Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

m4s73r

m4s73r

Well-Known Member
bobrown14 said:
Neem cake in the soil mix will help with pests for sure. Neem oil well I wood never spray that on cannabis. Tried it once ruined my flowers nasty taste left and I used it in VEG not flower and bud washed. Neem cake I add to my soil mix and amend with it between runs.

On the worm thing. We run Vermi-composting bins. Its not a worm farm. The bins are 50 or more meters from our home because country living and critters LOVE compost.

Yeah so a vermi-bin is kitchen scraps, some yard waste leaves and I add some soil amendments like kelp meal and rock dust when I feel like it. The bins will attract worms and they will populate the bin. We use the bin and the worms eat the waste. In winter time temps are low enough worms die off after laying eggs. We let one bin after the winter time go dormant and begin using a 2nd bin full time.

As the dormant bin sits the compost breaks down ever further - it's not 100% EWC its composted scraps mixed with worm castings and eventually more worms. The worms in the bin make it to my containers or garden beds.
We take that dormant bin in the spring and sift it thru a screen and toss the larger particles back into the active bin and repeat.

Our vermi bins are 100 plus gallons and have a locking lid.... yup raccoons figure out how to open it and cats dig their way in. The challenge is real. Bears just tackle the whole shebang and why we have anther open pile we add bones and meat scraps to. Thats where the bear and the crows eat.
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Well, I dont run anything like that. Shit I wish I could. Id take bear and crow over HOA Linda and her fucking hair. I digress. Here is what I'm rocking for both of these beds. It does well and I have plenty of casting churning out of it. I do screen my ewc with a 1/12th sifter works well to seperate the worms from the castings.
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Medskunk

Medskunk

Well-Known Member
m4s73r said:
All these things about Nitrogen, seeds, being hot ect is why I said composted mulch from a nursery. It will avoid all of these issues and its a jump start on your composting mulch layer.
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Composted mulch sounds like the best option there is from the get go. Its hard to find some stuff where im from. Thanks for the input dude.


bobrown14 said:
Peat moss is a natural organic soil ingredient.
You should be using water with a pH UNDER 7 all thru your grow. Specially if you're using and fertilizers.

ppm measurement doesnt tell you much about what those ppm's actually are..
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Whenever i start with fresh well digested compost the plants go like crazy. If i water anything less than ph7 they get yellow those Ditches
 
firsttimeARE

firsttimeARE

Well-Known Member
bobrown14 said:
Can top dress/mulch with some peat moss thats dampish and water thru the peat to slightly lower pH.

Sulfur is another option but you gotta be absolutely sure you need it.

You can have water pH between 6-7pH and you should be totally good.

What water are you testing ?? Run off / slurry test / tap water???
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My water at my house is 10.4 can this be used with soil or should I bring it down?
 
bobrown14

bobrown14

Well-Known Member
firsttimeARE said:
My water at my house is 10.4 can this be used with soil or should I bring it down?
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If in containers yes - you have about 3 weeks to change - or slow death.

Can lower pH like that with Vitamin C powder. WAY cheaper than pH down and organic.

Need to solve your alkalynity issues with you water long term.
 
firsttimeARE

firsttimeARE

Well-Known Member
bobrown14 said:
If in containers yes - you have about 3 weeks to change - or slow death.

Can lower pH like that with Vitamin C powder. WAY cheaper than pH down and organic.

Need to solve your alkalynity issues with you water long term.
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How do i do change it long term aside from moving?

No wonder my veggies suffer every year
 
bobrown14

bobrown14

Well-Known Member
High alkalinity is why high pH - they are related but not the same. I'm not a chemist but I have the same issues.

@firsttimeARE with veggies and high pH - as long as your in the ground it wont matter only is an issue with container gardening like we are doing.

To fix your water issue for container gardening here's what I did.

RO water filter with a De-ionization 4th stage added.

RO = reverse osmosis good for you too so use that water for cooking and drinking. You will likely need multivitamins since you're removing all nutrients from the water source (and pollutants). I hadda start taking Vitamin D.

RO Filter - I use RO Buddie from the zon - 60bucks then add-on DI filter for another $15 or so. Can re-fill the DI filter down the road. Makes it super easy.

Then check your pH out of the RO filter to be sure you're on track.

I'm on a well in a dolomite lime deposit. We got a crap ton of cal/mag in the water. Good for bathing... bad for everything else and pH can go up to 11pH and it fluctuates a bunch.
 
Mr Westmont

Mr Westmont

Well-Known Member
Do you guys really check your PH like that? I have never checked my PH. I mean dont all the worm castings buffer the PH? Maybe Im lucky for ok tap water, cause I use it everyday in my indoor and outdoor garden.
 
bobrown14

bobrown14

Well-Known Member
I'm in a well in a dolomite lime 300 million year old sea bed. Well water is 9-10pH with enough cal/mag to kill plants in containers. So RO filters work. Need to check ppms and pH 1x a week. The alkalinity is an issue as well is not quite the same as pH but related.
 
hillbill

hillbill

Well-Known Member
bobrown14 said:
I'm in a well in a dolomite lime 300 million year old sea bed. Well water is 9-10pH with enough cal/mag to kill plants in containers. So RO filters work. Need to check ppms and pH 1x a week. The alkalinity is an issue as well is not quite the same as pH but related.
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On a deep municipal well all limestone and dolomite famous for minerals, we filter our coffee and drink water. Bad taste and coffee is the worst otherwise. Most plumber service calls are lime related. Mostly use rainwater.
 
Rurumo

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
have you guys seen this guy's grow? https://www.icmag.com/forum/marijuana-growing/indoor-grows-soil/376080-notill-scrog-living-soil-organic
He's basically using a Cootz type mix, but with 6 cups of assorted rock dusts, and 7 cups of amendments. I found it because I've been looking for people who use zeolite in their no till mix. He uses .5 cup per cu ft, which is what I was thinking. He also uses .5 cup langbeinite and .25 cup epsom salt, which seems crazy to me but he got good results. I LOVE when people go off the books and create their own crazy mixes.
 
bobrown14

bobrown14

Well-Known Member
I dont think I use 7 cups of amendments. Its been a while since I did my last Coots mix. Going to mix another batch tomorrow

I will report back
 
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