Self sustainable gardeners

Hippie hipper

Hippie hipper

Member
Hey guys wondering if anyone else tries to save money/earth by using diy tactics like I do! I mainly do it for the money but found it's fun to compost and stuff.

So flowers I plant around my house for my cannabis garden!(perinals only)
Yarrow
Chamomile
Sage

(Great for compost teas and soil additives)
These 3 can be cut down, and they always grow back, providing all the benefits year after year!

Compost
I use thermal composting system, it requires more work but trust me it's worth it! I toss every veggie scrap into it, along with a tablespoon or 2 of kelp every 4 weeks. I have a long process of starting my pile and I get finished compost every 28 days.

Fertilizers

Fish bone meal, after I go fishing(trout I'm from CO) I use the meat for food and then the bones for bone meal. I can post how I do this if anyone wants to know.

Ewc simple worm farm I only do this during the winter

Alfalfa meal, I plant alfalfa grass once a year throughout my entire gardens harvest and grind It up and ferment it

Cabbage...yes cabbage lol I grow it every year what I don't eat I ferment and use for a good bacteria source


Any other at home ideas for sustainability?

I basically only buy kelp meal and azomite. Because I cannot source these at home lol
 
Hippie hipper

Hippie hipper

Member
JavaCo said:
Comfrey is a good one that can be grown around the yard, it is a great bio accumulator. You want to get the blocking 14 so it wont produce viable seeds. If not it can take over a yard and is very difficult to get rid once established.
Click to expand...
Good Call! I honestly forgot all about comfrey! Is it possible to get a non gmo non viable seed producer though? I'm one of "those guys" when comes to organics haha. Gonna have to add those to the yard for sure. Thanks
 
JavaCo

JavaCo

Well-Known Member
It is not GMO, was made by hybridization natural crosses. Dont think there is enough money in comfrey for the big companies to GMO it.
 
D

Devildenis69

Well-Known Member
Hey all !
I was about to start growing my own ferts (alfalfa, comfrey, yarrow), but after some research, theres something i dont get.
As all of them are bio-accumulators, they should have a similar mineral profile to the soil they were grown in, so let's say my soil is lacking Ca, does it mean I will never be able to fill this lack with some ferts grown in this same soil ?
In other words does one need to have an already perfectly balanced soil, in order to grow his own ferts ?
 
Hippie hipper

Hippie hipper

Member
Well in terms of plant available Ca, it first has to be chelated, through the microorgism. Bacillus pops in my head first, they will provide some Ca. It's also not a very rare strain of bacteria, but if you wanted to be 100% sure, mix up some OrgeonismXL it contains a lot of beneficial organisms that will jump start that population and start preparing their natural habitat to thrive and multiple.
 
Hippie hipper

Hippie hipper

Member
Honestly and I mean honestly. I haven't ran into a calcium issue since I left bottles and went no till.(tried a coco mix this go round...fucking hate it lol) My peat mix has never shown a sign of it. If you like seafood...oysters shells can be a good source for your health and you can make them into an amazing source of CaMg for a fertilizer.
 
D

Devildenis69

Well-Known Member
Hey Hippie, thx for the info, I think my formulation was a bit misleading, the Ca was just an example, Im new to organics, thus I dont have a well balanced thriving soil as most of you do, that's why I was wondering if there was a point to grow my own ferts in my soil to supplement the same soil.
In my understanding, if my soil is un-balanced regarding any element, it will never be able to be well balanced back by supplementing it with some ferts grown in this same soil; am I right ? or am I missing something ?

I will grow alfalfa for hormones, but let's take comfrey, what would be the point of growing it ? is it just like putting back in the soil the minerals in pretty much the same ratio they were already in ?
 
Cold$moke

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
I know if i had some more direct sunlight for longer than 5 hrs (alaska days lol)

Id be using some of those vacuum insulated solar tubes for heating

Crazy stuff to boil water outside in below 0 temps using just the sun :)
 
Hippie hipper

Hippie hipper

Member
Devildenis69 said:
Hey Hippie, thx for the info, I think my formulation was a bit misleading, the Ca was just an example, Im new to organics, thus I dont have a well balanced thriving soil as most of you do, that's why I was wondering if there was a point to grow my own ferts in my soil to supplement the same soil.
In my understanding, if my soil is un-balanced regarding any element, it will never be able to be well balanced back by supplementing it with some ferts grown in this same soil; am I right ? or am I missing something ?

I will grow alfalfa for hormones, but let's take comfrey, what would be the point of growing it ? is it just like putting back in the soil the minerals in pretty much the same ratio they were already in ?
Click to expand...
I don't grow my fertilizers or additives in "proper" soil. They grow in soil along side my house and fences. I give a compost tea to them once a month. A proper soil doesn't need additives or honestly anything. If you did run into issues watering with coconut water, aloe, molasses etc fixes most problems. That being said I don't add say alfalfa meal for the N-P-K I add it for the microbial aspect. Same goes for all the other amendments. A proper soil comes from the biology for organics not amendments. So if your soil is missing "Mg" something is off in the soil with your microbial life not so much the lack of Mg. Mg could be bountiful just lacking the microbes to break it down. I hope I'm answering a little more correctly this time. Sorry about the off the wall answer previously I read it and my mind went a different direction. Lol
 
Hippie hipper

Hippie hipper

Member
Hey guys! Another addition...so you have soil leftover after you flower? Now you spent money on that soil, wouldn't it make sense to save as much money as you can? And use as little as you can? Not going to the grow store has it's perks.

Go buy yourself a good size fabric pot(depending on your grow size). I harvest a total of 5 times during the winter. 10 plants total in 3 gallon pots, 30 gallons of soil indoors during winter is used. I buy a 30 gal fabric pot.

I also defoliate! So I'll toss all my leaf trims and stocks(cut em up pretty small microbes can deal with cut up things faster as well as worms) into the fabric pot, dump the harvested plant soil(without the stem) into the fabric pot, roots and all. Break it up as you dump. Now you'll have a thick ass stock left...if your a good grower that fucker is gonna be thick...personally I keep those out and compost it later on.

My first dump I'll top dress the cut up leaves and soil with alfalfa meal and kelp meal. These will jump start to microbes and get a few more in the pile(remember you'll still have microbial life from the grow before).

After dump 3 I'll add a compost tea,
1/4cup malibu
1tsp alfalfa meal
1/4tsp fish hydrosolate
Brew 18-24 hours

Dump 4 and 5 just go back to a little alfalfa meal and kelp meal. Smaller each time.

Now at batch 5 outdoor season is about to start, I've got the fabric pot almost filled for the most part....saves me 30 gallons of soil and $$$. You can amend with azomite and crab meal, generally what i do. I never do anything else and only feed the girls 1 time a month outdoors.
 
ShLUbY

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
Hippie hipper said:
Hey guys! Another addition...so you have soil leftover after you flower? Now you spent money on that soil, wouldn't it make sense to save as much money as you can? And use as little as you can? Not going to the grow store has it's perks.

Go buy yourself a good size fabric pot(depending on your grow size). I harvest a total of 5 times during the winter. 10 plants total in 3 gallon pots, 30 gallons of soil indoors during winter is used. I buy a 30 gal fabric pot.

I also defoliate! So I'll toss all my leaf trims and stocks(cut em up pretty small microbes can deal with cut up things faster as well as worms) into the fabric pot, dump the harvested plant soil(without the stem) into the fabric pot, roots and all. Break it up as you dump. Now you'll have a thick ass stock left...if your a good grower that fucker is gonna be thick...personally I keep those out and compost it later on.

My first dump I'll top dress the cut up leaves and soil with alfalfa meal and kelp meal. These will jump start to microbes and get a few more in the pile(remember you'll still have microbial life from the grow before).

After dump 3 I'll add a compost tea,
1/4cup malibu
1tsp alfalfa meal
1/4tsp fish hydrosolate
Brew 18-24 hours

Dump 4 and 5 just go back to a little alfalfa meal and kelp meal. Smaller each time.

Now at batch 5 outdoor season is about to start, I've got the fabric pot almost filled for the most part....saves me 30 gallons of soil and $$$. You can amend with azomite and crab meal, generally what i do. I never do anything else and only feed the girls 1 time a month outdoors.
Click to expand...
yeah you basically described what we all do lol. no one here (in the organic forum) throws out their soil (i hope). and now that i'm transitioning to no-till... i don't even break up the root balls anymore (which makes life FANTASTIC!).

all my defoliated leaves and shade leaves from harvest get dried and then crumbled and run through a sieve to make cannabis leaf meal. all stems/stalks get chopped up into small pieces and applied as a mulch for future plants (works nicely too, good soil food and mulch). anything else goes through the worm bin. I've been running the same soil for well over a year now... and with new skills learned with each grow, i've been really trying to push the harvest amounts.

but the point is... NOTHING is wasted. I recycle all that I can, and rarely does anything ever go to the curb in the trash. Hell, i don't even put leaves out of the curb... and i see everyone who does (even people with gardens in their yard) each year... and i just shake my head lol.
 
Hippie hipper

Hippie hipper

Member
ShLUbY said:
yeah you basically described what we all do lol. no one here (in the organic forum) throws out their soil (i hope). and now that i'm transitioning to no-till... i don't even break up the root balls anymore (which makes life FANTASTIC!).

all my defoliated leaves and shade leaves from harvest get dried and then crumbled and run through a sieve to make cannabis leaf meal. all stems/stalks get chopped up into small pieces and applied as a mulch for future plants (works nicely too, good soil food and mulch). anything else goes through the worm bin. I've been running the same soil for well over a year now... and with new skills learned with each grow, i've been really trying to push the harvest amounts.

but the point is... NOTHING is wasted. I recycle all that I can, and rarely does anything ever go to the curb in the trash. Hell, i don't even put leaves out of the curb... and i see everyone who does (even people with gardens in their yard) each year... and i just shake my head lol.
Click to expand...
If it's what we all do or not, simply it's what I do, and why I put it under my self sustainable gardening tab. Some know but not all do.

You can ask people to have their leaves. If I'm short on carbon I'll go to neighbors and grab brown leaves. So it'll equal out of nitrogen to carbon in my compost
 
vostok

vostok

Well-Known Member
Hippie hipper said:
Hey guys wondering if anyone else tries to save money/earth by using diy tactics like I do! I mainly do it for the money but found it's fun to compost and stuff.

So flowers I plant around my house for my cannabis garden!(perinals only)
Yarrow
Chamomile
Sage

(Great for compost teas and soil additives)
These 3 can be cut down, and they always grow back, providing all the benefits year after year!

Compost
I use thermal composting system, it requires more work but trust me it's worth it! I toss every veggie scrap into it, along with a tablespoon or 2 of kelp every 4 weeks. I have a long process of starting my pile and I get finished compost every 28 days.

Fertilizers

Fish bone meal, after I go fishing(trout I'm from CO) I use the meat for food and then the bones for bone meal. I can post how I do this if anyone wants to know.

Ewc simple worm farm I only do this during the winter

Alfalfa meal, I plant alfalfa grass once a year throughout my entire gardens harvest and grind It up and ferment it

Cabbage...yes cabbage lol I grow it every year what I don't eat I ferment and use for a good bacteria source


Any other at home ideas for sustainability?

I basically only buy kelp meal and azomite. Because I cannot source these at home lol
Click to expand...
Nice list as mentioned already I use and grow nettles comfrey and beans ...I hate beans

potatoes are a good conditioner

I like to encourage fungi/mushrooms

to expensive on the shops....

but you can get the scraps for nothing

and spread them out on ur back lawn

ready to pop up in spring

really makes the neighbors green ...lol

good luck
 
Hippie hipper

Hippie hipper

Member
vostok said:
Nice list as mentioned already I use and grow nettles comfrey and beans ...I hate beans

potatoes are a good conditioner

I like to encourage fungi/mushrooms

to expensive on the shops....

but you can get the scraps for nothing

and spread them out on ur back lawn

ready to pop up in spring

really makes the neighbors green ...lol

good luck
Click to expand...
Idk just from my research(not saying anyone is wrong) I just don't think fungi has a huge role on cannabis. I mean absolutely some fungi does. I just don't chase it like a lot of guys and gals do. I see some people doing fungal dominate teas and soil...canabis seems to be an early sucesional plant, if that's true prob need a more bacteria to fungi ratio. I tried it and never saw anything different.

I fucking love beans lol and peas...
 
vostok

vostok

Well-Known Member
Hippie hipper said:
Idk just from my research(not saying anyone is wrong) I just don't think fungi has a huge role on cannabis. I mean absolutely some fungi does. I just don't chase it like a lot of guys and gals do. I see some people doing fungal dominate teas and soil...canabis seems to be an early sucesional plant, if that's true prob need a more bacteria to fungi ratio. I tried it and never saw anything different.I fucking love beans lol and peas...
Click to expand...
Read the book ...then re post




good luck
 
Hippie hipper

Hippie hipper

Member
vostok said:
Read the book ...then re post




good luck
Click to expand...
I've read the book. I've read all the teaming with...books. I also have attended symposia from other soil biologist, who disagree. Science is constantly changing. To think one source is a complete and total truth...is a little wrong to me. I like to keep an open mind, and transfer ideas between other people. That being said your post was a little on the nose...could you elaborate more on why you think a higher fungal diversity is important? And why PhDs are saying less fungi per bacteria for earlier sucesional crops? It's easy to debate against non phds with knowledge from other phds...no one here(I assume) is leading soil biology research. Without a complete research under a microscope, and having it reviewed by peers of similar knowledge...is all he said she said. "Growth was better look at this side by side" isn't scientific in the slightest. Let's all just exchange ideas in a positive way.
 
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