So who here is growing in true organic living soil?

nuggs is the man...I respect him...
Subcool is also the man...I've ran over 8 TGA strains, and have no complaints.
Thanks for the suggested reading. I will be buying this book soon. Nothing wrong with being informed.

I think the reason most organic taste better is because its alive. If you take a specific formula and mix it in the reservoir your plants get what they need, nothing more, nothing less. If there in a soil that is constantly changing it must go through thousands of nutrient combinations that you just can't bottle. Don't get me wrong I've smoked some damn fine chemmy weed. And if your gonna use all kinds of fish emulsions and poop then you have to final flush, nothing like having your weed taste just like bat shit. I like that when I grow organic I get all kinds of fall colors that I don't with most fertilizers. For a while I thought I was loosing yield but with a healthy soil they still get fed right til the end. Plus when dealing with finicky strains or light feeders soil is your friend.

Soil is definitely comforting for the plant. After all, a few hundred million years of evolution with do that for ya. But again, props to the hydro dudes. I sure liked my hydro back in the day. Grew some great NL#5

Rrog said:

Soil is definitely comforting for the plant. After all, a few hundred million years of evolution with do that for ya. But again, props to the hydro dudes. I sure liked my hydro back in the day. Grew some great NL#5

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Which you better get some more of or your better half will slap you!

If she knew I told you guys I would hope a slap is all I get.

Rrog said:

You can get a groovy little Brix meter and have a go at measuring it with your MJ. It's a simple little handheld thing you look through with a drop of MJ Juice on the end.

Brix is often associated with a sugar content, but that's a bit misleading. Brix is a rough measurement of the total dissolved solids, which includes sugars. Higher Brix is associated with more nutrients and flavor.

Hello Hic! So you're saying that with soil you're getting a build-up? I just build the soil initially and then it's just water after that. If I'm recycling the soil like Spanky (NickNasty) wisely does, then I'm amending as I go with compost and EWC (EarthWorm Castings). Some fish meal and Alphalfa (right Spanky?) for added N.

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Yeah I just amend my soil. Here is what I add to my soil after each grow then I let it sit for 3 weeks
Per 25-30 gallons of soil
1 cup each of
Soft Rock Phosphate
Green Sand
Diatomaceous Earth
Alfalfa Meal
Kelp Meal
Blood Meal
Bone Meal
Azomite
Dolomite Lime
Mexican Bat Guano for veg soil
Indonesian Bat Guano for flower soil
Couple handfuls of EWC
Couple handfuls of Humus
Half a bag of good compost

I up pot as needed and up pot a week before flower in my flower soil. I use a basic compost tea every time I transplant and use compost tea w/ferts if I see any deficiencies which is rarely. Other than that all I do is water.

That is very cool Spankster. So how many cycles are you running with the same soil? Also, you might want to look at adding a couple cups of carbon / charcoal per cubic foot. Excellent microlife condominiums. Google Terra Preta Project http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/research/terra preta/terrapretamain.html

straight supersoil, works everytime!! i can get 2 great grows with the soil and the 3rd not so much, the leftover usually goes out onto the raspberries.

I've been running SS. I think it's a great transition for someone to get into a no-muss soil. The whole trick to re-using soil is in the re-ammending. If done right, the soil gets better with age and you can run virtually perpetually

I grew hydro for years and had decent results. I have switched to organic and will never go back, the auroma and flavor are enough alone to convince me. I have become more health concience as the years have passed and truly believe the shit that is in those chemicals we ingest will kill us sooner than the automobiles we roll around in. I have switched alot of the food cleaning and health products in our household over to organic. As for my soil mix here she is.

1 part EWC/ homebrew compost
1 part perlite
1 part peat ( i used promix this round because I had some

amendments=

lime
blood meal
high n bat guano
high p bat guano
rabbit manure
rock phos
kelp meal

I think you mean ..."I switched to soil and will never go back."

That's great. I think a lot of guys are down with using soil, but I think most still toss the soil after a grow. I think it's worth specifically discussing the amendments. Some are needed, and some, like clay and humus, can get maxed.

I have some thoughts on amendments, but have to head to the grocery store now.


Base Soil

1/3 Sphagnum Peat from Premier Peat or Alaska Peat
1/3 Aeration material (2 parts Perlite, 2 parts chunky coco, 1 part Vermiculite)
1/3 Humus (1 part EWC, 1 part local / used topsoil, 1 part leaf litter, 1 part compost)

Per Cubic Foot of the Base Soil:

½ Cup DE
½ Cup Espoma Starter Plus
1 cup Charcoal
½ Cup Epsom Salt
4 cups Rock Powders (4X Glacial, 1X Bentonite, 1X Oyster Shell, 1X Basalt)

½ Cup Neem Meal (2 g / L)
1 Cup Crab Shell Meal
2 Cups Kelp Meal (Espoma makes it)
2 Cups Fish Meal
2 Cups Fish Bone Meal
1 Cup Sul-Po-Mag
½ Cup Alfalfa

1.5 Cups Montmorillonite clay
1.5 Cups Pyrophyllite Clay

Moisten with Fresh Aloe (2 Tbs Juice with 1 gallon water) and Accelerant Tea (Comfrey, Yarrow, Horsetail or Nettle)

I pre-inoculate with BTI and Nematodes. Let rest for 4 weeks.

Recipe largely courtesy of Gascanistan and Clackamas Coot. Tried and true. With amendments, they don't even till the soil. Chop one plant, plop a seed or clone right next to it and keep going. 12-13 generations like that and the fungal colony just gets more and more efficient by not disturbing the soil. Add a few worms. They're free. Red wigglers, not nightcrawlers.

Rrog said:

That is very cool Spankster. So how many cycles are you running with the same soil? Also, you might want to look at adding a couple cups of carbon / charcoal per cubic foot. Excellent microlife condominiums. Google Terra Preta Project http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/research/terra preta/terrapretamain.html

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Well I moved up here Nov. of last year so this batch has been going for a year before that the soil I was using lasted 3 years and now another grower is using it. The only thing I have changed since I started reusing my soil 4 yrs ago is now I add Azomite, Guano, and make tea.
And my recipe came largely courtesy of 3 Little Birds.

And I will look into the charcoal. Do you buy your char or do you make it.

Edit: I may also try the crab meal I like the idea of chitin.

That's very impressive NN. Really impressive. That's the thing. A lot of what we add for trace minerals is slow release and really starts kicking in after a couple of grows. The root system of the old plant is rapidly digested by the microbes if there are new roots present. The microbes clean house very fast and thoroughly.

Soil is the cheapest way to grow, hands down. If you recycle the soil. Nothing against hydro, I want to keep stressing that. I really like hydro systems, hell, look at Huel's grow. Right out of a magazine. I just don't happen to run one.

You would really like the crab and char.

By the way, all this stuff is available and for cheap online.

Rrog said:

That's very impressive NN. Really impressive. That's the thing. A lot of what we add for trace minerals is slow release and really starts kicking in after a couple of grows. The root system of the old plant is rapidly digested by the microbes if there are new roots present. The microbes clean house very fast and thoroughly.

Soil is the cheapest way to grow, hands down. If you recycle the soil. Nothing against hydro, I want to keep stressing that. I really like hydro systems, hell, look at Huel's grow. Right out of a magazine. I just don't happen to run one.

You would really like the crab and char.

By the way, all this stuff is available and for cheap online.

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Will a premixed soil like roots or happy frog be ok for a base? And for the bokashi, can aI use the beneficials that I already have (zho) to innoculate the wheat? I am only just starting with" organics" buy it is starting to make more sense. Very interested in getting my brix up.

fattie, thanks for stopping by. You could absolutely use those soils as a base.

For bokashi, you can inoculate bran with some LactoB. No problem, and that works great. I love to make my own. So damn easy and I'm turning my garbage into top shelf compost with the help of worms in your lawn.

Sweet thanks for answering. Right now I just have a bag of roots soil and I wet it down add bennys, along with some liquid humic, cold processed seaweed, and EWC. Stir it up and let sit for awhile. Seems to be working OK but it looks like I am missing a few ingredients.

I grow with what I call the "Home Grown Organic" method.
I make compost, leaf mold, worm castings, and grow herbs like comfrey, nettle, chamomile, clovers and alfalfas to make plant extracts of. I am working on exact fermented formulas for veg and flower.

Add some minerals (greensand, azomite, rock phosphate, oyster shells) and myco friends and I am good to go.

Living Organics, the only true medicinal quality herbs out there.

fattiemcnuggins said:

Will a premixed soil like roots or happy frog be ok for a base? And for the bokashi, can aI use the beneficials that I already have (zho) to innoculate the wheat? I am only just starting with" organics" buy it is starting to make more sense. Very interested in getting my brix up.

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I like roots over happy frog and ocean forest. I used to use ocean forest in my base but it has gone down hill over the years and they are using cheaper ingredients and I get gnats anytime I use now.
For my base soil right now I am using
Bag of each
Roots potting soil - has in it bat guano, earth worm castings, fish bone meal, feather meal, green sand, mycorrihzae, glacial rock dust, soybean meal, and humic acid
FoxFarm Planting Mix - has a concentrated mix of organic peat, forest humus, earthworm castings and bat guano
FoxFarm Light Warrior - has mycorrhizae fungi and other biological catalysts and lightens up the soil mix a bit.
Black Gold Compost or any other GOOD Compost - there are a lot of sub par composts out there look for something very black and good texture
(2) 5 Gal buckets of chunky perlite - if you can find the larger chunkier stuff it is better
Mix well

I use this for 1 run with no other amendments because it already has plenty of stuff in it. It just needs water and if I see anything lacking a month in I up pot or I add whats needed in my compost tea. It is a great starter/base soil or a good soil for people who don't have the space to store soil for reuse/reamending and it is a pretty fool proof way to start organic gardening.

ok Rrog--

wat do you do if you get a batch that ferments and creates the 'bad' beastie....?

i have a friend that created a mix and when he watered heavy the run off got real real stinky..

.I didn't know what totell him except to keep flushing the container till the stink went away....
now the plants that are in those containers are lagging real bad and when I went back to his house they are lighter green and not doing as well as his other ones that are thriving in the mix I made for him...

is there a way to rid the bad beasties?? or are his containers contaminated and growing the bad ones and he should start over?

can you inoculate again and the good beasties will kill the bad?
or should I tell him to top dress with some crab meal and try and create the chitins to attack the bad guys?

most of my experience is outside and I am learning to bring my outdoor skills inside--I haven't encountered this yet
thks

or anyone else have this experience and know something they can post here-

hi buckaroo-
as u already know plants can get slogged in w/ all that flushing, oxygen deficit.. that's one consid and depending u can always create a few airholes round the surface o container w/ a chop stick. some degree of medium sterilization can be achieved w adding hydrogen peroxide to flush. anything over the counter barely diluted won't phase plants further.

how about providing some readily avail. nutes first, then inoculate again for quick bounce-back. i'd think by just letting the containers begin to dry out, neg. bacteria would mostly dissipate, def reinnoculate.. good luck