Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

[sgarcata]

...
What I should've done was to add BT and SF mnematodes to the soil under that sand: it had perfectly moist conditions (the worms were right up there eating too!), better and more constant than my previous attempts to introduce nematodes using just mulch as cover. So that's going to be my next move.

What I did do to keep my plant happy whilst having that sand on, and given my microherd wasn't looking spectacular, was exactly what you are pondering: feeding living matter smoothies.
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I think it worked pretty well, seeing the Sour Stomper auto I was growing came out twice the size it usually gets and yielded accordingly haha

So the BT doesn't harm the worms, but attacks the fungus gnat larvae? I was wondering about that.

 

[sgarcata]

...

The way they work is really mind blowing too, as long as a few nematodes reach target pest and kaboom they multiply exponentially. nematodes dont actually eat the gnats or anything it's actually the fungus gnats larvae that are eating the nematodes, there is a nematode-bacterium symbiosis that exist and its the bacteria that the nematode takes along for the ride that does the killing, really cool stuff. I dont know how to explain like a nematologist would but nematodes are a fascinating creature and part of evolution.

Amazing! thanks for the details. Where do you find is the best source for the nematodes? I've bought from Arbico in the past, but don't have a reliable microscope to check.

 

[sgarcata]

Ah, the EWC/Vermicompost.

So I had been recycling my kitchen scraps and trying to close some material loops at home with my red wiggler friends for some time. But only now reading this thread did I get the idea to amend my bin (soon to be bins) with certain elements that I'd like to potencialize/make bioavailable to my plants. I had been adding egg shells and oyster shell powder every so often but now I am also adding some bone meal and canna ashes and stems and I'll probably start adding some other things as they come (botanicals, etc.). But that was a real 'ah-hah!' moment for me in learning that. Got that whole Vermicomposters unite thread to be inspired by next.

Besides rock dusts, oyster shell powder, bone/blood meal, SST solids, botanicals, etc., what are some things people like adding?

I only add kitchen scraps, but they LOVE cantaloupe and avocado. I've decided to start "cooking" my egg shells so they make smaller bits for them.

 

[Biggobelly]

Amazing! thanks for the details. Where do you find is the best source for the nematodes? I've bought from Arbico in the past, but don't have a reliable microscope to check.

I get mine from Amazon. The Sf (Steinernema feltiae) are for fungus gnat control...and they work on root aphids too.

 

[Fastslappy]

2 weeks after some BT my fungus flies be gone

 

[bizfactory]

2 weeks after some BT my fungus flies be gone

What BT product did you use? Thanks!

 

[elkamino]

What BT product did you use? Thanks!

These have worked for me



They come in many forms on Amazon and elsewhere

 

[bizfactory]

These have worked for me

They come in many forms on Amazon and elsewhere

I actually have that exact stuff in my cart on Amazon! Thanks.

 

[ShLUbY]

Hey everyone. wondering if anyone could help me out with this.... The strain is Confidential Cheese, starting noticing slow growth around day 10...

These plants got some bad leaf growth early in flower. There are a few things I'm considering for the cause....

1) too much compost in the mix making it stay saturated and "choking" out the roots a bit of O2 and or causing the Ph to become off from limiting the microbial activity.

2) I have been using growstone, basically recycled glass turned into pumice, and its breaking down quickly in the mix (within a couple grows), and a lack of drainage material made my mix off, too saturated and resulting in the same thing as i am hypothesizing above.

basically i was unable to water as often as i would have liked to keep CEC in the soil going, and I think maybe there was water in the outskirts of the soil, but the main rootball had used up what was available, resulting in a lack of CEC in the soil, microbes slowed, as well as uptake of H2O for the plant.

3) too much N and caused delayed/slowed start to flowering? Is it N burn at the leaf tips/margins?




they seem to be doing much better now. new growth is coming on every day and is noticable.

thanks for your time guys, always appreciated.

 

[kkt3]

Hey everyone....

looking for people who clone only with aloe....

i use an aeroponic cloner. my normal method would take a cup of water in a mason jar, put 5-8 drops of rooting gel in it, stir it around and put the cuttings in that solution for 24hrs and then into the 5 gal cloner they went until ready for soil.

for aloe with that same kind of process... would i mix say 1-2 tbsp of gel into 1-1.5 cups of water and then let the stems soak for 24 hours.... maybe change it after 12 hours? and then straight into the cloner....

Hey ShLuby, I went 100% on my clones last time. All I did was cut off a piece of my aloe plant. Had my cups with dampened soil ready, then cut the clone branch, scored the outside of it for about 1/2", squeezed the aloe branch to make the aloe softer, then dipped the clone into the aloe and held it in there for about 10 seconds. Then pushed the clone into the soil and that's it!!!

 

[WindyCityKush]

Hey ShLuby, I went 100% on my clones last time. All I did was cut off a piece of my aloe plant. Had my cups with dampened soil ready, then cut the clone branch, scored the outside of it for about 1/2", squeezed the aloe branch to make the aloe softer, then dipped the clone into the aloe and held it in there for about 10 seconds. Then pushed the clone into the soil and that's it!!!

great method. how long did they take to root on average.

 

[ShLUbY]

Hey ShLuby, I went 100% on my clones last time. All I did was cut off a piece of my aloe plant. Had my cups with dampened soil ready, then cut the clone branch, scored the outside of it for about 1/2", squeezed the aloe branch to make the aloe softer, then dipped the clone into the aloe and held it in there for about 10 seconds. Then pushed the clone into the soil and that's it!!!

When you clone in soil.... do you have to give the stem a little water every day?? like basically just drip around the stem so the cutting has water close by to take up?

my clones are starting to root now in the cloner. took a little longer than i would have liked.... but definitely an effective alternative. i only soaked them once for about 12 hours in the aloe/water concoction. i think next time im going soak them twice, and also do a dip in the aloe leaf itself after the first day or two and let the gel sit on the stem for a bit. but it's working as is now

i think i'm going to do a kelp foliar when they are in the cloner next time as well. just make a little kelp tea for everything and give them some on the foliage.

 

[kkt3]

Usually around 10 days and they have started to root.

I kept the soil damp but not to damp. Like you say, a few drops of rainwater every now and then.

 

[WeedWitchOR]

Whew... feel like I deserve a cookie after reading all that

Doing my homework before setting up my tent. Will still do outdoor but want to to add indoor space for pheno hunting or off season stuff. Will be a 4x4 tent, still working out lighting. Separate veg area. Planning a mix of 20-25g pots and 5g for testing assuming I can get logistics to work. Big pots will be no-till for as long as possible. Smaller pots will be recycled.

Soil mix will be organic bag soil amended with ewc, compost, leaf mold, rotted wood, rabbit poop, misc aeration and various meals/rock dusts as needed.

Looking forward to getting this going.

 

[ShLUbY]

Whew... feel like I deserve a cookie after reading all that

Doing my homework before setting up my tent. Will still do outdoor but want to to add indoor space for pheno hunting or off season stuff. Will be a 4x4 tent, still working out lighting. Separate veg area. Planning a mix of 20-25g pots and 5g for testing assuming I can get logistics to work. Big pots will be no-till for as long as possible. Smaller pots will be recycled.

Soil mix will be organic bag soil amended with ewc, compost, leaf mold, rotted wood, rabbit poop, misc aeration and various meals/rock dusts as needed.

Looking forward to getting this going.

as long as you understand what's going on with the biology you'll be fine. careful with the rotting wood, you should soak it in a pre charge like you would biochar, i know someone else who uses it and he said it can rob your soil of nutrients the same way the char does.

no tills are where i'm headed next. it just makes sense. think of a real pedon of soil and the horizons within it. top layer is the organic matter, next sublayer is slightly organic from having materials leaching into the soil. over the time lowest horizons will become depleted of organics from the original mix, and leave behind the rock dusts and other minerals as well as the peat and drainage. so this would be your parent material horizon. over the course of the grow you add more organic material to the top layer of soil (as would naturally happen in nature when things die and foliage is shed). water is taken up from parent material layers for most of the transpiration that the plant does. the plant feeds from the upper horizons where the organic materials are and microbes are breaking stuff down. replica of nature

MAKE SURE you have something for mulch (rice hulls, sticks and stems from cannabis, thick layer of canna leaves, ect ect). I have found that to be one of the most crucial parts of organics. mulch not only slows evaporation from the soil, but it makes the soil wick its moisture throughout the pot. Also, things that don't appreciate light (roots, worms, mycelia) can now grow and roam to the very edge of the upper horizon of organic material and consume EVERYTHING. Have fun and share your results

 

[NWHeadies]

what are good plants to grow in your no till while there is no cannabis plant in it to help grow your soil food web? I have clover on the way and i will be planting that for sure but any other suggestions?

 

[ShLUbY]

what are good plants to grow in your no till while there is no cannabis plant in it to help grow your soil food web? I have clover on the way and i will be planting that for sure but any other suggestions?

BAS has a 12 seed variety pack they sell that I picked up... pretty diverse. I left a empty spot in the middle of the pot and when i would trim the clippings, i would bury them in the soil in the middle and within a week or two they would be consumed back into organic matter.

the main thing is you need to be turning the crops you grow, between canna crops, back into the soil. another important thing to note is that it's better to let them grow as long as possible so they can have the best effect on trying to cycle nutrients with them when you turn them back into the soil.

 

[DonBrennon]

BAS has a 12 seed variety pack they sell that I picked up... pretty diverse. I left a empty spot in the middle of the pot and when i would trim the clippings, i would bury them in the soil in the middle and within a week or two they would be consumed back into organic matter.

the main thing is you need to be turning the crops you grow, between canna crops, back into the soil. another important thing to note is that it's better to let them grow as long as possible so they can have the best effect on trying to cycle nutrients with them when you turn them back into the soil.

Quality post..................been thinkin about this muchos lately and done a little digging without success.

Been trying to find a list of plants that are known to form mycorhizae with the particular fungi that are thought to infect cannabis, ie glomus intraradices & glomus mosseae. In my mind, if you plant some of these in as companions and keep them livin in between your soil's always innoculated.

 

[Chunky Stool]

as long as you understand what's going on with the biology you'll be fine. careful with the rotting wood, you should soak it in a pre charge like you would biochar, i know someone else who uses it and he said it can rob your soil of nutrients the same way the char does.

no tills are where i'm headed next. it just makes sense. think of a real pedon of soil and the horizons within it. top layer is the organic matter, next sublayer is slightly organic from having materials leaching into the soil. over the time lowest horizons will become depleted of organics from the original mix, and leave behind the rock dusts and other minerals as well as the peat and drainage. so this would be your parent material horizon. over the course of the grow you add more organic material to the top layer of soil (as would naturally happen in nature when things die and foliage is shed). water is taken up from parent material layers for most of the transpiration that the plant does. the plant feeds from the upper horizons where the organic materials are and microbes are breaking stuff down. replica of nature

MAKE SURE you have something for mulch (rice hulls, sticks and stems from cannabis, thick layer of canna leaves, ect ect). I have found that to be one of the most crucial parts of organics. mulch not only slows evaporation from the soil, but it makes the soil wick its moisture throughout the pot. Also, things that don't appreciate light (roots, worms, mycelia) can now grow and roam to the very edge of the upper horizon of organic material and consume EVERYTHING. Have fun and share your results

I used biochar for the first time on my current crop and had major problems. Plants looked fine at first but quickly became deficient and weakened. It didn't take long for PM & insects to take advantage of the situation, which cost me at least two weeks.
I tested the soil and ph was also too high. Not sure if this was from biochar or the calcined clay that I was too lazy to rinse before mixing.

 

[ShLUbY]

I used biochar for the first time on my current crop and had major problems. Plants looked fine at first but quickly became deficient and weakened. It didn't take long for PM & insects to take advantage of the situation, which cost me at least two weeks.
I tested the soil and ph was also too high. Not sure if this was from biochar or the calcined clay that I was too lazy to rinse before mixing.

was the biochar charged before you put it in the soil? I made my own biochar and charged it myself... and the test run i did with the mix was awesome. the plants were definitely superior. i ended up having to just mix that particular mix with the rest of my soils, but i'm going to be making more char soon for a second test batch and i'm looking forward to it. the plants that had the char had bigger nugs and grew wider/taller than the ones i tested against it. the only diff in the mixes was the char. I need to make some more soon and get it in all my mixes. i've just had too much other shit going on.

do yourself a favor if you have PM indoors, and get yourself a sulfur burner (it vaporizes not burns) and some sulfur prills off amazon and vaporize that shit in your grow. it will sterilize the environment and sulfur in large doses is highly antifungal and the plants will absorb the sulfur from the air and it will get rid of PM even in the stem tissues. It takes more than one application but let me tell you from experience... it's the only thing that actually works (other than eagle 20 but fuck that shit). i blasted my flower room when it was empty, and i blasted my veg room full of plants. then i blasted the flower room about 2 weeks into flower with the plants in there. i blasted the veg room again after that. I have been mildew freeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. it's been so nice, i fought that shit for a year... IT SUCKS, the sulfur burner was the only thing that finally did the trick.