Free CO2 with Living Soil

ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
NaturalFarmer said:
Yeah I have been experimenting with this for about 4 or months now. All raw ingredients if you will. Peat bale from the depot. Fedco for most of the rest. My own EWCs and store bought.

This soil was made 4 months ago give or take. 3500ppm-2000ppm first month and ammonia smell from the N breaking down (No bueno for growing). 1800-1200ppm month 2and 3. Started dropping in flower on last grow and was 1000-800 ppm towards the end.

Reactivated this soil with EM-1 and forest microbes and numbers are back to 1500-900ppm with no signs of dropping unless media is drying up.
Click to expand...
I smell an application here; if the plant starts in a small cup but alongside a bunch of friends, it could generate co2 for itself.

Potting this small plant into a bigger container in a few weeks allows one to run fresh soil that again provides welcome co2.

The intermediate size could sustain for again a few weeks, and then into a bigger flowering container, again with lots of fresh soil all ready to push lots of co2.

Top dress and brew teas for additional boosts into peak bloom and then taper off at the end.

This sounds pretty suspiciously like the way a lot of people run their soil plants in a production setting.

How does your co2 enriched soil differ from other organic mixes? ...or does it?
 
NaturalFarmer

NaturalFarmer

Well-Known Member
A 10 to 1 ratio of Carbon to Nitrogen wouldn't be enough. 50-1 would be better. I believe 5 gals of peat to 2-3 cups of soybean maybe less blood if you went that route. would get you close to that number? + the EWCs...
 
Last edited:
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
NaturalFarmer said:
The ratios and peat I suspect or am I not understanding your question. (The Menafee Humates?)
Click to expand...
I don't know enough about organics to get much in depth but this seems to close some gaps for me.

I'm surprised to hear that soybean meal makes nitrogen that you can smell ammonia from, for instance.

If it makes so much, perhaps a smaller portion added more often would stabilize/optimize its effects? I'm guessing here.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
NaturalFarmer said:
A 10 to 1 ratio of Carbon to Nitrogen wouldn't be enough. 50-1 would be better. I believe 5 gals of peat to 1 cup of N would get you close to that number?
Click to expand...
What if I ran hydroponic nutrient salts at the same time? Would this kill the reaction, or leave it undisturbed if I added at low doses?
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
NaturalFarmer said:
?????
Click to expand...
Lol bear with me here. I told you I'm new to organics! The nutes I use are dry soluble salts, nothing from a bottle. They're used in specific ratios to get complete nutrition.

Where is the nutrient profile coming from in this case? EWC? The peat isn't nutrient rich and the soybean meal is for N, right?
 
NaturalFarmer

NaturalFarmer

Well-Known Member
So I watered....Co2 peaked around 1300ppm.
The battle is giving the plants enough time to evap the moisture and give the roots a breath ahhhh coco ......but this drives the number down but is needed. If I wanted to I could add a few extra bags and achieve a higher amount but I am already seeing great growth (3-4" a day) and new growth that forgets to count how many leaves it has tripping over itself.
 
Last edited:
NaturalFarmer

NaturalFarmer

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
Where is the nutrient profile coming from in this case? EWC? The peat isn't nutrient rich and the soybean meal is for N, right?
Click to expand...
Just smoked a fatty buddy, Not sure I understand that one.
The carbon is in the peat in high amounts and is broken apart by the microbes and offgassed as CO2.

Here is a great link that explains it. You an OSU fan? Me neither
http://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/SAG-16
 
NaturalFarmer

NaturalFarmer

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
Where is the nutrient profile coming from in this case? EWC? The peat isn't nutrient rich and the soybean meal is for N, right?
Click to expand...
NaturalFarmer said:
"
When a plant residue with a wide C:N ratio is incorporated into the soil, microbial decomposition starts. Microorganism populations increase greatly, evidenced by increased release of CO2 leaving the soil through respiration. The microorganisms take nitrogen from the soil for proteins."

http://passel.unl.edu/pages/informationmodule.php?idinformationmodule=1130447042&topicorder=2&maxto=8
Click to expand...
 
NaturalFarmer

NaturalFarmer

Well-Known Member
ttystikk said:
I'm talking about the rest of the nutrients, like P, K, etc.
Click to expand...
I suspect that those aren't needed to perform this feat but I would love someone to experiment. Did you take a look at the soil test? Is that what you are talking about? Took another couple pal! Bear with me too
What?
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
NaturalFarmer said:
Just smoked a fatty buddy, Not sure I understand that one.
The carbon is in the peat in high amounts and is broken apart by the microbes and offgassed as CO2.

Here is a great link that explains it. You an OSU fan? Me neither
http://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/SAG-16
Click to expand...
Oh that's tasty good stuff there, thank you! I got far enough to understand that we are intentionally maximizing the release of co2 rather than a no till soil approach of minimizing it.

I think I get how and where the rest of the nutrients are coming from as well.

I'm growing really big plants in smallish buckets, though. Like twenty zips from a five gallon bucket. I pulled 32 oz plus when I used bare root hydroponic techniques, but it proved inconsistent and delicate. I'm trying soilless with hydroponic nutrients but I'm not getting the size I want.

Much of what intrigues me about your approach is that you really boost co2 off gassing to the point where it builds a high concentration in an enclosed space, even while the plants themselves are using it. This represents the actual completion of all the nutrition the plant needs, because without co2 the plant won't grow. It's easy to deplete co2 in an enclosed space, but if the very soil the plants are growing in is providing plenty of it then a co2 tank is unnecessary!
 
NaturalFarmer

NaturalFarmer

Well-Known Member
Have you ever heard of Jan Baptista van helmont and his 5 year willow tree experiment? I don't know why your post made me think of that.

"He grew a willow tree and measured the amount of soil, the weight of the tree and the water he added. After five years the plant had gained about 164 lbs (74 kg). Since the amount of soil was basically the same as it had been when he started his experiment (it lost only 57 grams), he deduced that the tree's weight gain had come from water. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Baptist_van_Helmont
 
NaturalFarmer

NaturalFarmer

Well-Known Member
I think that the decomp will slow in this cycle in about a month(6 months total). Ill start making a new batch of about 200 gallons and store it in the shed out of harms way (moistened and burped to prevent anarobic conditions) Ill bring it into the garage once the temp gets really cold.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
NaturalFarmer said:
Nice brother! Wish my apple tree would grow like that;) Well thats about all I got with this thread. Not much else to say. Peace
Click to expand...
I think you've opened a whole can of worms, actually.

Do you think organic nutes would allow me to grow trees like the ones in the pics? Would I need more than 5 gallon buckets to do it?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top