Living organic soil from start through recycling

[W89]

yeah I also found some comfrey on the side of a wooded area on the way to the shop.. had bug eggs on it tho so I didnt get any.. I know where there is some more will get it when I go that way it wasnt contaminated with bugs I picked a whole bin bag full for the compost pile last week..

When I get a little spare cash I'm gonn order that product alfalfa/kelp and comfrey in pelleted form from the description " Easy to apply pellets containing 100% plant material - Lucerne (Alfalfa), Comfrey and Seaweed.

Naturally rich in Potash and Nitrogen plus a very wide range of trace elements all in organic form. Helps to maintain a healthy population of micro-organisms for the breakdown and availability to plants of soil nutrients. An ideal feed for fruit, salad and vegetables. Also makes an instant alternative to green manure. Apply pellets at 1kg to 10-15 sq. metres, preferably before planting. 2.5% N 7% K2O"

4kg bag £15.25

Same site Comfrey pellets "All the benefits of comfrey leaves - NPK, trace elements, minerals, vitamins and plant hormones now available in a dried pellet form. These can be used to make your own comfrey liquid or applied directly into the soil or compost where they will release nutrients over the whole season."
£11.25 for 1 liter of pellets

 

[Cann]

Thanks for the help CC, I'll head down to Home Depot and do some more searching...the employees here have no idea what they are doing as usual.

milehighguy - good point about saving time and running a good soil mix, but I have a scientific mind and am curious to see how they compare plus i have the nutes anyway so i might as well use em. and it'll be a good comparison to show the community. might not yield as much with that one plant...but for the sake of science!

 

[MileHighGuy]

Thanks for the help CC, I'll head down to Home Depot and do some more searching...the employees here have no idea what they are doing as usual.

milehighguy - good point about saving time and running a good soil mix, but I have a scientific mind and am curious to see how they compare plus i have the nutes anyway so i might as well use em. and it'll be a good comparison to show the community. might not yield as much with that one plant...but for the sake of science!

Well. Let us know how it works!

 

[ClackamasCootz]

W89

The group in England that grew out of Lawrence D. Hills' work that gave us the Bocking 14 (et al) cultivars was called the Henry Doubleday Research Association which has morphed into Garden Organic

Very solid information and they have some good links to suppliers, forums, research information, etc. and it's not limited to Comfrey either - general organic and sustainable farming & gardening.

You may be able to find Hills' book or at least parts online - Comfrey: Past, Present & Future

 

[Cann]

Well. Let us know how it works!

You know I will I will be transplanting in a week or two and I'll start a new thread to document the ladies from that point. I'm also going to be starting up a diary so I might throw it in there...but most likely it will be it's own thread. I have 4 different soil mixes to compare, plus the roots lineup lol so 5, plus I will probably run a control in straight 707 with no bottled nutes = 6. definitely enough going on there for it's own thread lol. in due time...

 

[ClackamasCootz]

When I get a little spare cash I'm gonn order that product alfalfa/kelp and comfrey in pelleted form from the description " Easy to apply pellets containing 100% plant material - Lucerne (Alfalfa), Comfrey and Seaweed

There's the majority of your 'nute program' - I'd use that in a minute - toss in some neem meal, stonemeal and motor on. What a product!

 

[W89]

that site is where those 2 products come from lol the http://www.organiccatalogue.com which is there shop section I found them ages ago searching google

 

[Gascanastan]

Mazar-I-Shariff @ 50 days....not bad for a landrace.

 

[W89]

Noice!

 

[ClackamasCootz]

You know I will I will be transplanting in a week or two and I'll start a new thread to document the ladies from that point. I'm also going to be starting up a diary so I might throw it in there...but most likely it will be it's own thread. I have 4 different soil mixes to compare, plus the roots lineup lol so 5, plus I will probably run a control in straight 707 with no bottled nutes = 6. definitely enough going on there for it's own thread lol. in due time...

I could write-up your findings on the 707 this afternoon if you would like! Some things remain the same and this would be one of those things.

LOL

 

[Cann]

Since we are on the topic of Comfrey, I got some Bocking 14 rhizomes in the mail about a week ago, they were looking healthy and had some roots on them so I potted them up. A few days later some of them started to break the surface. One of them came up, and then turned brown and crispy on top, not quite sure what caused this. Could it have been cold temps at night? It got down to 34 a few nights ago. Here is a picture of what it looks like, sorry about the bad picture quality



any ideas?

 

[ClackamasCootz]

Cann

That's cold weather but if you were to take the pots and put them in a warm place with even a shop light they will begin growing again. The sprout proved that it began to develop a root system.

But your photo is exactly what happens when cold weather hits - all of mine look like that but on a larger scale since they're established.

"Ya can't kill this plant" - LOL

 

[Cann]

I could write-up your findings on the 707 this afternoon if you would like! Some things remain the same and this would be one of those things.

LOL

lol, I have a pretty good hypothesis as to what will happen...just need to see for myself. Plus it feels good to justify the bottled nutes and old bag of 707 instead of pouring em out somewhere lol. The final goodbye to bottled shit.

but feel free to write up anything you want about 707 lol, cause you know i'll read it


and perfect, I'll move the comfrey into my "sun room" and throw it under a cfl or something...supposed to frost here the next few nights which is rare for so-cal...need to bring a lot of things inside and cover the rest

 

[ClackamasCootz]

Both Vital Earth and Aurora Innovations shop at the same store in PDX

But they're different!

 

[Cann]

that begs the question - what/where is said store in PDX??? Cause that's where I want to go haha

 

[ClackamasCootz]

Where manly men doing manly things with furry rodents and duct-tape gather and assemble. Even a few real women show up as well - the ones who kick-start their vibrators and roll their own tampons - Keep Oregon Weird

Price List - that will bring a tear to anyone's eye~

 

[Cann]

hahaha perfect. that'll be a great resource when I move back to the PNW in september...

quick question about worm bins - would worms ever try to escape due to lack of food? because I have two bins - the smaller one is fine and the other one the worms keep trying to crawl out the top, the only difference between the two is that I fed the smaller one most recently. trying to figure out what is driving them away...


and oh my god that price list....you bastard.

 

[ClackamasCootz]

What are you using for your worm bins? Material-wise (is that a word?)

 

[Cann]

think it's a word lol...the bedding consists of leaf litter/leaf mold, coco, perlite, and old cannabis stems/leaves. been feeding them bokashi and old avocados haha. the two bins are identical, and one of them is 100% fine, the other one there are like 20 worms at all times trying to escape. also may have to do with the fact that there is a higher concentration of worms in the big bin..maybe they are overcrowded?

 

[ClackamasCootz]

Cann

When you move to PDX, that is where you'll buy 90% of your gardening supplies other than neem oil and meal, Humic & Fulvic acids and a couple of other things.

You want to buy your vermicompost, worms, harvesters and bins if you need to from 'the worm dude' across the Columbia River in Camas. You bring your bucket and he fills it up.

There's a source for OTCO (Oregon Tilth Certified Organic) compost that is $29.00 a yard. That's the bulk of what we use in the raised beds.

Organic gardening & farming in the PNW is a cake walk.

CC