Living organic soil from start through recycling

[Durdy]

ENZYMES!!

ENZYMES!!

ENZYMES EVERYWHERE!!!!

Rustic Bread!

Some greens I put in my first batch of ROLS. This pick was from a week ago, just wait till you see where its at now....

 

[Seandawg]

RE: Redwood

On this question just look at photos of the floor of a Redwood forest vs. the forest floor of pine trees and that should answer your questions about using Redwood anything in any soil.

I recall droppin a thick layer of redwood sawdust on a hibiscus plant a while ago. I forgot about, came back to look at it and found a thick cake of fungi redwood. Awesome fungi food!

 

[ClackamasCootz]

foil or no foil?

At the BBQ contests it's not unusual to see the teams take the larger entries like pork shoulders (start weight about 25 lbs.) out of the smoker, wrap them in several layers of thick aluminum foil, then wrap that in several layers of terry-cloth and set that into an empty ice chest. They let it sit for 3 or 4 hours and unwrap it to prepare the entries to be judged.

I've seen this done with spareribs as well but for much shorter times.

Then again we're talking about older guys sitting around for a 3-day contest drinking beer for several hours a day watching smoke pour out of their $10,000+ smokers arguing over the differences between using red oak vs. pecan woods in this deal.

CC

 

[ClackamasCootz]

I recall droppin a thick layer of redwood sawdust on a hibiscus plant a while ago. I forgot about, came back to look at it and found a thick cake of fungi redwood. Awesome fungi food!

Up and down the West Coast homes with large gardens often use 'bark dust' layed on top of the flower beds to prevent having to pull weeds.

There are local companies which deliver this stuff and hopefully for them on a regular (contract) basis. 2 guys all gussied up in their company's uniform arrive with this big truck full of bark dust and they work this huge hose (about 8" diameter) and apply this around your flower garden plants.

The premium bark dust is from redwood trees and you pay a higher rate for this one. Even the local DIY stores have bags of redwood bark chunks that you can use - that texture thingie I guess.

It's also available at any landscape supplier by the cubic yard from different trees. Weird little business.

 

[ClackamasCootz]

Durdy

What plant are you growing in photo #3?

 

[Neo 420]

I have made a mistake. The ingredients listed in 365 Charcoal is 95%hardwood (Oak, hickory and maple. AKA untreated scrap lumber). I was quite lit earlier when I posted that information. (Just lit up some nice kief....) After reading the reviews it states to look out for "foreign matter", doesn't leave a flavor on the meat, and when a bag is good.. It is all good....). I have went through my bag and it looks completely like charred bricks.


Anybody remember the proportions for adding the char? If I remember correctly, the char will have to be soaked (to lessen the N removal in soil?)

 

[Gascanastan]

There are not set proportions. Take the char,put it in a bucket,add 1/2 gallon EWC and 2 to 4 cups fish or guano..or alflafa,comfrey,etc. Soak at least a week,strain and add to soil.

 

[QuentinQuark]

Sorry QQ, I just now noticed this response. This thread moves silly fast.

My point is that fish are already testing positive for anti-depressants. I doubt it was from people dumping pricey pharmaceuticals into the waterway. Seems like Milwaukee's Best would be the same thing, only faster.

"Floculated microbes" sounds too vague. I imagine it would be like bokashied shit at best. Even their website only recommends it for applications like golf courses and baseball fields. Not exactly a heart warming endorsement...

So
1. of course it's cheap
2. no further comments
3. Are you sure that plant wouldn't show you the same love with some other source?

From this page:

"Milorganite fertilizer is one of the oldest branded fertilizers on the market today. It is derived from heat-dried microbes that have digested the organic material in wastewater."

How much more microbe-organic can you get? It's pre-sequestered. It's the dehydrated bodies of microbes that have ingested the nutes in poo. It's not the poo itself.

Anyways, soil's a-cookin' so I'll let you all know

 

[Heliopolis]

CC

I thought I would mention that I decided to contact the RWC guy. He was kind enough to reply:

This isn't as much of an issue with an open heap, BUT it's important to realize that the worms will often tend to congregate fairly close to the outer surfaces of the heap as it get up past a few feet in height, so you may end up with a no-worm zone down in the middle if you make your heap higher than that.
In colder weather, the heap approach does have advantages though - definitely better for warmth.

Bentley

I'm thinking that I will do as I previously mentioned... Make a layer of a few feet and add the worms to that. Once they've processed it some, I can add more. I think this should prevent any sort of central "dead zone" that's not getting touched by the worms.

 

[rrog]

Regarding the char, while it would adsorb some of the nutrients, it would seem that some coaxing on the part of the microbes would release these nutrients from the char fairly easily. They are only held to the carbon by weak Van Der walls forces

 

[Durdy]

Durdy

What plant are you growing in photo #3?

Honestly, my high ass forgot to label the sprouts I started for my winter garden sooo.........not to sure. But I think it might be some kind of oak leaf lettuce.

 

[ClackamasCootz]

Honestly, my high ass forgot to label the sprouts I started for my winter garden sooo.........not to sure

Really? That's never, ever happened to me!

Yeah - I understand completely - LOL

CC

 

[Seandawg]

Looks like oregano. Ok maybe not, I say that about every plant i dont know lol.

 

[Seandawg]

Double post, my bad

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Anybody remember the proportions for adding the char? If I remember correctly, the char will have to be soaked (to lessen the N removal in soil?)

Yeah it needs charged up with nitrogen as a first vital step. Gas's advice is perfect except im lazy and just pee on it for a few days to a week until thoroughly soaked and usually add some liquid kelp and whatever else i have lying around. This will give it a good baseline of nitrogen and minerals.

Then some kind of em1 brew for good microbes.

However if you were to follow the recipe at the beginning or something similar and let the soil marinade for a while then the char will be charged from the fish meal etc

But if you in a hurry you can get away with a 24hr soak. Been there done that but nothing beats char in compost. Just takes a wee bit longer

I think 5-10% char total mix is good. 20-30% is ideal for poorer soils but the mixes we using are pretty primo!.

Having said that i would like to also use char as my drainage and aeration amendment instead of perlite so i would be looking at around 25% i guess.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

MrFista

I highly recommend adding bone and pottery fragments as well as charcoal if you can.

I get bones from what I eat, let the cat strip them, then the ants, then dry them out for a while, and smash them up and add to the mix.

My mix is growing faster than hydro. And faster than a TP mix without bone and pottery.

All measures aproximate.

For 100 litres of mix.

10 litres charcoal.
2.5 litres bone fragments.
2.5 litres pottery.
0.5 litres dolomite lime.
0.5 litres bone meal.
34 litres compost.
40 litres topsoil.
10 litres clay subsoil.

Best dirt mix I've found so far. I would add more bones but it takes a while to eat all them critters.

 

[rrog]

Wow! That seems like a shitload of char! I do 1/6 of that, but had no rationale for that.

Does anyone think this char might break down to a fine enough particle size so as to screw with the aeration?

 

[Gascanastan]

MrFista

I highly recommend adding bone and pottery fragments as well as charcoal if you can.

I get bones from what I eat, let the cat strip them, then the ants, then dry them out for a while, and smash them up and add to the mix.

My mix is growing faster than hydro. And faster than a TP mix without bone and pottery.

All measures aproximate.

For 100 litres of mix.

10 litres charcoal.
2.5 litres bone fragments.
2.5 litres pottery.
0.5 litres dolomite lime.
0.5 litres bone meal.
34 litres compost.
40 litres topsoil.
10 litres clay subsoil.

Best dirt mix I've found so far. I would add more bones but it takes a while to eat all them critters.

...are those Tasmanian devil bones?

 

[Budwhyser]

There are not set proportions. Take the char,put it in a bucket,add 1/2 gallon EWC and 2 to 4 cups fish or guano..or alflafa,comfrey,etc. Soak at least a week,strain and add to soil.

Gas
Where are you sourcing your char?

 

[Gascanastan]

Gas
Where are you sourcing your char?

When I added the char to my soil I used a few different brands of the 'cowboy' type plus the 365 from whole foods. The stuff from Whole Foods looked decent at the time...for real at least.