Soil, water, and tea questions

[moose eater]

Nicolette Larson!!!...

It almost always comes back to me, often ~4 hours later, when I blurt out a non-sequeter in a crowd of people, causing a lengthy hush, as they quietly wonder, "What's he talking about?" or "What kind of drugs do you suppose he's on?" or, "You don't think he's dangerous, do you?" or, "That whole deinstitutionalization craze was a bad idea!!" ;^>)

 

[h.h.]

Back in the day when "homegrown" was a bad word. I was hanging out in the Big Sur area, wondering why. I think Neil Young broke the news. Why the hell was he singing praises to homegrown? I figured he'd been hanging in Big Sur.

I got some different kelp. Walt's "Northern Atlantic". No mention of variety. It smells more potent than the Down to Earth that I used before. Fresher. It seems to have more solubility.
I at first intended to soak it in a bit of gypsum water to release the the salts, but in the end felt I'd be loosing nutrients.
Using 9 cups, I figured it added around a third a teaspoon of sodium. Diluted into 100 gallons of mix. I'm going to up it to 10 cups for easier math. It will go into 5 pots. Two cups per 20 gallons.
The kelp really swells and even if I wasn't trying to break it down with fermentation, I can see charging by soaking it with with water that's been precharged with a high nitrogen product. I want the fish meal/soy bean meal/whatever in solution before adding the kelp. Otherwise the kelp is just soaking up water and I have to rely on osmosis to slowly do the job.

The ACT ( aerated compost tea) could well be the best way to stretch your limited resources. I used a bucket and bubbler for a long time with what I felt was success.

I finally moved up to a homemade vortex system which I liked a whole lot better.
For the amount of compost I had, and for what I had going on at the time, I felt it became redundant. Overkill. A continual brew in 5 gallon buckets would have probably been sufficient.
With limited resources, it becomes a whole different story. Again finding a warm spot.

 

[moose eater]

My traditional guano tea was 2 cups of either High N or High P guano (depending on phase/soil) in a nylon knee-high stocking that had been pre-washed in a plain-Jane, no-scent dish detergent to remove BS from the factory, soaked in ~4-1/2 to 4-3/4 gal (+) untreated H2O for a day or two (both with aeration and without over time, as methods changed), then adding 2-4 tsp of liquid kelp meal extract/gal H2O at the time of application (originally using rehydrated kelp from the Maxi-Crop powdered extract, then, later on, from their pre-hydrated solution).

Over time I messed with adding minor amounts (1-cup or so) of humus and bagged microbial feed for the bacteria to the knee-highs, as well as smaller amounts of 5-1-1 Fish emulsion either to the 1-gal jugs of H2O at the time of application, or to the 5-gal bucket for brewing with the guano, though that was primarily with the high P guanos, as it was redundant to do with the High N veg teas.

I'd add 2-4 cups of the finished tea to a gallon of water. *This is one place in the process where changing sources of guano matters huge! Assuming the properties of one guano high in P or N is the same as the next. NOT!!!

As stated earlier, after we got our well, and DTE seemed to have changed the sourcing/quality of their guanos, I noted a distinct absence of the frothing and foaming in the buckets that defined awesome microbial growth/action.

For what I'm doing, a 5-gallon bucket does nicely, so as to avoid letting the tea sit more than 4-5 days.

I've gone back and forth with using tap-temp water to using untreated water warmed to slightly above yeast temps on the stove in stock pots. not too surprisingly, I'd say that the nest action in the tea was achieved (historically) with yeast temp water; hot enough to boost the microbial activation, but not so hot as to kill stuff.

But I emphasize these were truly subjective observations. Though there is scientific basis for believing that the warmer temps help to spawn/sponsor microbial activity.

With my nature/style/ability in learning, I need to back up and read through a process a couple of times minimum. In a number of your posts, I need to make myself take/make the time to re-read the thread where the focus is on general processes, as well as the specific components... And maybe to re-read my own stuff to ask myself whether I'm missing something that's obvious.

Discipline! Know where I can order some??

 

[h.h.]

I received an order for 5,000 worms yesterday. I think it may have been leaking and the post office repacked it, using several plastic bags.

It had a slight smell when I unpacked it and after sitting in the basement for an hour, it was enough to kick in my gag reflexes.

I reordered from Uncle Jim's. Never had a problem with them. I just prefer dealing with the cottage companies.

The Walt's kelp does certainly appear to more active. The whole mix is rising like bread dough. I use a small garden hoe to kneed it down.


They sent a second order of PittMoss. Much nicer than the first. May try to pop some tangerine seeds.
Need to figure my lighting. I have a 1,000 watt system that I never used. When I grew, I did it outside, using cfl's to advance the season.

Waiting on more Smart Pots and more worms. Hurry up and wait.

 

[moose eater]

My youngest son scavenged a grapefruit seed a couple years ago, then sprouted it successfully, and it's since graduated from the 5" or 6" cylinder-style pot, into a classic 1200, sitting prominently near some nearly ancient high-grade stereo equipment in the living room.

It received a slightly diluted amount of soil in the transplanting from the too-rich soil a couple rolls ago; the one with slightly (or more) too much langbeinite. The thing's taken off pretty nicely, and seems to survive the winter months surprisingly well on a pine sill, inside a south-facing triple-pane window.

I think the two varieties of kelp meal I've purchased up here are either the standard (and more or less random) DTE brand, in both 25 and 5 lb. containers, or, when I buy a 50 lb. bag, I think it's Lighthouse brand, or something like that.

My next trip to the coast up here, whether Valdez area, or Kenai Peninsula, or what ever, I may try and bring in a bunch of kelp if the tide's out well enough and there's any obvious amount laying nearby, without having to wade through any soft mud flats.

Free usable kibble.. Souvenirs with a purpose.

If and when I order worms, it'll have to be a warmer month; perhaps in later April or mid-May, maybe.

I did some limited reading in the worming 101 thread. Used to post back and forth with Suby when he was here, back when.

A number of folks who were stellar type people back then, who don't seem to be present any more. HeadyPete for example ("That's good Pete, pot.."). A very nice group of folks back then. Old school kindred spirits in many ways. Suby's worm thread brought that crew back to mind again, aside from doing the bit of reading.

Sampled some of the SLH scissor hash this evening, and took the nearly dry trays of her trimmed buds, and stacked them, covered/closed, inside a 33-gal. trash bag that I then twisted the opening of, to close it off, in order to slow down the final drying.

Start into trimming the WB tomorrow evening (*technically I guess that's -this- evening).

Also came to the decision earlier this evening that both Widow Bomb and LSD have to go, and stared a while pretty hard at the SLH; she's good, but not productive. As much as that sounds a lot like me, I figure it's a minor miracle someone didn't 'clip' me a long time ago.

You a night-owl too, h.h.??

 

[h.h.]

More early morning than night owl.

I should have said "tangerine dream". Not citrus.

Grapefruits are generally grafted onto sour orange stock. I forget the reasoning. You'd find the oranges growing from the suckers. Beautiful oranges. I'd rather eat a lemon. Probably smells good in the house.

 

[moose eater]

My 20-yr.-old stand-by (Sensi Seeds/Dronkers) California indica has a really citrus-like smell, but stout to the point of a diesel-like smell at times, when she's really happy near the end. I've wondered about the orange and grapefruit strains, and what paths may have crossed, way back when. When she's done well, she's very 'up' in her effect, and one of the best producers I've had. She's the one that did 20.5 oz. in 4'x4'.

Not a lot of smell from the actual grapefruit. Bloodied my finger a time or two, playing with her. Stout spines on her.

My mother had grapefruit trees in her back yard in Scottsdale, Az. when I visited there in the later 70s and early 80s. (*She'd moved to Az after I moved to the Yukon Territory back then). Smaller in-ground pool in the back yard. Waking up mid-morning and taking a dip with the bong and some Colombian or hash pool-side, then picking a tree-ripened grapefruit for breakfast. No comparison to what we get up here in our 'semi-ripened' fruits (*ripened on semis).

Can't say her trees were grafted or not. Though I don't think so.

I remember buying grocery bags from the youngsters in the neighborhood, who would gather the more ripe unspoiled grapefruit off the ground around the trees, or directly from the trees if needed, and sell them by the large paper grocery bag for ~$1.00 - $1.50/bag. Like driving down (or up) Hwy 97 in B.C., through the farm land, and finding road-side fresh sweet corn in the same size bags for about the same money.

A culinary tour of cheap, and exceptionally good eats across North America.

Today I'm cleaning up the mess in the shop (what ever I didn't get to in the middle of the night), then hopefully launching into the myco project(s), once everything else is as much in order as I can reasonably expect myself to make it today.

Got down to around 0 f last night, but we're headed right back up into the mid-30s today, by all appearances. Another day of slippery mess brought by the ever changing weather patterns. Soft and wet glazed ice by day, and now, as of last night, crusted hard in the early A.M. The weather's as undecided about its path as I have been about which plants need to go. Tho', as stated, last night I more firmly came to grips with offing the LSD and WB mothers. more room for greater research, and I'll still need to do the additional mother cupboard. Clones and moms compete for that space, so it's something that's often timed accordingly.

 

[h.h.]

We had mixed grapefruits and dates growing behind the house. It was the closest thing to a forest around. Eventually replaced with condos and heavy traffic.

Farming is a real estate game. You bring in utilities and water, section it off. Work the land until it sells.
I have 40 acres behind me. Occasionally used for cattle grazing. There's a little knoll that blocks out the city beyond. I see grass with Pikes Peak in the background. Eventually there will be maybe 8, 16 houses built on it. Enough acreage for a horse that nobody will ride. There will be landscaping but no gardens. Plants but no food.
The neighbor on the corner is a Walmart waiting to happen. If you build it, they will come.
John Gorka:

They're growing houses in the fields between the towns
And the Starlight drive-in movie's closing down
The road is gone to the way it was before
And the spaces won't be spaces anymore

Two more farms were broken by the drought
First the Wagners now the Fullers pulling out
Developers paid better than the corn
But this was not the place where they were born

There's houses in the fields
No prayers for steady rain this year
Houses in the fields
There's houses in the fields
And the last few farms are growing out of here

At first he wouldn't sell and then he would
Now they'll be children playing where the silo stood
The word came from the marrow of his bones
It was the last sure way to pay off all the loans

The new streets will be named for kings and queens
And a ransom will be payed for every castle's dream
The model sign is crested with a lion
And the farmers they will have enough to die on

James McMurtry;

Turned off the TV, sat down to dinner
Phone rang, we were saying grace
Grandma died left us sixty acres
The last of the old home place
Sixty acres up on the cap rock
What am I supposed to do with that
Uncle Claude got a eight wheeled tractor
Plow it under in nothing flat
We could plant some maize, we could plant some cotton
We could plant some oats just to see if they'd grow
But I don't like farming, can't take the hours
Don't like a life that goes so slow
Glory glory, Hallelujah
Right back atcha, hope that'll do ya
Don't look at me like there's something I shouldn't have said
Just 'cause that old bird's dead
Glory glory, Hallelujah
Wish you'll do this, hope that'll do ya
Don't look at me like there's something I shouldn't have said
Just 'cause that old bird's dead
Now, cousin Clifford, he got the good land
Right on the highway out by Air Base road
Looks like a Wal-Mart waiting to happen
I mean to tell you it's a pot of gold
It's in the city limits and zoned commercial
City water and a sewer line
With the base expanding, consolidation
It's worth a fortune and it oughta been mine
Glory glory, Hallelujah
Right back atcha, don't she look natural?
Don't look at me like there's something growing out of my head
Just 'cause that old bird's dead

Tell the ones I miss the most
He's down on that forgotten coast. JM

 

[moose eater]

That's pretty much the story of the Mat-Su Valley's better farming land; subdivisions where there used to be fertile fields of all sorts. As land becomes more valuable, lower-end cash crops don't pay the property taxes so good, and as folks age, the 16-18 hour days that make up farming become untenable for most.

I started working farms when I was 9 years old for my money. Weeding cabbage and picking green beans for .05 cents/lb. Learned to walk like a bent-over coat-hangar real early.

Before I moved to the Yukon Territory in 1977, I was staying on an off-grid homestead farm in the U.P. of Michigan, with a Vietnam vet and his family who'd taken me in when I was hitching through and had stayed the first winter with a fellow who'd just been released from a mental health facility after a decade of less than helpful services. Quiet small town tragedies.

Like many farms in the area that had been built into varying qualities of structures and fields by Vietnam vets who'd joined the 'return to the land' movement back then, within his social circle of counter-culture combat vets, there was scant money, sometimes enough tools, nearly always sufficient food, a steady supply of weed and sometimes acid, and always enough work....

Roll 4 or 5 joints at 5:00 A.M. when the coffee pot went on the wood stove, then head to the barn to milk the goats, down to the end of the pasture by the swamp to slop the hogs, feed the sheep and ducks, and check to make sure no wild critters or feral cats had killed any of the livestock.

16 hr days were common, intermittently smoking doobies all day in the woods as we logged, and later milled our lumber to build the barn, pens and pastures, trading labor in the woods for the services of the owner of wood mill.

Pay sucked for all parties involved, but you were pretty much exempt from being fired. Had a Pioneer Super Tuner cassette and tuner in the cabin, the barn, and on the old Ford 8N tractor. Charlie Daniels, David Bowie, and Ozark Mtn Daredevils were common goat-milking, logging, and work-in-general music..

Now the corporations run the show in America's farming. For a number of reasons. Though when I visited a Hutterite community <30 years ago, west of Spokane, I was impressed with how they were staying solid as a culture, and continuing on as quasi-corporate farmers. Doing quite well then as spud growers.

I was riding my 2nd Electraglide back up to Alaska not quite 18-20 years ago, having flown down to pick it up and see friends/acquaintances, coming out of Chula Vista, where I'd picked the thing up. I'd purchased it off of e-bay (a mistake, for future reference); the second copy of my (much nicer) first FLHS. Far less a deal than had been advertised, even after having the HD shop in Chula Vista go through it.

My speedo cable broke in LA during rush hour, and after the panic that I was running illegal, carrying some Rx ups, some hash and some weed stashed in my load, with a shotgun in my bedroll, it occurred to me that speedometers on I-5 were obsolete and mostly a matter of optional equipment or personal choice; you went with the traffic, whether it was completely stopped, or doing 85 mph with 10-15 ft between their bumpers.

The land of lemmings with drivers' licenses is what I came to see it as.. 'Personal space' and 'safe distance' are concepts not found in their dictionaries.

Out of Button Willow (where I spent the night in a cheap but sufficient motel along the expressway), I'd called and found a cable and driver gear for my speedo in Santa Cruz, and needed a trunk latch re-riveted or replaced anyway, so I took the 2-lane road east, 'cross country over to Santa Cruz, taking me through -old- farm land. I found unofficial museums; abandoned farm houses, & graveyards of old derelict farming equipment by the acre. No bullshit. ACRES (!!!!) of old retired farm equipment.

I achieved the worse case of sunstroke and sun burn of my life that day, later that night putting myself into shock when I crawled into the shower at a motel up near Mt Shasta (Hastings???), but the landscape through that farm land, both ways, away from I-5 over to Santa Cruz, then back again NW to just south of the Oakland Interchange, then through the San Joaquin Valley area, cross-country to the E-way mostly north of the cities, getting back on I-5 near Vacaville, where the prison guards got popped for staging betting pools involving gladiator stuff with the inmates.

It was an eye-opener as to the evolution of rural America, a'la southern and central California. A farmland cemetery in some/many cases. A gut-punch to anyone who ever embraced taking their living from the dirt.

I shop for real estate sometimes now, on-line, in the middle of the night, often looking back in the UP of Michigan and similar places, mostly looking to places that haven't had a stable economy in going on 50-100 years that offer ample rural properties. A place to prepare to end life, and enjoy what's left.

I can find livable dwellings there now on sizable acreage for a wish and a prayer sometimes. Retirement maybe, or just a pipedream that goes back to places more or less unchanged, where rural existences have been maintained on moth balls. Or maybe just midnight pipe dreams through places that were once familiar.

My father was buried back there in 1968 in a small company town that was a copper mining site over 100 years ago. Haven't visited him but maybe 3 or 4 times since he got planted there. Cheap land, dwellings, memories, and a time-lock of sorts.

 

[h.h.]

"Set out running, but I take my time."

Never made it to the UP. Spent some time in Big Rapids. Mostly stayed in California. up and down the coast. Passing through Santa Cruz. Stayed up in the hills above Palo Alto for a bit. Bezerkly after the city council sit-ins. Morro Bay, spent my time crabbing, fishing, or going down to Pismo to dig clams. Often all in one day. Lake Tahoe for a bit before moving back to the desert. First the low, then up to Joshua Tree. Now Colorado.

I watched the encroachment in California. I don't know if Colorado is the escape. Everything is sectioned out. McMansions are becoming the norm. They squeeze them in so tight.
As our current leader has proposed, skyscrapers built from American steel or however the hell he said it. Nightmares as our whispers echo down man made canyons.

My lot in life has always been to eat the fruit and shit the seeds so more may grow. My church is the compost pile. I'm about the most religious person you've ever encountered.

 

[moose eater]

I didn't read you as brimming with religiosity, h.h. More a spirituality, or your own well-defined morality.

As a fairly devout Agnostic with some leanings toward there being more than we can see, but probably not what we've allowed opportunists to define for their convenience, I can relate to that.

Dogma and conventional doctrine aren't really necessary for personal codes of morality, beliefs, or insights, in my opinion. Right, wrong and gray can exist without the bullshit and tyrants.

I was a traveler from early on, whether crossing state lines in the back seat of a car in the middle of the night to get away from violence, or discovering my thumb at 13, and the freeway.

From there, the oceans were the limits, and they were overcome eventually.

Money, resources, and time can overcome much. Not everything, but a lot.

Colorado has now seen numerous land rushes.

They were on the map back in the 1970s, with the back-to-the-land movement my veteran friends and surrogate family in the UP were engaged in. More recently for the neon 'legal weed' signs.

I might be in the ganja hills of Nepal right now, if the King and the Nepali government had not barred non-Nepali folks from permanent residence/citizenship. Had an acquaintance who ran an import-export business out of there, but that was as close to becoming Nepali as you could get back then. Another acquaintance stayed for an extended period in the hills there, as well.

My wife and I were accepted to further our immigration process to New Zealand in 1993, and should've taken it. I wasn't yet thoroughly branded, and the State's incompetence had allowed them to mostly forget our previous socio-political dances from a decade before that.

You cross an undefined threshold, and some changes become more burdensome.

Slowed down on the trimming of the WB.

No doubt re. the ending of the BF LSD plant. She's been left to slowly wither. Still entertaining an occasional inner tug-of-war re. the WB, but despite her excellent health at the moment, I'll probably continue on with her meeting her end.

The GTH#1 continues to be regarded as any number of things; "out of control," "taken away my steering wheel," "requiring a warning label," "thorough," "too much," etc. I'm pleased with her. Nice flavor, scent, incredible high that covers the bases, etc.

+34 f on my porch at 6:00 A.M. We're setting records now for December temperatures.

In the throws of getting a couple of the snowmachines through their annual checklists, for the possibility of heading up the Taylor Hwy toward Chicken & Eagle to hunt some caribou. The current warm front/low pressure system would've been deluxe, providing it didn't get so warm as to soak everything that touches the ground.

I'm behind in nearly everything I do any more. I'm moving at 33-1/3 and much of the rest of the world is set on 78.

 

[h.h.]

Being agnostic is a religion.
I see miracles everywhere. I see books written by man. The two have little in common. It's all stoner science. That doesn't mean that there aren't truths. You take your best guess and go forward. You live on faith. We all worship the same entity. We all just see it different. I've met a lot of so called religious people who aren't. While I'm not without sin, I have a conscious that makes me very religious.. much more than many.

Post office decided to triple plastic bag my last worm order. What a mess. The vendor agreed to send a second order. In the mean time I ordered another 5,000 from Uncle Jim's.
That'll give me 5,000 Europeans and 14,000 red wigglers. To that I'm adding another 5,000 Europeans. They should be able to devour close to 12 pounds of food per day.

I have just over 100 gallons of amendment and manure mix prepared. Moving up to the 100 gallon Smart Pots. I'll use the 20 gallon pots inside where they may eventually require moving. The 100 gallon pots will go into the garage.
Keep changing my recipes. . . Trying to get the quality up and the cost down. Manure and spent grain are free. Still valuable amendments. By the time I get to my 5th or 6th batch, i'd like to be consistent. If I say it has kelp in it, I want to say how much kelp it has.
As my worm numbers increase, I'll do more without the amendments
Manure and grain, maybe a touch of gypsum, and bedding of some sorts.

I had a vision when I moved here of incorporating worm beds with fruit trees along with the chickens. I've been staring at my mixer for the last year, thinking I could use it for soil. Between planting trees, chasing chickens, all the usual distractions along with a good dose of laziness. Just needed a kick in the right place to get started again.

Weather is holding out. Well above normal the last few weeks.
Need to bring in a rainmaker. Saw it happen at a Pink Floyd concert. I'll swear to it. It had nothing to do with my state of mind. If they can make it rain at a Pink Floyd show, they can do it here.
Chants of no rain from ancient albums, played backwards...
"If you want a drink of water, you gotta get it from the well."

 

[moose eater]

Sounds lie you're nearing a moment of production coming to fruition.

I think we both speak or think by way of music sometimes, h.h.

Forget the title of the Ozark Mtn Daredevils tune that was more or less hill-folk psychedelia... Went something like "You know, like I know, that everything's gonna' be alright."

I can remember that blaring from the barn, while I was spinning pirouettes, dancing down the pasture toward the swamp, as I carried the slop buckets down to the hogs, and my favorite nanny goat, Lady goat, and I had a routine during that set of chores each day.

She'd come up to me, throw her head around in a playful challenge, I'd put the buckets down and jump up in the air, shaking my head as though I had horns, with my arms, wrists and hands curled as though I were a leaping 4-legged critter, at which time she'd go ripping down the pasture, leaping and shaking her head in the air, doing a skidding 'ewe-turn' at the edge of the swamp by the pens, then come running and jumping back to me the same way she'd left, skidding to a stop in front of me. Then we'd do it all over again, with that Ozark Mtn Daredevils tune reverberating from the open barn doors.

"You know like I know that, everything's gonna' be alright..."

+40 on my porch this morning at ~ 8:00 A.M. That may well go up to mid-40s by the later afternoon, per NOAA.


Need to get to town this afternoon to pick up my younger boy's snowmachine if it's ready, and make plans for prepping the others, for any possible caribou trip(s).

Winters like this can make cross-country travel in some places a bit interesting.

My lengthy list of things that will likely not be done when I turn to compost include a walk-in root cellar into the hillside below my home, finishing the greenhouse, making peace with folks I've turned my back on due to unprincipled transgressions, siding on the barn, a garage with an apartment above it, and, though I really need to try harder on this one, a sauna for my wife. She's waited a long time now.

We'll see. First things first. Breakfast and coffee are the initial hurdles. Then correspondence.

Woke up in the middle of the night and the intermittent perpetual searing headache to the left rear quadrant of my head that's been with me for about a month had spread to my whole head, like an unwelcome halo, becoming a searing experience around the entire circumference. I'd been sleeping on the chase in the living room for my spine's sake, and contemplated calling out to my wife, thinking this might be it, then decided not to disturb anyone and laid back down.

Thought about the holy finish line, and it being a mixed bag. A race both walked and ran at different times, and an end to the marathon not being all bad.

But I'm here. Still looking at that fucking chore list.

I got tired enough of trimming smaller, less resinous stuff on the WB last night. It pushed my certainty toward ending her. Like in any good bureaucracy where responsibility rolls downhill, she'll pay terminally for my not having caused her to excel this last time around. I get to be Reagan, GW, Nixon, Clinton, or Trump for a day!! Whooopeee!!! It's all on her.. "I have no recollection of that feeding schedule..."

Her stone and flavor are fine; she just didn't spin my turbine.. She's neck-and-neck with the GTH#1 for production this last go, and production across the board, is measurably down. But I expected that; new soil, very limited feed, etc. "Sun got in my eyes," "tripped on a blade of grass," "wasn't paying close attention after the fluff got in my ears," and so on...

I dialed back the greensand by half in the recent recipe, and added a tiny amount of our Alaska Whitefish Bone Meal to it; a long-time standby of 6-10-0 with 20% calcium. Pretty good stuff when applied where it's needed.

No relationship between the two in the switch. K and micro-nutes in one, and N & P with secondary nutes in the other... Just re-thinking what belongs where, and why.

Off to clean mother cupboards and primary boxes, first sweeping with a soft-bristled hand broom, then a vacuum with a soft brush, then, lastly, a thorough gentle scrub-down with fairly stout bleach and Borax in warm water. "Look out bacteria and fungus!! You're DEAD!!!"

 

[h.h.]

Thing is, I hardly listen to music anymore. It interferes with the voices in my head. I can listen to what I want to listen to and switch tracks on a thought.

If you stand in the light, you get the feel of the ride
And the music that plays in your ears
In your head you can hear, a voice so sweet and clear
And the music that plays in your head
As it flows up from the ground
Taking all who hear that sound
Close your eyes, its about to begin

Worms are getting fat. Lots of protein in their diet.

Tore apart one of my original 20 gallon pots. Used the contents to top my newly filled 100 gallon one. After settling and all I felt the mix was a bit dense, though acceptable. Adding cardboard and cutting down on the gypsum had had positive effects.
I've ordered some zeolite, but it hasn't arrived.

A bit of gypsum along with the cardboard helps with the aggregation. I don't know if I included oatmeal in my list, but I always use a bit in pretty much everything. It helps clump all the finer materials together until the fungi can take over. This provides pathways for air, food, and water.

Doing the pH by smell. Adding a little apple cider vinegar towards the end of the fermentation at which point it starts snowballing down. Like wine gone bad. Once aerated in the mixer with the calcium amendments, It gets that landfill smell. Giving it an occasional spin for a couple days and if the pH is right, it smells sweet and earthy. Makes you wish you were a worm.

 

[moose eater]

Yeah, I've got racks upon racks of music, and rarely pull something down to put into one of the machines anymore..

Haven't yet honed any nasal/olfactory ability to accurately distinguish acidic versus alkaline in ph.

I did play with the notion of being able to taste how concentrated alkaloids are in a green/veg specimen, and the probability/possibility that concentration/levels of alkaloids might translate into later THC concentration. At $60 or $80 a pop to get samples through a basic test, I haven't furthered any scientific based answers to whether that's been accurate or not.

Never aerated in the mixer; my thoughts being that the metal in such tools is likely Chinese-sourced, and not only questionable in construct/types and quality of metal, but in terms of the stability of metals and what they might be leeching.

I mix 'em and dump 'em.

What was your signal that one of the pots wasn't working the way you wanted it to?

Totally unfamiliar with zeolite, as well.

I'll have to go back and read some more at Suby's worming thread, but it sounds like you're saying that excess calcium is bad juju for worms?

My ph test for mixed amendments, once hydrated, has been a small, ancient, LaMotte's ph side-by-side double test tray with a chemical reagent (2221 if I recall correctly without checking). It's not as precise as the digital pens testing run-off, in terms of reading out a number to the tenths or hundredths to the right of a decimal, but I've found it to be fairly accurate, allowing for the subjective feature of assessing contrast in hues.

It's been far more reliable and less cumbersome than the cheapo Rapid Test capsules with all the gadgetry. With mine, you take a couple samples, place them in the larger indentations, saturate with the reagent sufficiently to allow for run-off into the smaller indentations after 1 minute, and read.

I usually whip out 2 readings each for 30 raised beds, 4 or 5 readings @ 2 each from different areas of the potato field, etc., in the course of a portion of an afternoon.

Removed WB last evening, despite then rolling a joint of an earlier cured sample and being fairly impressed. Her dried buds carry a hint of a fine old Colombian. There's still time to scalp a cutting or two from her, as in early stages there's no space really lost to show her some mercy.. but.. I've got time to endure angst over that a bit longer..

Coffee, and hopefully the energy to move more forward again.

I started the B-12 a week or two ago. So far no negative side-effects as were earlier experienced with the B complex stuff. No playing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in any local theatre plays yet... Not sure if it's increased my energy levels yet, either, knowing that some things have to establish levels before they become apparent in effect.

 

[h.h.]

Zeolite can hold nutrients in the root zone for plants to use when required. This leads to more efficient use of N and K fertilisers - either less fertiliser for the same yield or the same amount of fertiliser lasting longer and producing higher yields.
An added benefit of zeolite application is that unlike other soil amendments (gypsum and lime) it does not break down over time but remains in the soil to help improve nutrient and water retention permanently. With subsequent applications the zeolite will further improve the soil's ability to retain nutrients and produce improved yields.
And zeolite is not acidic. In fact it is marginally alkaline and its use with fertilisers can help buffer soil pH levels thus reducing the need for lime applications.

Rock with high CEC. Used in kitty litter, stalls, aquariums. ammonia reduction.

It also has metaphysical qualities.

Zeolite is known as a Reiki stone that aids with the attunement of energies and enhances the response to healing

Maybe a little far fetched. I don't hold much faith in metaphysical, yet it suggests that man has found some value in the substance and has searched to find out what it was.

I ordered pond rocks, rather than the smaller zeolite. They'll be easier to remove in the final castings, then I can reuse them.

I had room in my 100 gallon smart pot so I added the contents of one of the 20's. There was really nothing wrong with the 20, it gave me the opportunity to explore and check progress.
I felt it could have been a looser mix with more aeration. Easier work for the worms, but honestly I don't know. I'm in the learning stage. I have 3 more 20's like it that are doing fine. I think that with the smart pots, I can't really go wrong.

pH by nose. Not a great talent. Not super accurate either. Put your nose over a bottle of vinegar and you can tell it's acidic. When a worm bin goes sour, you can tell. I'm just looking for the right smells.

My dad was a conservationist and a soil scientist. When we'd take vacations, he would always take the back roads past the fields. We made a game out of guessing what each crop was, stopping when we came across a particularly good looking field. We'd stop and start digging our hands in the dirt. I learned colors and smells and textures. It became instinct of sorts.
It's like timing the old Chevy. Did it by ear for so long. I bought a dwell meter and found it was spot on. I returned the meter.
Here we are trying to set Chevies and Fords at the same dwell setting, just to make our meters happy.
"He'll take you up, he'll take you down."

 

[moose eater]

So of the sources you reference with higher Calcium content in zeolite, I'd suspect those with fewest additives that might screw with plants are best.

Rock, as in 'rock dust,' or ?????

Kitty litter often has aromatic additives. Probably not welcome in a mix.

Aquarium rock may be worth a peek, as fish can be sensitive to additives.

I'll do a search shortly.

Rock with high CEC. Used in kitty litter, stalls, aquariums. ammonia reduction.

 

[h.h.]

From reading, zeolite used in kitty litter is of a lower grade.

What I received from Amazon was "laboratory grade" and was maybe 1/8" pieces. A little expensive. For a permanent soil, I've decided though it is something I want to use. Need a cheaper source.

https://www.kmizeolite.com/zeolite-applications/soil-treatment/soil-amendment-and-additive/

Energy retention:
https://www.fao.org/3/a-t4470e/t4470e0j.htm

Sources;
https://www.bearriverzeolite.com/

https://www.kmizeolite.com/

However I ordered my pond rocks from here;
https://midwestzeolite.com/STORE.html

It reminds me of rock that I'd find around the tide pools in Montana De Oro on the central coast of Cali.
Not that I went around the state sticking rocks to my tongue, but when stuck up to my tongue, I could feel the moisture being drawn away. It kind of sticks to your tongue. Like the time my son put a starfish up to his face. It sticks.

Too much gypsum doesn't upset the worms other than making a denser, plaster type mix. It gets stiff.

 

[moose eater]

Thanks for the links and further info, h.h.

I did some further reading on-line last night, and discovered one of my misunderstandings had been that there was some amount of calcium in zeolite, as opposed to it storing nutes in solution.

It appears there's some amount of aluminum in it, and I found that worrisome, though it may be scant enough to not be an issue. If correct in amount, maybe even a benefit... or even irrelevant.

I'll take some time later to read the links you posted. I ran into town this A.M. fairly early for one set of chores with one vehicle, and need to get cleaned up to go run another set of errands with another vehicle.

Take care.

 

[hyposomniac]

Zeolite is used in filtering radiation fwiw