Cheap, or better yet, free ways to amend soil over fall/winter.

[chuey_316]

My 1st outdoor grow is winding down, and I'm looking for some ways to amend my soil for the next season. I don't use any nutes outdoors. Just plant the lades in the ground after vegging indoors for a bit in some water only soil. Only thing I did on this run is top dress 2 times with EWC, watered twice with EWC tea, and gave each plant ~1 cup of Espoma Garden Tone, once during veg, and once leading into flower.

I'd really like to amend the soil for next season so that the next girls can get the nutes they need, and I'm looking to do it in the most cost effective IE free way possible. So far I've thought about tilling in my yard clippings and leaves bagged up from the mower, maybe a few bags of EWC. and I may also be able to get rabbit manure for $10/50lbs.

Does this sound ok, or will I be just be wasting time and/or making a toxic home for my plants?

 

[exploziv]

For sure adding even a bit of everything will help. Leave them mixed on the soil for a while, as a mulch, then incorporate into topsoil after a while. Just dont add too much lawn clipping. At least not wet.. it will make it funky and sour.

 

[40degsouth]

I’d make a compost heap/worm bin and plant a green manure crop asap, to hold onto the nutrients that are already present in the soil and to help keep the soil profile together.
Make weed teas in a bucket and feed the soil/ green manure crop weekly.
Check out the “How To” Korean Natural Farming tutorials on You Tube; you might find the ability to make your own inputs insightful.
Deffinetly check out the “Local Materials” thread in the “Organic Soil” section.
Hope this helps you out a bit,
Cheers,
40.

 

[Greenheart]

Starbucks gives away coffee grounds for free. If you have a small mom and pop restaurant maybe they would save vegetable scraps and eggs shells for you. I did it for a years in my front yard and it went from gravel, clay, and pine needles to a richer more loamy substrate. I can get away with very little watering as well. I took the idea from Hugelkulture and turned it into a raised bed type scene.

I dug a pit about 10'Lx'8'Wx4'H. Filled it with some slash pile wood. Then proceeded to turn in the scraps for about 8 years. During the winter I piled it up. In the spring I raked it out and mulched it in. Then started a new pile until the next spring.The boss was happy because it was less waste filling his dumpster bin.

 

[chuey_316]

I thought about starting some compost in totes, but the ol lady won't go for the smell. She had enough of a fuss that I was growing outdoor in the first place. That's why I'm looking for things that I can till into the ground after harvest, and be ready to plant in the spring. I can get away with the clippings, leaves, EWC, and coffee grounds, but couldn't leave them set for too long before tilling, as it's coming into the rainy season, and the ground will start to freeze before much longer. The rabbit manure would have to wait until it's time to till.

 

[Greenheart]

I hear you on the missus. Mine originally didn't go for it either. I started out by digging a deep hole and burying a 45 gallon trashcan with the bottom cut out and a bunch of 1" holes bored thru the sides. I left the lid on and just threw the scraps in there. Over time I learned the winter snow covered up the scraps so she didn't worry until spring. By then it was all pretty broken down from the winter and I would just turn it into the soil. Now she throws the scraps in the yard herself.

Maybe she will let you get away with a small corner and a tarp to keep it out of sight. It really doesn't stink like a garbage dump or anything. Mostly when you poke it.

 

[Creeperpark]

Where ever the grow area is, is a good place to harvest materials for a good grow plot. I go into the local woods close to the plots and take the top inch of topsoil from under the tree canopy and incorporate it into the soil in the Winter. . I used two 5-gallon buckets so I could move 10 gallons at a time. The leaf litter will feed the microbes and act as a sponge to hold water and nutrients in the Summer. Also I used a lot of grasses from the local area as mulch on the plots too and will break down and feed the soil. Anything organic in the area will be suited for a soil amendment. Winter is the time to build the soil.

 

[Cvh]

Already posted by others. But I also compost all of my organic kitchen and garden waste. The finished compost is then used to amend the garden.

Composting for me saves me double money, I don't have to pay the municipal to come pick it up as trash and also I have to buy less amendments and peat based soilbags.

 

[f-e]

You can't amend the soil by putting in something, nothing or everything. The very first step in mending something, is figuring out why it's broken.

Why does it need amending?

 

[f-e]

Let me expand on that..

First thing of interest, is the type of soil. There are 3 main categories. Sand, Loam, Clay. A seasoned grower will often ball some up in his hands, trying to make a golf ball.
If you have sand, it just won't happen. We know that sand is quite inert and holds very little. You can't get a seasons worth of food in your sand. You would start off too toxic, then it would wash away. Sandy soils need volumes of stuff adding, and generally a balanced approach such as commercial composts are fine.
Clay is often loaded with some things, and deficient in others. You could give a mild feed to deficient plants, and burn them them. As a balanced feed increases everything. Clay benefits from bio matter, but just for texture.
Clay and Loam want a targeted approach. Where we want to put in what is missing, but not what we have in excess. We want to balance up the available food in a manner that suits our plants.

Enter the soil sampling lab.
For about £50 you can see exactly what is in your soil. Or what isn't. A good farmer tests every few years, and just puts back what is needed. Anything else would ruin the field, making amendments impossible.
You may not think this is for you. Consider this though. You might be carrying 250kg of compost to a site, and chucking in chicken manure, just making it worse. When actually you needed 3kg of bone meal.
Most sampling labs will offer fertiliser recommendations if you care to tell them the crop and if you want a low/medium/high yield. (They like to know a few other things to. Last crop. When. Cover crop. I just go with fallow.) Maize is a fast growing single season crop with similar needs. The lab get the recommendations from literature the countries agriculture bureau produces. These government bodies (defra in the UK) monitor farm results in full, to guide farming in the right direction. You don't need to be a scientist to use the soil labs. Far from it..

A typical sample is taken, buy hammering a 50mm tube, 150mm into the ground. In order to get a core. You can dig a sample out instead, but it wants to be a good example of the first 150mm.

Here is the first link I found, that should expand on my post clearly(I have not actually read the site, but it looks right)
https://soiltest.cfans.umn.edu/examp...gronomic-crops

I think I have done about 20 years of outdoor. As many as 7 sites a year. It was about 4 years ago I got into soil sampling, and saw some sites were beyond hope. Others were fixed. The results were immediate. I didn't break my back carrying. I didn't have to dig. The plants were better.
I should of really done the sampling a year later, as there was no prior program of testing. I should of checked how well my corrections took, and then on a third year I could of seen how much my plants took. Although yearly consumption of crop analogues is available from the gov.

 

[flylowgethigh]

You might be a good candidate for hugelkultur, or "termite tek" as I call it. As long as you have a hole dug to put in the wood, add organic humus goodness to the mix that refills the soil. Maybe also encourage some worms to take up residence.

 

[chakras]

Starbucks gives away coffee grounds for free. If you have a small mom and pop restaurant maybe they would save vegetable scraps and eggs shells for you. I did it for a years in my front yard and it went from gravel, clay, and pine needles to a richer more loamy substrate. I can get away with very little watering as well. I took the idea from Hugelkulture and turned it into a raised bed type scene.

I dug a pit about 10'Lx'8'Wx4'H. Filled it with some slash pile wood. Then proceeded to turn in the scraps for about 8 years. During the winter I piled it up. In the spring I raked it out and mulched it in. Then started a new pile until the next spring.The boss was happy because it was less waste filling his dumpster bin.

Coffee grounds are great. They make superb tea!

 

[chakras]

Let me expand on that..

First thing of interest, is the type of soil. There are 3 main categories. Sand, Loam, Clay. A seasoned grower will often ball some up in his hands, trying to make a golf ball.
If you have sand, it just won't happen. We know that sand is quite inert and holds very little. You can't get a seasons worth of food in your sand. You would start off too toxic, then it would wash away. Sandy soils need volumes of stuff adding, and generally a balanced approach such as commercial composts are fine.
Clay is often loaded with some things, and deficient in others. You could give a mild feed to deficient plants, and burn them them. As a balanced feed increases everything. Clay benefits from bio matter, but just for texture.
Clay and Loam want a targeted approach. Where we want to put in what is missing, but not what we have in excess. We want to balance up the available food in a manner that suits our plants.

Enter the soil sampling lab.
For about £50 you can see exactly what is in your soil. Or what isn't. A good farmer tests every few years, and just puts back what is needed. Anything else would ruin the field, making amendments impossible.
You may not think this is for you. Consider this though. You might be carrying 250kg of compost to a site, and chucking in chicken manure, just making it worse. When actually you needed 3kg of bone meal.
Most sampling labs will offer fertiliser recommendations if you care to tell them the crop and if you want a low/medium/high yield. (They like to know a few other things to. Last crop. When. Cover crop. I just go with fallow.) Maize is a fast growing single season crop with similar needs. The lab get the recommendations from literature the countries agriculture bureau produces. These government bodies (defra in the UK) monitor farm results in full, to guide farming in the right direction. You don't need to be a scientist to use the soil labs. Far from it..

A typical sample is taken, buy hammering a 50mm tube, 150mm into the ground. In order to get a core. You can dig a sample out instead, but it wants to be a good example of the first 150mm.

Here is the first link I found, that should expand on my post clearly(I have not actually read the site, but it looks right)
https://soiltest.cfans.umn.edu/examp...gronomic-crops

I think I have done about 20 years of outdoor. As many as 7 sites a year. It was about 4 years ago I got into soil sampling, and saw some sites were beyond hope. Others were fixed. The results were immediate. I didn't break my back carrying. I didn't have to dig. The plants were better.
I should of really done the sampling a year later, as there was no prior program of testing. I should of checked how well my corrections took, and then on a third year I could of seen how much my plants took. Although yearly consumption of crop analogues is available from the gov.

Think about what your grandfather used to do.

 

[St. Phatty]

I remove the top 1/2 of the soil in every 32 gallon pot.

Then mix that with worm castings and supplements (bone meal, wood ash).

Most of the work goes into the worm castings.

Got to keep giving them new food, make sure the medium is moist, then haul it indoors during the cold months so the worms can keep on eating and pooping.

 

[f-e]

Think about what your grandfather used to do.

He was a commercial grower. He knew his farm and used current techniques. He is diluted down to 25% in me, and still using current techniques.

We know nothing of the original posters farm.

Can you tell me how to fix my car. It's a car, and I'm not sure if anything is wrong with it. It just needs fixing.
My Grandfather couldn't do much with that over the internet either. However, plugging in for fault codes follows a similar route.

 

[St. Phatty]

Night Soil.

Spread thin. Birds & the Bees will make it disappear.

After 6 months there will be no smell ... if you do it right.

OK well at least it's cheap.

 

[zachrockbadenof]

i add about 1 to 1 1/2 32gallon garbage cans filled with compost from the recy. center every fall - my raised beds are 8x4feet - and i fertilize during the season with fox farm nutes - the plants grow like weeds... but i agree with the other poster who advised to have the soil checked- i will do that next spring..

 

[chuey_316]

Let me expand on that..

First thing of interest, is the type of soil. There are 3 main categories. Sand, Loam, Clay. A seasoned grower will often ball some up in his hands, trying to make a golf ball.
If you have sand, it just won't happen. We know that sand is quite inert and holds very little. You can't get a seasons worth of food in your sand. You would start off too toxic, then it would wash away. Sandy soils need volumes of stuff adding, and generally a balanced approach such as commercial composts are fine.
Clay is often loaded with some things, and deficient in others. You could give a mild feed to deficient plants, and burn them them. As a balanced feed increases everything. Clay benefits from bio matter, but just for texture.
Clay and Loam want a targeted approach. Where we want to put in what is missing, but not what we have in excess. We want to balance up the available food in a manner that suits our plants.

Enter the soil sampling lab.
For about £50 you can see exactly what is in your soil. Or what isn't. A good farmer tests every few years, and just puts back what is needed. Anything else would ruin the field, making amendments impossible.
You may not think this is for you. Consider this though. You might be carrying 250kg of compost to a site, and chucking in chicken manure, just making it worse. When actually you needed 3kg of bone meal.
Most sampling labs will offer fertiliser recommendations if you care to tell them the crop and if you want a low/medium/high yield. (They like to know a few other things to. Last crop. When. Cover crop. I just go with fallow.) Maize is a fast growing single season crop with similar needs. The lab get the recommendations from literature the countries agriculture bureau produces. These government bodies (defra in the UK) monitor farm results in full, to guide farming in the right direction. You don't need to be a scientist to use the soil labs. Far from it..

A typical sample is taken, buy hammering a 50mm tube, 150mm into the ground. In order to get a core. You can dig a sample out instead, but it wants to be a good example of the first 150mm.

Here is the first link I found, that should expand on my post clearly(I have not actually read the site, but it looks right)
https://soiltest.cfans.umn.edu/examp...gronomic-crops

I think I have done about 20 years of outdoor. As many as 7 sites a year. It was about 4 years ago I got into soil sampling, and saw some sites were beyond hope. Others were fixed. The results were immediate. I didn't break my back carrying. I didn't have to dig. The plants were better.
I should of really done the sampling a year later, as there was no prior program of testing. I should of checked how well my corrections took, and then on a third year I could of seen how much my plants took. Although yearly consumption of crop analogues is available from the gov.

Thanks f-e. Allot of great info there. My local soil is listed as Fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic Mollic Hapludalfs. I'll definitely look into getting my soil tested for a better idea of what may or may not be needed.

 

[Great outdoors]

Big cannabis plants are heavy feeders so unless every last drop of plant goes back in the soil, you are going to have to add some amendments.
A good place to start is all your trimmings and stalk/ waste from each plant should return to it's hole.
Other than that use local materials that are free. Wood chips, leaves, etc for a mulch. Think natural, like a forest in the fall. Lots of fresh ground food for the soil biology to eat, especially in the early spring.
Generally you will need to add some form of K and N as they are easily leached from the soil with the frequent heavy watering required to grow big cannabis plants. Wood ash is a great one for K and a little P and over the winter will negate the liming effect. I like using some Soybean and Alfalfa meal for N and good worm food for the spring.
Should also add some silt or rock dust over the mulch. Think what are the most fertile natural soils are in the world, Silt flood plains. History began with all great civilizations growing in these areas. What is the natural cycle here? Organic material covers the ground in the fall. Then in the spring the floods will cover the organic material with a fresh layer of silt.

 

[f-e]

mixed, semiactive, mesic Mollic Hapludalfs

Don't give your gorilla location away bud.