ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
Yeah good call, with the worms that hi nitrogen stuff gets processed more quickly. Whereby there may be another possibility too ;)

So outdoor is like one of those cadaver farms where they study decomposition processes haha, it's 5 or 6 different scenarios I have there.
Indoor I have leaves in my wormbin. I've recently started using a leaf-woodchip-cardboard mix as bedding that I presoak to the right humidity before adding it in over the newest feeding.
View attachment 3854957 View attachment 3854958
Works like a charm, the wormcasts are nicely aerated and fluffy, and I've got a good fungal population in there too. Really looking forward to amending my soil with that in a month or so!

Indoor but in the cellar, I am starting a "soilifiying" experiment. The idea is to reamend soil with fresh plant matter. So a sort of living-matter ROLS. You just mix a good soil (as in, contains a good microherd) 1:1 with chopped kitchen scraps.
Since in my case I need to make good soil for my future container garden to begin with, I mixed up clay-heavy garden soil, good store-bought compost, coco coir & moist dead leaves as a base. I amended that with coffee grounds, kelp, neem, eggshells, rock dust and let it sit a while before adding the first round of chopped kitchen scraps.
this was after I mixed it all together:
View attachment 3854990
this is 2 months later, 1 month after adding the kitchen scraps to the left side.
View attachment 3854992
no more scraps to be seen
View attachment 3854993

Admittedly, I haven't really been cultivating this one yet, as I've been adding the scraps to the soil outside in the garden as long as the ground wasn't frozen. Meanwhile, it has frozen, so this shall be getting more attention. :mrgreen:

So that's why I'm so happy to see you are exploring in the same direction! :bigjoint:
Cheers!
Nice! that tub of soil is coming along nicely! I kind of do a similar thing that you do; in my fabric 20 gal of soil i have cooking, I like to bury my aloe scraps/living mulch trimmings/pruned leaves and they seem to disappear relatively quickly a few inches below the surface.

I added some more leaf matter to my bin today, along with some soil that has been cooking to try and get the good micro heard going again, as well as some fungal dominated soil where i was feeding some oats and brown rice over the last few days, just scooped a handful of the fungal mass out and dropped it in the compost bin as well. I'm hoping the leaves will soak up a little of the excess moisture, and if i still have problems with odor in a week or so, i'm going to add some dry peat to the mix as well, this will also soak moisture and contribute more micros to the bin.

just trying to keep active in producing things so i dont have to buy them. i made a nice load of compost this year, which made me have the best vegetable garden i've ever had, plus extra for the indoor plants as well. But i'm noticing the runs of soil i put together with wormcastings and homemade compost were superior in growth compared to the straight homemade compost with some ancient forest added for diversity. So, in the next week or so i'm going to get some worms ordered and get a bin together so i can start making that good ol' black gold myself. I mean really, at wormpower you get like 60lbs of castings for 125$ shipped to your door which isn't really a bad deal. they are super high quality and i really like them... but if i can save myself the money i might as well, and help eliminate kitchen scraps while im at it!. I eat enough veggies for scraps even this time of year i should be able to support a nice heard of them and process some worm castings regularly.

i think the castings just add so much microbial diversity.... they're really necessary IMO from what i've noticed growing a run or two without them. i have a mix still that doesn't have them in it, so i'll be buying a bag and topdressing with those instead of the pure homemade compost.

The next thing i'd like to work on is applying top dressings of select nutrients forms during flower to try and enhance flower production a lil bit. need to figure out timing, and products. I'm thinking the first couple weeks i'll just use Neem meal and let that get eaten up, and then I have this powder calphos from BAS that i'm going to utilize and try and partner it with some fishbone meal or something to provide a little extra flowering boost. just some light top dressings. Need to do a little reading around here cause I know someone has already got it figured out i'm sure lol.
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
here's the Sour D coming down tomorrow at 56 days. she faded pretty early due to tobacco mosaic virus. wondered why the leaves were getting weird discolorations and finally figured it out. it was a cut i got from someone. glad i didn't clone it. this D looks FIRE though.

sd4.jpg IMG_2684.jpg sd3.jpg sd2.jpg sd1.jpg

Enjoy 8) i know i will be in a week :weed::leaf::joint:bongsmilie:bigjoint:

:peace::peace::peace::peace::peace::peace::peace::peace:
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
Merry Christmas Everyone!

Starting to use my leftover Rice Hulls for mulch.... I see that some others were doing this too.... they look nice and should serve the purpose very well! :weed::hump:

some of the Sour D that just came down...
SD1.jpg


Transplants today one Brainwreck and one Gorilla Glue #4
Together.jpg

Brainwreck...
BW1.jpg

Gorilla Glue #4
GG1.jpg

Most recent run of clones looking perky :)
CheeseClones.jpg

and my mess of Aloe I just took about 50 suckers out of before taking this picture lol
Aloe.jpg


couple of the brainwreck are coming down this weekend so more pics then.
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
Con Cheese @ 24 days (regrettingly I used plastics this round instead of fabrics) they're not tall.... but they're loaded with bud sites and the entire canopy of these 4 is in the sweetspot of the light :)

ConCheese.jpg


Here are the Brainwreck fading away. there are 3 there, 2 are smaller than the one on the right. the smaller two are being harvested in the next couple days. upon review of the trichs, I think it's finally time at 67-68 days. The bigger one will be another 10-12 days probably... just keeps growing!

GardenFade.jpg BWclose.jpg

this Brainwreck makes the best Ice Wax (bubble bags). The trich heads are large and in charge! lots of good trim material on these babies!

bongsmiliebongsmiliebongsmiliebongsmilie
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
Just ordered 1000 worms from uncle jims!!! Wooooo!!! looking forward to getting the worm bin going. How many lbs of food should I expect 1000 worms to eat in a week??? Also... wondering if I should turn the compost pile I have working indoors into worm bedding, or just start fresh with leaves, peat, coco, rock dusts, some used soil, and whatever else is laying around and keep my compost bin going on the side. The compost would act as a backup source of worm food (but not that I need it... i create enough veggie/fruit scraps as it is)... but I also think it would make great bedding with some other things added to it. should i make 2 worm totes instead of having 1000 worms in one tote? for now i think i'm going with storage totes, as i have some on hand and dont have to spend any money this way. i will upgrade down the road when i get more comfortable with the process.

@calliandra ???
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
Worm bin for incoming worms this week!!!! I still need to get a second bin to put under it to catch the lechate, but for now i'll just let it ride.... literally! sucker is on wheels so it's totally mobile :)

WormBin1.jpg

the bedding consists of hydrated Peat, hydrated Coco coir, moist Leaves, Pumice, Rice Hulls, Rock Dust, Dolomite, Garden Soil.

Bedding2.jpg Bedding.jpg


So i laid a layer of bedding a couple inches thick, and misted it with my pump sprayer. Then i put a layer of this working compost in for worm food about 1/2" thick across. then i added some kelp meal and more rock dust and bio char (1.5 Tbsp of each) Then another layer of bedding a couple inches thick, and misted that with the sprayer. Then i added some thawed food scraps, and a little more compost, not much. added 1.5 Tbsp of oyster flour, and crab meal. Then topped it off with another couple inches of bedding, and misted that lightly and covered it with some panda film. the panda is not covering the entire surface of the bedding, there is room on all sides for some air to exchange and a little moisture to escape.

Now it's just sitting waiting for the worms to arrive :clap::clap::clap:bongsmilie
 

Attachments

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
Some of the brainwreck nugs that just hit the jars....

No Flash.jpg Flash.jpg


Blumats.... RULE!Blumats.jpg


Recently started herb/lettuce garden... hey, the lights are on so why not! Lettuce, mint, basil, dill, cilantro and parsley so far...

veggies.jpg Little Guys.jpg


And just the current veg room...

Veg.jpg

Gorilla Glue #4

GorillaGlue.jpg

Brainwreck

Brainwreck.jpg


And my favorite addition to the garden.... the soil mixer!!! Forget composting with these things.... hello mixing effortlessly now. I'm going to get it up on a little more of a slant, this will create a flow of materials from one end to the other to get a better mix happening. no more kiddie pools and hand/drill mixing for this ol' boy :clap::clap::clap::clap:

Tumbler.jpg

School starts next week.... so hopefully I'll be able to keep up!!!

Thanks for watching, and take care everyone :peace::peace::peace::peace::peace::peace:
 
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ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
Almost forgot the Confidential Cheese! IIRC these are somewhere around 30 days.... they got off to a slow start. I think i either put too much compost into the mix and they're suffering from lack of oxygen/throwing off the Ph, OR my pumice broke down more than I thought it would and there just isn't enough drainage... or maybe a combo of both! I just couldn't get the soil to lose enough moisture to make me water them, and i should have just given a little water around the main rootball and left the sides of the container alone, but i chose to just let it ride which resulted in very slow growth for the first 2 weeks. i think the roots finally caught up and the plants started transpiring more. I then realized i had the rice hull mulch on hand, did some top dressings and mulched over them and they've bounced back nicely. hopefully they're just a week behind because of my stupidity :)

CheeseCanopy.jpg Cheese1.jpg


And the last brainwreck to come down is around 72 days or so... chopping it at 77; though, i've had some go into the early 80s...

Fading wreck.jpg WreckCola.jpg


ok full garden tour is NOW over lol. until next time :peace::peace::peace:
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
Sure is hard being away from the ladies all week (and the worms too). My girl forgot to refill my reservoir yesterday and it went dry for a bit. she had a hell of a time getting the blumats dialed back in lol. I had to talk her through it on the phone. She won't make that mistake again :)
What I really want is to get a big reservoir, like 35gal, and get some kind of float system that refills automatically. I just haven't really looked into it yet. I'm ready to get the rest of the garden on blumats but I'm waiting on some funds. had to burn all my money up on making sure school was going to happen and having a place to stay and what not.
The worms i pretty much put in the bin 2 days before I left for school and they seemed to be liking it and not trying to escape so I think they're doing fine. They should have had plenty of food.
Excited to get home for the weekend and see my plants after being gone for 5 days, seeing the growth after several days is always fun, and i'll be doing that for the next 16 weeks lol
 

bizfactory

Well-Known Member
If you do decide to go with a float valve on your res so you never have to manually fill it, hopefully you have a drain. Otherwise if you are gone for a few days and you have a runaway blumat, it will basically drain the res...but the res will keep filling...and you will have a LOT of water to deal with. I use a 13 gallon trash can and I can go away for about a week in flower without a top off. Only 3 plants though, 11 sq ft.
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
If you do decide to go with a float valve on your res so you never have to manually fill it, hopefully you have a drain. Otherwise if you are gone for a few days and you have a runaway blumat, it will basically drain the res...but the res will keep filling...and you will have a LOT of water to deal with. I use a 13 gallon trash can and I can go away for about a week in flower without a top off. Only 3 plants though, 11 sq ft.
a runaway blumat???? not sure what you mean.... i trust in my blumats a lot. once i've set them (after 2-3 days of adjustments), i've never had an issue with them unless the tank went dry and then they try and rehydrate too quickly from the lack of water and do like you mentioned, drain the tank trying to re-soak the soil. they've worked perfectly for me so far.

i never thought about how long they'd make it with just a big full res. i'll be looking to run 12 plants off one res in a couple months time... but the 6-8 i'm running now would go a long time on a 25-35 gal res i imagine. i found a good deal on a nice food grade res online free shipping for 50$ for a 35 gal i believe it was. i can't find anything local around me so i'll just have to ship it in i suppose.
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
Home for the weekend to take care of a few things. Here's a couple quickies from tonight. Sunday/Monday I'll get some better pics though.

Confidential Cheese ~40 days (gonna try and run 63 but we'll see how they're lookin at 56)

ConCheeseCanopy.jpg ConCheeseCloseUp.jpg


And the worm bin is kickin ass. They seems pretty happy for sure. put some greens in there that were looking past prime today.

WormAction.jpg

I'm REALLY looking forward to the worm castings.... the worm bin has all kinds of crawlies in it too :)

More to come before I go back to school for the week.
 
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