Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

smokey the cat

smokey the cat

Well-Known Member
Question thread -

I have yet to find a source for rock dust. The local quarries are no help, and no garden places have it in my country.


Thinking about taking my huge mortar & pestle and powdering some pumice. It's a volcanic rock with air holes and it's pretty soft - so I'll just powderise it. Don't have a huge grow, so should be able to handle the amounts I'll need.

Does this seem like a solution to you?
 
cannakis

cannakis

Well-Known Member
smokey the cat said:
Question thread -

I have yet to find a source for rock dust. The local quarries are no help, and no garden places have it in my country.


Thinking about taking my huge mortar & pestle and powdering some pumice. It's a volcanic rock with air holes and it's pretty soft - so I'll just powderise it. Don't have a huge grow, so should be able to handle the amounts I'll need.

Does this seem like a solution to you?
Click to expand...
you can get land plaster? agricultural gypsum.? thats what i used and just got some blue granite at the rock and mulcg place and it had Lots of dust on it. and what about lime? why dont you just add the pumice instead of crushing it, it will degrade over time and you get more airation.
 
Pattahabi

Pattahabi

Well-Known Member
cannakis said:
that is crazy! beautiful! i love that.! so do you keep that green growing or do you till it in? so do i Really need to mulch and or cover crop my plants?!
Click to expand...
The clover will die out (and is currently doing so) when the canopy becomes too tight and not enough light gets down there. I let it die on the top, my philosophy is you don't want to disturb the soil by tilling.

And imo, yes, you absolutely need some kind of mulch on the top of your soil. This can be dead canna leaves, sticks, straw, etc. You do not want the top few inches of soil drying out.

P-
 
Biochar

Biochar

Member
smokey the cat said:
Question thread -

I have yet to find a source for rock dust. The local quarries are no help, and no garden places have it in my country.


Thinking about taking my huge mortar & pestle and powdering some pumice. It's a volcanic rock with air holes and it's pretty soft - so I'll just powderise it. Don't have a huge grow, so should be able to handle the amounts I'll need.

Does this seem like a solution to you?
Click to expand...
May be able to help. let me know......
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
smokey the cat said:
Question thread -

I have yet to find a source for rock dust. The local quarries are no help, and no garden places have it in my country.


Thinking about taking my huge mortar & pestle and powdering some pumice. It's a volcanic rock with air holes and it's pretty soft - so I'll just powderise it. Don't have a huge grow, so should be able to handle the amounts I'll need.

Does this seem like a solution to you?
Click to expand...


http://www.kisorganics.com/products/shop/product-category/bulk-soil-amendments/page/2
 
Pattahabi

Pattahabi

Well-Known Member
foreverflyhi said:
Nice prices!!!

How about a website for botanicals, aloe and coco powder?

I tried buildasoil and not bad service but little pricey..
Click to expand...
This aloe price is a lot better deal then BAS, and is who I use:
http://www.ingredientstodiefor.com/item/Aloe_Vera_Extract_200x_Organic_Puraloe/111

Botanical company: https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/
Another: http://www.libertynatural.com/

Coconut water powder: http://www.znaturalfoods.com/Coconut-Water-Powder-Organic-Freeze-Dried
I also use navitas often: http://www.amazon.com/Navitas-Naturals-Coconut-5-8-Ounce-Pouches/dp/B009AS4DEW/ref=sr_1_1?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1370539133&sr=1-1

Lmk if anything else Fly!
P-
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
i fileted a 3 foot long leaf and my blender was broken. I remembered I have a magic bullet blender in the cupboard. That thing is awesome for pureeing aloe filets.

fyi hulled barley seed pureed into flour for cooking does not work very well as flour
 
greasemonkeymann

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
Pattahabi said:
The clover will die out (and is currently doing so) when the canopy becomes too tight and not enough light gets down there. I let it die on the top, my philosophy is you don't want to disturb the soil by tilling.

And imo, yes, you absolutely need some kind of mulch on the top of your soil. This can be dead canna leaves, sticks, straw, etc. You do not want the top few inches of soil drying out.

P-
Click to expand...
I've been using moistened cardboard strips, just like you would use for your wormbin, and it works really great at keeping the topsoil moist, the roots will literally attach themselves to the cardboard, so much so, that I've been toying around with the idea of rolling the cardboard in a lil mychorrizae first, just to see what happens, they are already all fuzzy-white with roots, so I imagine it'll be even better, couldn't hurt, and I think I have a small infatuation with mychorrizae
 
Pattahabi

Pattahabi

Well-Known Member
greasemonkeymann said:
I've been using moistened cardboard strips, just like you would use for your wormbin, and it works really great at keeping the topsoil moist, the roots will literally attach themselves to the cardboard, so much so, that I've been toying around with the idea of rolling the cardboard in a lil mychorrizae first, just to see what happens, they are already all fuzzy-white with roots, so I imagine it'll be even better, couldn't hurt, and I think I have a small infatuation with mychorrizae
Click to expand...
Personally, I stay away from cardboard use in my worm bin or my pots, but that's just me.

P-
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
greasemonkeymann said:
maybe my worms are weird, they really go to town on the cardboard, they like it MUCH more than the leaves/compost
Click to expand...
mine don't but there plenty of other food in there. I make bedding out of peat moss, leaves and coco. Newspaper and cardboard always takes at least 3 - 4 months to break down in my bins. I shred it too.
 
greasemonkeymann

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
hyroot said:
mine don't but there plenty of other food in there. I make bedding out of peat moss, leaves and coco. Newspaper and cardboard always takes at least 3 - 4 months to break down in my bins. I shred it too.
Click to expand...
damn!, my cardboard is pretty much castings in about 15-20 days, and they have other food in there too... Hmm wondering if I simply have more worms in my bin, maybe that's why?
who knows
I'd figure a compost of newspaper and cardboard would degrade almost by them selves in that amount of time, much less with the worms eating it.
Strange
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
greasemonkeymann said:
damn!, my cardboard is pretty much castings in about 15-20 days, and they have other food in there too... Hmm wondering if I simply have more worms in my bin, maybe that's why?
who knows
Click to expand...

probably. I have added a 1000 worms 3 times. Soon I'm going to start more bins. Mine don't really grub on the egg shells either and I pulverize them. They go through veggie scraps, sst left overs and coffee grinds in a day.
 
greasemonkeymann

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
hyroot said:
probably. I have added a 1000 worms 3 times. Soon I'm going to start more bins. Mine don't really grub on the egg shells either and I pulverize them. They go through veggie scraps, sst left overs and coffee grinds in a day.
Click to expand...
also depends on the bin, I guess. I have mine in a big smart-pot, and mine don't eat the eggshells either, but from what I've gathered they aren't supposed to, just use them to digest. My worms like the cardboard much more than the coffee grinds, overall, rotting fruit takes the cake for the most desired food for the worms, judging on the mass of writhing worms that encompass the fruits. Weird how they really seem to have preferences. From what you say, i'd say you may have more worms than I do, hard to tell though, I got a BUNCH from my brothers bin, plus I bought some "fishing" red worms from the store, only because they were redworms and they were HUGE, anyways, I got two tubs of them, about four months ago, and now there is a definite difference between the two redworms, the ones I got from my brother and Unclejims, are tiny compared to the fishing ones, maybe its a sub species or something. They are still redworms, but like four times the size of the "normal" little guys. They eat like a mofo though..
I know there are two types of redworms... but thought they were similar sizes
 
hyroot

hyroot

Well-Known Member
greasemonkeymann said:
also depends on the bin, I guess. I have mine in a big smart-pot, and mine don't eat the eggshells either, but from what I've gathered they aren't supposed to, just use them to digest. My worms like the cardboard much more than the coffee grinds, overall, rotting fruit takes the cake for the most desired food for the worms, judging on the mass of writhing worms that encompass the fruits. Weird how they really seem to have preferences. From what you say, i'd say you may have more worms than I do, hard to tell though, I got a BUNCH from my brothers bin, plus I bought some "fishing" red worms from the store, only because they were redworms and they were HUGE, anyways, I got two tubs of them, about four months ago, and now there is a definite difference between the two redworms, the ones I got from my brother and Unclejims, are tiny compared to the fishing ones, maybe its a sub species or something. They are still redworms, but like four times the size of the "normal" little guys. They eat like a mofo though..
I know there are two types of redworms... but thought they were similar sizes
Click to expand...

i think those other are night crawlers. They work good too from what I've heard. Mine came from the hydro shop locally. I think they got it from Uncle Jims. Its the same packaging. It was $6 cheaper to get them locally because of shipping. I paid $24 for a 1000. It would of been $30 from Uncle Jims. I think the night crawlers hang out towards the bottom of the bin and the red wigglers are closer to the surface. 6 -12 inches of vc isn't that deep compared to those $5000 bins
 
Mohican

Mohican

Well-Known Member
Careful grinding up pumice or lava rock. The dust will become concrete when it gets wet. I tried this once and it even smelled like concrete! I had to transplant it because the water would just sit on top of the soil and never drain.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top