Local Compost good or wrong?

So Im looking for local compost, for my soil base. All i have found is Nature Wise Compost.

http://www.missouriorganic.com/products-compost.html

Will this work instead of EWC? I will be adding EWC as a top dress from my farm, but i dont have the size to make 6 cubic feet of EWC.
I also have a lowes and HD here in town if i should do a mix of the Nature Wise with like mushroom or cow. What you guys think

i tried a mix with cow manure (28 bahia grass feed angus on property) and it was just too rich a soil. i used desiccated patties and a low ratio at that.i'm done for now with soil mixing just bagged potting soil and nutes. just my exp.

This will be mixed with perlite and peat. then amended.

m4s73r said:

So Im looking for local compost, for my soil base. All i have found is Nature Wise Compost.

http://www.missouriorganic.com/products-compost.html

Will this work instead of EWC? I will be adding EWC as a top dress from my farm, but i dont have the size to make 6 cubic feet of EWC.
I also have a lowes and HD here in town if i should do a mix of the Nature Wise with like mushroom or cow. What you guys think

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That Nature Wise looks just fine. I think using that for your base and EWC for a top dress sounds like a good plan

Sweet. This thing just got 300 dollars cheaper

m4s73r said:

Sweet. This thing just got 300 dollars cheaper

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good job man, it's not so expensive after all, especially once you get a box of each amendment, then the boxes last and last...
I'd stay away from the manures personally.

Agreed. I dont want to use much thats from animals. Part of the reason im not using blood, bone, bat. Also avoiding soybean. Worms are cool. Im good with the crab shell and oyster.

m4s73r said:

Agreed. I dont want to use much thats from animals. Part of the reason im not using blood, bone, bat. Also avoiding soybean. Worms are cool. Im good with the crab shell and oyster.

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I don't like soybean or cottonseed meals either, I only use alfalfa during my teas. Alfalfa is some good stuff, but I have better results only usng it in teas.
May want to order some comfrey, stinging nettles, dandelion, or chamomile is you want to get away from animal nutrients.
I do admit i'm using my fish bone meal (only until its gone), won't be buying more, but I like it in my no-till soil because it breaks down so slowly

I went online looking for a local source for my aeration amendment. Menards has Black (or red) Lava rock at $6/ cu ft.
http://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/landscaping-materials/ground-cover-materials/black-lava-rock/p-1934702-c-5784.htm
But they also have it in small and medium at $15/ 10 lbs. The thing is I have no idea how many pounds = 45 gallons. Im guess that 1 bag is a 5 gallon bucket full. in which case i would need 9 bags. at $135 ill stick to the perlite. lol

Im still learning on Watering/Teas. I'm really wanting a water only method. Then i start seeing all these teas and inoculations. Were working on it. It just seems to me that the recipes want so much stuff that you may as well be on the bottle nutrient scheme.
So I may need to be educated. But when i talked to my grandpa about this subject he told me to take a handful of my dirt,and some sugar source (molasses) and brew a couple of gallons, then mix it with just enough water to water all my plants.
Feed my worm bin some of my dry nutrient mix every once in awhile and just top dress with the EWC, a touch of my mineral mix, and my aeration under my mulch.
Water with coconut, foiler feed with aloe.
My plants will provide the mulch.

Rice hulls are a great aeration amendment. I get a 50lb bag of PBH (par boiled) hulls for $15 which will last me a year.

One thing to keep in mind regarding lava rock..... they don't break down like rice hulls do, so in theory you could sift them out of your soil when it's spent and reuse them indefinitely.

IMO you should be able to put together 20+ cubic feet of soil for less than $200, and use that soil for at least a year. I spend about $40 on peat (which is being replaced by free leaf mold), $15-$30 on aeration, worm castings are free, the various meals run about $60-$80 for a years worth, and rock dusts/minerals around $60-$80 (I get free rock fines from a quarry).

Once my leaf mold is ready I'm going to put together a soil that is 100% free using plant meals and FPE's from my back yard. It can be as inexpensive as you want it to be

Only a year? Good living soil should last for years as long as you feed it. I thought that was the point? And how much soil is that?

st0wandgrow said:

....use that soil for AT LEAST a year.

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m4s73r said:

Only a year? Good living soil should last for years as long as you feed it. I thought that was the point? And how much soil is that?

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I use smaller containers, and for me the issue is the soil becoming too dense and compacting with all of the EWC and such being piled on. 4 runs (about a year) is what I do. I will take the used soil out to the veggie garden in the spring and make a new batch for the marijuana garden. You could certainly recycle it for a longer stretch, but IMO that would be best suited for 15+ gallon containers.

st0wandgrow said:

I use smaller containers, and for me the issue is the soil becoming too dense and compacting with all of the EWC and such being piled on. 4 runs (about a year) is what I do. I will take the used soil out to the veggie garden in the spring and make a new batch for the marijuana garden. You could certainly recycle it for a longer stretch, but IMO that would be best suited for 15+ gallon containers.

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I agree, I can only go three or four runs strictly no till before I see issues start arising, after that I bust em all up, re-amend with everything, plant a cover crop of nitro fixin legumes and let it grow for about six months, then I chop the grass down and let the grass compost for about three weeks and mix it again.
My issue is topdressing eventually fills the container, especially if you have a moss-top on top of the topdress, like I do. If I could put them in 50 or 60 gallon smarties, then I could go further, course I wouldn't be able to move them..

greasemonkeymann said:

I agree, I can only go three or four runs strictly no till before I see issues start arising, after that I bust em all up, re-amend with everything, plant a cover crop of nitro fixin legumes and let it grow for about six months, then I chop the grass down and let the grass compost for about three weeks and mix it again.
My issue is topdressing eventually fills the container, especially if you have a moss-top on top of the topdress, like I do. If I could put them in 50 or 60 gallon smarties, then I could go further, course I wouldn't be able to move them..

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That's exactly it. I leave about 4-5 inches at the top of the container the first go around, and by the time I top dress and re-amend 4 times my containers are completely full. I suppose I could scoop some old soil out to make room, but my veggies appreciate the love too.

Once I incorporate leaf mold and free sources of NPK in to the mix I see no reason at all to be squeezing every last drop out of the (free) soil

I aspire to be as resourceful as you guys one day.

ayr0n said:

I aspire to be as resourceful as you guys one day.

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You're in MI aren't you? Hit me up if/when you decide to take the plunge. A good deal of the hair pulling when switching to an organically amended soil is trying to source all the stuff you'll need. I've done the leg work, and would be happy to point you in the right direction

I use smaller containers, and for me the issue is the soil becoming too dense and compacting with all of the EWC and such being piled on. 4 runs (about a year) is what I do. I will take the used soil out to the veggie garden in the spring and make a new batch for the marijuana garden. You could certainly recycle it for a longer stretch, but IMO that would be best suited for 15+ gallon containers.

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I dont add an ewc to my recicled soil anymore since i top dress every pot at begging of flowering with shit loads of it. Then next cycle, in order to avoid making soil too muddy, i wont top dress with ewc, ill simply put more soil instead of top dress and make an extra tea or 2 for trace elements. When this batch is ready for recycle i will add a really good multianimal feces and plant based compost at 5% or less to keep that life going.
I know whatr you mean about the soil becoming dense, i use 30l pots though and usually only top dress once. I just re add peat, coco and perlite every recycle until the soil feels right, then it rests for 2 months(flowering period). I have a batch of soil that i just recycled for the 5th time and it just keeps smelling better. Not having many problems with gnats either. I do end up with a fair bit of extra soil due to readding perlite and peat though
The only thing im still trying to fine tune is how often to give molasses. I usually dont give any until week 3 of flowering, well some in teas. I think i might be giving it too often, like every 2nd or 3rd watering depending on whether a teas been given. And the last few waterings too. Does the plant need that much?

I see what you guys are saying. I guess in my head i assumed you guys removed old dirt each time your pot was full and ran the old through either a recycle process. Kinda like what you would do with bonsi mums. take the root ball out and cut some of it off.

How much topdressing are you guys putting on? With the worms in the pots, they should keep the soil broken up and adding fresh casting. If youre using lava rock as your aeration they dont float or break down. Ive been reading a thread on GC where a guy has been running the same dirt for 3 years in the same pot. 17 cycles so far on a single 20 gallon pot.

m4s73r said:

I see what you guys are saying. I guess in my head i assumed you guys removed old dirt each time your pot was full and ran the old through either a recycle process. Kinda like what you would do with bonsi mums. take the root ball out and cut some of it off.

How much topdressing are you guys putting on? With the worms in the pots, they should keep the soil broken up and adding fresh casting. If youre using lava rock as your aeration they dont float or break down. Ive been reading a thread on GC where a guy has been running the same dirt for 3 years in the same pot. 17 cycles so far on a single 20 gallon pot.

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That's how I am planning to do it. With a little terra preta mixed in. I finally found a store near me that carries Turface MVP. It is literally clay shards just more uniform. I'm still following cootz mix but instead I am substituting 10-13%(haven't decided yet) charcoal with the Turface as my aeration side. I figure I can't lift the soil so I am designing a cart it can roll on. I hope I can go 3 years or at least a year. I used coco as my aeration last time and it only lasted a round and a half before the plants suffered from compaction. The time before I used rice hulls and those pots are still rolling with some topdresses.

What size pots are you running? Now that ive found a cheap source of lava rock, im going to use the bio char im going to use to just amend my soil. a cup / cu ft.