Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

Kind Sir

Well-Known Member
So I wanted to add a few things to my soil recipe, I have the following items on hand already. Im going to put my questions at the bottom.

Sphagnum peat moss
Coco coir
Perlite
Purple cow compost - derived from alfalfa, kelp, ewc, greensand, yard waste and rock dusts.
EWC

Alfalfa meal
Kelp meal
Fish bone meal
Crab shell meal
Oyster shell flour
Glacial rock dust

**Optionals**
Peruvian seabird guano
Diameticous Earth

1. Besides neem/karanja, what else would be beneficial?

2. I was looking at "red lava rocks" for my aeration..they have some at lowes/home depot Nd even walmart. What kind is for growing? I saw some were decoration, but nonetheless theyre still lava rocks. Opinions?

3. I know Ive asked about this stuff a few times I hope noone is annoyed with me. A few people said that when using an AACT to wet the soil before it "cooks," you only have to use EWC/Compost/Blackstrap. Would adding Neptunes Fish Fert, plus possibly alfalfa/kelp be beneficial or unneccesary?
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
So I wanted to add a few things to my soil recipe, I have the following items on hand already. Im going to put my questions at the bottom.

Sphagnum peat moss
Coco coir
Perlite
Purple cow compost - derived from alfalfa, kelp, ewc, greensand, yard waste and rock dusts.
EWC

Alfalfa meal
Kelp meal
Fish bone meal
Crab shell meal
Oyster shell flour
Glacial rock dust

**Optionals**
Peruvian seabird guano
Diameticous Earth

1. Besides neem/karanja, what else would be beneficial?

2. I was looking at "red lava rocks" for my aeration..they have some at lowes/home depot Nd even walmart. What kind is for growing? I saw some were decoration, but nonetheless theyre still lava rocks. Opinions?

3. I know Ive asked about this stuff a few times I hope noone is annoyed with me. A few people said that when using an AACT to wet the soil before it "cooks," you only have to use EWC/Compost/Blackstrap. Would adding Neptunes Fish Fert, plus possibly alfalfa/kelp be beneficial or unneccesary?
1. gypsum (Ca and S)

2. crush the red rock to 3/8" and smaller. it has good CEC.

3. no necessary but not harmful. better to keep nutrient teas separate from AACT for inoculation.
 

Kind Sir

Well-Known Member
1. gypsum (Ca and S)

2. crush the red rock to 3/8" and smaller. it has good CEC.

3. no necessary but not harmful. better to keep nutrient teas separate from AACT for inoculation.
Ok cool thanks, I now recall seeing people say to keep aact separate from nutrient teas. The only thing I wanted to ask is, I was looking at these lava rocks..If I rinse them real well theyre the right ones?

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Vigoro-0-5-cu-ft-Decorative-Stone-Red-Lava-Rock-440897/100427379
 

littlejacob

Well-Known Member
Bonjour
Ok...red lava rocks...Another free stuff!
Thanks a lot guys...my grow cost me less almost everyday with you...lol
Lots of plant, garbage to use...and now this...red lava...there's tons of it in city gardens...I just have to find a good way to crush it!?
Do I have to aim for perlite size or smaller?
Have a nice day!
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
Bonjour
Ok...red lava rocks...Another free stuff!
Thanks a lot guys...my grow cost me less almost everyday with you...lol
Lots of plant, garbage to use...and now this...red lava...there's tons of it in city gardens...I just have to find a good way to crush it!?
Do I have to aim for perlite size or smaller?
Have a nice day!

2. crush the red rock to 3/8" and smaller. it has good CEC.
 

hyroot

Well-Known Member
Pumice alone aerates soil so much. Hempy perlite doesn't even aerate as much as a soil mixes with a 1/3 being pumice. I have to water 10 and 15 gal pots every 3 days even in veg that was recently transplanted.
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
Pumice alone aerates soil so much. Hempy perlite doesn't even aerate as much as a soil mixes with a 1/3 being pumice. I have to water 10 and 15 gal pots every 3 days even in veg that was recently transplanted.
definitely. i've been using the recycled glass pumice in my mixes, and i've been letting them dry up too much and the peat is getting hydrophobic and not saturating all the way through at waterings so i've been wetting lightly and then coming back 1/2 hour later to get the real watering done once aggregates start to moisten back up. definitely a different mix than what i was used to before, that's for sure. it really affects the plants to show sign of problem in these kind of mixes i'm noticing, whereas my old mix i was using more of the sunshine #4 and not as much worm casting as i should have, it was much much more lenient with showing sign of underwatering as far as looks of the leaves and plant. definitely gonna be on the side of slightly more moist than on the side of drying periods with the hand watered ones. the blumats are doing great though!
 

littlejacob

Well-Known Member
Bonjour
Sorry for the question but I am not familiar with imperial system...three height of an inch...about 1cm (is there something under inch? Milli inch...micro inch...feet inch...hair?...lol!)
CU
 

Rrog

Well-Known Member
I bought 2 pallets of lava rock for use in my new raised vegetable beds. I'm only going to partially crush it. Given the soil volume, I'm thinking some percentage of 1.5" lava is going to be fine.

Gotta say again how much I love biochar. It's worth adding for its aeration properties only, but of course it does so much more
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
I bought 2 pallets of lava rock for use in my new raised vegetable beds. I'm only going to partially crush it. Given the soil volume, I'm thinking some percentage of 1.5" lava is going to be fine.

Gotta say again how much I love biochar. It's worth adding for its aeration properties only, but of course it does so much more
how much did a pallet run you?
 

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
$150 I think. End of season
my brother just put a nice bunch of stuff in his garden beds for next year... but he didn't add any aeration to what he put in.... so i'm gonna suggest that he goes and gets something if he's going to till it all together next year. not sure what his plan is. he's comin up for a visit for the holiday so i'll talk to him then. gonna try and talk him into some rock dust too....
 
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