of the basement, at 63F generally. Cool, but they still go to town. A worm bin is a good thing
 
fattiemcnuggins

fattiemcnuggins

Well-Known Member
No but you could make your own. Todays batch:
One bag roots original
One bag vermicompost( had to buy it this time, workin on mine
One a bag roots coco( which had some perlite n stuff in it)
One bale orange promix
One cup fish meal
One cup bone meal
Half bag of cowboy charcoal crushed
Nematodes
Mosquito dunks
Homemade shrimp shell meal
One cup kelp meal
Some neem oil bc I haven't seen neem cake
One cup rock phosphate
How does that sound? Better than last time I am hoping. No hurry to use so will have plenty of "cook" time. Found a ladybug in my room the other day. Also have predatory mites roaming. No more chems I am lettin this do it's thing. Ge
 
The Growery

The Growery

Active Member
I picked up some compost tea yesterday and after 12 hours DAMN what a difference in my plants! easily all grew 1" in 12 hours and all leaves are praying where when I was using dynga gro only about 50% of the plants were praying. I'm going to ditch promix for a organic soil mix base and was thinking about just using roots organic soil. I really don't have the space or time to mix soil and sit on it for 1 month, I need soil I can use now.

Here's the plan:

roots organic soil dressed with 2" of worm castings and SEA 90 minerals, bat guano dressing added on 3rd week of flower
compost tea every other watering throughout entire life cycle

Will this create a decent microherd do you guys think or should I add more amendments? If so, what kind of amendments should I add and why would it be beneficial? For the sake of reference let's assume the compost tea is a fully comprehensive mix.

In the summer I plan to make super soil and enough to last a winter but until then I need a short term solution involving soil mixes that can be used instantly.
 
fattiemcnuggins

fattiemcnuggins

Well-Known Member
You only need about 21 days if make your mix on the lighter side. Mixed it in my kitchen. Yes it was a huge mess. I am seeing better results from my plants that got a richer more diverse mix though. Just got camera today. Will be taki g some pics this week and try and get them uploaded soon.
 
The Growery

The Growery

Active Member
Thanks for that fattiemcnuggets, I am goin to give super soil a try in a month or so when it warms up outside. In the mean time I bought some stuff today:

2 bags of roots organic original
#3 perlite
Worm castings
Bat guano high P
RO Water filter

boogie brew compost tea (comprehensive tea mix)

The guy at the grow store said that the soil should be kept at 5.8ph but that seems to contradict what I have read here that organic soil should be in the 6.5-6.7 range. I bought some lime to mix in with it to raise ph but wasn't sure how much to add per bag of roots organic soil and if the lime I purchased is even safe to use with organics:

20130210_133424.jpg20130210_133449.jpg

do you guys think this lime is okay to use with organic or does it need to be dolomite lime? the package pictured contains lime granules sourced from calcitic limestone.

Also, is roots organic okay to use for seeds and cuttings or should I cut the mix with some promix to reduce the nutrient concentration for smaller plants?

Thanks a bunch in advance guys. Total organic noob here, obviously

Perhaps someone could tell me what I should do with the materials that I purchased, I have a rough idea but not 100%
 
fattiemcnuggins

fattiemcnuggins

Well-Known Member
We aren't ph-ing water round these parts. If you are determined to yse what you have, I think that mix sounds heavy and would cut it with pro mix or coco. Also, if you just mix a propet soil to begin with, you won't need to supplement teas. For cuttings, I would use just the pro mix. I think abe recommended loose coco which might serve you better. For starting seeds the roots by itself should be fine.
 
NickNasty

NickNasty

Well-Known Member
The Growery said:
Thanks for that fattiemcnuggets, I am goin to give super soil a try in a month or so when it warms up outside. In the mean time I bought some stuff today:

2 bags of roots organic original
#3 perlite
Worm castings
Bat guano high P
RO Water filter

boogie brew compost tea (comprehensive tea mix)

The guy at the grow store said that the soil should be kept at 5.8ph but that seems to contradict what I have read here that organic soil should be in the 6.5-6.7 range. I bought some lime to mix in with it to raise ph but wasn't sure how much to add per bag of roots organic soil and if the lime I purchased is even safe to use with organics:

View attachment 2519491View attachment 2519493

do you guys think this lime is okay to use with organic or does it need to be dolomite lime? the package pictured contains lime granules sourced from calcitic limestone.

Also, is roots organic okay to use for seeds and cuttings or should I cut the mix with some promix to reduce the nutrient concentration for smaller plants?

Thanks a bunch in advance guys. Total organic noob here, obviously

Perhaps someone could tell me what I should do with the materials that I purchased, I have a rough idea but not 100%
Click to expand...
Its basically Calcium Carbonate (94%) the rest is binders. It should be fine. You want about a 7 -1 rate of calcium to magnesium and perfect ph is like 6.4 in soil. For a Mag supplement I would get some Epsom Salt with that lime I would do 1 cup lime to 1/2 cup Epsom. I would also look in getting rock dusts like azomite, glacial rock dust and green sand.
 
NickNasty

NickNasty

Well-Known Member
I also wouldn't give compost tea every other watering. I have done this a didn't see a noticeable difference then just once a month. Now I just use it at most 3 times in a plants life. As long as you are not killing your microbes there is no reason to use it that often.
 
The Growery

The Growery

Active Member
do you think it is okay to use dyna gro mag pro in stead of epsom salts until I mix the next batch?

I took your advice and mixed 3 cu ft of promix bx with 3 cu ft. of roots organic and added 1/4 perlite to that. going to save the worm casting and bat guano for my next mix at making amended soil.

would every third watering of tea be okay? I'm using tea as the only nutrients.
 
fattiemcnuggins

fattiemcnuggins

Well-Known Member
I use the mag pro here and there bc I don't go super heavy witg worm castings and some strains just seem to need a little more cal/mag than others.
 
The Growery

The Growery

Active Member
are you saying add worm casting at signs of mg def?


I did something drastic tonight that I hope won't bite me in the ass. I took all of my veg plants, about 50 of em and shook loose the promix from the root balls and replanted in the new soil mix (Ph'd with lime to 6.7) and put 6.6 water in. I figure the soil should feed the plant for a couple weeks before I need to water it with tea. Took the promix that was reclaimed from the root balls, mixed in more perlite and lime and ph'd the promix to 6.7 as well. plan on using that promix mix for cuttings and seedlings.
 
fattiemcnuggins

fattiemcnuggins

Well-Known Member
I used R/o for a cpl years but if you have good tap use it, it will save you $. I thibnk we are just kind of talking different languages right now, you should read teaming with microbes or TLO or something soil web related. Ir will help you understand why you are adding what you are adding. The results speaj for themselves I am not just typing to type or getting in here to make friends, I am learning this with you all and putting it into play.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
NickNasty said:
I also wouldn't give compost tea every other watering. I have done this a didn't see a noticeable difference then just once a month. Now I just use it at most 3 times in a plants life. As long as you are not killing your microbes there is no reason to use it that often.
Click to expand...
NN- That's the point exactly. Once the soil is rocking and rolling- just amend. Why drop billions of microbes with nutrients when you can just drop the nutrients? I think a lot of growers believe that adding ACT is to boost the microbe level. The soil is already populated. You're just re-supplying raw materials
 
NickNasty

NickNasty

Well-Known Member
For any of you guys who are lazy or are just getting into dry fert organics I suggest you try roots uprising. My local grow shop guy asked me to test out the three bag combo against my personal mix and if I would he would give me them for free. So I tried it out and although my top dress mix was better it was fairly close and being that I am more comfortable with my mix and didn't know anything about the uprising combo I went light with any top feeding I did with it. Although I will say that I was using already amended soil. I may do another run with it going a little heavier and see how it does. It is nice to have an all in one amendment to top dress with. I am also happy to see more of these companies having dry fert options.
 
fattiemcnuggins

fattiemcnuggins

Well-Known Member
Ok so the coconut water is just awesome. Grabbed a pic of what it did to my roots in less than 24 hours I had new growth crawling across my dirt. Alsi I think I see my nematodes crawling around. I will try and get pics of them also.
On another topic, I collected various " alive" soil and added it to my soil that is cookin. So I am all in now with this.
 
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