P
Plant n Prosper
j
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I carry about 1 cubic meter of soil on my back on a yearly basis. (been doing this by now for about 10 years.)
I bag it up in pre wheigted 20 kg bags that are carried through the swamps & woods in a framed army back pack.
By now, this exercise has become a piece of cake, nothing to dread anylonger.
I like to pre wheigh the baggs to always carry the same amount that feels comphorteble for me too carry. > Too much and I will exhaust myself, whereas too light and I feel I could have achieved more then I actually carried. My body s' got used to this by now, but remembering my first years I often wondered where I had gotten myself into, lol
You better 'pre cook' it at home in a heated shed (25C) to speed up the fermenting progress now that you are on this short notice.
To provide lots of worms, top it up with lots of rotten organic material. Worms will drop their eggs in it and make lots of young ones in no time.
This 'topping' will still be too hot for your plants, so better place it totally down at the bottom of your swamp tubes.
By the time your roots get there it will have become less 'hot'.
On top of that, and counting for about 1/3 of the total swamp tube, you could drop locally collected peat, mixed with woodash. (raises PH & adds minerals)
The remainder will be filled with your home made soil, and the final topping of about 10 cm will be unamended potting compost buyed at the store.
I also found it most comphy to use 'drop-and-collect' stations.
On longer distances, like 500 meter hikes to final destiny, I might have 2 or 3 'collecting stations' from where to bring it to the next 'station'. (allowing me to strech out this duty over several 'early mornings')
Trying to do it all in one run over 500 meter is somewhat too tiring and monotonously boring.
To avoid getting lost or 'off track', I mark landmarks in my head.
I bag it up in pre wheigted 20 kg bags that are carried through the swamps & woods in a framed army back pack.
By now, this exercise has become a piece of cake, nothing to dread anylonger.
I like to pre wheigh the baggs to always carry the same amount that feels comphorteble for me too carry. > Too much and I will exhaust myself, whereas too light and I feel I could have achieved more then I actually carried. My body s' got used to this by now, but remembering my first years I often wondered where I had gotten myself into, lol
You better 'pre cook' it at home in a heated shed (25C) to speed up the fermenting progress now that you are on this short notice.
To provide lots of worms, top it up with lots of rotten organic material. Worms will drop their eggs in it and make lots of young ones in no time.
This 'topping' will still be too hot for your plants, so better place it totally down at the bottom of your swamp tubes.
By the time your roots get there it will have become less 'hot'.
On top of that, and counting for about 1/3 of the total swamp tube, you could drop locally collected peat, mixed with woodash. (raises PH & adds minerals)
The remainder will be filled with your home made soil, and the final topping of about 10 cm will be unamended potting compost buyed at the store.
I also found it most comphy to use 'drop-and-collect' stations.
On longer distances, like 500 meter hikes to final destiny, I might have 2 or 3 'collecting stations' from where to bring it to the next 'station'. (allowing me to strech out this duty over several 'early mornings')
Trying to do it all in one run over 500 meter is somewhat too tiring and monotonously boring.
To avoid getting lost or 'off track', I mark landmarks in my head.
I would haul all the ingredients separetly and mix them on site, reason being, you will need to get everything wet to activate the soil cooking, and wet dirt is way heavier than dry! 
My 0.02 cents, good luck! The work now is well worth it, you will see by the end of the season!
My 0.02 cents, good luck! The work now is well worth it, you will see by the end of the season!
True that, but the start of season is so near and outdoor temps are still so low that there won't be enough time to get the composting process started.
On PnP's pic I see snow still.^^
On PnP's pic I see snow still.^^
grahamwelington
New member
I'll bet those swamp tubes take a lot more than 40 gallons. More like 80 gallons it looks to me. Anyway the best way to do it is to bring in the 5kg coir blocks and expand them on site. use this as the bulk of your mix. What does the native soil look like? I've used 50/50 native soil/coir before with good results.
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Plant n Prosper
[QUOTE=offthe
P
Plant n Prosper
[QUOTE=
P
Plant n Prosper
j
S
Sat X RB
Soil 'cooks'best when its all in the same pile.
some friends of mine grew in the middle of a swamp with water a meter deep. they cut down small trees, made them into stakes and drove them into the swamp bottom to act as braces for old steel sheeting ... which gave them the perimeter of their garden bed.
next they heaped all the bush they had cut down ... big first and progressively smaller until leaves and small branches last.
then they placed their soil (lotsa sheep shit) on top of that. their gardens floated ... and of course never needed watering.
it was a very succesful grow.
cheers!
some friends of mine grew in the middle of a swamp with water a meter deep. they cut down small trees, made them into stakes and drove them into the swamp bottom to act as braces for old steel sheeting ... which gave them the perimeter of their garden bed.
next they heaped all the bush they had cut down ... big first and progressively smaller until leaves and small branches last.
then they placed their soil (lotsa sheep shit) on top of that. their gardens floated ... and of course never needed watering.
it was a very succesful grow.
cheers!
I would do as much as possible at home and take everything to your site just before planting. If you make your mix and let it sit at your house to cook, and filled your tubes just prior to hauling them out, it will minimize the amount of time that your stuff is sitting out in the woods where it can potentially be found by somebody.
P
Plant n Prosper
[QUOTE=Sa
P
Plant n Prosper
[QUOTE=Friend;56
I checked the fahrenheit / celsius converter and yes, those temps are definatly way to low to get any significant composting process going.
I'd set my minimal temp at 21C / 70F in order to get it done before june.
Lower works too ofcourse, but it all will take longer then.
Your most sensitive option would be to get a hold of an EC meter.
Make a super strong amended mix with lots of worms in it at home at 25C/77 F & with a starting Ec of 7.0 ms (add compost starter bacteria!)
Now bring unamended peat moss to the spot and mix/dillute it locally with the rich home made brew.
To get the ratio right, you should first take some soil probes at home with the ec meter.
Freshly mixed, poor peatmoss + uncooked amended rich peatmoss with a combined starter EC of 4.0 Ms will be perfectly safe & effective after 3 months on 25C /77F
20 liter chickenshit/seaweed pellets, 5 liter woodash and 1 liter dolomite lime per 1000 liter of peatmoss should bring your peatmoss on about EC 7.0 Ms (It will raise to 7.0 during the first couple of weeks when kept moist, then gradually become lower.)
So you bring the bulk of your poor, dry & light peat moss to the spot, then mix it into your tubes with a little bit of the super rich, moist & heavyer home made stuff.
NB. I noticed that chickenshit/seaweed pellets are raising the Ec sicnificanly higher as would 'chickenshit pellets-exclusivly' do. Therefore however will this seaweed-induced higher Ec also drop down much faster.
Good stuff though! At my indoor setup, these seaweed enriched chickenshit pellets are helping me pull 2kg per 1600 wt atm.
I'd set my minimal temp at 21C / 70F in order to get it done before june.
Lower works too ofcourse, but it all will take longer then.
Your most sensitive option would be to get a hold of an EC meter.
Make a super strong amended mix with lots of worms in it at home at 25C/77 F & with a starting Ec of 7.0 ms (add compost starter bacteria!)
Now bring unamended peat moss to the spot and mix/dillute it locally with the rich home made brew.
To get the ratio right, you should first take some soil probes at home with the ec meter.
Freshly mixed, poor peatmoss + uncooked amended rich peatmoss with a combined starter EC of 4.0 Ms will be perfectly safe & effective after 3 months on 25C /77F
20 liter chickenshit/seaweed pellets, 5 liter woodash and 1 liter dolomite lime per 1000 liter of peatmoss should bring your peatmoss on about EC 7.0 Ms (It will raise to 7.0 during the first couple of weeks when kept moist, then gradually become lower.)
So you bring the bulk of your poor, dry & light peat moss to the spot, then mix it into your tubes with a little bit of the super rich, moist & heavyer home made stuff.
NB. I noticed that chickenshit/seaweed pellets are raising the Ec sicnificanly higher as would 'chickenshit pellets-exclusivly' do. Therefore however will this seaweed-induced higher Ec also drop down much faster.
Good stuff though! At my indoor setup, these seaweed enriched chickenshit pellets are helping me pull 2kg per 1600 wt atm.
P
Plant n Prosper
[QUO
It's not that difficult or that much work.
Have you got a shed?
Staple gun a large piece of plastic in the corner, drop dirt, drop ferts, add starter germs.
mix it up, add water, add worms, cover with remainder of the plastic
Oil filled radiator should take care of all the rest.
Once your tubs are set to go, the remainder of your grow will be a piece of cake.
With artificial nutes you would have to tend to them on a weekly basis.
Better just get started so you wont have time for contemplating, lol
PS, if you want to play it safe, fill the upper 30 cm of your tub with unamended potting compost.
By the time your roots are reaching the amended part, it will have gotten one more month to 'cool down'.
Ofcourse, if you plan on planting out pregrown plants then this distance should match the size of their rootbal and prolly be longer.
Totally doable still, yes.
Biggest changes in the fermentation process are between 2 and 3 months.
Before 2 months there's a good chance on severe poisoning.
Just at 2 months ...the stuff will be so little fermented that it hardly gets a chance to release it's components for the plant to take advantage of.
But at around 3 months, it will be releasing uptakeble nutrients very steadily and in reasonable enough amounts for the plant to take advantage of and will continue to release untill & even beyond harvest, provided you have been liberal enough.
Have you got a shed?
Staple gun a large piece of plastic in the corner, drop dirt, drop ferts, add starter germs.
mix it up, add water, add worms, cover with remainder of the plastic
Oil filled radiator should take care of all the rest.
Once your tubs are set to go, the remainder of your grow will be a piece of cake.
With artificial nutes you would have to tend to them on a weekly basis.
Better just get started so you wont have time for contemplating, lol
PS, if you want to play it safe, fill the upper 30 cm of your tub with unamended potting compost.
By the time your roots are reaching the amended part, it will have gotten one more month to 'cool down'.
Ofcourse, if you plan on planting out pregrown plants then this distance should match the size of their rootbal and prolly be longer.
Totally doable still, yes.
Biggest changes in the fermentation process are between 2 and 3 months.
Before 2 months there's a good chance on severe poisoning.
Just at 2 months ...the stuff will be so little fermented that it hardly gets a chance to release it's components for the plant to take advantage of.
But at around 3 months, it will be releasing uptakeble nutrients very steadily and in reasonable enough amounts for the plant to take advantage of and will continue to release untill & even beyond harvest, provided you have been liberal enough.
I think you are overthinking the whole organics method too much... a few weeks of letting the mix sit will be enough to transplant seeds without being too hot for them to handle...
Keep in mind that 1 gallon of water is about 10lbs, much easier to carry everything dry, and mix everything on the hole and let the weather take care of the watering... Just make sure you prep your holes/tubes a month or so early...
It's gonna suck if you take the dirt premoist, believe me, did that last year and was back breaking mistake... made things so much harder, prolly twice as hard
Regarding lime, use 1 cup per CU of peat, 1tbsp per gallon.
Best of luck,
BW!
Keep in mind that 1 gallon of water is about 10lbs, much easier to carry everything dry, and mix everything on the hole and let the weather take care of the watering... Just make sure you prep your holes/tubes a month or so early...
It's gonna suck if you take the dirt premoist, believe me, did that last year and was back breaking mistake... made things so much harder, prolly twice as hard
Regarding lime, use 1 cup per CU of peat, 1tbsp per gallon.
Best of luck,
BW!
P
Plant n Prosper
[QUOTE=Buddah
P
Plant n Prosper
[QUOT
I personally never had any trouble with stagnant compost air leaking from underneath the tarp.
As a matter of fact, it does not even smell at all once it is covered with plastic.
My best advice I already gave in my previous post. > Carry a small amount of precooked soil and the remainder of the bulk in 'dry'.
quote BW: a few weeks of letting the mix sit will be enough to transplant seeds without being too hot for them to handle...Unquote.
Well, now I have been intensively testing this stuff with several thousends of seeds at several different stages of the cook & with several different Ec levels, and I can say that only a very small percentage of the seeds used were able to survive badly cooked, high Ec circumstances.
Some will indeed survive (like 1:100) and turn into great plants but most and especially clones just won't, or get a poisoning of some kind.
With low Ec this would surely work though, but then they will be missing out on nutes in the end when they need it most.
Back to Pn'P: You probably won't need a whole garbage bin per tube just for the cook.
1 concentrated cooked bin per 8,9,10 tubes should do prolly.
Have you got an Ec meter?
As a matter of fact, it does not even smell at all once it is covered with plastic.
My best advice I already gave in my previous post. > Carry a small amount of precooked soil and the remainder of the bulk in 'dry'.
quote BW: a few weeks of letting the mix sit will be enough to transplant seeds without being too hot for them to handle...Unquote.
Well, now I have been intensively testing this stuff with several thousends of seeds at several different stages of the cook & with several different Ec levels, and I can say that only a very small percentage of the seeds used were able to survive badly cooked, high Ec circumstances.
Some will indeed survive (like 1:100) and turn into great plants but most and especially clones just won't, or get a poisoning of some kind.
With low Ec this would surely work though, but then they will be missing out on nutes in the end when they need it most.
Back to Pn'P: You probably won't need a whole garbage bin per tube just for the cook.
1 concentrated cooked bin per 8,9,10 tubes should do prolly.
Have you got an Ec meter?
Hey dude, I'll be moving my girls mid May... Check the daylight lenght and see when the day starts getting shorter, thats the latest I would put the girls out...
A few weeks veg'd clones is not the same as seedlings... They should be able to handle some nutes... But if thats the case you can always layer your mix, hot dirt on the bottom of the tubes and the top you can put a mix without too much nutes!
I'll be preping my holes in the next few weeks and letting it cook till May, my plants are well veg'd tho
Once again I think the risk of burning the clones a bit its way better than having to carry heavy ass water for no reason.... especially when you are trying to go big and haul lots of dirt... 2 gallons of water in a 20gal mix its an extra 20 lbs of weight... multiply that by 10 and you have 200 extra lbs of weight you have to haul to your spot, much better replacing that with more dirt/compost... just not worth it IME!
I also wouldn't use EC meter too much if you are growing organically... it's not rocket science... Make a good mix, let the microbes do some work on it and there will be food available for you plants once they go out!
You can also make a light mix and top dress guanos along the way!
Best of luck!
A few weeks veg'd clones is not the same as seedlings... They should be able to handle some nutes... But if thats the case you can always layer your mix, hot dirt on the bottom of the tubes and the top you can put a mix without too much nutes!
I'll be preping my holes in the next few weeks and letting it cook till May, my plants are well veg'd tho
Once again I think the risk of burning the clones a bit its way better than having to carry heavy ass water for no reason.... especially when you are trying to go big and haul lots of dirt... 2 gallons of water in a 20gal mix its an extra 20 lbs of weight... multiply that by 10 and you have 200 extra lbs of weight you have to haul to your spot, much better replacing that with more dirt/compost... just not worth it IME!
I also wouldn't use EC meter too much if you are growing organically... it's not rocket science... Make a good mix, let the microbes do some work on it and there will be food available for you plants once they go out!
You can also make a light mix and top dress guanos along the way!
Best of luck!
