Is this living soil thing some type of hippie scam??

[quitelost]

i wouldnt buy either

if you feel you must have a 'phosphorous amendment' fish bone meal

if i were to buy a soft phosphate it would be 'calphos' but; i just dont need it

I've wrote before that I have guano here almost 2k laying about so I will use it, would like to cut it out in the future but I dont think it will cause issues? This is going outside and I have refrained from adding fish products, plus can't find fish bone meal commercialized in this country, the people eat much fish here but I think they just grind it all up with the other parts to make fish meal or something? Will try harder to source this in the future but I dont think this is a resonable option right now.

I probally wouldent be considering the rock phosphate either but I'm having issues sourcing rock dusts, so I thought I might add it for some mineral diversity. The whole phosphate industry is pretty disgusting.

 

[xmobotx]

yeah; if you have it/use it ~i have used it as well

idk weird to me how rock phosphate just brings phosphate to the table. there has been a discussion about how you have to be careful sourcing RP since it has a likelihood of being radioactive {never pointed a giger cownter @ it so~} i like the basalt choice for rock dust

 

[quitelost]

Yeah found some powdered basalt today, will buy it even though it is horribily expensive for a rock I saw dosens of times on the way to the store.

 

[xmobotx]

the basalt i used i sifted along side the road ~it shouldnt be expensive but i can see it being hard to find

 

[quitelost]

When your buying it as a nutrient at the hydro store more than 3e/k, guy didn't even know he had it, we found it hidden in a corner.. will get a discount but its a common stone and will still be expensive at whatever pricebreak I end up with.

 

[xmobotx]

its a common stone

just say'n

 

[quitelost]

I dont have the means to crush rock so I dont get it? If I wanted a ton of this It would be cheap as hell but since I want 25k or less its not easy as that stuff doesnt really go retail here from what I can see. It's the problem with a lot of the products I'm seeking and since planting should be done this month I'm seriously considering buying the tubs of bentonite and basalt I found in a dusty corner of the grow store for this time.

 

[dreadlock]

similar to you bud, at the stage of purchasing ingredients, unfortunately have little experience behind me..

any differences in the store product compared to others, looks, texture etc wise..if it's different, how different? the worse case scenario if it's not similar.. being rock their shouldn't be much contaminates right which rinsing would fix easily! my guess would be no harm in trying it.. maybe dig around, make a few calls, ask the company for a breakdown on their product.. all the best!

 

[quitelost]

I don't think there is any quality issue with these products, I just feel kind of stupid paying about 2e/k for some rock from holland when I live in a mining area. Calcium cabonate I'm soposed to get for free from a local company and algae I should get for less than 10 cents a k or free but I dont have the time right now to find a fair price for every product I want.

 

[dreadlock]

makes sense to use what you can get for now as you mentioned earlier, only till you can find the right source since time is an issue.. no harm in bargaining with the store, worth a try

 

[quitelost]

Bought some mearl, please dont buy this you can make a similar product much more cheaply mixing dolomite and lime, mearl is pretty unsustainable. I just had easy access to this product from a local retailer that had this laying around and I dont think they have plans to restock this. This rock is about 50% cal and I will be adding it to a mix with a peat substrate that seems to already be limed(custom mix bale that was accidentally ordered by my hydro shop so its not clear, but the mixes from this company seem to come ph ajusted, all are 5.6-6, with this one its not clear but I'm working with that its limed).

I want to add 1 tablespoon lime to every gallon, This mix will mixed with dirt onsite so even if this substrate is limed if I add this little I dont belive this will cause any issue. The question is do I count 1 tablespoon of mearl as one tablespoon of lime or should I only count the cal content while liming, for example because mearl is approximatly 50% cal I should add two times more mearl than the quantity of lime I wish to add?

Thanks,

ql

 

[trichrider]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhwTtbSYf68

 

[quitelost]

Very interesting video, thanks for posting it!