Need a lil help

TheBeardedBudzman said:

Some people say 50% compost. Some people say 80% peat and aeration with 20% WC. Lmao I guess I gotta just pick a route and fuckin try it, and change it up after I screw something up.

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Haha well you're in good hands, Roy is a legend, dude is too awesome.

Depends on what you all have access to. If you have worms / composts going.

The bases are not soo different..

the 80% one is half and half peat and aeration then I assume.. That would make it 40-40-20 then.. the castings may be aerated or may be not.. meaning it could sway from 40 to 50% aeration..close to the other recipe.. but easier as a starter recipe if not composting yet.. stuff thats commercially available. On the fly organics.

50% compost base would insinuate a blend of DIY composts including maybe 10-30% vermicompost or red wiggler EWC and the rest would insinuate aeration.. so 50-50 as well. Main difference, creating fresh EWC and making fungi compost / other composts.. which take 6 wks to 2-3 years depending on approach style and type of compo.

The pros being, you can cut costs, save fossil fuels, recycle nutrients, you can intro way more species thriving and achieve less pest problems plus more potent herb with out of this world resin with more expression and perhaps even speed and more yield as well.. how cured and how well made the composts are, becomes huge obviously. Every single input you put into castings can cause a certain benefit.. same for the leaf mould or fungal compost.
For example, presence of chitin (frass) or amylase (barley) or other vitamins / enzymes (fresh aloe/coco water) ..

The main thing is to start. Then for one to try make their own compost if they can, and to get some worms asap.
Make castings for sure and if we all made really well-balanced full-spectrum compost all we would have to do is aerate it and deal with one thing forever.

Don't worry about the little things right now, though, one can make or buy biochar after starting, add it to castings, start an aloe vera, a comfrey, borage, stinging nettle if wanting to make real deal compost and save on meals / nutrients and teas.

For now, just learn about myco fungi and chitin and chitinase / SAR defense responses.

Save the probiotics for now, maybe make some LABS if you're ambitious.. then turn it up a notch as you go, every where you go..little steps.

TheBeardedBudzman said:

I’ve got this recipe written down! I listen to Roy! Lol

What if my worms are getting Oyster shell, fresh seaweed, alfalfa and crab meal? Still add em to mix?

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Then they are some happy worms probably. You can cut back a bit, depending on how much you feed them and how much casting you use.

@DonTesla

Thanks for that response. Your explanation on how the two may not be so different makes sense.

Here’s what I’m working with:

I’ve got lots and lots of worms. Too many. But I plan to do something for supplemental income with them eventually be it castings or worm sales. They’re on a base bedding of damp peat, eating a shredded blend of cow and horse manure (grass only animals, ages where it sits, my horses, neighbors cows), my own chicken manure, sea weed, ALL SORTS of unsold market produce from multiple local vendors, leaves, coffee, and the digestive aids I mentioned before. They eat a LOT, real fast. I’ve been conservative adding those extras. Hard to scale with so many worms.

My outdoor compost is old leaves from a few layers deep, maybe a couple years old or more even, from the state park, some partially composted manures, lots of different produce, some wood ashes from my fire pit, seaweeds...

I’m hoping the extreme variety of composted materials gives me huge benefits.

Grass, barley and aloe huh? I’ve got some wild aloe plants on the side of the house. Big’uns. I heard of using aloe for cloning gel... but this is good for my compost too?

Thanks for info and I appreciate any and all feedback every time .

@DonTesla

So frass is bug shit and primarily from bugs that eat wood, and as chitin, suppresses pathogens and adds lots of magnesium and calcium... can also get from shells of shellfish like crab and lobster.

And amylase converts starches to sugars, or is it the amount of sugar produced after starch decomposition?......

Bout to get some bug shit and exoskeletons LOL... nah, maybe later lol. But interesting things to get me reading more.

My head is killing me from all the damn reading.

TheBeardedBudzman said:

and aloe huh? I’ve got some wild aloe plants on the side of the house. Big’uns. I heard of using aloe for cloning gel... but this is good for my compost too?

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It sure is.. full of so many good things.. I've made some posts on its plethora of benefits..

same with frass.. I wont hijack this thread but pm me if you need help finding the summaries.. be happy to assist.

love it as a foliar agent as well.. awesome part of a high brix diet..

DonTesla said:

It sure is.. full of so many good things.. I've made some posts on its plethora of benefits..

same with frass.. I wont hijack this thread but pm me if you need help finding the summaries.. be happy to assist.

love it as a foliar agent as well.. awesome part of a high brix diet..

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Oop! My bad... ranting here... I’ll check your posts about it

TheBeardedBudzman said:

Oop! My bad... ranting here... I’ll check your posts about it

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No worries!! You're newer than me, so you can do it!! lol

Always willing to help peeps out at the FAQ thread too!

maxamus1 said:

Ok so after talking with the guys over at unibest not sure where to go but they did say just adding N will be ok and should not hurt the girls. Now if i can get some help from u guys on how to get these Micronutrients that would be awesome.

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I know your iron is good, but look on the back of a Ironite bag at the ingredient list. It is really a nice blended mineral mix over and above the iron in the name. Not expensive either.

For my minerals and trace beyond my "must have" kelp meal, all I use now in my mixes is greensand and azomite. Each at 1/2 to 1cup/cf. I no longer use other rock dusts at all. Those 2 provide everything needed without adding the density that the several cups/cf of rock dust does. This keeps the mix much lighter with better aeration and drainage, at least for me. YMMV

Wet

Wetdog said:

I know your iron is good, but look on the back of a Ironite bag at the ingredient list. It is really a nice blended mineral mix over and above the iron in the name. Not expensive either.

For my minerals and trace beyond my "must have" kelp meal, all I use now in my mixes is greensand and azomite. Each at 1/2 to 1cup/cf. I no longer use other rock dusts at all. Those 2 provide everything needed without adding the density that the several cups/cf of rock dust does. This keeps the mix much lighter with better aeration and drainage, at least for me. YMMV

Wet

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I wasn't familiar with ironite, so I googled it and got this--https://www.pccmarkets.com/sound-consumer/2005-03/sc0503-ironite/

But that is from over a decade ago, maybe it's cool now.

Miyagismokes said:

I wasn't familiar with ironite, so I googled it and got this--https://www.pccmarkets.com/sound-consumer/2005-03/sc0503-ironite/

But that is from over a decade ago, maybe it's cool now.

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I've seen that as well thats what stopped me from using it ive also seen a report on youtube showing a university test that its lower in arsenic then someother products that everyone uses.

Sorry it wasnt a university it was Washington state but here the link.

Wetdog said:

LOL After 30+ years of using chemical nutes and seeing effects in a day or so, the lag time in organics took a lot of getting used to. Now, I consider 2 weeks to be really 'fast'.

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You said that you were an organic farmer for 30yrs and you got your soil recipe back in 1977... So, how new to organics are you???

DonTesla said:

It sure is.. full of so many good things.. I've made some posts on its plethora of benefits..

same with frass.. I wont hijack this thread but pm me if you need help finding the summaries.. be happy to assist.

love it as a foliar agent as well.. awesome part of a high brix diet..

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This is my next step, start growing companion plants like comfrey, nettle, and aloe. My wife used aloe for cloning and it worked just fine, but I am looking for a boost in micros now and composted comfrey looks interesting!

High Brix is all about the micros, are you saying that aloe will supply micros in a foliar feed?

MustangStudFarm said:

This is my next step, start growing companion plants like comfrey, nettle, and aloe. My wife used aloe for cloning and it worked just fine, but I am looking for a boost in micros now and composted comfrey looks interesting!

High Brix is all about the micros, are you saying that aloe will supply micros in a foliar feed?

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Between comfrey, nettles, and borage .. well, apparently you can darn near grow dope with just that.. melts right in.. haven't rocked the nettles yet myself but once I settle down its way up on the list, too!

Here's the scoop on aloe once again too, to save you some digging, bud.

The ten + main areas of chemical constituents of Aloe vera include:

1. Amino Acids,
2. Anthraquinones,
3. Enzymes,
4. Minerals,
5. Vitamins,
6. Lignins,
7. Monosaccharide,
8. Polysaccharides,
9. Salicylic Acid,
10. Saponins, And
11. Sterols.

Amino acids found in Aloe vera include:
Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Phenylalanine, Threonine, Valine,And Tryptophan.

Some Of The Other Non-Essential Amino Acids Found In Aloe Vera Include:
Alanine, Arginine, Asparagine, Cysteine, Glutamic Acid, Glycine, Histidine, Proline, Serine, Tyrosine, Glutamine, and Aspartic Acid.

Enzymes in Aloe include:
Amylase, Bradykinase, Catalase, Cellulas, Lipase, Oxidase, Alkaline Phosphatase, Proteolytias, Creatine Phosphokinase and Carboxypeptidase.

Aloe vera also contains these Vitamins:
B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, and B12

As well as these elements:
Choline, Calcium, Magnesium, Zinc, Manganese, Chromium, Selenium, Copper, Iron, Potassium, Phosphorus, And Sodium.

(IT'S INSANELY LOADED...
PS> I would use it both in the compost or worm farm, as well as foliar!)

I've used ironite before, the heavy Ca can be a challenge in most soils. I'd be mindful of that @maxamus1

maxamus1 said:

So ive been having some issues with nutrient deficiencies so i started all new soil and went with coots mix. But the problems still persist. My ph is 5.5 in one 6.0 in another and the last is 6.5 but tbh i really think my ph pen is messed up. I have been feeding with dragonfly earth medicine teas. Also my soil is about a month old and did not really cook any. Now as for the deficiency i believe it is iron but not sure if i am correct that it is how would i fix it?

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Your in the organics section talking about ph! That's your first problem lol!

Greenthumbs256 said:

Your in the organics section talking about ph! That's your first problem lol!

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Micro herd dies below a Ph of 6. Peat moss has a very low Ph, if you don't use it how do you know when it is ready to plant in?

Greenthumbs256 said:

Your in the organics section talking about ph! That's your first problem lol!

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I get that not everyone ph's in organics but because i check it to make sure that ph is not the problem and the only answer you can come up with is to try to belittle me and make me feel dumb? Just a heads up if you had knowledge of how to fix my problem you would now be wasting your breath.

maxamus1 said:

I get that not everyone ph's in organics but because i check it to make sure that ph is not the problem and the only answer you can come up with is to try to belittle me and make me feel dumb? Just a heads up if you had knowledge of how to fix my problem you would now be wasting your breath.

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I got tired of sending in soil samples that had a Ph of 5.8 after mixing new soil. I don't send in samples until the Ph looks normal now.

maxamus1 said:

I get that not everyone ph's in organics but because i check it to make sure that ph is not the problem and the only answer you can come up with is to try to belittle me and make me feel dumb? Just a heads up if you had knowledge of how to fix my problem you would now be wasting your breath.

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Your right didn't mean to be a dick! But I think if you like organics you should go all in! Nothing out a bottle and you won't need any ph stuff! I don't own any ph meters or anything to even check the water! If you have a strong healthy soil your soil will adjust the pH it's self!

Also I figured in 4 pages your probably got the help u were looking for, so I didn't bother reading but half ur msg before posting that!