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Living organic soil from start through recycling

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Neo 420

Active member
Veteran
Alright guys...

How do you see this affecting organic living soil gardening and cannabis.....

Will access to equipment,amendments,and plant type be governed by authorities...

In other words after the initial licensing is underway,will patients be limited to certain 'brands'......will freedom of personal choice be compromised when it comes to what you can grow and/or have access to in relation to the actual quality of the medicine?

Will organic gardeners be allowed some form of organic certification?

Will cannabis finally be treated like ANY other plant crop on earth?

Just some of the questions in relation to how this directly affects the way we grow with ROLS and quality of product as far as a 'legal' and compliant cannabis supplier goes.

I think if any organic certification was in line it would unfortunately parallel ORMI and that would probably be the extent of it. You have to factor that each state is grossly different on enacting framework whether it be medical or personal. Unless the FED's really do hop aboard and give federal standards there is no telling of the "certifications" for anything.

But I do think this opens up real discussion on how to treat cannabis.. Its all baby steps..
 

DARC MIND

Member
Veteran
tought some local kids about hugelbeds,along with the concept of swells
they seemed to dig/get it

pretty cool to hear the thoughts on cottonseed
what about feather meal? i seem to catch that alot along with the cottonseed,blood,bone, as a trend in organic ingredients;with MG,scotts & the like.
 

rasputin

The Mad Monk
Veteran
Fuck 'em....I'll still do what I do forever. If they wanna play fair so will I....but until then I will remain skeptical of government managing my planet's naturally occurring medicine...and take matters into my own hands if I must. Am I a rebel...or just a citizen of a cleverly oppressive dictatorship.

This law was the perfect trick to pull off on stoners at the polls..."legalize pot man"...yeah sure dude,did you read the initiative?...it's a 'wolf in sheeps clothing' thing yo.
Makes sense they went to hempfest and hit up a rather large demographic of stoned people with the initiative..KNOWING they wouldn't read it.

Couldn't agree more, Gas.
 

MileHighGuy

Active member
Veteran
Buying more amendments tonight.... I'm looking forward to Having them all in my house and ready to go...

I found everything I need and I am really happy... but I have a few ingredients that I am curious about still... Maybe I missed reading about it here.

Screened Clay or Bentonite? Where do I get this? The topsoil where I live has lot's of clay... is this okay... or are we talking about pottery clay?
 

rrog

Active member
Veteran
http://www.portlandpottery.com/ -

4x - Glacial Rock Dust - Canadian Glacial (Gaia Green label)

1x - Bentonite - from the pottery supply store in PDX

1x - Oyster Shell Powder - the standard product from San Francisco Bay

1x - Basalt - from Redmond, Oregon (new product at Concentrates - about $18.00)bentonite per CC

Also:
Montmorillonite clay
Pyrophyllite Clay

All this was taken from CCs posts this past July in this thread.
 
Last edited:

MileHighGuy

Active member
Veteran
Wanted to put a list together of my expenses... now that I have it, I figured I'd share it with those thinking of starting.

When I originally tried Subcools soil recipe, starting with Roots Organics soil... I'm confident I spent much more.

This time, after reading the last hundred plus pages, I really feel that I have a better understanding of what the goal is... and now I'm on an Aloe +Silica Kick. haha

I'm Taking the recipe from page 1 and going with it x 5

Peat Moss $20 Local Nursery has bulk but I already purchased Alasks Peat Moss from the Garden Store.

Earth Worm Castings - $50 to my local worm guy and he met me in town with a 5 gallon bucket full of castings and worms :)

Topsoil- FREE - I decided not to screen it, am I crazy? I like the rocks and wood chunks. :dunno:

Rice Hulls - $10 at the Home Brew Store

Vermiculite $10 hydro shop with bro discount haha

Coco Chunks - $10 Same as above

Leaf Litter or Forest Duff - Free

Local Compost - Free, my local Producers co-op deals in truck loads, so my compost by the bucket was free to carry away :dance013:

Screened Clay or Bentonite - $10 I went with 5lb Bentonite

Oyster Shells - $8 I have chickens so I already had this

Gypsum - $10

Dolomite Lime - Not Included

Crab Shell Meal - $30 www.GrowOrganic.com

Kelp Meal - $15 Local Nursery

N. Bat Guano - $15 Local Nursery

Fish Bone Meal - $10 www.GrowOrganic.com

Sul-Po-Man - $6 Amazon.com

Neem Seed Meal - $13 - www.GrowOrganic.com Available starting on Saturday 11/9/2012

Alfafa - $10 at local nursery


So $227.00 and well under $300 Depending on shipping. For 5 TIMES THE RECIPE AMOUNT


Right now before I buy the last few Items I'm still considering whether or not I should screen my soil or bother with gypsum... I'm going to go read some more.

Time to go brew a tea up for the big party!
 
Wanted to put a list together of my expenses... now that I have it, I figured I'd share it with those thinking of starting.

When I originally tried Subcools soil recipe, starting with Roots Organics soil... I'm confident I spent much more.

This time, after reading the last hundred plus pages, I really feel that I have a better understanding of what the goal is... and now I'm on an Aloe +Silica Kick. haha

I'm Taking the recipe from page 1 and going with it x 5

Peat Moss $20 Local Nursery has bulk but I already purchased Alasks Peat Moss from the Garden Store.

Earth Worm Castings - $50 to my local worm guy and he met me in town with a 5 gallon bucket full of castings and worms :)

Topsoil- FREE - I decided not to screen it, am I crazy? I like the rocks and wood chunks. :dunno:

Rice Hulls - $10 at the Home Brew Store

Vermiculite $10 hydro shop with bro discount haha

Coco Chunks - $10 Same as above

Leaf Litter or Forest Duff - Free

Local Compost - Free, my local Producers co-op deals in truck loads, so my compost by the bucket was free to carry away :dance013:

Screened Clay or Bentonite - $10 I went with 5lb Bentonite

Oyster Shells - $8 I have chickens so I already had this

Gypsum - $10

Dolomite Lime - Not Included

Crab Shell Meal - $30 www.GrowOrganic.com

Kelp Meal - $15 Local Nursery

N. Bat Guano - $15 Local Nursery

Fish Bone Meal - $10 www.GrowOrganic.com

Sul-Po-Man - $6 Amazon.com

Neem Seed Meal - $13 - www.GrowOrganic.com Available starting on Saturday 11/9/2012

Alfafa - $10 at local nursery


So $227.00 and well under $300 Depending on shipping. For 5 TIMES THE RECIPE AMOUNT


Right now before I buy the last few Items I'm still considering whether or not I should screen my soil or bother with gypsum... I'm going to go read some more.

Time to go brew a tea up for the big party!

This is great MHG! Where'd ya get the cheap compost?? Are you in Boulder county?
 

Neo 420

Active member
Veteran
Right now before I buy the last few Items I'm still considering whether or not I should screen my soil or bother with gypsum... I'm going to go read some more.

Time to go brew a tea up for the big party!


Personally I would not add the gypsum due to leaching of mag and iron particularly with acidic soils. (Amongst other things) I would use it if you had salt issues in soil.. But lets wait for the more experienced and see what they have to say...
 

MileHighGuy

Active member
Veteran
@ IncrediBowl - Western Slope... Need to get to boulder someday. Try your local Co-op, I bought a few things and then asked if I could steal a bucket o' compost.

@ Neo420 - Thanks for the Gypsum info
 

Gascanastan

Gone but NOT forgotten...
Veteran
Wanted to put a list together of my expenses... now that I have it, I figured I'd share it with those thinking of starting.

When I originally tried Subcools soil recipe, starting with Roots Organics soil... I'm confident I spent much more.

This time, after reading the last hundred plus pages, I really feel that I have a better understanding of what the goal is... and now I'm on an Aloe +Silica Kick. haha

I'm Taking the recipe from page 1 and going with it x 5

Peat Moss $20 Local Nursery has bulk but I already purchased Alasks Peat Moss from the Garden Store.

Earth Worm Castings - $50 to my local worm guy and he met me in town with a 5 gallon bucket full of castings and worms :)

Topsoil- FREE - I decided not to screen it, am I crazy? I like the rocks and wood chunks. :dunno:

Rice Hulls - $10 at the Home Brew Store

Vermiculite $10 hydro shop with bro discount haha

Coco Chunks - $10 Same as above

Leaf Litter or Forest Duff - Free

Local Compost - Free, my local Producers co-op deals in truck loads, so my compost by the bucket was free to carry away :dance013:

Screened Clay or Bentonite - $10 I went with 5lb Bentonite

Oyster Shells - $8 I have chickens so I already had this

Gypsum - $10

Dolomite Lime - Not Included

Crab Shell Meal - $30 www.GrowOrganic.com

Kelp Meal - $15 Local Nursery

N. Bat Guano - $15 Local Nursery

Fish Bone Meal - $10 www.GrowOrganic.com

Sul-Po-Man - $6 Amazon.com

Neem Seed Meal - $13 - www.GrowOrganic.com Available starting on Saturday 11/9/2012

Alfafa - $10 at local nursery


So $227.00 and well under $300 Depending on shipping. For 5 TIMES THE RECIPE AMOUNT


Right now before I buy the last few Items I'm still considering whether or not I should screen my soil or bother with gypsum... I'm going to go read some more.

Time to go brew a tea up for the big party!

...Oyster shell. When we say 'oyster shell' here we mean a mined fossilized extinct oyster mined in the San Francisco bay and then powdered.

What you want is powdered oyster shell...adding chunks of the common chicken scratch type will be ineffective...yet it can't hurt one bit to add it to a soil mix...it just won't have much affect on ph.


Gypsum....

What you want to get is agricultural gypsum...this type is high in calcium and generally low in sulfur. Sulfur helps make calcium more available...the tiny amount in the 3-way lime mix will only benefit the soil in the long run.


Pretty critical to get this right when using peat.....follow standard liming practice using 1 cup of 'lime mix' per 1 cubic foot of peat moss..not soil mix. (2 tablespoons per gallon of peat moss)

You can skip the dolomite...but you should replace it with oyster shell...so your lime mix should look like this:

3 parts oyster shell powder
1 part agricultural gypsum


Also...take in to account the nitrogen %'s of all products and adjust amendment inputs accordingly. Alfalfa,neem,crab shell,fish bone meal...all contain nitrogen. When adding your main N source remember this.


Rice hulls act as a 'brown' in uncooked soil mixes. You'll possibly need to make sure that this doesn't become a problem by sequestering more N from your amendments than you planned. #1 rule..make sure you "cook" the soil long enough to allow adequate breakdown times for the components.
Alfalfa and the other amendments will act more like 'Greens"....keep the soil moist but not soggy when cooking and everything should work out just fine.

Get the right oyster shell and use correct amounts or you will have problems stemming from the material in the soil not being cycled with plants,fungi,and bacteria in the soil food web loop of ROLS yet. However a good amount of humic material from the EWC,compost,and topsoil will aid in this first run.
 

MileHighGuy

Active member
Veteran
Oh Sweet, this is good stuff.

I will get the Gypsum and Oyster shells done right then...

I'll be using my brain as much as I can when I go to mix.

I'll update on mix day!
 

shmalphy

Member
Veteran
Crab shell, lobster shell, and eggshell are all mainly CaCO3 and can work as liming agents as well.

Over here crab shell is super abundant, and everyone I know has chickens and eats lobster all summer, so it I get shells coming out my ears.

From my understanding they act as a buffer instead of raising or lowering ph so to speak.
 

bigshrimp

Well-known member
Veteran
So my buddy who works at a pool store tested my water... and gave me these results for my well water.

Total dissolved solids 304 ppm
Calcium 300
Iron 0
No phosphates

No reading on sodium but i assume it is minimal.

I run a dehumidifier and use the water collected along with my tap water. So say 2/3 tap 1/3 distilled.

So my question is,

As a start my soil recycling program how should i compensate for the elevated levels of calcium
?
 
Y

YosemiteSam

So my buddy who works at a pool store tested my water... and gave me these results for my well water.

Total dissolved solids 304 ppm
Calcium 300
Iron 0
No phosphates

No reading on sodium but i assume it is minimal.

I run a dehumidifier and use the water collected along with my tap water. So say 2/3 tap 1/3 distilled.

So my question is,

As a start my soil recycling program how should i compensate for the elevated levels of calcium
?

No need. It is tied up as CaCO3 and is not going to become available unless you start adding a bunch of acid...don't do that
 
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