Costa Rica Compost Pile

i had some questions about the soil here in costa rica.. my current compost pile is a hole i dug into the hill behind my house (it was a lot of red dirt, red sand, and rock). i put in banana leaves, cow dookie, coffee grinds, egg shells, various peelings, old fruit, and coco husks. i dont know if there are earth worms here, but im sure this stuff will decompose as it should. there are a lot of ants however. anyways, i might be able to find some seaweed and native bat guano... would these be good things to add to the compost "hole", or do i need to save it to use in compost tea?? also, has anybody else heard of this "hole" composting method?? a local told me how to do it, and i imagine it is due to the rocky red composition of the soil here... i was also thinking about building a worm bin

Well the old locals that have had it handed down through generations would have the best answer for you.

As for seaweed and guano, save that for teas.

I'm jealous. Just did a swearch earlier on cannabis and costa rica. Wish I could move down there.

wish i could help you. ill be visiting your amazing country on the 15th. PURA VIDA!

Pura vida!

Was down there for a while myself. Best advice I can give you is to grow indoors...Costa Rica's climate, least in the Guanacaste region, gets way too much water and humidity without having major problems for an outdoor grow.

I am sure if you had a really good spot that you knew well, it can most def. be done. However, rain for 7+ days of torrential downpour will certainly cause issues for cannabis. Also, the humidity levels for flowering are much too high and will assuredly get mold.

Most of the setups I saw and the bags I got came from locals but mainly from Californian American surfer-dudes who've relocated to Costa Rica and broguht their knowledge of cannabis with them. The best bud I got was indoor Kush from a Californian surfer...and he said most of the locals think American tourists are stupid when it comes to weed and most of it comes from Colombia anyhow.

However, I was only down there for 2 months living in a condominium overlooking Tamarindo, so I don't really know a whole lot about Costa Rica, just from my limited experiences from being there.

Edit: During this time, I probably got well over 100 bags and saw two grow setups of friends of mine who also lived down there.

well i collected some sea grass today on my trip to the beach... im not really sure how to save it tho. maybe i can put it in a blender and puree it for abit, then keep it in the fridge till i make my tea

yeah pura vida guys! i am keeping the plants indoors for the veggie stage for sure, but i dont know if i am going to simulate the lights for the flowering stage or not. the light cycle here is about 12-12 year round... and the rainy season isnt until the end of august. also i have to worry about thieves. so i may just leave them in the sunniest room upstairs, and keep lights on em all day

quick question... should i grind up these coco husks before i throw them in the compost hole or just throw em in?? if so, what do i use to grind em??

thanks for the input!

latestsaint said:

should i grind up these coco husks before i throw them in the compost hole or just throw em in?? if so, what do i use to grind em??

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Grinding then will greatly speed the decomposition process.
Can you rent a wood chipper there? I would think that might work.

GreatwhiteNorth said:

Grinding then will greatly speed the decomposition process.
Can you rent a wood chipper there? I would think that might work.

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cool, i dont know if i can find one of those or not.. i will have to ask :/

You should look into Bokashi, I bet Bokashi would be right up your alley http://www.bokashicomposting.com/

Cooter@666 said:

You should look into Bokashi, I bet Bokashi would be right up your alley http://www.bokashicomposting.com/

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interesting site, thanks man so is it some kindof special bran, or does any type of fermentation work?

and also, how much better is worm piss than compost tea as a foliage spray? which one has insecticidal properties?

i was just wondering about making my own coco coir too....you have to soak it in a solution thats high in calcium for a 12 to 24 hours to break down the natural sodium ions in it. and then rinse in water before you break it up into the soil. where abouts in guanacaste are you¿ i´m currently in manuel antonio beach bummin it. just sprouting some seeds now and gonna be guerilla growin it outdoors, but i know nothing about growing here so it should be quite the challenge

Growing in costa rica is great, just vegie indoor and flower outdoors i do this for years, i am a costa rican guy in guanacaste area, have my indoor full atm and waiting to my plants have around 50cm to flower outdoors in my guerrilla. If you find i nice spot whit real hi grade costa rica soil just work the soil be fore put plants and you will get a nice growing whit no problems, plants grow alone! Saludos y pura vida!

latestsaint said:

interesting site, thanks man so is it some kindof special bran, or does any type of fermentation work?

and also, how much better is worm piss than compost tea as a foliage spray? which one has insecticidal properties?

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There is a microorganism "cocktail" used for bokashi production you can buy in CR and then activate in your home (with molasses and some other stuff) and apply it to the compost pile to speed up the breaking down process, it´s through fermentation, you end up with humus. This method (bokashi) produces a LOT of heat during the decomposition, so it is advised for you to stir the compost pile once in a while (depends on the amount of compost, stage and overall temp, PM me for the product and more info just in case) so I would recommend you doing a pile of compost, rather than a hole (hole method is good but you will be waiting much longer and a lot of the nutrients will wash away with the rain, even though this is good for the soil near the compost hole. - http://www.instructables.com/id/Rolling-Compost-Drum/ -This seems to be a good example of a structure that will let you stir your compost without much work, or just do it the traditional way. A good thing to keep in mind is that there are good and bad bacterias/microorganisms, keeping the balance in the "good side" is the key to a good decomposition. A worm bin is great but there are some things your worm bin can´t take like lemons and stuff like that, Bokashi will decompose any organic matter through out time.

PS: Regarding insecticidal properties, you can add some "cacique" or a bit of alcohol will do, along with some chopped onions and some hot peppers to the activated microorganism cocktail and you have a pretty good organic pesticide- I have the recepe around in case you are interested!

I know i am late to the party but hope this helps!
Love you all

What up fellow Costa Rica growers. Saying hello to you all from the Central Pacific. If you are anywhere south of Jaco then grow indoors. LOL. Way to humid and too much rain. Hard to fight off bud rot and mold in late flower. Really sucks losing your crop to mold a week from harvest. I've tried everything over the years since I moved here and starting growing; nothing works. Mold, mildew, bugs, massive rains, etc... I just stay indoors now.