941mick
Well-Known Member
What about a little yucca instead of cooking oil?
So who here is growing in true organic living soil?
- Thread starter Rrog
- Start date
Cory and trevor
Well-Known Member
Ok, cool. Thanks. I think I'll keep the questions rolling then! So, I have been dumping so of my tea into my composting barrels. I dump a gall or less in, stir it. I wait 2-3 days then turn it. After another week or so I transfer it so the packed stuff on the bottom becomes the more areated top. I do this once a month or so. Is it helping, hurting or having no effect? Obviously with my dirt and a scope u won't know for sure but what's the best guess on doing this? My hope was to help boost metabolism during the cooking of the soil by boosting colonies.thanks guys, great resource right here.
Mad Hamish
Well-Known Member
I have no access to Yucca so I cant say... I am from Africa not the Americas.
What you are doing is fantastic, keep it up! The more often you can make time to turn your compost the better. I work on once a week for fresh piles and once a month for my very old ones. Adding ACT will only speed things up.
shredder4
Well-Known Member
Your doing fine. Just think of that pile of soil as a living thing.
I keep a large trash container of extra soil in my room and feed it just like your doing. It's areated by hundreds of holes, has some worms and compost, bio char, old roots and whatever originally made with a old peat base. Every now and then, I toss extra feed/water in it to keep it moist. Very low maintenance and it works fine.
Cory and trevor
Well-Known Member
Wow. So I reread all my posts from my kindle and....how the he'll have u guys been able to decipher what I was saying? This keyboard on this tablet is making look and sound like a second grader lol. U guys are great. thanks a lot. this is a more rewarding way to grow and nobody in my circle can deny the superior scent and flavor of organic, non bottle fed soil product. Other shit works but this ORGANIC shit KILLS. Added my last barrel yesterday. I should be at 1 year of cook time on my soil in about 4 months. I get 3, 3 week cycles out of each 44 gallon barrel and I have 6 barrels full and half of another. Now the green sand should be broke down and usable at about 1 year, correct?
shredder4
Well-Known Member
The green sand should be available by now yes. Especially if you have good microbe activity. I've used it before but it's been a while. It's one of many I've dis guarded for whatever reason. I guess when you first get started you want to try everything. Maybe looking for that one thing to really rock your garden.
I've used dolomite lime, bonemeal, soft rock phosphates, blood meal, and many others. None are terrible, but I favor diversity, and lean toward inputs that have duel rolls. .
As in example coot's mix uses kelp, neem, and crab meals. All are good nutrients and play a small roll in plant health.
For rock dust, I've used of course lime, azamite, glacial rock dust, soft rock phosphates and others and next time I order some it will be basalt dust. Diversity.
Cory and trevor
Well-Known Member
Am I cheating to use cali magic for a boost of cal and mag? It's rare to see deficiency anymore probably because of the longer compost time.
a senile fungus
Well-Known Member
This is from memory (what's left of it) and I didn't sleep last night so give me a bit of leeway if incorrect, but, I believe the calimagic has Fe EDTA in it. EDTA is a chelating agent, synthetically made, that wreaks havoc on organic systems by messing with pH in unnatural ways.
So, while I don't think it's detrimental entirely, it is cheating because it isn't "organic".
941mick
Well-Known Member
They use DTPA now. Not nearly as bad as EDTA
Cory and trevor
Well-Known Member
Well thanks guys, I'll double check the only bottle left in my closet and discontinue use unless in extreme cases. I rarely use it now that my dirt is over 8 months composted before roots hit it. More rock dust (of what source I'll have to look up) should eliminate problems before they occur I bet.
Cory and trevor
Well-Known Member
So what's your process for reusing your soil mixes?
shredder4
Well-Known Member
Most all organic inputs have cal and mag. A deficiency is rare, especially with good compost like Rrog said. I've never owned, bought or used cal mag. So I don't think it's needed in organic growing.
shredder4
Well-Known Member
My method is no till. So right after harvest, I remove just enough soil and root ball, to put a rooted plant/clone/cutting in the hole. The idea is the new plant takes advantage of the microbial networks that should stay active for a short time after harvest.
This method cuts down on mixing and hauling/buying soil. If for some reason you want a break, you can keep your soil alive with cover crops until your ready for another cycle. After 6 mj cycles in hard sided 15 gallon pots, I grew egg plants in them right after an indoor harves, after I switched to fabric pots last spring.
Another method I've used is to recycle soil through a compost heap. Old soil with roots could be ideal worm habitat as well. Add in some high end food, and you'll eventually have super compost.
st0wandgrow
Well-Known Member
I didn't have much luck running no till. It seemed liked the clones were being starved of oxygen or something in the root zone. The plants grew ok, and looked healthy, but the yield was terrible on the 2'nd and 3'rd runs.
I've since switched to a leaf mold/coco coir base instead of peat which seems a lot "fluffier" to me, so maybe I'd have better luck now than I did using peat? I only use 10 gal containers (sometimes smaller) so that might have been an issue too. Either way, dumping the soil, re amending, and fluffing things up in between rounds is working great so that's what I do.
st0wandgrow
Well-Known Member
The kiddies sifting worm shit. They'd otherwise be farting around playing video games or something...may as well put them to work!! 
shredder4
Well-Known Member
After growing this way (no till) for some years I think it's safe to say the soil needs a good amount of N in whatever form. Along with feeding our plants, the microbes are always breaking down old roots. And that takes energy, N gives energy.
Not sure what was going on in your garden. Are you saying things went sour when you put rooted clones/cuts/plants in the bigger pots? Going in big pots my young plants are typically root bound and take right off after transplant. At this time I feed fish, alfalfa and neem in teas. I top dress crab meal, neem meal, and kelp meal. Every few cycles I top dress rock dust and gypsum. In a week or two my transplants fill a scrog screen and go into flower.
In my experience after a few cycles everything just kind of clicks and things goes real well. But if you found a different groove that works for you, sure go for it.
After starting with miracle grow 20+ plus years ago, I've been growing organic cannabis about 10 years I think. And indoors since 09. Probably 6 years no till. I used 2 mixes for all my no till. Not including adding compost frequently, I've only mixed soil twice and the last time was this year, mostly to use nicer pots and partly to mix in bio char. So this is my groove, I guess.
st0wandgrow
Well-Known Member
I was just saying that running no till was giving me issues. I do better when I dump the soil out after each round, re amend, add a lil EWC, and then plug a new clone in. It's like the soil was getting too compacted wiith the no till and starving the roots of oxygen or something.
I would prefer to go with no till because what you're saying makes sense, and it's a bit less work... but I have to stick with what's been working for me.
I'm really loving leaf mold btw!