How long can/should I leave my compost?

Screw it. I just ordered 27L(7 Gallons) of Mother Earth Premium Biochar to add into my already diverse mix. Go big or go home! Expensive stuff, $60 plus $30 shipping.

GrowGorilla said:

Screw it. I just ordered 27L(7 Gallons) of Mother Earth Premium Biochar to add into my already diverse mix. Go big or go home! Expensive stuff, $60 plus $30 shipping.

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yeah it's so much cheaper when you make it. but instant gratification and really 90$ is negligable if you think about it long term....

ShLUbY said:

yeah it's so much cheaper when you make it. but instant gratification and really 90$ is negligable if you think about it long term....

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I think it'll be totally worth it in the long run. For 40 gallons of soil, I'll only use roughly 2.5 of the 7 gallons of the biochar. I'll be good for a while.

I prepare the soil I want directly in the pots it will be used in. Mycorrhiza doesn't like getting chopped or disturbed. You need to think of soil almost like hydro substrate. Without living organisms, it may as well be a bucket of hydraton. Pour enough water on and the nutrients go out the bottom. It is important to try and keep something growing on the soil lt all times or at least cover it, I don't even disturb the clover growing in the pot. About 40 to 60 percent of nitrates and carbon produced by photosynthesis gets pumped into the soil. The plants talk to the organisms next to them, they in turn reply and some of them even gets to live inside roots and acts as organs of the plant. But everything is about those organisms. they will eat the compost and minerals they will have metabolic waste, as well as being eaten by other organisms which may again produce more complex compounds. When those organisms start thriving, the soil will go soft and fluffy. I started preparing on of my larger pots for outdoor meds maybe a month ago, it is already soft. It was rock hard after a summer of drought.

All forms of tilling are harmful. All tilling reduces carbon and nitrogen in the soil, all tilling reduces fungi in the soil, if you are lucky tillling will just move the compressed layer a few inches under the surface but that surface may as well sit on bedrock.

You wouldn't till your dog, don't do it to soil either, it is also alive. Dead soil is called dirt.

ShLUbY said:

your soil should NEVER and i mean NEVER "stink". if you're soil smells like shit, it's because it's gone anaerobic, and will need to be dryed, re-inoculated with compost tea, and monitored carefully. Otherwise, your soil should not be noticeable to you. The initial few days will have a "different" smell, but never putrid. after a week it should smell more and more earthy and sweet every day.

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I agree and when I made mine I had that stink with the bags you get at the big box stores and I mixed a bag of cow cow manure, and compost & hummus, and added a couple hand fulls of a few amendments like alfalfa meal, blood & bone meals ect. But because it ranked coming from plastic bags I mixed it all in a large plastic tub outside and even planted a cover crop in it then turned that into the soil and then turned a few more times over a 3 week period and now it looks and smells fine, almost looks better than the high dollar bags of soil and I will save an easy $30. I also added my own compost mix in it. I think brewing a large batch is a good idea and leave it outside under a tree and use it as needed and cover as needed but I think storing it outside has to be better and let nature go to work on and in it. Supplement with organic teas or a fully organic or non salt fertilizer as needed when needed. I also added my own LAB with a fermented vegan concoction and a store bought soil inoculant. I am kinda new to some of these latter additives but its an experiment and a side project.

But I should add now that the stink is gone I agree with the above about now letting it sit in some final pot for planting undisturbed for at least some time.