side by sides are actually very scientific as long as you have a control, and a test, and you run enough tests to show conclusive and repeatable results (also doing chi square analysis would further prove your findings). the thing is, you have to limit your experiment to as few variables as possible. of course chi square values account for variables with degrees of freedom, but yeah... it's actually the way scientists do comparisons
Re read what I said. "Growth was better look at the side by side" is not scientific. Controlled conditions with a side by side is scientific. Taking two pictures one with this, that one with this...you need more than that. You need ph of soil, a microscope. Controlled conditions are scientific if side by side. Yes.side by sides are actually very scientific as long as you have a control, and a test, and you run enough tests to show conclusive and repeatable results (also doing chi square analysis would further prove your findings). the thing is, you have to limit your experiment to as few variables as possible. of course chi square values account for variables with degrees of freedom, but yeah... it's actually the way scientists do comparisons
oh yeah i totally agree man. and yes you are right, there is a lot of regurgitation on the forums from people who indeed have no flipping clue what they are talking about!
Since you are a bit of a vet to the site, what's the most common compost technique the gals and guys use around here? I prefer thermal but everyone's got a system that works for them, curious as to what's the most popular
It seems like there are varying methods on here, and I am not fluent in any of them but vermicompost lol. as far as outdoor compost, I am currently in the "compost slow and let it do its own thing" club, as far as like a pile goes. Or, I just put as much through the worm bin as possible.
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Haha I have taken her microscope class! She's my old lady crush for sure!It seems like there are varying methods on here, and I am not fluent in any of them but vermicompost lol. as far as outdoor compost, I am currently in the "compost slow and let it do its own thing" club, as far as like a pile goes. Or, I just put as much through the worm bin as possible.
for a thermal pile, I suggest 5 parts high carbon (leaves, straw, already breaking down wood chips, etc), 4 parts greens (lawn clippings, alfalfa, ect) and either 1 part high N (possible like a high N fertilizer) OR 2 parts coffee grounds. As you know, it requires a lot of turning, when temps hit 155-160 its time to turn, and needs turned often at that point because O2 is being spent like crazy by the organisms.
the compost and microbe guru around these parts is @calliandra and she has been taking some online classes with Elaine Ingham (come on now cali don't be modest
my method is, start one thermophilic pile at the beginning of the year, let it break down as much as possible, and then I kind of divide it into two piles, i bury scraps in one of them for a bit and let the organisms take care of it while i use from the other, then i'll switch piles and start burying in the other while the previous side finishes up and I can start using it. I never deplete either pile all the way. just kinda take as its available. its just easier for my lifestyle because i'm away at college for the better half of the week. i don't have the time to watch a thermophilic pile properly. I also keep all my leaves and wet them and keep a tarp loosely over them, and take finished EWC/compost/insect frass from the stuff closest to the ground as it is ready.
thermal gets you compost the fastest, as i'm sure you know, and Elaine Ingham (which is where the thermo recipe i just wrote out came from) says she can finish compost in 28 days with those ratios! She is much better at it than I though. check out her site www.soilfoodweb.com for some good tips and tricks. lots of good free info on there
i too have spent many hours on youtube listening to elaine's lectures. it's been a while since i have actually... probably time to go back through a couple and pick up some new info that I forgot about. That's awesome that you've taken a class of hers. and yeah... old lady crush for sure! I thought she was trying to go after the fungal stuff though? I mean, she says there is an organismal balance for each category of plant... weeds, herbaceous plants, woody perennials, and trees... each has their own desire for balance between fungi and bacteria. i just remember her saying "i've got more bacteria than i'll ever need" lol and that was why she was focusing on fungals for that video
I remember her saying a lot about diversity, but when it came to sucesional crops the earlier didn't need fungi at all(wheat grass etc). I remember her explaining the almost pure fungal ecosystems that supported large trees, where the biomass was almost 60%. Think of regular grass and weeds. That shit grows fucking everywhere and it's because it's such an early sucesional plant that it only needs bacteria...hence why she says she has enough it, and thus why it grows everywhere.
i hear you on the water situation. I live in the Great Lakes Region... we've had some major impacts over the past few decades with our waters. I was gonna apply for an internship at a biological station on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan for this summer doing shoreline and nutrient cycle monitoring, but i'm gonna get some more classes out of the way so i don't have to take them after i walk next year and i will just have my internship to do after graduation.
Oh the great lakes...not to mention the dick who put the carp in the systems, and the impact it had on the sturgeon population.
so with legalization out there... what are the citizen level laws regarding cultivation?
Here in CO? I have 12 total indoors. I only run 4 outdoors...cause yield makes up for it lol
Without card depends on number of adults living in the residence and on the local juristicition. Generally its 6 per adult 3 "ready to harvest" 3 in veg. with a limit of 12 per household.
5 ounces a month is more than I need lol and outdoor season is about 2lbs. Ssgrowee pretty much condensed it down. You can add your medical 6 to your rec 6 though, or at least that's what the Doc told me at relaxed clarity.
Sort of! The point of green manures around your property is to use plants like comfrey that have deep roots that penetrate the hard soil and access nutrients that other plants can't. Then you cut the plants and mulch with them. When they break down they release the nutrients in plant accessible form. As the organic matter breaks down it creates fulvic and humic acids that help break down minerals in your soil and make more of the nutrients in your soil more plant accessible.
I do thermal compost with leaves, rabbit bedding and manure, rotten garden veggies, coffee grounds and chaff, and egg shells. after it's cool I put it in my worm beds, and add food scraps. Once all the food scraps are gone I'll pull the castings and mulch my beds and that's all I use for fertilizer. I use 100 gallon no til soil beds/smartpots, and I fill in the gaps between then with 20 gallon no til tubs and ten gallon pots that I use recycled soil mixed with compost to grow with.
haha thank you for the kind words, Shluby, I assure you, I'm not modest, just mainly confused and in the middle of sorting stuff most of the time lolthe compost and microbe guru around these parts is @calliandra and she has been taking some online classes with Elaine Ingham (come on now cali don't be modest
Yeah and this is the reason I am getting turned off forums myself...
The ecosystemic concept itself (i.e., that it takes bacteria and fungi as miners AND microbial grazers for nutrient cycling) was confirmed by experimental results published in 1985 (Interactions of bacteria, fungi and their nematode grazers: Effects on nutrient cycling and plant growth. Ecological Monographs 55:119-140.). 
Very cool!
If you have an already well established organic mix fungi will dominate it once roots begin to fill out the container. A compost pile that's been sitting awhile should be full of fungi. Doesn't take much as it colonizes so fast using plant roots as conduits.