Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

[whodatnation]

Does anyone finely grind kelp and alfalfa meal before brewing or just let it go for a couple of days?

I usually just let it go, but dont see why grinding it up would hurt, would actually help I think.

 

[hyroot]

Kelp meal is almost fine grain anyway. Alfalfa meal varies.

 

[RedCarpetMatches]

Is there a way to breed fungi on something besides roots and harvest it?! I read leaves are a great home for fungi and fall is right around the corner.

 

[hyroot]

Just add some oats or oatmeal to a tea. Puree the oats prior to adding to tea. That promotes fungi growth. I do that during flower. The fungi regulates the amount of nitrogen plants can uptake. Imo it helps produce pretty big buds.

avocado peels and banana peels produce a good amount of fungi in my worm bin when they break down. I see white fuzz all over a few days later after adding them. I don't know if worms eat oats though..

 

[RedCarpetMatches]

Just add some oats or oatmeal to a tea. Puree the oats prior to adding to tea. That promotes fungi growth. I do that during flower. The fungi regulates the amount of nitrogen plants can uptake. Imo it helps produce pretty big buds.

avocado peels and banana peels produce a good amount of fungi in my worm bin when they break down. I see white fuzz all over a few days later after adding them. I don't know if worms eat oats though..

Thanks for quick response. It's my new traumatizing findings that tell me fungi is useless in teas!? The bacteria multiply much faster and "whoop", for lack of a better word, the fungi. Could I just take some ground up oats, put it on some of my happy frog soil conditioner, add a little woody compost, and wait for the fuzz? Also what do you do with the fuzzy stuff afterward?

 

[hyroot]

Thanks for quick response. It's my new traumatizing findings that tell me fungi is useless in teas!? The bacteria multiply much faster and "whoop", for lack of a better word, the fungi. Could I just take some ground up oats, put it on some of my happy frog soil conditioner, add a little woody compost, and wait for the fuzz? Also what do you do with the fuzzy stuff afterward?

I've never added it to soil. So I can't really say. I'd imagine it would be ok. You could also add some fungi dominant compost to soil. From my experience. I prefer to have bacteria dominance during veg and fungi dominance during flower.

if anyones opinions or experience differ. Please ring in. I've been doing rols for almost a year. I've been on a grow break for a while up until the past 10 days due to unfortunate circumstances. I've been doing teas for years. But since starting rols , that's when I had learned about and started doing specific regimented teas. As opposed to doing basic teas.

 

[NickNasty]

Take your oat meal or if you have dogs/cats use ground up dry dog/cat food wet it down to where its moist but not super wet and let it sit in a tupperware with no lid or just barely on to keep it moist for a few days to a week and it will start to grow fungus and it will become a cake of fungus, break it up and add it to your tea or soil conditioner or compost < I would add it too the woody compost and top dress with it in flower.

 

[RedCarpetMatches]

My teas are very high in bacteria...they wouldn't dominate the fungi? How does fuzzy fungi do when wet ( picturing a cat in a bathtub)? What does it do as a dressing? I know it multiplies into a "pipeline" to the roots, so would it be better just to uproot/transplant and directly put on roots? Sorry for all the ?s I just like to know why and I love learning. You guys are really helping out so reps a coming your way.

 

[Rrog]

MJ will select its own microbial profile. Being a grass, it will create bacterially dominated soil regardless of our efforts. IMHO, work on making good composts and tone down the teas. I know interesting teas are fun. Believe me. I loved chem labs. But the tea benefits are restricted to botanicals (alfalfa, seed sprout, etc) for me. (Opinion)

Vermicompost is the biggest component here. Get bins and make your own. Make the best. Amend your compost as you would a new soil mix. It will be better than gold. Then lay that on your plants. You will escort your old bag of "Worm Castings" to the curb and not look back. Sucks to be #2 and all.

ALSO- Get a shovel-full of local soil from a clean grass field. Sounds like awful, even cruel advice, eh? NOT! BIMs, man. BIMs.

 

[RedCarpetMatches]

I have woods very close to me with tons of leafy black compost. Gonna have to get that shovel and duffel bag out eh. I had a DIY red wiggler worm bin that was awesome...but my dumbass forgot to put the lid on for a weekendI'll never forget that smell. And yes teas are very fun and I completely agree on the "black gold"! I'm just learning about all this fungi stuff and want to tinker. Thanks again guys. Keep it coming.

 

[Rrog]

How about grassy fields. Ya got any nearby? That has the microbial profile you're looking for. Beneficial Indigenous Microbes. Better than in a jar

 

[RedCarpetMatches]

BIM &#8203;BAM BOOM!!! Know what I'm doing tomorrow.

 

[Rrog]

It's a big deal. A full embrace of the microbes.

 

[VTMi'kmaq]

People looking to maximize aerobic bacteria will bubble the tea continuously, and use it in the range of about 24-48 hours after it began.

Someone mentioned brewing for weeks, which will be anaerobic and stinking if not bubbled, and if you bubble for that long, the fast reproducers will have eaten all the sugar, and then the slower, stronger organisms will begin the dominate as they consume the dead.

I can't remember the details, but people who use microscopes to look at the life in their teas tend not to like the things which they see after 48+ hours bubbling.

Not to mention the smell of a tea that's gone too long is close but much worse than fresh liquid cow manure, and yes kids I smell said manure on the regular so im quite familiar with it! By far compost tea's that have gone TOO long are my kryptonite when it comes to that smell! whoa!

 

[VTMi'kmaq]

MJ will select its own microbial profile. Being a grass, it will create bacterially dominated soil regardless of our efforts. IMHO, work on making good composts and tone down the teas. I know interesting teas are fun. Believe me. I loved chem labs. But the tea benefits are restricted to botanicals (alfalfa, seed sprout, etc) for me. (Opinion)

Vermicompost is the biggest component here. Get bins and make your own. Make the best. Amend your compost as you would a new soil mix. It will be better than gold. Then lay that on your plants. You will escort your old bag of "Worm Castings" to the curb and not look back. Sucks to be #2 and all.

ALSO- Get a shovel-full of local soil from a clean grass field. Sounds like awful, even cruel advice, eh? NOT! BIMs, man. BIMs.

Actually This is a hell of a suggestion that only a fool would overlook! For fucks sake man the best of the best can be found in those clumps of soil! mother nature has been doing shit right for many moons before we got our hands on shit. just pay attention and you'd be amazed what you notice.

 

[Rrog]

Like so many other things, we never appreciate the local talent.

 

[VTMi'kmaq]

Like so many other things, we never appreciate the local talent.

lmao, that's a plague in the united states right now Rrog! excellent point!

 

[Rrog]

I think the concept of the BIM is powerful, yet due to our (manly) need to tweak everything, we always want to get a jar of some secret stuff.

Also- the older the soil gets, the more dialed in the microbial universe will be within the soil. We leave it in place and preserved = ROLS. In a few weeks the BIMs will start to dominate. They are after all, by definition, the top of their respective pyramids. They are the top performers for your area. They beat out all comers. And they're free, looking for a good home in a field near you.

So what's stopping you?

 

[whodatnation]

Here's some good simple reading on fungal teas and teas in general.

http://www.compostjunkie.com/compost-tea-recipe.html

 

[RedCarpetMatches]

How do BIM do in very heavy soil. I dug a foot deep in three grassy areas and got nothing but mostly clay. Would Happy Frog Soil Conditioner, EWC, and woody compost be a good enough substitute or should I just mix up the BIM clay with EWC?