Living soil box

Karl Nation

Karl Nation

Member
Made a 12x8 grow box. I am trying to make a living soil (not a no till living soil though). In the bottom of the box I put one bale of hay and one bale of straw. 4 yards of tripple mix and 3 yards of black topsoil (mixed). On top, about 50 pounds of worm casings and 5lbs of Azomite, Oyster shell flour, compost I have been making for 5-6 years, beneficial microbes, 250 red wiggler worms, sheep manure, horse manure, blood meal, bone meal, glacial rock dust, and probably some other stuff I forgot. Hope this year is good after all that. Last year I got some disease that affected all of my plants including the ones in soil and the ones in auto-pots :-(. This will be a half Garden next year. I don't know much about growing in soil and I have not had a lot of luck at it so I am hoping with my living soil I will have some luck.IMG_20230511_124709.jpgIMG_20230508_180129.jpg
 
go go kid

go go kid

Well-Known Member
i would have lined it with pollythene b4 adding the soil, just for longjevity.. and double screwed it, so 6 screws instead of three, wet soil is / can be real heavy, but ive not worked with grow boxes before
lookin good
 
Karl Nation

Karl Nation

Member
LewberDewber852 said:
Nice box

Hopefully it pays off :weed:
U gonna put a layer over top? How u gonna water?
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A layer over top you mean Garden fabric yes I did that and I cut 10 x's and I've put eight seedlings and two clones I've got online in the box right now. We had three frosts and even though they are under the cloth a few of them got damaged one pretty bad the rest of them will be fine. As for watering I live on a lake so I'll just water them as needed, right now as seedlings I'm doing it with a hand watering can every morning just a little bit. I have a soil meter which measures nutrient, soil moisture, pH and it's looking good.
 
Karl Nation

Karl Nation

Member
go go kid said:
i would have lined it with pollythene b4 adding the soil, just for longjevity.. and double screwed it, so 6 screws instead of three, wet soil is / can be real heavy, but ive not worked with grow boxes before
lookin good
Click to expand...
I lined all of the exposed wooden areas with clear plastic 6 mil so that it would last a long time and so that none of the framing which is the only pressure treated I used including the bottom 6x6s and the six posts would not leach into the soil even though apparently modern pressure treat methods are safe for soil boxes. Also like you say I got paranoid after the soil was in it even though nothing bowed but here we have minus 30 and then plus 30 so I went nuts with a drill and some screws.
 
LewberDewber852

LewberDewber852

Well-Known Member
Karl Nation said:
A layer over top you mean Garden fabric yes I did that and I cut 10 x's and I've put eight seedlings and two clones I've got online in the box right now. We had three frosts and even though they are under the cloth a few of them got damaged one pretty bad the rest of them will be fine. As for watering I live on a lake so I'll just water them as needed, right now as seedlings I'm doing it with a hand watering can every morning just a little bit. I have a soil meter which measures nutrient, soil moisture, pH and it's looking good.
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Yea that fabric or mulch to keep that top soil on point. I’d attach some pvc to dem posts and have its hoop house capable as that’d be
What do u pump water from the lake or u don’t have to worry about ur well?
If ur soil recipe has buffers u shouldn’t needs to worry about that PH much. A lot of them meters are bunk and a soil test will give ya useful info.
With all them plants ur gonna have a jungle box!! :weed:
 
Karl Nation

Karl Nation

Member
The two clones I planted are finally taking to it. My seedlings are still pretty small but they're finally starting to grow properly after the transplant. I use the wrong soil mix when I started them and I also started them late basically I don't want huge plants I just want top quality buds and I find that you get that from smaller plants.16870189193156516977019656494639.jpg
 
Karl Nation

Karl Nation

Member
Karl Nation said:
The two clones I planted are finally taking to it. My seedlings are still pretty small but they're finally starting to grow properly after the transplant. I use the wrong soil mix when I started them and I also started them late basically I don't want huge plants I just want top quality buds and I find that you get that from smaller plants.View attachment 5300337
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I actually just topped all the seedlings and will do it again a few times throughout the season.
 
LewberDewber852

LewberDewber852

Well-Known Member
Karl Nation said:
The two clones I planted are finally taking to it. My seedlings are still pretty small but they're finally starting to grow properly after the transplant. I use the wrong soil mix when I started them and I also started them late basically I don't want huge plants I just want top quality buds and I find that you get that from smaller plants.View attachment 5300337
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Still a lot of growing season left so they will get pretty big still. I am waiting another 2 weeks to pop seeds outside as I want some small plants as well. Not bc of bud quality just portability so I can bring em inside when it rains and at night to keep ‘em from scumbag thieves.

What makes ya think small plants have better bud?
 

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Karl Nation

Karl Nation

Member
LewberDewber852 said:
Still a lot of growing season left so they will get pretty big still. I am waiting another 2 weeks to pop seeds outside as I want some small plants as well. Not bc of bud quality just portability so I can bring em inside when it rains and at night to keep ‘em from scumbag thieves.

What makes ya think small plants have better bud?
Click to expand...
Just my experience with indoor. Those are some nice trees man!
 
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