Yep he nailed it. Feeding plants to plants. But I did still see better results with the bottles when I used them. Just something I experienced
Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread
- Thread starter headtreep
- Start date
Trichome_Madness
Member
I do plan on getting greensand plus the ground here is mainly red clay I just have to aerate it enough.
If you use 30 gal is that for just one plant? I'm trying to have 4 at a time plus I'm growing from regular seed so I have to cull males that's why i would rather use single pots.
Trichome_Madness
Member
I'm trying to list things that I can mix and use right away and also have the other long term stuff on hand for the compost that I am starting. I just hope the stuff I can use right away is enough the take my plant through to finish. So far iv listed premium compost/ewc, gypsum,crab,kelp,pumice,peat,coco,neem. Please. Correct me if I'm wrong or if there is something I can add( this is for a batch that I can mix and use right away without waiting for activation)
I have also ordered aloe/coconut powder and full power.
Off topic- does anyone eat aloe for health benefits?
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Trichome_Madness
Member
Do i need a special brand of DE or will the stuff in the pest section of home cheapo work?
GreenSanta
Well-Known Member
You can generally find red wigglers for free in horse manure. Ideally a pile of pure manure that hasnt been mixed with bedding.
Trichome_Madness
Member
I just made my first ever batch or soil.
2 cf mushroom compost
1 cf peat
1 cf ewc
1 cf lava rock pulverized to 1" pieces
.5 cf coco coir. About a gal of pulverized hardwood lump coal
2 cups alfalfa, 2 cups oyster, 2 cups green sand, 2 cups crab, 2 cups shrimp, 2 cups bio live, 1 cup de, 1 cup lime
Have to order neem meal so I'll mix that in when I get it and I was gonna use azomite but the shop only had a big bag and didn't want to spend 45$ on it. I probably could've use more of some admendments but didn't want to go overboard. I also put in several shoval scoops of red clay and fine leaf litter from the woods and a handful of worms. Came out just enough to fill a 45 gallon trash can to the rim. What do you guys think? Anything else I should add? What's the shortest time to let it sit before I can use it? I kept some ewc for a basic tea. I did order coconut, aloe, fulpower, diastatic malt powder which I'll use at a minimum. Want to keep it as kiss as possible. Thanks for the info guys after this hopefully I'll keep my spending on the low after the initial startup.
2 cf mushroom compost
1 cf peat
1 cf ewc
1 cf lava rock pulverized to 1" pieces
.5 cf coco coir. About a gal of pulverized hardwood lump coal
2 cups alfalfa, 2 cups oyster, 2 cups green sand, 2 cups crab, 2 cups shrimp, 2 cups bio live, 1 cup de, 1 cup lime
Have to order neem meal so I'll mix that in when I get it and I was gonna use azomite but the shop only had a big bag and didn't want to spend 45$ on it. I probably could've use more of some admendments but didn't want to go overboard. I also put in several shoval scoops of red clay and fine leaf litter from the woods and a handful of worms. Came out just enough to fill a 45 gallon trash can to the rim. What do you guys think? Anything else I should add? What's the shortest time to let it sit before I can use it? I kept some ewc for a basic tea. I did order coconut, aloe, fulpower, diastatic malt powder which I'll use at a minimum. Want to keep it as kiss as possible. Thanks for the info guys after this hopefully I'll keep my spending on the low after the initial startup.
ShLUbY
Well-Known Member
this is how i've been mixing in my greensand.
Kind Sir
Well-Known Member
What do you guys think about the above recipe? Looks pretty good, general recipe.
I was going to order the BIOLIVE from Down To Earth it has Fish bone meal, fish meal, alfalfa meal, crab meal, shrimp meal, lanbeinite, basalt, kelp meal, humic acid, mycorrhizai fungi, bennies. Anyone else use this?
I heard someone say if you use this product (Dont remember specific product) from Down To Earth youll need to use more as its not as good or something
Ive seen a bunch of recipes but, anyone like to share their recipe?
I was going to order the BIOLIVE from Down To Earth it has Fish bone meal, fish meal, alfalfa meal, crab meal, shrimp meal, lanbeinite, basalt, kelp meal, humic acid, mycorrhizai fungi, bennies. Anyone else use this?
I heard someone say if you use this product (Dont remember specific product) from Down To Earth youll need to use more as its not as good or something
Ive seen a bunch of recipes but, anyone like to share their recipe?
Trichome_Madness
Member
Ya I got it mainly for the fungi and bennies but used less than called for since I already added everything else.figured it wouldn't hurt to try
ShLUbY
Well-Known Member
looks like you have 3 parts compost (EWC + mushroom) 1.5 part peat/coco and 1 part drainage.
so by my calculations you need 1.5 more cuft. of peat/coco and 2 cuft. more drainage (smaller than 1" would be better, the existing 1 part @1" is fine the way it is)
the goal is equal parts peat/coco to compost/ewc to drainage. so in your case i just turned 1 cuft into 1 part. you follow me?
the basic formula for amendments you have selected is 1/2cup per cuft. For your mix, when you add the extra base materials you need bringing you to a total of 9 cuft., you would want a TOTAL of 4.5 cups oyster shell, 4.5 cups neem seed meal, 4.5 cups total of shrimp and/or crab meal, 2 cups of alfalfa (which you are already at), the lime you don't really need since you have oyster shell and crab meal which combined acts as a liming agent. 2 cups of greensand is fine, but you should get more rock dusts. really 1$ a lb. for rock dust is not a bad deal from the grow store. you want 2 cups of rock dust per cuft. so you need about 16 more cups of rock dust, and variety is always best.
if you do anything to this soil at all.... please take my word for it, you need more drainage. you can get a bag of growstone from the grow shop, its recycled glass product which is basically pumice. i like the product a lot. rice hulls are also a good drainage source. from what i've read on here, stay away from perlite. if i remember correctly it doesn't provide good habitat for microbes.
be sure to water your mix with an aerated compost tea after your mix is complete! you must let the soil sit for at least 4 weeks for biological processes to make food available.
EDIT: just saw you had the biolive in there too. i wouldn't add any more of that, and i would do a total of 4 cups instead of 4.5 cups of the amendment portions i suggested above
Trichome_Madness
Member
Thnx for the advice. I was going to leave out I bag of the compost but it looked like I needed more when I was mixing( I read that peat doubles in size when it's wet) so the 1 cf I put in dry would turn into 2? I have plenty more peat and coco if I need to add more to balance the compost.
Would azomite be fine by itself? I cant find any other type of rock dust locally. As far as drainage would hydroton be ok to use because I have that already?
ShLUbY
Well-Known Member
my peat has never doubled in size when i added moisture to it. 1/2 volume at the most, and i don't even see half volume most of the time. i would just do another 1cuft peat and .5 of coco and that'll take care of that.
i would say no to the hydroton for you're missing a lot of drainage and that would be too bulky IMHO. that growstone is cheap like 25$ for a couple cubic ft of it.
the point of the drainage material you select is to have something that will provide habitat for microbes, but also retain water and air at the same time! so the lava rock you have is great for this because it's porous. if you have a couple more cubic ft of lava rock i would do that. i'd say smash it up to 1/2" chunks this time. variety of size of drainage is good.
the azomite will work for rock dust but if you are going to pay 45$ for the azomite anyway... GET THIS as it is much better bang for your buck, and make sure you use the www.boogiebrew.net/gyg link to get the 44.95 deal
http://www.boogiebrew.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Rock-Box-Medley-Ad-11x8.5-WHITE.png
Kind Sir
Well-Known Member
Shluby, just curious why you said no more biolive, is it bc it has multiple ingredients? What recipe are you most happy with?
ShLUbY
Well-Known Member
just for the purpose of measuring your own ingredients and dialing in a mix more if you need too. there's nothing wrong with the biolive. it just contains things that you already have in your mix that you can control individually. you know? you can use more of it though and cut back on a little of the other things some more that are already included in the biolive.
GrowUrOwnDank
Well-Known Member
Started my compost bucket. Just 5 gallons about half full now and I will keep adding. This soil will probably be used for my dwarf banana tree and lime tree, both are currently in 5 gallon buckets and will be up planted into maybe a 10 gallon. I don't want them to get too large. I plan to use the standard soil recipe. With Amazon Bloom soil, perlite and sphagnum peat moss. And I will add the compost after its done in a couple of months.
Here's what I've added to the compost so far.
Small branches at the bottom, dried grass clippings, dried tree leaves, green and dried leaves pulled off the banana tree, adding coffee grounds daily, ash from the wood stove. I don't crack too many eggs but plan to add egg shells when I do.
The plan is to make the compost and eventually the soil without spending any money. I do not plan to add many food scraps. Zero meat scraps.
Any tips? Am I on the right track? @hyroot? Thanks.
Here's what I've added to the compost so far.
Small branches at the bottom, dried grass clippings, dried tree leaves, green and dried leaves pulled off the banana tree, adding coffee grounds daily, ash from the wood stove. I don't crack too many eggs but plan to add egg shells when I do.
The plan is to make the compost and eventually the soil without spending any money. I do not plan to add many food scraps. Zero meat scraps.
Any tips? Am I on the right track? @hyroot? Thanks.