Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread
- Thread starter headtreep
- Start date
Mohican
Well-Known Member
Episode 214 - Feb 1st
Here:
Here:
| Myth | Status | Try at home? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microwave Water:Water boiled in a microwave oven will kill plants. | Busted | Do | Adam built a tray to hold four pairs of romaine lettuce plants, each receiving a different type of water: microwave-boiled, stove-boiled, unheated from the tap, and no water at all. The two boiled water samples were cooled to room temperature before being used. All plants received the same amounts of water and light (provided by controlled grow lights) for one week. At the end of this time, Adam found that the plants given microwave-boiled water had grown larger than all the others, and that the ones given no water had died. He noted that testing this myth posed no safety hazards. |
hyroot
Well-Known Member
funny thing.. My sister in law was taking some class that said if you microwave water and then water the plant it kills it. they tried it and it happened.. I called them out when she was demonstrating. Plants can only withstand certain temps of water. They were not letting the water cool. so the heat was killing them hence the myth.
thats alot of water to microwave or boil. I use 16 gallons of water in flower every watering.
porterg843
Member
This is the answer I'v been looking for. I want to buy the tall boy kdf 85 and nix the RO.
DANKSWAG
Well-Known Member
Cool beans, be sure to check out my latest post in DangSwag's GreenMachine 2014.
DankSwag
foreverflyhi
Well-Known Member
Garden in downtown San Diego, unfurtantly the soil is contaminated with metals due to urban city and construction near by. This soil in this no till bed is now in its 2nd year, it has been planted with all sortd of metal leaching plants, mainly sunflowers. As soon as this round is done the soil will be tested agian, and hopefully will be safe to grow veggies
Sorry i wasnt able to upload more pics, will try agian
foreverflyhi
Well-Known Member
I really wish i could go, but cant make it due to work schedule
foreverflyhi
Well-Known Member
Not sure, maybe they would eventually decompose?
DANKSWAG
Well-Known Member
Ya that was my thought since they would take forever to break down they would be great for aeration and light weight unless someone can think of a reason.
I am thinking since it is carbon in a harden fiber shell great refuge for micro life. How it would effect drainage used solo might be an issue, would they need to be soaked in a High N alfalfa tea to provide additional N should they find it a readily available carbon food source? Not likely to decompose as quickly as rice hulls which I am told to soak them in alfalfa to negate any readily available N for plants that would be consumed by micro beast having a multiplication orgy.
I've believe I've accomplished this myself when I watered with a compost tea high in molasses (too much sweetness at once) that I bubbled good strong pump multiple air injectors min 36 hours. My soil did not have enough N to keep everyone happy, plants suffered, by slightly only one leaf set. Once I top dressed fish compost, water with alfalfa tea and added a little oyster shell for calcium to help in the processing of N and other nutrients. Plants recovered and once micro beast calmed down died off and produced waste this also brought balance back.
Therefore I think it is important to ensure plenty of N when adding beast or carbon sources that break down quickly and feed them like Molasses.
So ensure natural sources from mother earth are providing the N you need for if you set lose a hoard of beast or put food out for them your plants will suffer if there is not adequate N for all. I am told to maximize available nitrogen in so and avoid the robbing of nitrogen from the soil our ladies love to grow from and to keep a balance of Fungi and Bacteria to keep the ration lower than standard decomposition of C/N 30:1 or 30, instead 20 is ideal in attempting to maximize available N in soil.
So carbon loading is an art, too much you will rob N from soil to feed micro best, to little excessive is changed to ammonia.
Since the scale seem to be 20-30 when it comes to beneficial C to N rations. Where 30 to 1 at top end for decomposing where you want to heat things up and have aeration to ensure beneficial bacteria rule.
I believe closer to 20 is where we should be seeing the composition of the soil in our pots, this is the red line for vegging if you want to get exponential growth. Besides isn't vegging where we really want the N boost.
Be careful with your N sources when adding to existing soil webs especially if you enjoy and want to benefits of Fungi, too much in the soil especially from a "hot" N source like blood meal or a guano that has not be non composted. This will catalyze micro life and decomposition is accelerated into overdrive causing fluctuation in soil PH essentially cooking the soil causing fungi to dwindle and die.
Anywise if you find you over did the carbs go with N lite and bring the balance of C to N into proper range.
And wouldn't you know it as I was writing this looking for data to support my findings and to expound on them.
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/fundamentals/needs_carbon_nitrogen.htm
DankSwag
Thedillestpickle
Well-Known Member
I have a simple question for everyone. Any anetdotal experiences or experiments would be good to hear about.
I'm wondering if running organic fertilizers(neem meal, blood meal, bat guano etc.) through a vermicomposter will make the nutrients faster release(thus more likely to cause burn), or slower release.
It's a simple question but the answer may be a bit complex, so any personal experiences would be valuable.
Thank you.
I'm wondering if running organic fertilizers(neem meal, blood meal, bat guano etc.) through a vermicomposter will make the nutrients faster release(thus more likely to cause burn), or slower release.
It's a simple question but the answer may be a bit complex, so any personal experiences would be valuable.
Thank you.
Wallflower1
Member
I am currently in a one week cooking process for a organic soil which includes: The following was proportioned out in a 5 gal bucket 1 part refers to 5 gal
1 part pro mix
1/2 part perlite
1 part charlies composted free range additive free chicken compost with veg compost
1 1/2 cup tomato tone fert espoma
1 cup kelp
1cup organic crab shell
1 cup green sand
3 cups rock dust
1cup alfafa meal
1 tsp mycorrhizae inoculant mixed with water
3/4 cup lime pellets
I mixed the above with water mixed with molasses
If anyone reading this can see that there would be an additional ingredient I should include please advise, I am wanting to use the notill method. One more thing since compost is already cooked do I still need to wait 3 weeks?
1 part pro mix
1/2 part perlite
1 part charlies composted free range additive free chicken compost with veg compost
1 1/2 cup tomato tone fert espoma
1 cup kelp
1cup organic crab shell
1 cup green sand
3 cups rock dust
1cup alfafa meal
1 tsp mycorrhizae inoculant mixed with water
3/4 cup lime pellets
I mixed the above with water mixed with molasses
If anyone reading this can see that there would be an additional ingredient I should include please advise, I am wanting to use the notill method. One more thing since compost is already cooked do I still need to wait 3 weeks?
Wallflower1
Member
Thanks good idea I will research how much I should put in.
foreverflyhi
Well-Known Member
Vermiculture is what you are talking about, yes this is a practice that is done for us no tillers.
An example would be to add a little more of egg shells or something rich in calcium, this will be digested by the worms and the worms will shit out a calcium rich shit. But of course we dont just focus on calcium, other food scraps that are rich in other key ingrediants work as well.
More info here https://www.rollitup.org/organics/637587-vermicomposters-unite-official-worm-farmers.html
top dressing or amending our rich vermiSHiT is key to success in ROLS
Thedillestpickle
Well-Known Member
Trial and error will be the only way to really dial in what will work best.
I understand that the worms will break things down to make them more available.
There is definitely a lot of guesswork involved in organic growing. I think it's probably a good idea to start with a solid foundation and slowly work from there.
I have built a rather large indoor flow-through vermiculture bin. roughly 4 square feet area and 20 inches deep. It will take a while for the worms to multiply to full potential but eventually I hope to be generating a lot of castings.
Instead of mixing the castings with the organic fertilizers and perlite etc... I plan to mix my bedding material (wetted coco) with a measured fertilizer(bat guano and bone meal) amount and run the mixture through the bin to maximize nutrient availability. Obviously this will change the dynamic property of the fertilizer additions so that calculating appropriate additions will need to be adjusted for the extra availability of nutrients. What I wonder however, is whether this will make nutrient burn more likely, or if the CEC levels of the humus will help to counter-act any excess available nutrient to prevent over-uptake by the plants.
In more simple words: I plan to mix up a common organic soil recipe that I have found on the net, and run it through my worm bin, along with my food scraps, then mix the resulting castings at 50/50 with perlite.
RedCarpetMatches
Well-Known Member
You won't get burn if you let a mix 'cook' or decompose. I actually have 1 of my worm bins dedicated to a very nutrient rich VC for top dressing and transplanting. I amended this bin with 1/4 cup kelp, alfalfa, neem, and crab shell. I was a little nervous about how hot the mix would get, so I dug into that black gold goodness to check the temp daily. It never even got warm. You could amend the VC and use less in your soil mix if you wanted. It's really about being local, getting off the bottle, availability, budget, preference, and commitment. Once you get a good cooked mix...all you have to do is add water
It actually takes all of the guess work out, and the girl ends up 'taking what she wants'. If I were you, I'd read the first quick half of Teaming with Microbes' and this thread. Once you go black gold, you won't go back.