So who here is growing in true organic living soil?

BB what is your friend growing in for a mix? Was the soil pre-amended and allowed to cook? Ammonia smell is anaerobic, as Abe said. Too wet. If this is a living soil, there is never any flushing.

You have any lacto-B around? Good to have on hand. A shot of that wouldn't be bad. I would imagine the faster this dries out, the better. Use Abe's chop sticks.

ammonia exactly what I smelled when I went in his room!and he had standing stinky stinky water in his trays!I told him to try and flush it out as I have not seen this and you had just posted it!anyway he mixed too hot! and no I dont think he cooked long enufI know he uses pro mix and OF and HF....he got that from me--and he told me he put chicken shit Ewc AND bat!!wen I dug down into the container it was warm!he has 15 glI told him too much N but some folks have to learn this---you can't tell it to themhe had helped me mix some small batches last years and he said he thought all the N would be good....if he would have cooked it long enuf maybe--i told him not to put any chicken in and use fish emulsion next time if he wanted to increase Nand substitute a good fish meal for itany way I wondered what experience anyone may have had that could help me give him an answer--lacto-bacillus? right..?mosquito dunks have that correct? or is that the thurengenis (?) ....?I also am going to help him mix some soil sometime early next year...I am trying to help damage control--right now

Ammonia is the N leaving the soil. As Abe said, you'll just have to get it dry and not over water. You have trillions of microbes working for free. Don't drown them.

Lacto-B is made in your kitchen. BTI Dunks are bacillus thuringiensis israelensis. Different bacteria, different function.

I can explain how to make Lacto-B. Very simple. Costs you a couple cups of milk.

So how do ya make the lacB?

I'm a large producer of compost worms and vermi-castings. I use soil to grow. My soil is 50% worm castings and 50% compost which I make from pure horse manure. There is no limit to the amount of castings since it wont burn or harm the plants but 30% is usually a good mix. They do the job of perlite, sand, peat, as well as provide naturally occuring inoculants. Earthworm Castings contain rich proportions of water soluble nutrients which is the primary reason so many users experience incredible results. Castings allow plants to quickly and easily absorb all essential nutrients and trace elements. This is possible because the earthworm grinds and uniformly mixes the nutrients and trace elements into simple forms, so plants need only minimal effort to absorb them. This is not the case with many other natural fertilizers. Though other fertilizers may have greater nutrient counts or higher analyses, the end plant benefit relies on the plant's ability to optimally absorb and use them. With many fertilizers this absorption is limited because the beneficial ingredients are not broken down to the degree which the earthworm is able to provide them.
I also have a handfull of worms living in each pot, which continue to recycle the waste products indefinitely. Some will say worms harm roots, I have 5000 lbs+ of earthworms on my property, many of which are living in my many pots and garden boxes, I never never seen any ill effects of composting worms on my products. I supply all the local organic nurseries which also use worms directly in their boxes with no problems. The crap you see packaged in stores is not real castings, it is cooked and sprayed to kill all bio matter (federal regulations). Real castings contain a diversity of life necesary to be effective. Any worm farm will sell you moist, living vermi-castings.

fattiemcnuggins said:

So how do ya make the lacB?

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You are going to collect Lactobacillus from the air around you.

Add 1/2 cup of uncooked rice to 1 cup cool water in a bowl and stir. The water will become cloudy with rice starch.

Pour just the rice wash into a 1 quart mason jar or similar

Place the open mouth jar (no lid) within 2 feet of the floor for a couple days. I might leave on my back porch step for an afternoon, etc. We’re just collecting microbes at this point. The air will deliver them.

After 2 days, loosely place a lid on mason jar. Keep in room temp dark place for two more days.

After two days there will be a stinky film on the top. This is perfect. You have all sorts of wild bacteria, fungus, and yeasts. Be we only want a certain type of bacteria, Lactobacillus.

We selectively feed Lacto B the lactose in milk. The rest of the organisms in that rice wash don’t do so well in that environment, and Lacto B dominates.

So we have 2 cups of room temp milk. Skim, whole, 2%, whatever. Not hot and not cold. 70F is great. To that milk, add just a teaspoon or so of that stinky rice wash. Throw away the rest of the rice wash.

Two days later, the Lacto B will have separated much of the protein from the yellow whey (serum). Scoop out the cheese-like protein so you can get at that yellow serum. Animals love that protein, BTW.

Mix the yellow serum 1:1 with molasses, and 20 parts water. It’s ready to store in the fridge. The molasses will also feed the Lacto B.

This is still concentrated. You can add a couple tablespoons of this to a gallon of water for soil or foliar. You can add this to soil to start the microbes after a new soil mix. You can spray as a foliar in veg or early flower.

This will keep for months in the fridge. Will not smell, etc.

Adonis, I agree completely. Per a friend of mine: Clackamas Coot’s compost comment:

I do use alfalfa meal for making teas and then the material is then run through worm bins which is what I also do with kelp & neem meals. Even after making a tea approximately 50% of 'the stuff' remains so it's not worthless by any means.

I put a lot of effort into my vermicomposting deal giving me pretty amazing humus starting by using the best manure that I can find or compost (like the organic fish compost from Washington), comfrey, yarrow, horsetail ferns (when available) and stinging nettles (when available), organic fish meal, flaxseed meal, glacial or basalt rock dust, etc.

Thanks Rrog, I only feed my worms horse/steer manure. If I used things like kelp or any of the other great materials my castings would be even more superior. Unfortunately my buddies consume about 2000 lbs of manure each week so trying to provide such rich materials in the high desert I live in would be impossible without a dependable source. I also make worm tea which has become immensely popular the last year or so. The neat thing about castings, as Coot's suggests, is that I can create any sort of special nutrient recipe necessary by simply feeding the raw materials to the worms.

this is all really great stuff!thks for putting it up--Adonis--a brother of the worms---have you ever heard of feeding your worms herkamer diamonds --low grade emeralds--ruby dust and other gem rock dusts along with anotomic gold..colodial silver and letting them digest that?the castings will be rich in minerals ....I know a worm farmer around Mendocino that does exactly that and sells his rich castings for 800$ a yard!do you know that soil scientist or have you heard of him? it mixes 10:1 and is highly prized by the pharmers in that area--and only available there--I also believe this is a sort of recipe for the high brix pharming you are starting to hear about--are your castings available online? or your worm tea? it would be nice to make available here in mich thks for the post from lovely(and now legal) Colorado!and Rrog I have bottles of EM-1 from bokashi institute in Hawaii ....I will be brewing some for my friend to add to his containers--I really like your homemade recipe--thks so much for putting that up!peace and hair grease to the nation--remember what Bob says--" the herb is for the healing of the nations!"edit: do you guys know what Kambucha is? and do you think it would be beneficial to pour on your plants?it is full of pro-biotic cultures and I have wanted to try using it for some time but never have-I have heard of pharmers using a stout dark ale to activate their mixes- the yeast?

You'd think you guys were baking cakes with all those ingredients haha, I feel so inadequate now!

Buckaroo just when I think I've heard it all some new type of worm science arrives. No I have never heard of feeding worms these types of minerals. Compost worms utilize "gritty" materials such as dirt, sand, rock, etc to help physically breakdown the bacteria they consume (kind of like how we use teeth). Worms do not actually eat the material available. They eat the bacteria which grows on rotting bio. So I don't understand exactly how they could improve or process these minerals since they do not rot. Basically, these minerals will come out the worm in the same condition they went in. I would love to read more about this type of worm production though. I live in the high desert mountains and in this area cattle and horses are the name of the game. Though I would love to feed my critters rich bio materials, I feel I do more benefit to our local environment by helping to process the massive amount of manure produced here. Believe it or not manure has negative effects on runoff into the Colorado river as well as a lasting effect on the desert. It is also free, if I had to pay for 2000-3000 lbs of food each week, even just shipping it, I would be bankrupt from the start. I do sell castings and tea and my prices are unbelievably low compared to retail stores, I just figured using this site as a sales pitch would be unprofessional and against the rules I think?

You don't want to be adding gems, gold , etc to your worm bin...

I will get soil this week and mix some shit up. I have the amendments for super soil, but I haven't mixed it mainly cuz of the way subcool treats his patients. I have the True Living Organics book that I want to read here real soon. I also have Kelp, crab shell, and advanced nutrients bud blood extra. Not sure which soil I will use also. The one bag of shit exploded when it was dropped, it's all in a tall kitchen bag now.

COOL! Crank it up, Glad!

gladstoned said:

I will get soil this week and mix some shit up. I have the amendments for super soil, but I haven't mixed it mainly cuz of the way subcool treats his patients. I have the True Living Organics book that I want to read here real soon. I also have Kelp, crab shell, and advanced nutrients bud blood extra. Not sure which soil I will use also. The one bag of shit exploded when it was dropped, it's all in a tall kitchen bag now. View attachment 2415504View attachment 2415505View attachment 2415506View attachment 2415507View attachment 2415508View attachment 2415509View attachment 2415510View attachment 2415511View attachment 2415512View attachment 2415513View attachment 2415514View attachment 2415515View attachment 2415516View attachment 2415517View attachment 2415518

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You haven't mixed it yet because of the way subcool treats his patients?

Rrog said:

Sampras, I amend the base soil and the super soil the same. Per bag of soil, I add:

1 Cup Kelp Flakes
2 cups shell meal
30 grams Neem meal
2 cups of charcoal. I use spent carbon from air scrubbers.
2-3 cups of my current, local, active soil, since it's full of locally dominant microbes and fully active. This will inoculate the soil while it cooks

I spray some home made LactoB, little molasses, BTI dunk water and nematodes on the leaves a couple times during veg. Once during early flower only. So these microbes are in the soil and on the leaves/ stems.

Stow, wait until after I get my MMJ card in a couple months so you don't have to worry. A 5 gallon pail with holes drilled is all you need. And water

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Aren't LactoB anaerobic?

QuentinQuark said:

Aren't LactoB anaerobic?

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They are facultative anaerobes, meaning they can work in aerobic or anaerobic environments

Rrog said:

fattie, thanks for stopping by. You could absolutely use those soils as a base.

For bokashi, you can inoculate bran with some LactoB. No problem, and that works great. I love to make my own. So damn easy and I'm turning my garbage into top shelf compost with the help of worms in your lawn.

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I have fermented EM before, it's pretty easy, give it a try, it's the right way recommended for bokashi composting.

st0wandgrow said:

You haven't mixed it yet because of the way subcool treats his patients?

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Sounds pretty fucked up. But yes.
I will leave it at that and pm you link.

I too grow in a modified super soil with myco's at transplants. the only things that i water into my dirt in my dirt are compost teas or fulvic and humic acids.