keefbox420
Active Member
nice words my fellow greenthumb
Something People Ought to Know
- Thread starter mccumcumber
- Start date
WyoGrow
Active Member
My journey into "organic gardening" started producing dependable amazing results as soon as I started to understand that good soil is a living thing. Teaming with life. No life... no plants. If you take care of the soil the plants tend to take care of themselves. Health wise at least. About 95% of peoples early failures in using "organic" soil is because they use dirt that isn't alive yet.
One thing that has really paid off for me is adding my soil amendments like blood, bone, kelp, cotton seed, greensand and rock dust directly to my compost. This tends to make a pretty hot mix though. I run three composts at my home. One pile is composting manure (chicken, horse, goat, sheep, cow & rabbit) that I gather from my animals. One pile is chopped yard trimmings (grass clippings, screened 1/8" minus whole tree mulch, fall leaves, immature weeds, wood ash and green garden trimmings). The last is a compost tumbler used for 100% kitchen waste. I bulk up the kitchen waste with cottonseed hulls and add the amendments to this compost. This is also the compost I make all of my compost teas with as it's the most rich. When I whip up a batch of garden soil I use a 5gal bucket of each type of compost, a 5gal bucket of peat and a 5gal bucket of perlite. This soil is basically ready to use when I mix it because over half of it is already biologically active. If you make your own soil from scratch from bag material you need to hit that stuff with a dose of good tea, cover it with wetted down straw, burlap or a breathable tarp and let that stuff come alive.
One thing that has really paid off for me is adding my soil amendments like blood, bone, kelp, cotton seed, greensand and rock dust directly to my compost. This tends to make a pretty hot mix though. I run three composts at my home. One pile is composting manure (chicken, horse, goat, sheep, cow & rabbit) that I gather from my animals. One pile is chopped yard trimmings (grass clippings, screened 1/8" minus whole tree mulch, fall leaves, immature weeds, wood ash and green garden trimmings). The last is a compost tumbler used for 100% kitchen waste. I bulk up the kitchen waste with cottonseed hulls and add the amendments to this compost. This is also the compost I make all of my compost teas with as it's the most rich. When I whip up a batch of garden soil I use a 5gal bucket of each type of compost, a 5gal bucket of peat and a 5gal bucket of perlite. This soil is basically ready to use when I mix it because over half of it is already biologically active. If you make your own soil from scratch from bag material you need to hit that stuff with a dose of good tea, cover it with wetted down straw, burlap or a breathable tarp and let that stuff come alive.
malignant
Well-Known Member
its ok, were not grammar nazis here, its not politics or t&t here.was available on btjunkie
glassblower3000
Well-Known Member
great thread!!!! I feel enlightened.
As far as I can tell, Soil/Hydro is a continuum, from pure laboratory enforced sterile chemicals on a totally inert medium, to outdo guerilla growing.
Most hydro mixes seem to be a hydro base, with some usefull needed organic soil type amendments mixed in; humus, dolomite lime, beneficial microbes etc.
The defining characteristic of soil would seem to be manure, whether of green or animal type, composted or not.
This type of material is commonly very fine, with the water holding and air excluding properties that implies.
I really think you are on to something in your observation, that a basic hydro peat mix is very nearly soil, sack of steer mixed in and you would be all the way there.
Kalyx
Active Member
This thread is sweet. Its good to read that others respect their soil microbes and think micro and macro when gardening! Keep on fostering the 'crobes everybody!
Sounds like a great system. I sure wish I had space and those types of 'free' inputs close at hand. Cotton is the one thing I'd worry about. The great majority of that crop in the US is uber not organic and heavily sprayed in pesticides. How long does your kitchen waste pile cure before use? I am still hesitant to use the contents of my tumbler indoors due to large #s of unknown larvae doing their thing in there.
Sounds like a great system. I sure wish I had space and those types of 'free' inputs close at hand. Cotton is the one thing I'd worry about. The great majority of that crop in the US is uber not organic and heavily sprayed in pesticides. How long does your kitchen waste pile cure before use? I am still hesitant to use the contents of my tumbler indoors due to large #s of unknown larvae doing their thing in there.
Jack Harer
Well-Known Member
great thread!!!! I feel enlightened.
Then it was a good thread!!!! OK, a great one!!
MysticMorris
Active Member
Thanks for sharing this, I learnt a great deal reading that. One thing I'm sloppy with is nutes so It has increased my understanding of whats going on down there!
Assuming you're topdressing onto a living soil:
1. as you water, the top dressing material seeps into the soil and the bacteria/soil critters break it down making it available to the plant
2. it will work as nute regimen alongside a fully amended soil mix or an organic feeding schedule (teas/nutes, whatever), for example, if you're in a "water only" mix and you know you could use some extra N during flower, you can top dress with a high N input so it can slowly become available through flowering.
1. as you water, the top dressing material seeps into the soil and the bacteria/soil critters break it down making it available to the plant
2. it will work as nute regimen alongside a fully amended soil mix or an organic feeding schedule (teas/nutes, whatever), for example, if you're in a "water only" mix and you know you could use some extra N during flower, you can top dress with a high N input so it can slowly become available through flowering.
Read a post on page 4 about chemicals being the way to go is what I took from it (that's what it said for the most part).
organics is more about the earth and allowing it to keep stabalized even after the grow of whatever your growing. Your chemicals are fucking it all up. Vietnam my friend. India. Fucked.
On Pesticides, why do you think it says not to spread near drainage, pipes, etc.? Cause it will fuck shit up. Don't see anything on something TRUELY organic that says harmful to pets, plumbing, or will eat your fucking foot off do you?
I'm a roll today! Assholing(PSS) cause I'm a man baby!
PS: Thanks for the post! I finally got a copy of "Teaming with Microbes" earlier today, but have yet to open it. Still enjoying readying about others mixes, ideas, etc..
PSS: Don't steal my new word!
organics is more about the earth and allowing it to keep stabalized even after the grow of whatever your growing. Your chemicals are fucking it all up. Vietnam my friend. India. Fucked.
On Pesticides, why do you think it says not to spread near drainage, pipes, etc.? Cause it will fuck shit up. Don't see anything on something TRUELY organic that says harmful to pets, plumbing, or will eat your fucking foot off do you?
I'm a roll today! Assholing(PSS) cause I'm a man baby!
PS: Thanks for the post! I finally got a copy of "Teaming with Microbes" earlier today, but have yet to open it. Still enjoying readying about others mixes, ideas, etc..
PSS: Don't steal my new word!
How exactly are nutrients absorbed through the rhizosphere? The rhizosphere refers to the area around the roots of a plant. Your roots are covered with hydrogen, a cation, which they exchange for other cations as well as attract anions. This is basic chemistry. I learned a lot from your hints thanks much!
OSG
Member
^^ easiest way I know to get your Rhizoshere a jumping, is to use Super Plant Tonic from BMO. It's full of beneficial bacteria & fungi, that Mary really loves. It's like the best compost tea you've ever made (in a concentrated form), with a side of EWC & a twist of Azomite.
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Started during veg, and used half way through flowering, you can easily add 10 to 15 % to you final yield, and end up with frosty ladies like this.....
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Started during veg, and used half way through flowering, you can easily add 10 to 15 % to you final yield, and end up with frosty ladies like this.....
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