Local materials

[Hookahhead]

Building a local mix

Building a local mix

Today I threw together a new batch of mix using the following:

Locally produced coco coir

Char + urine - I smashed the chunks of char into powder and small pieces. I added 2 liters of lacto fermented urine. I start with a fresh lacto serum mixed with a TBS of molasses. Then I pee into the container, squeezing out the air and replacing the lid. It’s just me doing this, so it takes a few days to fill up. Once full I let it sit for another week. The acid in the lacto prevents the break down of urea into ammonia, which would happen if you just let the urine sit. There is no odor at all, if anything it’s a little sweet from the molasses. The char does an excellent job holding onto the urea.

Cricket Frass - A friend of mine raises crickets to process into protein powders for human consumption. I’m not really sold on drinking cricket shakes, but I’ll happily take the large free sacks of “waste” he offers. It’s a mix of cricket poo, insect bodies, and corn (left over feed). The bodies are high in chitin, and the corn is a great carbohydrate for the microherd .

Mushroom Manure - I collected some cow patties that had been actively growing mushrooms. I watered and harvested these for about 3 weeks. They are no longer producing, so they got crumbled and mixed in.

Rice hulls with bokashi starter - local rice hulls inoculated with bokashi starter. They provide aeration similar to perlite, and add silica as they break down. They are slow to break down though and persist through at least 1 grow cycle.

 

[Hookahhead]

Building a local mix

Building a local mix

River sand - when the river floods it deposits sand in one corner of the yard. The dogs like to dig tunnels into it. It adds micronutrients without the salt of beach sand.

Not pictured:

Algae - remember the algae ferment I posted about? Everything was going great then a week or more ago one of the dogs decided to tear into the bag. I found it after work one night and lazily threw it in a plastic tote. When I checked on it today it was full of maggots and smelled pretty foul. I immediately tossed it on the compost pile and covered it with some fresh browns. Even though the experiment failed, I think t will be a nice product when properly made. Luckily, I still had some dried algae from my first collection so I mixed that in.

Bamboo ferment - Some liquid from my bamboo ferment was used to hydrate the coir. It’s been a week, so the soluble stuff should be pulled out. It had a bit of an odor to it, and also had some larvae. I filtered the liquid through an old sock. I will use a bit on my other plants tonight then add lacto culture + sugar. I’ll let that go another month before draining and bottling for future use.

Egg shells - dried and ground in a coffee grinder. Adds calcium and acts as a buffer in acidic conditions.

Dried used coffee - not inoculated with anything just coffee grounds that were dried out after each pot was made.

Molasses - 1/2 cup mixed with water and used to rehydrate the coco coir as well.

Everything was mixed in the big blue tub pictured below. Then I filled up 1.5 feed sacks with the mix. The feed sacks are a woven plastic material, so moisture and air can pass through it pretty easily. The bags were laid underneath a tree in an area where bananas and other plants are growing.

Then I placed the bin over the feed sacks. The bin should protect the sacks from animals (mostly my dogs), and provide a better environment for microbial growth. Since the sacks are fairly porous, the native micro community should be able to find a way in. The sacks will stay there for a month before using the mix in containers.

And there you have it. All materials were gathered within an hour drive from my house. Cheap, local, organic, waste to resource.

 

[crisduar]

Vermicompost arrived 65 USD; waiting for peatmoss

View Image

Hi, I'm a big fan of your work.
I have questions about the airy compost I would appreciate answering
Can organic fertilizers such as biobizz be used when preparing the aerated compost tea?
I have a hard time following seaweed meal, fish hydrolyzate, alfalfa because I can replace these foods and still be as effective

Thank you.

 

[Microbeman]

Hi, I'm a big fan of your work.
I have questions about the airy compost I would appreciate answering
Can organic fertilizers such as biobizz be used when preparing the aerated compost tea?
I have a hard time following seaweed meal, fish hydrolyzate, alfalfa because I can replace these foods and still be as effective

Thank you.

It is not the best solution. I just use vermicompost and molasses very successfully.

 

[crisduar]

It is not the best solution. I just use vermicompost and molasses very successfully.

Thank you very much for your response.
I always speak as a solution to replace local materials, but I don't know how to replace these materials:
1 alfalfa flour.
2 kelp seaweed meal.
3 fish hydrolyzate.

The TAC I do is according to your recipe:
-water: 20L (5gal).
-480ml of Earthworm Humus.
-100ml black molasses (BSM).
-3 fish tank air pumps with aerating stones total flow of 3, 11.7l / min.
I have a microscope but I don't know how to use it
I do not speak English excuse the language.

Sorry to be annoying, is that where I live is expensive some of the materials for soil recipes and I need to give my plants nutrients of growth and flowering in the TAC, my soil base is 80% recycled land and 20% for my pots.

Thank you very much in advance.
greetings from Spain

 

[Microbeman]

My set up for fermenting EM. I just pulled some for ingestion after 60 days fermenting. I use a 30 watt CFL to promote PNSBs and keep temps between 100 and 104[ temperature controller shuts light off at 104 and on at 100.

 

[Teddybrae]

CHAR

CHAR

The discussion here looks pretty technical. Do you mind if I post about local materials?

I sieved this soil from a creek bank of mine which collects char each time there's a flood.


The local cattle farmers burn shit out of their land and it looks like I 'm getting the benefit.


Just dug this yesterday ... getting ready for spring.

 

[crisduar]

Thank you very much for your response.
I always speak as a solution to replace local materials, but I don't know how to replace these materials:
1 alfalfa flour.
2 kelp seaweed meal.
3 fish hydrolyzate.

The TAC I do is according to your recipe:
-water: 20L (5gal).
-480ml of Earthworm Humus.
-100ml black molasses (BSM).
-3 fish tank air pumps with aerating stones total flow of 3, 11.7l / min.
I have a microscope but I don't know how to use it
I do not speak English excuse the language.

Sorry to be annoying, is that where I live is expensive some of the materials for soil recipes and I need to give my plants nutrients of growth and flowering in the TAC, my soil base is 80% recycled land and 20% for my pots.

Thank you very much in advance.
greetings from Spain

perdón por molestar de nuevo, agradecería respondiese mi pregunta.
¿por qué otros materiales se pueden reemplazar la gasolina de alfalfa. harina de algas. y el hisrolizado de pescado, que atras alternativas hay a estos?

gracias Saludos.

 

[crisduar]

sorry for bothering again, I would appreciate answering my question. Why other materials can replace alfalfa gasoline. seaweed flour and fish hisrolizado, what are the alternatives to these?
thanks greetings.

sorry to repeat message is that I don't know how the previous one is edited or deleted.

 

[Microbeman]

sorry for bothering again, I would appreciate answering my question. Why other materials can replace alfalfa gasoline. seaweed flour and fish hisrolizado, what are the alternatives to these?
thanks greetings.

sorry to repeat message is that I don't know how the previous one is edited or deleted.

I answered already. All you need is worm compost [or compost] and molasses.

 

[crisduar]

I answered already. All you need is worm compost [or compost] and molasses.

I would have to give food to the land and the only thing I can get for my city is, molasses and earthworm humus, sorry for the daring but some have to eat the plants, all the nutrition of the plant in vegetative and flowering has humus of earthworm and molasses? I only use my recycled earth and earthworm humus 80% / 20% and Dolomite 1grx1Ltierra

sorry again I am starting on this of the TAC and supersoil and it is too much information and where I live it is not easy for me to get the materials.

 

[Teddybrae]

Yes. I think "earthworm humus" and 'worm compost' is same. (Is same Microbeman?)

I would have to give food to the land and the only thing I can get for my city is, molasses and earthworm humus, sorry for the daring but some have to eat the plants, all the nutrition of the plant in vegetative and flowering has humus of earthworm and molasses? I only use my recycled earth and earthworm humus 80% / 20% and Dolomite 1grx1Ltierra

sorry again I am starting on this of the TAC and supersoil and it is too much information and where I live it is not easy for me to get the materials.

 

[crisduar]

Yes. I think "earthworm humus" and 'worm compost' is same. (Is same Microbeman?)

first it is vermicompost of worms is of a maturation time of 3 months the earthworm humus has maturation is the second with more than 3 months of maturation, I don't know if I am correct
goog Night.

 

[Microbeman]

first it is vermicompost of worms is of a maturation time of 3 months the earthworm humus has maturation is the second with more than 3 months of maturation, I don't know if I am correct
goog Night.

They are the same thing. Or you can just use compost. This is all I use.

 

[crisduar]

They are the same thing. Or you can just use compost. This is all I use.

toda la alimentación es por TAC compost( humus de lombriz ) y melaza? ¿la tierra de maceta no lleva alimento ?

cada vez todo esto me abruma miles de receta s, no se por donde empezar no alcanzó a entender la informacion y no hablar inglés no ayuda.

de todos modos gracias

 

[crisduar]

All feed is by TAC compost (earthworm humus) and molasses? Does potting soil carry no food?

Every time this stuff overwhelms me with miles of recipes, I don't know where to start without having to understand the information and not speaking English doesn't help.

anyway, thank you

 

[h.h.]

Forget all that stuff.
You don’t need it.
Start simple.
Compost. Dig under an old bush/tree. Use that.
You have vermicompost. Use that.
Start looking for alternatives to what you want.
Every situation is different.
Smoke what you got.
Make it up as you go.
You’ll find you have a lot of resources.

 

[crisduar]

You are absolutely right, but I do not have the knowledge to know how to replace the amendments used in the recipes of supersoil with local products. I have not obtained this information.
feather flours, fish harian, alfalfa flour, seaweed flour, neem flour, oyster flour ... etc, without this it seems impossible to make super soil .......

sorry my ingles is googler

 

[Microbeman]

¿Estás preguntando sobre mezclas de tierra para plantas o sobre una receta para té de compost? Son 2 cosas diferentes.

Para la mezcla de suelo, uso tierra vegetal mezclada con compost (o compost de lombrices de tierra / humus) y un material de drenaje como arena, roca de lava, grava fina.

Té de compost = compost de lombriz de tierra y melaza


Are you asking about soil mixes for plants or about a recipe for compost tea? They are 2 different things.

For soil mix I use topsoil mixed with compost (or earthworm compost/humus) and a drainage material like sand, lava rock, fine gravel.

Compost tea = earthworm compost & molasses

Nunca he usado y nunca usaré super-suelo.

I have never used and never will use super-soil.

 

[crisduar]

save if I don't understand anything sir.

He tells me that he only uses earth and earthworm humus and TAC and that's it, and where is the nutritional contribution to the plants?

what I want is to learn to use the aerated compost tea and I thought that the aerated compost tea (TAC) must be used with super soil, I want to stop suffering from Ph and Electro conductivity of biobizz organic boats, I want to learn ... just that

good day