Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

[bicit]

Another question for experienced folks. I have compost, peat moss, amendments, and covercrop seeds. However the perlite had to be ordered and won't be here until the middle of the month. Can I start the aging process now and get the cover crop going and just mix in the perlite when it get's here(tilling the cover crop into it)? Or would it be better to wait until the perlite is here before mixing everything up starting the aging process?

Thanks in advance.

 

[SouthernSoil*]

Hey guys so im pretty much in week 3 of flowering, ladies are looking good, the sativa has reached the top of the hood basically lol, pretty sad i dont have a 4th big lady in there though ! got to be grateful for the 3 i guess. Peace : ) !

 

[st0wandgrow]

Another question for experienced folks. I have compost, peat moss, amendments, and covercrop seeds. However the perlite had to be ordered and won't be here until the middle of the month. Can I start the aging process now and get the cover crop going and just mix in the perlite when it get's here(tilling the cover crop into it)? Or would it be better to wait until the perlite is here before mixing everything up starting the aging process?

Thanks in advance.

You could do it that way. What I'd probably do is mix in all of your dry amendments to the base, wet that down with an ACt and let it sit with no cover crop. Once your perlite arives mix that in and then lay down the cover crop

 

[bicit]

Cool beans, thanks!

 

[goodjoint]

I've been following this thread for about a month. I've completed two successful organic grows, but I've never tried living soil. About a week ago, I sourced a healthy amount of local compost and mixed together...

- 6 gallons organic horse manure compost, incredibly rich with live earthworms - composted/aged for 8 months.
- 1.5 gallons worm castings (not very fresh, but i thought i'd throw them in there)
- 7 gallons spagnum peat moss
- 7 gallons perlite/lava rock blend
- 2 gallons biochar (activated with a nutrient rich AACT - kelp meal, alfalfa meal, fish hydrolysate, compost, earth worm castings, molasses)
- Nutrient Kit from BuildaSoil

I designed my planter out of a 27 gallon storage bin, carefully for several hours, drilling holes for airflow, and covering the inside with cut pieces of a fabric pot.
Then I layered a thin amount of organic horse manure compost and sprinkled 'cover crop' seeds (from bas). Watered it down with a compost tea, and haven't touched it since.

It's been about a week now, and the cover crop is sprouting strong. Even some mushrooms are showing up!! I assume these are a good sign??

On December 31st, I planted 5 Space Dawg (TGA) seeds and I'm waiting for them to sprout. While the soil cooks for another couple of weeks, I will be raising the seedlings in little cups, planted in a soil mixture of 1/3 compost/earth worm castings, 1/3 spaghnum peat moss, 1/3 perlite. Once they're ready to move out of their cups, I'll plant them into the No-Till bed and chop down the cover crop at the same time? Should I leave the cover crop growing? (I have a feeling that the cover crop is going to grow massively by that time, since it's already taking off (about 4 inches tall)).

I plan on vegging them for around 2 months, and then flowering them with 2 area 51 xgs-190 led panels, and 2 area 51 rw-150 panels in a 4x4 tent.

What do you guys think? I'm hoping to be impressed, shocked, and awed with this growing style. Would love some input.

 

[st0wandgrow]

I've been following this thread for about a month. I've completed two successful organic grows, but I've never tried living soil. About a week ago, I sourced a healthy amount of local compost and mixed together...

- 6 gallons organic horse manure compost, incredibly rich with live earthworms - composted/aged for 8 months.
- 1.5 gallons worm castings (not very fresh, but i thought i'd throw them in there)
- 7 gallons spagnum peat moss
- 7 gallons perlite/lava rock blend
- 2 gallons biochar (activated with a nutrient rich AACT - kelp meal, alfalfa meal, fish hydrolysate, compost, earth worm castings, molasses)
- Nutrient Kit from BuildaSoil

I designed my planter out of a 27 gallon storage bin, carefully for several hours, drilling holes for airflow, and covering the inside with cut pieces of a fabric pot.
Then I layered a thin amount of organic horse manure compost and sprinkled 'cover crop' seeds (from bas). Watered it down with a compost tea, and haven't touched it since.

It's been about a week now, and the cover crop is sprouting strong. Even some mushrooms are showing up!! I assume these are a good sign??

On December 31st, I planted 5 Space Dawg (TGA) seeds and I'm waiting for them to sprout. While the soil cooks for another couple of weeks, I will be raising the seedlings in little cups, planted in a soil mixture of 1/3 compost/earth worm castings, 1/3 spaghnum peat moss, 1/3 perlite. Once they're ready to move out of their cups, I'll plant them into the No-Till bed and chop down the cover crop at the same time? Should I leave the cover crop growing? (I have a feeling that the cover crop is going to grow massively by that time, since it's already taking off (about 4 inches tall)).

I plan on vegging them for around 2 months, and then flowering them with 2 area 51 xgs-190 led panels, and 2 area 51 rw-150 panels in a 4x4 tent.

What do you guys think? I'm hoping to be impressed, shocked, and awed with this growing style. Would love some input.

You'll find that the cover crop will lay down for you. I think it's a combination of it getting too long to stand upright + repeated waterings (which kind of beats it down) + when you dig your hole for your clone you will uproot and somewhat flatten the sprouts. I usually chop mine down around the 3'rd week of flower as they start to get shaded out at that point and really only serve as a mulch. In my mind this is a good time to cut them down as any nitrogen fixing that is/was taking place has served its purpose in veg and early flower. You could certainly leave them be if you wanted to though.

Keep in mind that my advice is only anecdotal and could be complete nonsense.

I like the looks of your soil btw. Should be a kick-ass grow!

 

[st0wandgrow]

I don't know how well you can see this, but this is a plant that will be getting flipped to flower in a week. The container it's in was left fallow after a re-amend/top dress with a cover crop laid down. It sat like this for 3 weeks, then a new clone was plugged in. This is week 2 with a clone in it, and the cover crop is already laying down mostly.

 

[bicit]

So next question. I have access to soil from a garden that was built on an old horse pasture. The productivity of this garden is amazing so I'd like to snag some. The question though is should I treat this as compost, and mix with peat and perlite? Or treat it as a base and only mix perlite into it?

 

[a senile fungus]

So next question. I have access to soil from a garden that was built on an old horse pasture. The productivity of this garden is amazing so I'd like to snag some. The question though is should I treat this as compost, and mix with peat and perlite? Or treat it as a base and only mix perlite into it?

I treated my native soil as an inoculant into my amended soil mix.

I used 1/3 sphagnum peat, 1/3 aeration (perlite and cocoa bean shells) and the remaining 1/3 was EWC and compost.

I grabbed a couple shovels of native dirt from my garden and just threw it right into the mix. The outdoor dirt has tons of life in it, and you are providing all those microbes with food stock and breeding grounds.

They will multiply and be happy

 

[st0wandgrow]

I treated my native soil as an inoculant into my amended soil mix.

I used 1/3 sphagnum peat, 1/3 aeration (perlite and cocoa bean shells) and the remaining 1/3 was EWC and compost.

I grabbed a couple shovels of native dirt from my garden and just threw it right into the mix. The outdoor dirt has tons of life in it, and you are providing all those microbes with food stock and breeding grounds.

They will multiply and be happy

^That^

So next question. I have access to soil from a garden that was built on an old horse pasture. The productivity of this garden is amazing so I'd like to snag some. The question though is should I treat this as compost, and mix with peat and perlite? Or treat it as a base and only mix perlite into it?

Something else to keep in mind..... what type if soil is it? Silty, loamy, clay, etc? Depending what type of soil it is, and how much you're adding you may have to offset this with more aeration bits. Clay soil for example has a tiny particle size and would need more aeration, where as loamy soil has a larger particle size and drains very well, so more compost could potentially be added to this.

 

[BlueDemon62]

Can someone help me better understand the section on spider mites? I.e. a good organic spray to actively combat mites, what a 'mite magnet' is- is it a plant I keep to draw them away from the pot? Or something to keep AWAY as it draws them to the plant and thus into the garden? I was on my 5th ever grow - after a yield of 1.5oz/plant - and I started to get lazy...cleanliness went out the window and now I'm infested...huge African landrace plant yielding almost nothing on week 8 flower after a huge bug problem and now she's almost dead...cleaned up my act, but the bugs still remain. Tips?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Rollitup mobile app

 

[thegreencage93]

To all the guys who think harvesting worm poo is a pain in the butt these things seme to be wonderful actual alot of worm farmers use giant sized ones

How To Build A Trommel !:

 

[goodjoint]

I was staring closely at the soil surface and noticed some very faint movement. I took a closer look using a cheapo 100x USB Microscope and recorded a cool video clip of the microlife in action. I'm thinking that these are good critters (hopefully)... I'm not that far into reading "Teaming with Microbes", so I'm lost what these are... but they're fun to watch!! lol.

 

[st0wandgrow]

I was staring closely at the soil surface and noticed some very faint movement. I took a closer look using a cheapo 100x USB Microscope and recorded a cool video clip of the microlife in action. I'm thinking that these are good critters (hopefully)... I'm not that far into reading "Teaming with Microbes", so I'm lost what these are... but they're fun to watch!! lol.

That's a great vid! I'm guessing here, but I'd say those critters are hypoaspis miles (predator mite) and the white worm looking things could be nematodes.

 

[SouthernSoil*]

Hey there guys, i have my 3 ladies flowering under a 600w air cooled glass hood, the sativa dominant's cola has passed the hoods level lol, the other two are sitting at 6" & 8" inches from the hood would it be cool to drop them 5 inches ? would the stretch be bad or a good thing ? Thing is it would help controlling temps better while im away for a few days aswell, any advice would be lovely, respect : )

 

[Mad Hamish]

Hey there guys, i have my 3 ladies flowering under a 600w air cooled glass hood, the sativa dominant's cola has passed the hoods level lol, the other two are sitting at 6" & 8" inches from the hood would it be cool to drop them 5 inches ? would the stretch be bad or a good thing ? Thing is it would help controlling temps better while im away for a few days aswell, any advice would be lovely, respect : )

My hoods are about 60 cm away right now. You will find they like being a bit further away, with a reflective room we have a lot more headroom than going old school. The PAR in there should be just fine.

 

[Mad Hamish]

I've been following this thread for about a month. I've completed two successful organic grows, but I've never tried living soil. About a week ago, I sourced a healthy amount of local compost and mixed together...

- 6 gallons organic horse manure compost, incredibly rich with live earthworms - composted/aged for 8 months.
- 1.5 gallons worm castings (not very fresh, but i thought i'd throw them in there)
- 7 gallons spagnum peat moss
- 7 gallons perlite/lava rock blend
- 2 gallons biochar (activated with a nutrient rich AACT - kelp meal, alfalfa meal, fish hydrolysate, compost, earth worm castings, molasses)
- Nutrient Kit from BuildaSoil

I designed my planter out of a 27 gallon storage bin, carefully for several hours, drilling holes for airflow, and covering the inside with cut pieces of a fabric pot.
Then I layered a thin amount of organic horse manure compost and sprinkled 'cover crop' seeds (from bas). Watered it down with a compost tea, and haven't touched it since.

It's been about a week now, and the cover crop is sprouting strong. Even some mushrooms are showing up!! I assume these are a good sign??

On December 31st, I planted 5 Space Dawg (TGA) seeds and I'm waiting for them to sprout. While the soil cooks for another couple of weeks, I will be raising the seedlings in little cups, planted in a soil mixture of 1/3 compost/earth worm castings, 1/3 spaghnum peat moss, 1/3 perlite. Once they're ready to move out of their cups, I'll plant them into the No-Till bed and chop down the cover crop at the same time? Should I leave the cover crop growing? (I have a feeling that the cover crop is going to grow massively by that time, since it's already taking off (about 4 inches tall)).

I plan on vegging them for around 2 months, and then flowering them with 2 area 51 xgs-190 led panels, and 2 area 51 rw-150 panels in a 4x4 tent.

What do you guys think? I'm hoping to be impressed, shocked, and awed with this growing style. Would love some input.

Solid as can be far as the soil goes. Just remember that with each run recycling your soil gets better and more alive. The mind blowing bits comeminnthe second and third generation trust me your jaw will be on the floor when you see how quickly they grow these fat ass stalks...

 

[SouthernSoil*]

My hoods are about 60 cm away right now. You will find they like being a bit further away, with a reflective room we have a lot more headroom than going old school. The PAR in there should be just fine.

Perfect, thank you brother, im going to drop them, wanted to ask do you run a air cooled or just a normal open reflector bro ? Definitely should be good with the PAR output, respect bro.

 

[st0wandgrow]

Can someone help me better understand the section on spider mites? I.e. a good organic spray to actively combat mites, what a 'mite magnet' is- is it a plant I keep to draw them away from the pot? Or something to keep AWAY as it draws them to the plant and thus into the garden? I was on my 5th ever grow - after a yield of 1.5oz/plant - and I started to get lazy...cleanliness went out the window and now I'm infested...huge African landrace plant yielding almost nothing on week 8 flower after a huge bug problem and now she's almost dead...cleaned up my act, but the bugs still remain. Tips?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Rollitup mobile app

I've always had good luck with Azamax in the past. 3-4 applications a few days apart, making sure to get the tops and bottom of all leaves. I haven't had to bust that out in ages though. I firmly believe that if you amend your soil with neem seed meal and crab shell meal (or something else that brings chitin to the soil) along with having a thriving microbial population in your soil raises the plants SAR and fends off pests that like to munch on your gals. I haven't had any issues with pests since switching to this type of organically amended soil, where as in the past using synthetics I was constantly battling some type of bug.

 

[Mad Hamish]

Perfect, thank you brother, im going to drop them, wanted to ask do you run a air cooled or just a normal open reflector bro ? Definitely should be good with the PAR output, respect bro.

Running cool tubes ATM, several per tent with reflectors removed. I don't like these square hoods I can shove a lot more tubes into a lot less space. I view a 'lamp' as a setup with a 600HPS and 400MH in close overlap. So i work exclusovely with teamed ballasts