Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

[GreenSanta]

This is what I'm dealing with, you can't see them with the naked eye, this is probably about 0.5mm long, the leaf hairs are nearly as long. The give away sign of their presence is small silvery patches on the leaf surfaceView attachment 3613176

so visible with the naked eye, you gotta look better !! I have never had a pest living on a marijuana plant that I couldnt see with naked eye.

 

[GreenSanta]

It would be great to have more people here experimenting with beneficial, I have over spent a lot of money with my mistakes. Something I just started doing, if I order ladybugs (ladybugs are once every 2 months about) with something like fallacis, I mist the bottom part of my plants, release the fallacis in most pots (my plants are all touching each other so bugs can move freely from one to the next) , KEEP the ladybugs for a day or 2 in the fridge (maybe I should try a little longer) and then I release the ladybugs, I feel this way the fallacis have had time to find a place to hide from the ladybugs and start eating the mites, that is if the ladybugs eat fallacis, I cant see why they wouldnt, I would, looks better than a spider mite lol.

 

[Organicgrow42]

I can see thrips with my naked eye. I currently am battling them. Never had them before. I tried a couple organic ways to kill them to no avail. (Neem oil, organicide) tried spinosad on one plant to see how it went and havnt seen one since but only been 4 days. I've read there are two sides to spinosad, good and bad but from what I read, it seem to only harm certain bug exoskeleton and not microbes (some how)

I've kept this plant as a tester and plan to start fresh w new soil anyways (peat based instead of bagged soil base) so if it does harm microbes, I can live with that since this soil will become a top layer in my backyard and/or flower garden soil (not cannabis flowers)

Even though you say you don't mind them as a balance which is fine, whatever you want to do obviously, just saying they can really get a hold of a garden if you don't do anything, kind if like spider mites with much lesser negative affects. I've yet to see them really harm any of my mature plants but they sure are making cloning a bitch right now!

 

[Organicgrow42]

@hyroot Thanks for the reply about coot, I watched his shows that had coot on them. Just wanted to see if there was more out there that I havnt found yet

To the other guy, sorry didn't see your name, the Adam dunn show with coot is also on youtube, each video is roughly 2 hours. I think you could fadt forward a whole hour before the useful info comes on.

buildasoil.com also has jeremy ( silva if I'm not mistaken) who knows a lot of coots methods. There he has videos and recipes for tons or organic stuff...for me, this has been an amazing source for foliar feeding, top dresses, how to use aloe, list goes on and on!

 

[goodjoint]

Hey all! Need some help!

I mixed up a batch of soil 2 days ago and I just took a look at it - it went anaerobic for sure. It smells like death.

I've mixed up soil 5 times before and never had this happen to me so I don't really know what I should do.

I just emptied the 30 gallon Rubbermaid full of my soul mix and spread it out on a tarp. I added a bit more perlite and I'm letting it sit.

Is this the best course of action? Or should I just mix a new batch and toss this one. I have plenty more amendments and compost to make another batch. Should I wait it out and see if the smell goes away?

I plan on cooking in fabric pots from here on out.

Thanks!!

 

[elkamino]

Hey all! Need some help!

I mixed up a batch of soil 2 days ago and I just took a look at it - it went anaerobic for sure. It smells like death.

I've mixed up soil 5 times before and never had this happen to me so I don't really know what I should do.

I just emptied the 30 gallon Rubbermaid full of my soul mix and spread it out on a tarp. I added a bit more perlite and I'm letting it sit.

Is this the best course of action? Or should I just mix a new batch and toss this one. I have plenty more amendments and compost to make another batch. Should I wait it out and see if the smell goes away?

I plan on cooking in fabric pots from here on out.

Thanks!!

Spreading it out and letting as much surface area as possible be exposed to air is a good move. You should be alright, just give it a few days to get back to aerobic and stir it as needed to keep soil moisture even-ish. I've done this, similar situation, and it turned out fine. Do you think you added too much water? Seal it off too completely?

Good luck.

 

[GreenSanta]

you probably over watered, I have done dry mixes in the past to water whenever I was ready to cook and to my surprise their was enough moisture in the mix to create a white film of fungi like it was cooking already. That said, I have also overwatered and used the stinky mix anyway without any negative side effects, now I just keep it on native soil with a tarp on top, never goes anaerobic. Anyway, dont stress it too much...

 

[st0wandgrow]

Ok so it's me again. I have learned so much since my original post....like a lot

Finding buildasoil.com may be life altering for me right now. The sheer amount of information is amazing and with its no bullshit/posting results attitude, it makes for an excellent read for anyone who is having trouble growing and not understanding the problem.

I've been growing for years and just following recipes that get a lot of praise. This is fine for most people but when problems happen....that recipe doesn't tell you what's wrong with it! I've troubleshooter just about everything I can think of and have come to the conclusion that the problem lies on my soil.

I have done subcools supersoil, TLO and recycling.

*just look at the blog part of builasoil.com...you will find out why supersoil and the revs TLO method are all good starting points but are way off. Some of the things don't even make sense to do and we are all put trying to source these exotic amendments ect..sigh...just thought I'd share that

Well Jeremy at buildasoil has a mentor named clackamas coot. I'm sure all of you have heard of him since his recipe is basically on the first page of this thread if not word for word.

Now that I'm back on track and understanding things a lot clearer, I'm wondering if anyone knows of where you can find more of Clackamas Coots information. Through Google I have found some things but there isn't much besides his soil recipe.

Anyone have a spreadsheet or notepad or word doc that may have a compilation of his info?

I'm specifically looking for his composting method and what he uses as a worm farm for vermicomposting.

Any sourced besides buildasoil for his info in general would be great! Anyone help me out?

I've made a point of reading as many of coots words as I could over the years. He's a very intelligent guy, and a great resource. Rrog is the RIU version of coot IMO. Pay attention to what those two say and you'll do well.

As for coots approach to composting, he was always an advocate of feeding whatever dry meals you add to your soil to the worms. Single best piece of advice that I incorporated in to my routine. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Those meals are useless until broken down, and each of them mineralize at a different rate, and impact the soil differently while being processed. What better way to make plant available all of the goodies we add to our soil than to toss some in to a bin crawling with hungry microbes?

At this point I don't mess with any teas. Just water, and a top dress or two of supercharged worm poo along the way. My garden is so simple now. Auto pilote

 

[littlejacob]

I've made a point of reading as many of coots words as I could over the years. He's a very intelligent guy, and a great resource. Rrog is the RIU version of coot IMO. Pay attention to what those two say and you'll do well.

As for coots approach to composting, he was always an advocate of feeding whatever dry meals you add to your soil to the worms. Single best piece of advice that I incorporated in to my routine. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Those meals are useless until broken down, and each of them mineralize at a different rate, and impact the soil differently while being processed. What better way to make plant available all of the goodies we add to our soil than to toss some in to a bin crawling with hungry microbes?

At this point I don't mess with any teas. Just water, and a top dress or two of supercharged worm poo along the way. My garden is so simple now. Auto pilote

Bonjour
You really just add ewc in topdress for vegg and bloom?
I am really interested...atm it is soilbag coco ewc and batguano plus molasses and tap water!
And now that I saw that it is easy to diy a worm bin with some fish package (the big long one) I am going to make one soon!
So I guess it depend on how you feed them to get different NPK valor!?!
Or do you give them everything you throw away?(except for the thing they can't eat!)
CU

 

[st0wandgrow]

Bonjour
You really just add ewc in topdress for vegg and bloom?
I am really interested...atm it is soilbag coco ewc and batguano plus molasses and tap water!
And now that I saw that it is easy to diy a worm bin with some fish package (the big long one) I am going to make one soon!
So I guess it depend on how you feed them to get different NPK valor!?!
Or do you give them everything you throw away?(except for the thing they can't eat!)
CU

Yep, that's it.

In addition to the dry meals, the worms also eat all of our veggie and fruit scraps. I also put my cannabis fan leaves in there after harvest as a top layer...but they get devoured too within a few weeks.

My base also consists of leaf mold. There is a substantial amount of NPK value in leaf litter, so I would imagine that helps as well.

 

[Rrog]

So that leaf mold is workin out OK? How much are you using as a % of total volume, do you suppose? 10%? 30%?

 

[st0wandgrow]

So that leaf mold is workin out OK? How much are you using as a % of total volume, do you suppose? 10%? 30%?

Yep, I love it Rrog. Such a nice consistency.

I've been experimenting a bit with it. It accounts for anywhere between 1/3 to 1/2 of my base. I'm using a bit more leaf mold, and a bit less ewc in the initial mix knowing that I will top dress with pure ewc a couple times along the way. I had issues with my soil getting too thick and muddy with all of the castings, so I'm using a bit less now out of the gate.

 

[elkamino]

Yep, I love it Rrog. Such a nice consistency.

I've been experimenting a bit with it. It accounts for anywhere between 1/3 to 1/2 of my base. I'm using a bit more leaf mold, and a bit less ewc in the initial mix knowing that I will top dress with pure ewc a couple times along the way. I had issues with my soil getting too thick and muddy with all of the castings, so I'm using a bit less now out of the gate.

I use 30% EWC (commercial, not homegrown ) in my base but have long been curious about leaf mold...

Do you make, buy or wildcraft it? And if you harvest outdoors and bring it inside, do you have any issues with critters coming in to your indoor garden? Or does an otherwise solid indoor environment allow beneficials to maintain control over any interlopers?

I live in a sm apartment, in Anchorage, and find composting impractical right now. But I should be able to score a bunch of wild leaf mold as soon as the ground thaws in a couple months, cottonwood- and alder-based in particular. Thanks!

 

[Rrog]

@GreaseMonkeyMan has the same thought on the soup of pure castings.

I'm building a shit ton of soil for raised vegetable beds outside. I don't have the leaf mold available, so I'll be using peat. I was going to mix 1/2 manure-based compost + 1/2 commercial (local) Castings. This compost / castings mix would = 1/3 of the soil by volume. 1/3 peat and 1/3 aeration.

For aeration, I'm going heavy on chunky. I have big lava rock and big / small biochar. Obviously I'll N charge the biochar, but I'm grooving on the idea of more 1/2" - 1 1/2" chunks of charged biochar as an aeration amendment.

I'd rather use leaf mold than Peat, but not this year. I'm going to try to get leaf mold going this year for next year's garden expansion.

 

[st0wandgrow]

I use 30% EWC (commercial, not homegrown ) in my base but have long been curious about leaf mold...

Do you make, buy or wildcraft it? And if you harvest outdoors and bring it inside, do you have any issues with critters coming in to your indoor garden? Or does an otherwise solid indoor environment allow beneficials to maintain control over any interlopers?

I live in a sm apartment, in Anchorage, and find composting impractical right now. But I should be able to score a bunch of wild leaf mold as soon as the ground thaws in a couple months, cottonwood- and alder-based in particular. Thanks!

I started my pile in the fall of 2014. I was using my neighbors in the interim. Mine is ready, and I've used it in the last couple batches of soil that I've made. No unwanted critters, or ill effects of any kind that I've noticed. I chose to add a good amount of N (alfalfa meal) to my pile to both speed the process up, and attract thermophilic bacteria to the pile to destroy any pathogens that may be present. So far so good!

I just take a leaf blower and blow all of my leaves in to one corner of my yard. I then run over the leaves with my lawn mower to increase surface area and break them down a bit. Wet it down, project some alfalfa meal over the pile, turn, then leave it be. 12 months later and you're left with a dark, crumbly material that makes the best medium I have ever worked with. Good water retention, but also very porous. I used to water my 10 gal containers once every 3-4 days. Now I have to water every 36-48 hours. Absent an automated watering device (like blu mats) it makes for a bit more work, but the growth and overall health of my plants has improved drastically. I'm assuming this is due to the increased oxygen to the root zone, and perhaps fungi/bacteria that colonize the leaf mold.

It's free, easy to make, and is the most environmentally friendly medium that I'm aware of. I urge everyone to try it!

 

[Rrog]

@st0wandgrow I'm really glad to hear about your success with the leaf mold. A lot more nutrients are released from leaf mold than peat when either continues to be metabolized in the pot, so your so successfully incorporating this is super exciting.

Very interesting to hear your thought that there's a big jump in aeration. Sorry if this has been covered, but are you doing hard side pails? If fabric pots, what size?

Lastly, just to confirm, maybe up to 50% of your soil by volume is leaf mold? That large starting amount allows for more generations of microbial breakdown before losing the aeration benefit, it would seem.

Sorry for all of the questions but I know you and trust your judgement on this and you're using a higher % of leaf mold than I've previously heard about which is very exciting.

I'm a huge believer in aeration, back from the days when I pumped air thru the soil. Even my outdoor raised garden beds will have soft sides of landscape fabric. Also drip lines so plenty of water for constant moistness. The constant moistness rather than wet / dry cycles is the way to go IMHO.

 

[Organicgrow42]

Excellent comments. I'll be using leaf mold hopefully this year but it may not be ready yet.

So as far as vermicomposting. I have the worm factory 360 for now. Anyone using this small of a bin, how much food is being put in at one time and how often is that food being placed.

I read you guys sometimes take weeks to feed but that is in a large bin say over 30 gallons or more right? I domt want things to get too wet in there and also want the worms to survive and breed.

My goal is to use the factory til it's full and also start another worm bin out of and half filled 45 gallon smart pot. When that is full I'll get another. I want to make castings on a large scale in the coming years so just trying to get on my way!

 

[Organicgrow42]

Oh crap wrong thread sorry guys

 

[st0wandgrow]

@st0wandgrow I'm really glad to hear about your success with the leaf mold. A lot more nutrients are released from leaf mold than peat when either continues to be metabolized in the pot, so your so successfully incorporating this is super exciting.

Very interesting to hear your thought that there's a big jump in aeration. Sorry if this has been covered, but are you doing hard side pails? If fabric pots, what size?

Lastly, just to confirm, maybe up to 50% of your soil by volume is leaf mold? That large starting amount allows for more generations of microbial breakdown before losing the aeration benefit, it would seem.

Sorry for all of the questions but I know you and trust your judgement on this and you're using a higher % of leaf mold than I've previously heard about which is very exciting.

I'm a huge believer in aeration, back from the days when I pumped air thru the soil. Even my outdoor raised garden beds will have soft sides of landscape fabric. Also drip lines so plenty of water for constant moistness. The constant moistness rather than wet / dry cycles is the way to go IMHO.

I'm using both fabric and plastic. Mostly fabric. Couldn't bring myself to toss the plastic buckets when I started buying the geo pots. I use 10 gal for my regular rotation plants, and 5-7 gal for new strains from seed. I just don't like to commit a bunch of soil and space to plants that may end up being males, or crap phenos.

Edit: keep in mind that I dump and re amend the soil after each run. Not sure how a no-till setup would do with my percentages...?

 

[Rrog]

So this is essentially your aeration component also. Dual duty. Are you using pumice or lava rock etc for an aeration component aside from the leaf mold? Doesn't seem like you'd need to.

So glad you tried this