Living organic soil from start through recycling

[Durdy]

Does a cover crop actually put more nitrogen into a soil? Or does it just slow the process of losing nitrogen to the atmosphere by storing it in plant material?

 

[rrog]

Puts it in nodules that we've all seen. Not sure about any other N fixing aspect. I've heard twice now that a soil with plenty of N will not sequester much more to supercharge it with N, as it were.

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

Certain crops (like legumes) live in symbiosis with the nitrogen fixing bacteria that infect their roots. The bacteria fix nitrogen from the air as those lumpy clusters in the roots. I've seen legume crops used as a 'bumper crop' where they're grown for a few weeks, then turned under so they die and release nitrogen. In keeping with the no-till approach, I think I'm gonna try burying em under paper and composting on top (aka sheet mulching) in my bins.

 

[Microbeman]

While we're at it, any thoughts on Grandma Enggy's F-1 by Advanced?
A couple of thoughts come to mind such as "worthless as tits on a boar hog" or "smearing lipstick on a pig still makes for a bad date"

~ quote worthy

 

[shmalphy]

I find clones do really well in pro mix hp. I get it from a wholesaler, so I only pay about $30 a bale (3.8 cu ft) and it comes with the mycorrhizae and the aeration already done. The base is peat, which contains fulvic acids, and I assume that is why it works so well, especially when using aloe and silica, it surpassed EWC by far.

It's the only thing I buy at this point, maybe a bale or 2 a year since I use 2 solo cups a week... Although I stopped growing cilantro and started buying it for 45 cents a bunch instead at the chinese market They also sell neem oil, $3.99 for 3.4 oz and I got more ginger and garlic to make Gil Cardandangs mix with. The house smelled potent after mixing and spraying all that, like a Himalayan restaurant..

I used up all my tm7 (ful-power plus micronutrients) and never ordered more. It worked well when I didn't have a raging compost pile and worm bin, but I feel it would be redundant now.

I like to keep it simple for the most part. My amending generally consists of a seaweed mulch and some clover seed. I immediately replant as soon as I take one out, I use the AM Leonard soil knife to cut a neat hole in the top soil, and put in a well vegged plant from a half gallon milk jug. They take off like a banshee.

 

[OrganicLearner]

It would be nice to have a reusable cloning medium, have you tried using the napa or perlite stuff to clone in and gently wash away napa from roots to reuse again shmalphy?

Has anyone tried cloning in aero cloner and inoculate with myco when transplanting into starter pot with soil? Seems like it would make the plant take off very good...or shock the plants life..

 

[BlueJayWay]

BlueJayWay

Trim the silver from the back of the ribs and then soak them in a brine like this:

1x some fruit juice like apple, orange, guava, whatever
1x some fruit juice like apple, orange, guava, whatever

Definitely get a pH on this mix and write it down a piece of paper!!!

To each gallon of that mix, add 2 tablespoons of good quality salt which means no Morton's

Soak the ribs for at least 12 hours - 24 is better. Remove, pat dry with a clean towel (you also want to pH this material as well - no sense courting complete disaster, eh?

Then do your own thing as far as the rub and whatever else you like doing. The enzymes in the fruit juices will break down some of the tougher tissues and the collagen which means more flavor. The juices do very little to the flavor of the meat as weird as that sounds but maybe it's the salt?

The piece of paper with the pH information? Use that to light the smoker......

CC

Holy shit coots, the fruit juice brings the BBQ to the nex level, that's it. We need a ROLS BBQ cook off day. Smoke nothin but TO all day and then BBQ, its settled, pick the day and ill make the drive!

 

[Gascanastan]

oh...it's been discussed in other places around here before. General vibe is that 'we' do it off ICMag.....then again us here voters in Washington and Colorado state have just legalized cannabis yo...it's like HELLO...we are blowing grass without the threat from the past century of prohibition law here~

....still kinda wondering how that affects us who live in these states and the rules of this here forum???

 

[BlueJayWay]

Blue Jay

I have let the indoor ROLS take a rest. It seems I really push it for all it can be..sometimes I feel this takes it beyond normal natural processes.
So my thought was,maybe allow it to sit in a place where the correct amount water and air can get at it for a cycle or few while I use the back up batch for a few cycles..which is the exact same soil.

Just to let it rest ya know....a vacation.

Forgive me, as I just got back from families house BBQ and football and I'm not really a football guy so that means BBQ and beer LOL - but this sounds a lot like what I have been generally doing, aside from the over amended batch, and I try to keep it generally moist and often spray the pile down with whatever leftover foliar spray or tea I have on hand, some of the soil is left in its last container to be reused in a notill type situation, including the morning glories and nasturtiums etc...

Organic farmers never replace their soil, but they do use crop rotation to avoid depletion. Using a nitrifying cover crop like clover helps avoid the problems associated with mono cropping. The farm i worked at was leaving some fields fallow between crops, so the "resting" idea does get used "in the real world" if you will.

It's become a habit of mine, whenever a plant Is placed in its final container, I sprinkle clover seeds around the edges (assuming there's not some growing already), some clover is on its second and third round in the no till pots, meaning its 4 to 6 months old and no clover has flowered yet, I guess backwards from cannabis....

 

[shmalphy]

I might make a bubble cloner or something.. We will see...

The pro mix gets worked right into the soil anyway, so it doesn't get wasted. I use 3 oz solo cups too, so it's just like a rapid rooter plug, only loose fill.

I have some Napa 8822, I will give it a shot. Seems the roots would consume most of it anyway, but it is worth trying.

 

[ClackamasCootz]

Puerco tacos al pastor - 'in the shepard's style'

3 guajillo chiles
3 ancho chiles
2 cascabel chiles
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 cloves garlic
2 1/2 tablespoons salt
3/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano
2 onions, peeled and sliced thin

5 pounds boneless pork butt, sliced as close to 1/4 inch as possible

Combine six cups of water, the dried chiles and the bay leaf in a large pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, and let stand until soft, about 5 minutes. Drain. Discard bay leaf, seed and stem chiles.

Put softened chiles in a food processor with the orange and pineapple juices, vinegar, cinnamon, salt, pepper, garlic, oregano, and one sliced onion. Puree until smooth.
Pour the marinade into Zip-Locks or a sealable container add the meat and toss to coat.

Refrigerate 24 to 48 hours.

When it’s time to cook, load the meat onto your homemade al pastor rotisserie, grill over charcoal, or sizzle on a griddle. You’re looking for crispy endges and tender middles. Slice or chop the meat into penny-sized pieces for easier taco-loading.

Serve with bits of grilled or roasted pineapple, chopped onion and cilantro, and a variety of salsas.

From a well known Mexican food stall (Ruiz Morales) at the LA Central Market near downtown Los Angeles.

 

[ClackamasCootz]

You make me laugh out loud with that pH shit

But in the end it may drive away people. Gotta stay positive if you really want the flock to grow.

That enzyme stuff may be the best growing tip I ever got...period. But if we want it to reach people the message needs to be...in the words of W...kinder and gentler.

Or not...not everyone deserves to find the true path.

Fair enough - you're right......

"For I am an asshole which isn't good or bad - it just is" - Tommy Smothers as "Reverend Spike" in Serial

 

[ClackamasCootz]

Has anyone tried cloning in aero cloner and inoculate with myco when transplanting into starter pot with soil? Seems like it would make the plant take off very good...or shock the plants life..

OrganicLearner

It definitely stops the parade for a few days.

shmalphy's use of Pro-Mix is what you want to use (straight Sphagnum peat moss would another good option). Let the roots develop, push out into a medium that is full of living 'things' and the plant will be well-established.

I'll give you this - the aero-cloners do give you the fastest roots possible. No question about that. Now comes the hard part - explain how that's a benefit if I'm growing in a living soil?

This area of gardening is the most challenging for new growers and the problem is that the grow books and forums have taken a very simple (and ancient) process and f*cked it up 10 ways to Sunday. It's just amazing.

CC

 

[shmalphy]

I know several evangelist bubble cloner users. Roots in just days they say... If we were harvesting roots these guys would be way ahead of the game.

If I still had a fish tank I would probably be taking them in there still. I just put a styrofoam produce tray on the top of the water and poked the clones through. They get fast roots, and symbiotic bacteria, so it seems like the bast of both worlds. Also, if you already have a tank going it is free.

I actually just found a pic of my setup 10 years ago, with the fish tank... Dr Atomic NL grown in pro mix with guano and fish tank water. Looking back that was one of the healthiest plants I ever grew, probably because I kept it simple and had an actual living soil. I might need to get another fish tank..

 

[Gascanastan]

Plecostumus pot~

I've used tank water several times...those plants always seem to do well...and when the fish die...they go in soil too.

I used to use jiffy 7's for centuries.....then suddenly had extreme problems w/them. I soaked one in water and measured it ..(yes....with a ph meter) and it came out at like 4.0....and I was like okay that sucks......so I switched up to hormone free Oasis cubes laid in trays resting on a 1/2 inch bed of perlite or pumice in an 80 degree room under some T-8's.....roots in 7 to 14 days type depending...yet for me I'm in no hurry to root...so those picky types can be slow if they want to.

 

[Coba]

"You're either on the bus..or off the bus" Ken Kesey.

Peace and Compost to you all~

"The bus came by and I got on... that's when it all began... it was Cowboy Neil at the wheel of a bus to never ever land"

I found some orange day-glo in my garage... lets paint that bus further.

Ive wondered sometimes what were the differences between Kesey and Leary , besides one was an inny and the other an outty., was Kesey's lack of a groovy catch phrase the reason why hes not as celebrated as the good Dr TITODO

 

[bajangreen]

I am just getting my foot wet with this indoor thing, got me a mom from a hybrid "creeper" that i like, shes in living soil, (duh) cant seam to get roots to come from the clones, i use a bubblier type thing with small aquarium gravel as the media and 1, 50w hps bulb, been going for 3+ weeks now the growth is ok but the seed plants out door are doing better, i don't think she is fully reveged because the leaves still have 3 blades so maybe that is why she is so slow. just took some and treated with raw aloe and some just plain and some in promix hope to find a way that works for me, just ordered DP purple #1 anyhow i am high as can be, heres a pic of the set up.

i really would like to veg an indica indoors and put the cuts outside for flowering so i can run perceptually whole year (you guys know i am tropical don't you?)

 

[Scrappy4]

I start my cuts in rapid rooters ( i got bags of them from new cloner users, lol.) that get buried in beer cups with holes in their bottoms. I used to use straight pro mix topped with EWC and had near 100% success, but I ran out of pro mix and the last two cycles have used my regular soil mix that was mixed over two years ago, again 100% success. For cloning gel i use gel from an aloe vera leaf. To wet the soil I use a weak mix of kelp meal and humic acid. (I used to use liquid karma, both work, but i don't buy LK anymore) I still use the old school dome and tray method that i always used, and they root in a warm room of 80+ degrees, for light I use some low watt CFL(cool white) bulbs. Once I see the cut's bottom leaves turn yellow I usually can be safe in assuming they have rooted. This may take 6-14 days depending on variety. Not speedy, but simple, and it works for me......scrappy

 

[Gascanastan]

"The bus came by and I got on... that's when it all began... it was Cowboy Neil at the wheel of a bus to never ever land"

I found some orange day-glo in my garage... lets paint that bus further.

Ive wondered sometimes what were the differences between Kesey and Leary , besides one was an inny and the other an outty., was Kesey's lack of a groovy catch phrase the reason why hes not as celebrated as the good Dr TITODO

Just go get a bunch of friends and some surplus paint....get some blotter..take two...and paint you're car man...you'll love it...I did....several times.

Kesey was the real deal...folks I know that puffed w/him say he was a solid guy. Basically just like anyone else except he thought with a big open mind and a pocket full of LSD in a time when that may have got you killed for looking weird in any hardcore redneck hippie hating 'chainsaw haircut' town ....but thank gawd he was successful with his mission,and I thank him~

Leary on the other hand.....Coot...you wanna tell the kids?

 

[ClackamasCootz]

Hunter S. Thompson said it best about Timothy Leary with this:

“We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled that 60's. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling "consciousness expansion" without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously. All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours too.

"What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped create...a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody or at least some force is tending the light at the end of the tunnel.”