super soil question

2 questions regarding super soil (ie heavily concentrated organic additives)

1) Why does it need to cook?

2) how is that done during winter months?
-could i put it under a light w/ a fan?

thank you kindly
communist

1) Why does it need to cook?

2) how is that done during winter months?
-could i put it under a light w/ a fan?

1) Cooking isn't about spending time in an oven, or even using "high" heat. "Cooking" just means allowing the organic ingredients to have enough time to mingle and react with one another. Micro organisms take a bit of time to replicate and spread throughout the medium, that's all.

2) Just mix up whatever you're going to mix up and put it into pots (or some other container), add a little water (keep mixture a little moist), and set it out of the way somewhere at room temperature. It doesn't really need to be "room temperature", but the extra warmth makes the whole process go a lot faster. Don't overdo it!

Also make sure you don't add stuff that is too hot. A guy I know added horse manure to his field but did not age the manure 1 year first. The nitrogen was too strong and it killed all his clones. The next year the same field was perfect of course.

thanks that clears it up, cooking in literal terms didn't make much sense, thanks for clarifying.

one more question you say keep it moist, i opened the top to my trashcan containing strait super soil and i had some little fuzzy things all over the top? is that normal? i think i've seen it before in the outside garden.

this is my first full organic grow so i'm learning lots thanks + rep

you NEED to cook soil mixes because of the dolomite lime.

when you leave it outside for a month~ the nitrates in the dolomite lime run off, the run off is ammonia nitrates, you realy dont want that in your plants.

mmmm i'm not sure thats true, i think you can top dress lime, how else would you fix pH problems? also wont the ammonia nitrates just leech out the bottom of the container with the run off? atlesast thats what they tell me in soils class

communistcannabis said:

mmmm i'm not sure thats true, i think you can top dress lime, how else would you fix pH problems? also wont the ammonia nitrates just leech out the bottom of the container with the run off? atlesast thats what they tell me in soils class

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hehehe this is usualy fun...... you dont actualy realise what your saying.
by saying you can top dress with lime to fix a PH problem because the amonia nitrites will just run off is the same as saying "if i water my plant with amonia nitrate it will just run off the plant and magicly fix the PH problem"

if you read the fine print on your dolomite lime bag, it should say not for fruits/vegtables/eatables/something along that line and that its for lawn grass and golf cources or some shit, thats because the amonia nitrate is a toxin and flowering food products absorb toxins. to let your plant absorb amonia is to SMOKE AMONIA.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2696942 heres one for you, a study done in germany on people who get lead poisoning from smoking toxic weed. happy smoking


o yea, BTW "how else would you fix PH problems?", PH up=baking soda PH down=lemon juice. simple SIMPLE.

you don't have to be all high and mighty there guy, i got facts supporting my thoughts too. my bag of lime says nothing about not adding it to flowers fruits or edibles or anything. well anyways the soil is all mixed up anywyas and chillen so we'll find out in quite a few months if i'm dead or not, somehow i doubt i will be

Corbat420 said:

you NEED to cook soil mixes because of the dolomite lime.

when you leave it outside for a month~ the nitrates in the dolomite lime run off, the run off is ammonia nitrates, you really dont want that in your plants.

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Wrong wrong wrong. Corbat you dont know what your talking about. And you're a rude jackass.
You want any super soil mix to cook regardless of whether or not it contains lime. Lime is NOT ammonia. It does not turn into ammonia. Chemical nitrogen fertilizer is where the ammonia comes from. And lime counteracts the acidy in soil cause by application off nitrogen ferts containing ammonia.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]When you apply fertilizers that have ammonium as a portion of the product, or some fraction that will turn into ammonium, you are adding "acidity" to the soil. It doesn't matter what kind or type of fertilizer, conventional or organic source, just that it has ammonium (or ammonia) in it.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Ammonium is made up of nitrogen and hydrogen, three atoms of hydrogen for each atom of nitrogen. (NH3-). Shortly after the ammonium reaches the soil, because it has a negative charge, it binds to the positively charged soil or organic matter. Through time, it is converted to nitrate by soil bacteria. The warmer the soil, the faster the conversion. It is the nitrate form of N that is most mobile in the soil, most likely to leach into groundwater, and usually is the form of N most used by the crop.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]During the conversion of ammonium to nitrate, the nitrogen compound loses the three hydrogen and adds two oxygen. The oxygen comes from the air in the soil. The three hydrogen particles are free to float about the water in the soil and to react with various substances there. Free hydrogen very reactive, and is the "acid" in anything. (Incidentally, acids taste tart, but I don't recommend that you go around tasting soil to see if it's tart or sweet, though I have seen some hard-core soil scientists do that.) The H+ atoms can react with lime (calcium carbonate) in the soil, forming water and carbon dioxide and thus be neutralized, or the H+ can tie up on soil particles, react with all sorts of chemicals or organisms in the soil, or they can just drift around in the soil water, waiting to interact with (and mess up) all sorts of critical reactions. Most plants have difficulty getting the chemical nutrients they need, in the proper amounts, when soil has too many hydrogen ions in the soil water solution.[/FONT]

corbat you are way off on your take dude. Of about all lol.

You cook super soil to establish a soil food web. It means while it is cooking it is giving the bacteria and fungi a chance to grow and form colonies and start to feed on the organics in the soil. By doing this they go through a life and death process that will also make available to the plant all the NPK in the soil so the plant can take it up. Without the proper soil food web the raw ingreds will just sit there. That is why when you let it cook a lot of good comes from watering with molasses water and liquid karma. Usually at least two weeks is needed. Worm casts are available right away to the plant and dont harm anythig that is why it is good to have them there too. Really kickstart the process with all the bacteria and myco they bring,

As for the dolomite lime. There is a variety of slaked lime that is harmful. But anyhting you buy for hortucultural use like espoma or anything in the stores does not as far as I know have that in it. I am looking at my dolomite and it says right here that it is safe and not the unsafe varity that no one sells to mj growers. More or less, lol.

Keep your soil moist but not soaked. Rotate it once a week. When it gets going good you will feel it get warm. That is the bacteria at work digesting the raw organics to make it cool for the plants.

communistcannabis said:

you don't have to be all high and mighty there guy, i got facts supporting my thoughts too. my bag of lime says nothing about not adding it to flowers fruits or edibles or anything. well anyways the soil is all mixed up anywyas and chillen so we'll find out in quite a few months if i'm dead or not, somehow i doubt i will be

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roflmao... That was fuckin funny shit man... good for you!

"there guy"

thanks for setting the record strait everyone and for explaining cooking. i'm really digging organics these is my first round with super soil and the girls are vegging out awesome only been in new soil for a few days, goin from clone