Mulch. Just do it.

[xmobotx]

So whats everyone using as their indoor mulch?

been doing an EWC in veg/compost in flower thing for a while but see little to no difference against just mulching w/ EWC

as far as advice {and you know already} people need to be sure their compost is 'finished' before applying it to containers in any way

so; EWC!

 

[John Deere]

Previous harvest leftovers and EWC.

 

[floral]

Leaf mold is my new favorite mulch.

 

[FunTimesIndeed]

Compost and ganja silage.

 

[BlueJayWay]

My new mulching endeavor - dried comfrey comfrey comfrey nettle and yarrow! First day of flower they get it, or on their last transplant, by harvest it is gone, finito! Just a nice black loamy surface, with clover growing here and there of course.

 

[W89]

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=40140&pictureid=1017884&]View Image[/url]
White clover in no till 8g container. The clovers in this instance gave me a water saving advantage. The areas with the crowded clovers would generally be moist on the rare occasions the no clovers areas (near the stem) would start to dry out.

Nice pic mate!

 

[John Deere]

Sounds nearly ideal, BJW. I'm definitely moving that direction. I'm hoping to find lots of useful plants at my buddy's farm this spring. He's got a huge area that's restored to native vegetation.

 

[Scrappy4]

My new mulching endeavor - dried comfrey comfrey comfrey nettle and yarrow! First day of flower they get it, or on their last transplant, by harvest it is gone, finito! Just a nice black loamy surface, with clover growing here and there of course.

All those plants would work well in a soil mix as well. I read about wrapping potatoes in comfrey leaves during planting provided all the nutrients that the potatoe plant needs. After reading that, my last cycle had some dried comfrey leaf in the soil, and I gave some away that was used this way. Both seemed to work very well.

So all those would make excellent mulch, teas, extracts, compost, anything really. And comfrey composts fast in soil too, not sure how fast the others compost but plant material doesn't last long when you have good compost in the mix. It probably wouldn't hurt to mix compost in with the mulch either.......scrappy

 

[Scrappy4]

Sounds nearly ideal, BJW. I'm definitely moving that direction. I'm hoping to find lots of useful plants at my buddy's farm this spring. He's got a huge area that's restored to native vegetation.

Good idea, if you get enough compost some too. Around where I live the county cuts the shoulders of roads twice per summer. When they cut in areas that I know are not polluted and the area has good weed growth, I have picked some up and added to my compost. It's free and all you have to do is pick it up. Just watch out for poison ivy and the like.

In my new place I inherited a 2 acre rye field, so you can bet I'll be composting that shit too, lol........scrappy

 

[BlueJayWay]

So all those would make excellent mulch, teas, extracts, compost, anything really

Exactly, so versatile! I think I saw you mentioned horsetail in another thread, I had mulched with that also but haven't had any in a long time, it hardly broke down at all by the end of the cycle but the plant did very well.

One of the things I will be testing in the new no-till setup will involve the mulch mix I mentioned. Ill be comparing the results where mulch is the only input vs. a couple other variations - goal is to work towards a 'mulch only' no-till setup.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Yeah i did the comfrey leaf thing with my potatoes and ganja this year on planting. Certainly gave them a boost and they started life full of vim and vigour!

I like the look of that green manure.

Mulch only no-till is the goal indeed!

 

[ghostmade]

priceless i say priceless

 

[Durdy]

Does anybody mulch with the leftovers from bubbling different teas?

Sprouts / kelp meal / alfalfa meal / comfrey leaves / etc etc

That have bubbled for around 24 hours.

 

[BlueJayWay]

Durdy - I've mulched with all that shit lol, i get lots of volunteer barley sprouts and what not from sprouted teas.

The only problem with making a habit of using leftover material from botanical teas as mulch, is that tends to 'cake up' when it dries.

When i get down to the last two gallons or so of 'tea' I like to agitate it a lot so that all the material is floating around and not sitting at the bottom, and i scoop it up with the water in my beer cup that i water with, then it gets spread around to different plants and areas a lot better than saving it all to the last and making a big pile under a plant - ya know?

Now that I have worm bins going I don't make such an effort to spread the leftovers as 'mulch' though....but a lot still gets on the topsoil

 

[xmobotx]

i been throwing those 'leftovers' back in the compost pile {well, in the 'new' compost pile} but i tend to let my teas run long and be throwing some nasty smelling stuff

 

[BlueJayWay]

I've been growing many random plants / starting seeds of different species to see how they do under indoor lighting and specifically in perimeter low lighting. All that stuff gets thrown down as mulch as well - and here's a volunteer from some morning glory vines I thinned way back and used as mulch, kinda cool stayin' small under the canopy.

Plenty of barley volunteers in there:

As far as 'living mulches' - I don't necessarily like a solid carpet of 'whatever' growin' down there, and mulching plant material plays a big part in my no-till's. What I do like is established small colonies of 'whatever' here and there under the canopy. In this case red clover.

The clover's been there for months, established well before this particular group of plants were transplanted in - of which one was just harvested if you can tell!

 

[W89]

I chuck all my left overs in the worm bin, But when I get back in the game with some bigger pots I can't wait to start the living mulch, cover crops ect

 

[Coba]

I've been growing many random plants / starting seeds of different species to see how they do under indoor lighting and specifically in perimeter low lighting. All that stuff gets thrown down as mulch as well - and here's a volunteer from some morning glory vines I thinned way back and used as mulch, kinda cool stayin' small under the canopy.

View Image

Plenty of barley volunteers in there:

View Image

As far as 'living mulches' - I don't necessarily like a solid carpet of 'whatever' growin' down there, and mulching plant material plays a big part in my no-till's. What I do like is established small colonies of 'whatever' here and there under the canopy. In this case red clover.

View Image

The clover's been there for months, established well before this particular group of plants were transplanted in - of which one was just harvested if you can tell!

View Image

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to BlueJayWay again.

 

[Durdy]

So I collected some Borage, Lavender, Marjorum, and Mint today and was planning on mulching my no-tills in the bloom room later.

Would any of these not be a good idea to mulch with?

What about mulching with these materials now that I've stopped spraying my plants in flower? When you guys mulch is it added in veg when neem and other sprays are still active or just whenever?

 

[xmobotx]

durdy; likely you could mulch w/ most veg matter so long as it isnt ground up ~fairly whole stuff will be consumed slowly by the soil yet still function to shade and cover it {think like a piece of plywood or cardboard left on the ground until you can tell where its been} its the same as the 'chop n drop' concept

myself; w/ those plants/plant matters would go to the compost pile

i like to mulch w/ finished compost, worm castings or {once in the future i achieve it} vermi-compost ~but i dont mind mulching w/ trimmings or fallen canna leaves

essentially anything too green still has some N in it and could cause a problem

if its drier; no worries {except maybe bugs but we view them a little differently too}