Prepping for next years soil, help?

fogo4life

fogo4life

Well-Known Member
So this years grow turned out to be a bit of a failure for a few reasons. Not the point but i just had to get it off my chest. I decided to go ahead and set the soil for next year. Its all pretty good top soil with good values in it but i want to find a way to loosen it up a bit so it doesnt get so hard and this way more oxygen gets to the roots. I would also like to pack as much natural decomp in there so my plants can have some good food besides what i feed them. I would just like to know what would be good to find outside in these thick woods (full of everything) that would i could burry in the soil for next year. Ill do as much work as it takes, just tell me the best ways to approach the situation. Thanks for all help in advance.
 
Z

zagato

Member
fogo4life said:
So this years grow turned out to be a bit of a failure for a few reasons. Not the point but i just had to get it off my chest. I decided to go ahead and set the soil for next year. Its all pretty good top soil with good values in it but i want to find a way to loosen it up a bit so it doesnt get so hard and this way more oxygen gets to the roots. I would also like to pack as much natural decomp in there so my plants can have some good food besides what i feed them. I would just like to know what would be good to find outside in these thick woods (full of everything) that would i could burry in the soil for next year. Ill do as much work as it takes, just tell me the best ways to approach the situation. Thanks for all help in advance.
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For my garden in general i like to till in nice and deep alot of this years compost, alot of leaves in the fall(worms love em) and plant a cover crop. The cover crop insulates the soil and gets everything cooking early in the spring, I use winter rye.
 
fogo4life

fogo4life

Well-Known Member
yes but im dealing with a "guerilla"? grow so i dont have a way to get a tiller. but i do have a shovel out there. i have already gotten the soil well broked down and loose, im just looking for what specific type of vegitation to cut down and mix in. i was thinking like alot of grass clipping, wild flowers, bananna peels, leaves, and maybe alot of small sticks and twigs that might help keep it loose for oxygen. and vegetation covers the area quickly so if i can do this within the next week im sure there will be plenty of cover crop by end of fall as you said. im looking more for any great tips and secrets that will drop good nutes in there. there is allllll kinds of plants out in these super thick woods, i want to know what will give my plants the best medium next year. thanks man
 
heathaa

heathaa

Well-Known Member
when you are ready heres what you do. get 5 gallon buckets. put a catfish (easy to catch) in the bottom of the buckets. add a couple handfull of quarter sized rocks. drill four holes on the side a quarter inch up from the bottom drill two holes on the bottom. add 50/50 native dirt and topsoil from the store add two cups of sand. plant your seeds two per bucket. and bury your bucket in your secret spot. the deal is for instance if you think someone found your grow you can just pull the bucket out of the ground and move it without disturbing the plants. the fish emulsion will feed the plants for up to two years. and its just an all way round good deal. you can keep the weeds out of your bucket. you can move it. and you let nature take its course and you never have to visit your grow site unless it doesnt rain
 
fogo4life

fogo4life

Well-Known Member
heathaa said:
when you are ready heres what you do. get 5 gallon buckets. put a catfish (easy to catch) in the bottom of the buckets. add a couple handfull of quarter sized rocks. drill four holes on the side a quarter inch up from the bottom drill two holes on the bottom. add 50/50 native dirt and topsoil from the store add two cups of sand. plant your seeds two per bucket. and bury your bucket in your secret spot. the deal is for instance if you think someone found your grow you can just pull the bucket out of the ground and move it without disturbing the plants. the fish emulsion will feed the plants for up to two years. and its just an all way round good deal. you can keep the weeds out of your bucket. you can move it. and you let nature take its course and you never have to visit your grow site unless it doesnt rain
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haha i think im looking for a bit more professional approach. thanks for the idea though. its good food for the brain when i get bored. but im aiming more towards 25 gallon grow bags or so. i dont want something as simple as a pot minimizing my yield. but i will look into the catfish idea, its a hobby of mine. but i dont understand how a fish could have some kind of nutritional benefit. i was always read to avoid meat when making the compost. could you elaborate more on your idea?
 
Ripshot

Ripshot

Active Member
prepping your soil now for next year is the best thing you can do. What I suggest is to load up your beds or holes with lots of manure or compost. you dont have to mix it in right away. I would break up the top layer and mix a little bit of some manure or compost. then layer as much as you can on top of that. Then come back in the late fall and turn it over into the rest of the soil.

In the early spring as soon as possible go back and add blood and bone meal, and any other organic nutrient sources you want. mix it in, then come back in 4 weeks and mix it up again. after another 4 weeks you should be ready to plant your seedlings or clones. mix up your soil one last time and plant those suckers.
 
fogo4life

fogo4life

Well-Known Member
yeah that sounds easy enough. my climate gets really cold here in the winter so think everything will break down good since there wont be much warm weather left?
 
Ripshot

Ripshot

Active Member
Sure it will. The freezing cold will help to break it down. during the thaw in the spring organic matter will be saturated with moisture and will break down readily.
 
fogo4life

fogo4life

Well-Known Member
ok sounds great, i think im going to make an even mix of soil, brown decomp, and green decomp. with a small mix of paper material maybe. but will anything close to 66 percent decomp help keep the soil loose so that way more oxygen gets to the roots? and im also thinking about taking lots of banana peels and mixing a few of them in bottom of each grow bag so when the plants get to flowering they will reach the peels and get a great supply of potassium. sound like a good idea?
 
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