So who here is growing in true organic living soil?

GandalfdaGreen

GandalfdaGreen

Well-Known Member
Thanks. I got it. I have not added the salt so there is no sodium exchange going on in the water softener tank so I am not altering softening my water at all. The water softener tank holds a resin in either string or bead form. The resins are negatively charged and thus hold onto the positively charged sodium molecules. Iron, Mg, Ca, etc also posses a stronger positive charge thus the sodium molecule is dropped from the resin and the Iron. Mg, Ca, etc., take it's placed and are later flushed from the resin into the waste water. The sodium that the resin releases goes into our home water supply. Point is without the sodium in the brine tank there is no exchange of moleclues in the resin, thus I am running, and have been, hard well water.

How can my hard well water have a ppm of 60-80? If I can get my water straight then I can take it to the next level. :dunce:
 
Someacdude

Someacdude

Active Member
Crud, i have
30 lbs worm castings
Blood meal
Bone meal
dolemite
azomite
and the idiots sent me seabird guano 12-11-2 instead of bat? Now what do i do?
 
Clink78

Clink78

Well-Known Member
I don't know if Promix BX is organic but I,m currently growing all my Mandalas in it, no ferts, water from the sky. My pots have huge holes in them so the roots are getting in the planet. I'm interested in seeing how good they will flower in their current medium..
 
st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
Someacdude said:
Crud, i have
30 lbs worm castings
Blood meal
Bone meal
dolemite
azomite
and the idiots sent me seabird guano 12-11-2 instead of bat? Now what do i do?
Click to expand...
I don't use guanos, so I'm not sure about that.

The kelp you are collecting has a good amount of K and some trace minerals as well. I'd buy a small box of alfalfa meal too as it has good npk values, and the triacontanol contained in it is a growth stimulator. The mineral end of your mix looks a little light ... I would try to source some rock dusts. You can use basalt in addition to, or in lieu of your rock dusts if you can't score some locally. Basalt is easier to find. Some green sand and gypsum may be a good idea too. You're going to want to seriously consider adding something as an IPM as well. Neem seed meal, and crabshell meal are both great. I'd consider BTI granules as well, and I know Rrog uses nematodes.

If you're planning on re-using this soil, I'd get some minerals mixed in there for sure as those take longer to become bio available, and will benefit you in future runs. The other stuff you can add as you go if you're on a budget.
 
Someacdude

Someacdude

Active Member
st0wandgrow said:
I don't use guanos, so I'm not sure about that.

The kelp you are collecting has a good amount of K and some trace minerals as well. I'd buy a small box of alfalfa meal too as it has good npk values, and the triacontanol contained in it is a growth stimulator. The mineral end of your mix looks a little light ... I would try to source some rock dusts. You can use basalt in addition to, or in lieu of your rock dusts if you can't score some locally. Basalt is easier to find. Some green sand and gypsum may be a good idea too. You're going to want to seriously consider adding something as an IPM as well. Neem seed meal, and crabshell meal are both great. I'd consider BTI granules as well, and I know Rrog uses nematodes.

If you're planning on re-using this soil, I'd get some minerals mixed in there for sure as those take longer to become bio available, and will benefit you in future runs. The other stuff you can add as you go if you're on a budget.
Click to expand...
Awesome, thanks so much, hats just the ingredients i already have, i was also thinking about some roots soil, whatcha think?
 
st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
Someacdude said:
Awesome, thanks so much, hats just the ingredients i already have, i was also thinking about some roots soil, whatcha think?
Click to expand...
I've never used Roots, but I'm sure it would be fine. If you are going to be amending your own soil you could also just buy a bale of peat moss, some perlite, and then add in your goodies. Will you be letting your mix sit and "cook" for a while? If so just go to Home Depot and pick up a 3 cf bale of Premier sphagum peat moss instead of the Roots. It's $10 for a bale. If you don't have time to let your soil sit then something like Roots might be better because they have already inoculated their soil and you will have some nutrients available to your plants from day one.

If you want to be on the safe side, you could pick up an organic general purpose fertilizer like Espoma plant-tone, or Down to Earth Vegan Mix and add that to your base. That way you will have some peace of mind that all of your bases are covered.
 
Someacdude

Someacdude

Active Member
st0wandgrow said:
I've never used Roots, but I'm sure it would be fine. If you are going to be amending your own soil you could also just buy a bale of peat moss, some perlite, and then add in your goodies. Will you be letting your mix sit and "cook" for a while? If so just go to Home Depot and pick up a 3 cf bale of Premier sphagum peat moss instead of the Roots. It's $10 for a bale. If you don't have time to let your soil sit then something like Roots might be better because they have already inoculated their soil and you will have some nutrients available to your plants from day one.

If you want to be on the safe side, you could pick up an organic general purpose fertilizer like Espoma plant-tone, or Down to Earth Vegan Mix and add that to your base. That way you will have some peace of mind that all of your bases are covered.
Click to expand...
This is the first time ive read about peat moss, so just use the peat for the base then add the other ingredients ?
 
st0wandgrow

st0wandgrow

Well-Known Member
Someacdude said:
This is the first time ive read about peat moss, so just use the peat for the base then add the other ingredients ?
Click to expand...
Your base would be:

1/3 peat moss
1/3 earth worm castings
1/3 aeration (perlite, etc)

You could also go with 50% peat, 25% ewc, 25% aeration..... or anything in between.

To that you can add all of your amendments such as kelp, alfalfa meal, guanos, etc. Rrog has posted some recipes along the way in this thread.
 
VTMi'kmaq

VTMi'kmaq

Well-Known Member
top notch info right there stowandgrow. Didn't we used to have cann here helping and adding info too Rrog? I know its been awhile but I was just curious. It's so sweet to see so many folks embracing organic farming. Now if I could only pull you all closer to me lol, the thread will have to do. I found this video pertaining to banana's to help with the n-p-k in our tea's well mainly the k! [video=youtube_share;Z3P-tg7zU9w]http://youtu.be/Z3P-tg7zU9w[/video] By the way how is everyone this Monday?
 
Mad Hamish

Mad Hamish

Well-Known Member
Rrog, BADASS thread you have here, my stars... And Gandalf, you just had to throw me head-first down the rabbit hole eh?! Thanks again for sending me here brother. This is going to take all my free time for the next week. And it will be very happily spent indeed.

newb to living soils, but I am already totally convinced.
 
GandalfdaGreen

GandalfdaGreen

Well-Known Member
Me too bro. It will be a fun trip to go on for us with Myco. Looking forward to it bro. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
 
GandalfdaGreen

GandalfdaGreen

Well-Known Member
Rrog said:
Sure not looking to alienate any growers and don't want to come off as holier-than-thou. I started the thread for exactly this sort of discussion.

I think a lot of people thing of organic farming as requiring a farm. Piles of compost, chickens shitting, soil cooking. I can relate to that thought. I've been looking at ways that someone tight on space can still compost and use a natural soil.

Bokashi is simply a small bucket of your table scraps or plant cuttings on the kitchen floor, or under the sink. Sealed up so no smell. The microbes in the bucket start breaking down your food scraps into some excellent fertilizer. Free.

For soil, I have two garbage cans cooking for the next grow. So all in all, maybe 12 square feet of floor is taken up.

We have to keep in mind that the soil microbes are an army of trillions. Their only mission is to support and defend the plant. If we add chemicals, that relationship is severely strained or gone, despite the presence of soil.
Click to expand...
I think the last sentence is of huge importance.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top