So who here is growing in true organic living soil?

CaptainMorgan had a question on what I do for soil prep for pests. I add this when I first build the soil. No mite no blight in 2+ years. Nada. Here's my arsenal for pests:

#1 Vermicompost. Fresh stuff will help protect both the soil and leaves.

#2 Neem Meal- Also good nutritionally when it decomposes, this is a great pest suppressant, especially in its whole form.

#3 BTI dunks Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis bacteria. Mosquito dunks. Any hardware store has mosquito dunks. These feed on larvae.

#4 Nematodes- These will travel around in search of larvae to infect and explode.

#5 Crab Shell- The shell contains chitin. This attracts bacteria that eat chitin, and these bacteria multiply like crazy. Larvae have jawbones / mouthparts made of chitin. Bacteria then eat the jawbones. Shell releases a lot of great minerals and Calcium also.
 
week or two left, maybe- I'm not there. Looks a little flarfy, but packing on some mass it appears

IMG_0242.jpg

Little closet grow. LED light. Great soil!!
 
My buddy's grow. The ROLS soil in 15 gallon geopots. Under a 300W LED panel I built for his little closet. His first grow. He's not close so I haven't seen them in person.
 
I made it Rrog. Life changing info here. I learned so much. I now understand things so much better. I can't express my gratitude to you for this thread. I will check in here daily and begin to contribute what I can, most likely coming from my questions. I am going to begin to reread my Teaming with Microbes tonight. I am suggesting this in my Noob thread. Can you cover the very basics of brix? Thanks again. You are a jedi. I need to go find some of Coot's stuff now.
 
Thank you sir. I enjoy it. It's a movement. Questions are encouraged. One asks, many read. Teaming With Microbes would be great to bring up and discuss, so ask away, please. I will research what I can.

Brix is a measurement of Total Dissolved Solids in the plant tissue fluid. TDS. The thought is that more dissolved solids = more nutrition, more whatever. It's often referred to as a measurement of sugar, but it's really all dissolved solids. It's equated with sugar from the wine industry, where sugar is what they're tracking.

They use a little gizmo where you squeeze a drop of fluid from a leaf stem or such, take a peek at it and I forget if it's a focus thing or whatever but you can somewhat quantify the TDS. Natural soil grown organic tomatoes are said to have high brix, for example.

Some people love to look at their weed Brix, I don't, but it's interesting!

Get a worm bin!

EDIT: Once you have the first generation of ROLS down, your mission will be to get someone else to try this.
 
I am all over the worm bin, the LB, the sprout teas, the local fresh is best, the local microbeasties, biochar, aloe plant, soil moisture/blumats, etc. I have a bunch of questions. I have passed the Teaming link to friends and I hope to bring them here for discussions. I may even breed my own nematodes. :hump:

Hey Buckaroo. I feel like I know you bro. Just read your fine posts bro. I liked them a ton.
 
I'm telling you, there's good money in predatory insects. They are so selective and efficient. They manicure the plants. I'm telling you- before my room was dismantled, 2+ years with nary a bug. By buddy's grow that you see pics of- same ROLs soil. First generation. Windows wide open all day. Never a bug, gnat - nada. So the simple soil treatments work.
 
People think it's the hard way to do things by going this route but it is really the exact opposite of that. It's the easy way to go. Elbow grease up front and you are off. I will never toss my soil again.
 
Rrog said:
I'm telling you, there's good money in predatory insects. They are so selective and efficient. They manicure the plants. I'm telling you- before my room was dismantled, 2+ years with nary a bug. By buddy's grow that you see pics of- same ROLs soil. First generation. Windows wide open all day. Never a bug, gnat - nada. So the simple soil treatments work.
Click to expand...

That is a fact. I was a little hasty putting together my first couple batches of soil and I really couldn't find stuff like neem seed meal and crab shell meal locally (and I was using store-bought EWC).... and holy shit did the fungus gnats throw a party in there. I was a little concerned. After further research the importance of some of this stuff sunk in and I ordered some supplies on line. Crab shell meal was added, along with neem seed meal, BTI granules, and my own EWC. What a change! Pests avoid my grow rooms like the plague now! :-)
 
That exact brand was being discussed on TSD forum a couple months ago. Everyone that uses it seems to love it. You are fortunate to have that right in your back yard.
 
Rrog said:
Gandalf- I'm from Maine
Click to expand...

I'll never leave. This place has it all. The ocean, lakes all over the place, nice New England mountains, etc. IMO the State is moving forward with legalization. They just a added few new qualifications like PTSD which will really open things up. I love it. Nice little grow shops are popping up everywhere. How long have you been gone?
 
Gone decades. Left when I was an infant. I agree with what you say and will add I like the potato farmers.
 
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