Cann
Well-Known Member
as far as the whole ROLS cost thing goes.....
So far this month I have spent $12 on diastatic malt powder......thats it.
the last few months the only things I have purchased are aloe powder ($20), Agsil 16H powder ($30), and a gallon of Ful-Power ($35)
less than $100 this cycle.....
as far as free things go....homemade EWC, comfrey and horsetail from my yard, crab shell from alaskan king crab (bartered w/ a fisherman ), rock dust from local quarries...and tons of free biomass everywhere for my compost pile/wormbin. there are tons of goodies out there if you look. in theory one could build their own soil from scratch for extremely cheap (the cost of neem meal).
if I was trying to build a soil mix from scavenged materials here is what I would do:
1/3 homemade compost or EWC (collect biomass and such from local areas to compost...a few months later you have quality compost...even better if you throw amendments into the compost (rock dust, kelp, crab, etc.)
1/3 leaf mold (collect leaves from peoples lawns and parks...let sit for a few months, tada.)
1/3 pumice, lava rock, rice hulls, or some sort of aeration material (chances are you can find one of these things for free at a local park...sometimes railroads are lined w/ lava rock...if not, rice hulls are about $10 for 6 cuft, pumice is $8 for 50lbs....pretty damn cheap IMO)
there is your base soil....dirt cheap
per cuft:
4 cups rock dust mix (quarry fines, fine screened clay from local topsoil, oyster shell powder (mortar and pestle and oyster shells...if you have the time for that...))
1/2 cup kelp meal (take a trip to the beach and scrounge up some brown seaweed)
1/2 cup crab meal (have a tasty crab dinner...or if you're trying to be super cheap go to the beach and look for crab or lobster shell remains...you could also go to a place like red lobster and ask them for their shells hehe...i'm sure theyd be happy to oblige..although those might not be the highest quality shells...)
1/2 cup neem meal (this is probably the only one you can't find locally.....unless you live in india...)
if you don't consider the amount of labor that would go into this, the price would be about $15 for lots of soil...as much as you could make with 5lbs. of neem seed meal...over 10cuft easily...
or you could go out and buy compost, EWC, peat, pumice, kelp, crab, neem, rock dust, etc.....definitely expensive at first...but either way by the third cycle it is virtually free to maintain.
So far this month I have spent $12 on diastatic malt powder......thats it.
the last few months the only things I have purchased are aloe powder ($20), Agsil 16H powder ($30), and a gallon of Ful-Power ($35)
less than $100 this cycle.....
as far as free things go....homemade EWC, comfrey and horsetail from my yard, crab shell from alaskan king crab (bartered w/ a fisherman ), rock dust from local quarries...and tons of free biomass everywhere for my compost pile/wormbin. there are tons of goodies out there if you look. in theory one could build their own soil from scratch for extremely cheap (the cost of neem meal).
if I was trying to build a soil mix from scavenged materials here is what I would do:
1/3 homemade compost or EWC (collect biomass and such from local areas to compost...a few months later you have quality compost...even better if you throw amendments into the compost (rock dust, kelp, crab, etc.)
1/3 leaf mold (collect leaves from peoples lawns and parks...let sit for a few months, tada.)
1/3 pumice, lava rock, rice hulls, or some sort of aeration material (chances are you can find one of these things for free at a local park...sometimes railroads are lined w/ lava rock...if not, rice hulls are about $10 for 6 cuft, pumice is $8 for 50lbs....pretty damn cheap IMO)
there is your base soil....dirt cheap
per cuft:
4 cups rock dust mix (quarry fines, fine screened clay from local topsoil, oyster shell powder (mortar and pestle and oyster shells...if you have the time for that...))
1/2 cup kelp meal (take a trip to the beach and scrounge up some brown seaweed)
1/2 cup crab meal (have a tasty crab dinner...or if you're trying to be super cheap go to the beach and look for crab or lobster shell remains...you could also go to a place like red lobster and ask them for their shells hehe...i'm sure theyd be happy to oblige..although those might not be the highest quality shells...)
1/2 cup neem meal (this is probably the only one you can't find locally.....unless you live in india...)
if you don't consider the amount of labor that would go into this, the price would be about $15 for lots of soil...as much as you could make with 5lbs. of neem seed meal...over 10cuft easily...
or you could go out and buy compost, EWC, peat, pumice, kelp, crab, neem, rock dust, etc.....definitely expensive at first...but either way by the third cycle it is virtually free to maintain.