An Awesome Situation For Organics

Finally, I am out in the country, and i mean the sticks, and it is time for me to get some stuff and start composting my organic living soil. Then i am gonna start on my grow chambers. And with my housing situation, my grow chambers will be very stealthy, what with all the ideas that you guys have given me. Many thanks for all the ideas that have been given so far.

anyhow something i wanted to talk about on this thread is this: i plan on using coco and fox farms @ 25% & 75%. The medium will then be amended with the Craft Blend Nutrient Pack, and mycorrizae. I will let this cook for atleast a month before use.

My question is this :

Do you guys think this soil mix will need anything else? Or would this be an awesome idea to proceed with? I have thought about adding worm castings, and maybe using some compost teas with guanos that are high in both nitrogen and phosphorus. Also, is the Craft Blend Nutrient Pack sufficient for Calcium and Magnesium or does it need calmag?

Thoughts And Comments Are Appreciated !!!

Kaptain Kronic said:

Finally, I am out in the country, and i mean the sticks, and it is time for me to get some stuff and start composting my organic living soil. Then i am gonna start on my grow chambers. And with my housing situation, my grow chambers will be very stealthy, what with all the ideas that you guys have given me. Many thanks for all the ideas that have been given so far.

anyhow something i wanted to talk about on this thread is this: i plan on using coco and fox farms @ 25% & 75%. The medium will then be amended with the Craft Blend Nutrient Pack, and mycorrizae. I will let this cook for atleast a month before use.

My question is this :

Do you guys think this soil mix will need anything else? Or would this be an awesome idea to proceed with? I have thought about adding worm castings, and maybe using some compost teas with guanos that are high in both nitrogen and phosphorus. Also, is the Craft Blend Nutrient Pack sufficient for Calcium and Magnesium or does it need calmag?

Thoughts And Comments Are Appreciated !!!

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From what guys on here are telling me, you need a 1/3 of your mix to be compost or EWC... I have been hard headed about it!!! If you live in the sticks, make piles when you clear your land. Maybe seperate the small stuff from the bigger stuff. Hugelkultur the bigger stuff and compost the leaves ect. If you have a wood chipper, you can make short work of limbs also...

@greasemonkeymann .. You might have to wait until monday to see him, work hours... I wish that I would have taken his advice when I moved to my country home!!!

Here is a pic of my Hugelkultur bed, it looks better than most people's indoor soil!!!

I would start vermicomposting.

MustangStudFarm said:

From what guys on here are telling me, you need a 1/3 of your mix to be compost or EWC... I have been hard headed about it!!! If you live in the sticks, make piles when you clear your land. Maybe seperate the small stuff from the bigger stuff. Hugelkultur the bigger stuff and compost the leaves ect. If you have a wood chipper, you can make short work of limbs also...

Click to expand...

i heard from an old organic farmer that wood chips (not bark, but wood) would suck the nitrogen out of your plants and soil ... what's your take on that ?

Here's what grease said in another post.

if you are aging whatever the soil is, for a long time (6 months or so), then wood chips are fine, but they WILL sequester a lot of nitrogen... if you are to do it that way i'd suggest putting them alongside with something relatively high in nitrogen, like alfalfa meal, or something, you could also charge it similar to biochar, but it won't be a permanent thing...
Wood chips really shouldn't be in a soil mix, rather a compost pile.
They can be used though, but I wouldn't in a soil mix until they are well composted.

kkt3 said:

Here's what grease said in another post.

if you are aging whatever the soil is, for a long time (6 months or so), then wood chips are fine, but they WILL sequester a lot of nitrogen... if you are to do it that way i'd suggest putting them alongside with something relatively high in nitrogen, like alfalfa meal, or something, you could also charge it similar to biochar, but it won't be a permanent thing...
Wood chips really shouldn't be in a soil mix, rather a compost pile.
They can be used though, but I wouldn't in a soil mix until they are well composted.

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Nice!!!

Alexander Supertramp said:

I would start vermicomposting.

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Do this!^^^^^ Put a worm bin as your #1 priority. It takes some time to get a new bin going good and it's pretty easy to set up. The best thing you can do for any future organics.

Kaptain Kronic said:

i heard from an old organic farmer that wood chips (not bark, but wood) would suck the nitrogen out of your plants and soil ... what's your take on that ?

Click to expand...

The old guy is correct. I use pine bark in my mix and such, but avoid wood. As kkt3 mentioned, compost pile only for wood chips.

Wet

Kaptain Kronic said:

Finally, I am out in the country, and i mean the sticks, and it is time for me to get some stuff and start composting my organic living soil. Then i am gonna start on my grow chambers. And with my housing situation, my grow chambers will be very stealthy, what with all the ideas that you guys have given me. Many thanks for all the ideas that have been given so far.

anyhow something i wanted to talk about on this thread is this: i plan on using coco and fox farms @ 25% & 75%. The medium will then be amended with the Craft Blend Nutrient Pack, and mycorrizae. I will let this cook for atleast a month before use.

My question is this :

Do you guys think this soil mix will need anything else? Or would this be an awesome idea to proceed with? I have thought about adding worm castings, and maybe using some compost teas with guanos that are high in both nitrogen and phosphorus. Also, is the Craft Blend Nutrient Pack sufficient for Calcium and Magnesium or does it need calmag?

Thoughts And Comments Are Appreciated !!!

Click to expand...

ahh welcome to the "sticks"
I live there too...
First, get a bigass area for a compost pile, second plant some comfrey in an area that you don't mind being covered with comfrey, third get an area for a wormbin.
Gather an asston of leaves, buy some dry meals, and make your compost with leaves and amendments, then in 4 months you'll have the BEST base for your grow.
Don't bother with adding myco to the soil before you age, you need to physically have the myco ON the roots for them to survive, otherwise they are simple foodstock for all your other bigger and hungrier microbes.
As to whether you need calmag, much of that is predicated on whats in that nutrient pack, and also your quality of water.
I assume since you are in the "sticks" that you are on well water.
I REALLY like to use a 50/50 mix of rainwater to well water, if you can source it.
compost teas with guanos are a great way to add nutrients if you indeed need them, but I prefer to keep the soil fortified with slow release forms of the macros/micros to keep them nice and green till the end.
I started a thread on composting if you are interested.
I HIGHLY recommend those three though.
Compost asap, wormbin asap, and plant comfrey asap.

MustangStudFarm said:

Here is a pic of my Hugelkultur bed, it looks better than most people's indoor soil!!!

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This was my attempt at a hugelkulture bed last year, I forgot to keep taking photos while building it, but on top of the logs went smaller twigs and loads of green waste, the dug out soil and loads of compost with all the biochar made while experimenting with my burner to get it dialled in. I really didn't think it would produce anything 1st year. I planted it with alfalfa, some runner beans (legumes) and some swede. I then lost access to the property due to unfortunate circumstances, but was able to get on later in the year for a look and the swede were like footballs, but had been attacked by some kind of pest. The rent on the property is up for renewal next month and hopefully I'll be able to re-gain full access and turn the other bed into hugelkulture.


I think the success in growth was down to the shit load of home made compost I dumped on top, not the logs. It'll probably take years for them to break down and start giving nutrients back to the soil, think I'll just keep planting it up with legumes(if I can).

I look for trees that have been dead for a while. We have high winds and they usually blow over dead trees anyways. Solid stuff gets burned in the fireplace and the soft stuff gets used somehow. I like to throw pieces of inoculated wood into the chipper as I am grinding leaves and such, I think that is why I have so much mycelium!? The wood that will break apart in your hand, like the last pic...

DonBrennon said:

This was my attempt at a hugelkulture bed last year, I forgot to keep taking photos while building it, but on top of the logs went smaller twigs and loads of green waste, the dug out soil and loads of compost with all the biochar made while experimenting with my burner to get it dialled in. I really didn't think it would produce anything 1st year. I planted it with alfalfa, some runner beans (legumes) and some swede. I then lost access to the property due to unfortunate circumstances, but was able to get on later in the year for a look and the swede were like footballs, but had been attacked by some kind of pest. The rent on the property is up for renewal next month and hopefully I'll be able to re-gain full access and turn the other bed into hugelkulture.
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I think the success in growth was down to the shit load of home made compost I dumped on top, not the logs. It'll probably take years for them to break down and start giving nutrients back to the soil, think I'll just keep planting it up with legumes(if I can).

Click to expand...

I really like what you have going! I used compost last year to top off my hugel beds and it was still composting and hot, so I didnt get to plant mine last year... I got my compost from a government ran facility. Probably yard waste from the city and I smelled cow manure at the compost yard, so I am sure that it was full of it.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/hugelkulture-mound-garden.865894/

Here is a link to my hugel mounds from last April.

MustangStudFarm said:

I look for trees that have been dead for a while. We have high winds and they usually blow over dead trees anyways. Solid stuff gets burned in the fireplace and the soft stuff gets used somehow. I like to throw pieces of inoculated wood into the chipper as I am grinding leaves and such, I think that is why I have so much mycelium!? The wood that will break apart in your hand, like the last pic...
View attachment 3619993 View attachment 3619994 View attachment 3619995 View attachment 3619996

I really like what you have going! I used compost last year to top off my hugel beds and it was still composting and hot, so I didnt get to plant mine last year... I got my compost from a government ran facility. Probably yard waste from the city and I smelled cow manure at the compost yard, so I am sure that it was full of it.

Click to expand...

I would've preferred older more rotten trunks, but these got felled and left very locally so were easily accessible and not too far to carry. They probably won't provide any benefit for a few years, although I did put quite a lot of alfalfa and fish, blood and bone meal over them so the soil and compost above is really rich in organic matter to try to offset too much nutrient leaching.