Trying to understand ROLS

Hey!

I have been growing in hempy's and other homemade hydroponic mediums for quite some time now and I want to try this ROLS method. From what I have read you create a soil from a base and amendments and let it cook(age) for a month until you plant in it. And from there you are off.

I understand up to that point. I even got around to making my own EWC bin

But I am totally lost when It comes to amending the soil again after each harvest. How is the amendment done? If you have to cook the soil before use after amending it then how do you just throw amendments on the top without burning the plants? Get me out of the maze!

I want to understand every part of this before I go into it!

Thanks!

you make the soil. Grow your plan. Chop and pull stalk. Now rols begins.. Topdress the pot /soil with compost and worm castings. Water the pot with various teas over the span of a month. During that time all the roots will break down and create huge microbial population. Like another ecosystem beneath the surface. Then you plant your next plant. After the plant establishes itself. Topdress nutes then top dress more castings and compost and water with teas..

teas

seed sprout enzyme teas
compost teas
botanical teas
kelp teas
kelp / alfalfa teas (during veg)

don't forget foliars kelp / aloe Vera , ipm's etc....

read the rols sticky thread in the organic section.

I do exactly what Hyroot mentioned above, except when I chop the plant I imediately lay down some more organic fertilizer (1/4 cup kelp meal, 1/4 cup alfalfa meal, 1/4 cup crab shell meal, 1/4 cup all purpose fertilizer like Espoma) then lay down my EWC/fresh soil. I then plant a cover crop (red clover) and wet it down with a compost tea. I will continue to keep the container moist and leave it on the perimeter of my garden until I'm ready to plant my next clone in to it a few weeks later. I have found that it helps to leave a few inches at the top of the container the first time you use the soil. You will end up top dressing and re-amending a few times over the life of the soil and you don't want your soil building up to the lip of the bucket.

Good luck

Do you have experience with multiple plants in one pot? I was thinking a 200 Gal smart pot for my flower room with the ROLS soil. Maybe 16 or so small plants at a time harvested at different times of course. I want to start the plants in my airpots (Small starter size) until I was finished training and then transplant. I did not realize the soil needed that rejuvenation period.

I was hoping to design a little environment with other flowers and grass just as I would have outside if I could. And minimize my waste coming out of the house! I started worms which are going to be awesome.

Would a 200 Gallon smartpot be wise or stupid?

I started reading the ROLS thread before I posted but it is hard to find what I am looking for. I'm big into permaculture at the moment.

Throughout flowering I was only planning on using worm castings as a top dressing and worm teas. The aloe foliar spray looked interested also. I only want to water with water

Is the compost and EWC together necessary? And all the teas? I hardly can remember the abbreviations! lol

rrog, headtreep and cann did multiple plants in q large pot. Pretty much like a soil bed. I rocked somas style soil beds years ago. Not with rols though. Still worked great.

I stopped using clover or any other living mulch. It produces far too much nitrogen in the soil for my strains.. Bark / wood chips work as a good mulch.

when you make your own castings. There's compost in the bin too. The worms don't eat everything.... Mixed together is called vermicompost.. you can use castings alone. Imo using both is more beneficial. You will have more humus / humic and more bacteria, fungi and enzymes.

A 200 gallon pot is going to be a cunt to move around as you need to get it out of your flower room for the 're-amendment period' (unless you dont use the flowering room for a month or so)

I guess the information I am missing is the re-amendment period. I haven't read or seen anything really about this yet. If I wanted to leave the 200 gallon in the flower room could I move the plants around and use the good soil while the other soil re-amends? I'm going for an homemade soil to mimic nature. I want to grow everything in the pot with my pot

Where can I find info on re-amending ROLS?

I already explained reamending. Stow did too. Its in the recycled organic living soil rols no till thread. Read it from the beginning

So no planting immediately after harvesting another plant? Like perpetual

Get a trolley to roll that bitch out of the room. Maybe you need 2 x 200 gallons for the switch?

You can plant directly in to the soil as soon as you chop. You don't have to let it sit for any length if time, I just prefer doing it that way because of how my perpetual garden is set up

I've tried planting right away and letting it sit. You get better results waiting and letting the pot sit for a while letting the soil cook and roots break down. if you are planting a small young plant with a month or more of veg time left. then planting right away is ok. if transplanting into final pot before flower. then you want the pot of soil to have sat and the soil cooked.

Hahaha Chronikool that would be a lot of soil! and I would need to make a larger door. After thinking a little more I might go with 5 45 gallon smarties. Perpetuate each one from veg to flower. Hopefully the plants in the veg period will give the soil enough time to recuperate before the next flower cycle.

I am on ICMag right now reading through the main ROLS megathread. Hopefully I can come up with a better plan. I forgot that soil sits all winter to cook again before use in the summer.

Would you say adding some red wigglers to my pot would be a bad idea? Maybe that would help the soil recoupe faster. Loving the worms BTW, Checking on them is just as fun as tending to my garden

red wigglers would do great in 45 gal pots. I think the minimum for worms to survive is 10 gals

Thanks for all the help!

My current batch is 2 years old with many harvest.

Top dress heavy in wormcasting and light in amendments.

Edperimenting with live cover mulch, all seems to have pros and little negatives.

Enzymes!
Botanicals!
AACT!
ACT!
Aloe/coco

Recycle re use

ROLS

What is the difference between AACT and ACT? I thought it was just Aerated Compost Tea.