Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

greasemonkeymann

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
m4s73r said:
Thanks, but yeah 280 a year is to much imo lol. Im frugal. If i can top dress with vermicompost and just water the plant start to finish and save money im in sweet organic heaven.
Awesome about the root ball. I hate having to throw things away unnecessarily.
I was thinking a worm bin. Had one as a kid. I would think i would make enough to top dress 4 plants every other month.
"malted grains or sprouted seeds for the massive enzyme boost, and Coot's favourites of fulvic & silica, and neem etc for IPM" Yep just glazed right over all that. Is all that stuff for teas? Damn we just threw some manure and a shovel full of the dirt we"re growing in and brewed that. You got a whole list of things. Lists costs money. lol
I have been thinking about planting some Aloe for my clones.

does anyone plant any micro grass or ground moss or something around their plants to keep the top of the soil from drying out under hid lights? Ive seen just using like barley, straw, or rock.
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I use redwood moss that I take off of fallen rotting redwoods or stumps, and it does a great job not only keeping the topsoil moist but I also like to sprinkle mychorrizae on the topsoil and then stick the moss on it, and at the end the roots grow through it all and it's sorta lke a green toupee for the plant.
Funny I was just talking to pattahabi about that
 
smokey the cat

smokey the cat

Well-Known Member
m4s73r said:
If i can top dress with vermicompost and just water the plant start to finish and save money im in sweet organic heaven.

I was thinking a worm bin.

I have been thinking about planting some Aloe for my clones.
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Sounds like you've got the right idea - plant some aloe, build a compost and/or worm farm. Everything else you can figure out as you go

does anyone plant any micro grass or ground moss or something around their plants to keep the top of the soil from drying out under hid lights? Ive seen just using like barley, straw, or rock.
Click to expand...
Lazy man's solution: cover the top of your pots with old yellowed fan leaves. Just a leaf or two on the soil surface is enough to start holding water in the topsoil. With no cover the top couple of inches in my pots used to be dead, now there's roots on the surface reaching up to the mulch layer.
 
greasemonkeymann

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
smokey the cat said:
Sounds like you've got the right idea - plant some aloe, build a compost and/or worm farm. Everything else you can figure out as you go



Lazy man's solution: cover the top of your pots with old yellowed fan leaves. Just a leaf or two on the soil surface is enough to start holding water in the topsoil. With no cover the top couple of inches in my pots used to be dead, now there's roots on the surface reaching up to the mulch layer.
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well, I wouldn't say its a lazy mans solution, your method has it's advantages too, my dis advantage is the moss isn't breaking down, so it doesn't provide anything to the plant, however i'm ok with that, I use it more to promote the type of moisture I want, your method will also add microbes to the soil, hmm now that I think about it, I wonder what type of critter-microbes live in the moss.... after all they are attached to decaying redwoods, maybe some good microbes and some humus? Hmmm
Your method works just fine, in fact I've done that very thing, I think most of us growers that like to mulch probably found out that it works well on accident, usually with doing exactly what you do, I know I did, like you, I noticed the roots getting closer and closer to the soil with the mulch, so I went with it, and now when I harvest the plant, I re-use the moss, just gotta "scalp" her, peels off with the roots
 
Bueno Time

Bueno Time

Well-Known Member
smokey the cat said:
Sounds like you've got the right idea - plant some aloe, build a compost and/or worm farm. Everything else you can figure out as you go



Lazy man's solution: cover the top of your pots with old yellowed fan leaves. Just a leaf or two on the soil surface is enough to start holding water in the topsoil. With no cover the top couple of inches in my pots used to be dead, now there's roots on the surface reaching up to the mulch layer.
Click to expand...
Nice suggestions smokey, I got the aloe growing in the yard and just started worm bins. This is my first run mulching and now I wonder wtf I was doing without it the whole time. Keep the soil moist and alive to the top of the container and roots are visible on the surface under the mulch. I used some white clover seeds and once they sprouted added a layer of dead old canna leaves and have added some fresher ones as they fall off the plants or I undertrim the canopy. Working real well so far. Never growing organic without mulch again.
 
O

OutofLEDCloset

Well-Known Member
Pattahabi said:
Kelp meal is for the most part kelp meal (not liquid), look for Ascophyllum nodosum on the label and you should be good to go , alfalfa, make sure it is organic, or at least non sprayed.

Imo the true power in comfrey lies in it's ability to pull nutrients out of the earth with it's massive tap root. Therefore, while comfrey is great, growing it in a container isn't quite the same the way I see it.

I'm working on sugar coating things... those are not the base materials I would use. However, they will most likely result in a final product. I try to shoot for something like peat/aeration/high quality humus (aka ewc or vermicompost) between 33%/33%/33% and 50%/25%/25%. From there I add amendments such as kelp meal, crab meal, rock dust, neem, etc.

I think you will be happy going with a 2 x 4' bed!

Peace!
P-
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I'm trying to build my base with leftovers from previous runs. That's why the happy frog and used coco. Do you think over the course of time the mix will improve? With the addition of EWC topdressing and a cover crop.
 
Pattahabi

Pattahabi

Well-Known Member
OutofLEDCloset said:
I'm trying to build my base with leftovers from previous runs. That's why the happy frog and used coco. Do you think over the course of time the mix will improve? With the addition of EWC topdressing and a cover crop.
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Hey OLC! Ime soils do get better with time! Granted that is given decent inputs were used to start with. But, I've seen this several times as I've reused soil and started new.

P-
 
Pattahabi

Pattahabi

Well-Known Member
Bueno Time said:
Nice suggestions smokey, I got the aloe growing in the yard and just started worm bins. This is my first run mulching and now I wonder wtf I was doing without it the whole time. Keep the soil moist and alive to the top of the container and roots are visible on the surface under the mulch. I used some white clover seeds and once they sprouted added a layer of dead old canna leaves and have added some fresher ones as they fall off the plants or I undertrim the canopy. Working real well so far. Never growing organic without mulch again.
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I'm going to give you a megaphone!!! Seriously, mulches make a HUGE difference ime! I wouldn't dream of growing without one now!

P-
 
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OutofLEDCloset

Well-Known Member
Hey P, I live in the city with few mulch options. Can i just use old stems and leaves? Just create a potential layer of humus on top. This plant is millions of years old. Getting minerals from the soil and its great grand parents decomposed leaves and stems. Maybe a little earthworm poop and insect crap. And if its really really lucky a piece of dinosaur shit In nature does this plant live primarily off its great grandparents? So thinking of composting the whole plant. Minus the resin of course via water extraction. See what happens.
 
Mad Hamish

Mad Hamish

Well-Known Member
smokey the cat said:
Sounds like you've got the right idea - plant some aloe, build a compost and/or worm farm. Everything else you can figure out as you go



Lazy man's solution: cover the top of your pots with old yellowed fan leaves. Just a leaf or two on the soil surface is enough to start holding water in the topsoil. With no cover the top couple of inches in my pots used to be dead, now there's roots on the surface reaching up to the mulch layer.
Click to expand...
If you have a fungus gnat rich area, I would recommend hot mulching for exactly these reasons you mention. It is the top inch of soil pretty much that holds the eggs, so letting it dry does a fantastic job of breaking the gnat life cycle. It is a pain not mulching, you have to water twice to make sure you got all dry pockets out, but it can be a fantastic measure for out of control gnats.
 
Pattahabi

Pattahabi

Well-Known Member
OutofLEDCloset said:
Hey P, I live in the city with few mulch options. Can i just use old stems and leaves? Just create a potential layer of humus on top. This plant is millions of years old. Getting minerals from the soil and its great grand parents decomposed leaves and stems. Maybe a little earthworm poop and insect crap. And if its really really lucky a piece of dinosaur shit In nature does this plant live primarily off its great grandparents? So thinking of composting the whole plant. Minus the resin of course via water extraction. See what happens.
Click to expand...
I absolutely use the fan leaves for mulch and the stems. You won't believe how quickly they break down!

P-
 
O

OutofLEDCloset

Well-Known Member
Mad Hamish said:
If you have a fungus gnat rich area, I would recommend hot mulching for exactly these reasons you mention. It is the top inch of soil pretty much that holds the eggs, so letting it dry does a fantastic job of breaking the gnat life cycle. It is a pain not mulching, you have to water twice to make sure you got all dry pockets out, but it can be a fantastic measure for out of control gnats.
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Does neem cake kill Fungus Gnat eggs and larvae?
 
Mad Hamish

Mad Hamish

Well-Known Member
OutofLEDCloset said:
Does neem cake kill Fungus Gnat eggs and larvae?
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BTi dunks are your friend, cheap as chips and they don't muck about. Mosquito dunks, gnatrol, diPel, all BTi. I have never used neem cake myself, Neem Tree is actually endangered and it is pretty much American plantations still harvesting often and large amounts. Neem is becoming a tad hard to work with over the rest of the world, over here is is a speciality import :(
 
L

leonard luis

Member
greasemonkeymann said:
maybe it's possible stows setup is in good shape? I've literally only made two SST batches, but for me I used it on plants (non-cannabis) that had visible problems, so for me I was more trying it as a stress reduction/remedy for the issues I was having, I have a lot of great plants in containers (I rent, so I don't wanna put them in ground) so like I said, the sad unhappy plants showed a marked profound difference in health, so maybe it's just harder to see a difference on a healthy plant? I don't know?
the vegging plants I used it on, look beautiful, but they didn't have any issues to start with...
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maybe the healthy plant didn´t need it
 
L

leonard luis

Member
greasemonkeymann said:
Yeah, I typically I don't spray my flowering ladies, but at the time (years ago) I was told it worked wonders on mites, and it didn't, it fried the pistils and the mites didn't even slow down, so that was kind of a bad first impression, and since then i'm probably just holding a grudge, contrary to cliché's tied to being a pothead, I have a good memory...
I do like to spray my vegging plants... with anything and everything, and it seems to have only positive effects, and since I started spraying AACTs on my girls the mites have slowed down, course its getting cooler and that could be simply from them not liking humid conditions, but damnit, looks to be working, could very well likely be all in my head. I just wish I had the time, energy, space, and money to setup three different growing conditions, maybe four, and then I could truly tell what does and does NOT work, I could do veganics, pure organics, no-till, so on, and so on, but until then it's almost impossible to decipher what is working and isn't, I can only tell yu that as a whole, its working, but hell, it could be the plants thriving in spite of what i'm doing. I doun't think that's the case, but who knows, especially since the plants look pretty happy, so who's to say what that is from...
plus I coulda swore I read in a couple horticulture books that plants liked tea-foliar feeds..
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have u tried spraying with "mollasses/milk/water" solution?
 
L

leonard luis

Member
bicit said:
So you just use left over plant material from your garden and waste vegetable scraps? How is odor control with that? Nothing like alfalfa meal or rock dust or other special ingredients into the bin?

Thanks.

ETA: To be clear. I'm essentially looking for a list of ingredients that an individual could buy, mix together, and 'cook' to get good compost. A quick reference for a beginner, handicapped, or 'lazy' individual. I'm going through the threads and formulating my own idea, just wanted to see some other opinions. Looking for 'regular' methods because some people are put off by the idea of earthworms.
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dig a hole (atleast 50cm Deep), throw in foodwaste and some soil, spray with milk/mollasses, continue like this, top (maybe 20 cm) the hole with soil and leafs, pee, spray milk/mollasses....... a month or 2 later, plant and grow a monster (well, haven´t tried it myself yet but just trhowing this in as it sound easy and good)
 
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