Moisture when cooking soil

charface

charface

Well-Known Member
Im doing a lot of reading on cooking soil and I had one of them there burning questions.

Instead of simply adding water for moisture, what if we used aact?

Would the heat just kill the bacteria in it?

Any reasons it would help or hinder?

I was hoping to maybe jumpstart the process to speed it along
 
Chunky Stool

Chunky Stool

Well-Known Member
charface said:
Im doing a lot of reading on cooking soil and I had one of them there burning questions.

Instead of simply adding water for moisture, what if we used aact?

Would the heat just kill the bacteria in it?

Any reasons it would help or hinder?

I was hoping to maybe jumpstart the process to speed it along
Click to expand...
Great question!

I didn't cook my last batch of soil because I used castings that still had lots of baby worms and I didn't want to bake them.
Now I've got tomatoes and peppers sprouting in my weed pots... :dunce:
 
charface

charface

Well-Known Member
Also im reading the revs tlo and have finally gotten to his first recipe

Where he states its for rain water, distilled, or ro only.

He says don't use well unless under 20ppm and balanced with cal, mag.

Please spoil the ending for me and tell me this guy is going to give me a recipe suitable for 80 ppm well water.

I have ro for drinking, the rest of the house is on an iron, sulpher, magnesium filter.

I have no interest in gathering rain water or buying ro.
 
charface

charface

Well-Known Member
And, lol
If I use recycled in my indoor am I going to have to rotate pots between grows to allow roots to breakdown?
 
charface

charface

Well-Known Member
He also recomends the top of the plants to be in the mid 80s to fully benefit from the mix

Is this going to flash off my terps or is that more of a risk with above 80 post harvest only.

I try to stay under 80 as a rule
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
so you are saying 80 PPM is high?? I used to live in the city and my waters PPM was around 200 just out of the tap.. now i think the last i measured i had like 30 PPM... my water I think actually sucks for cloning as is, since it has next to nothing in it...Or i just suck at areo cloning lol... but if you are cooking organic soils I dont see why teas would be an issue.... but I just let the sht cook and use the teas later as top dressings every once in a while... I use all organic SIP's though and just use the teas to keep the top moist and keep wicking active and soil microbes active as well never enough to drain into the bottom rez
 
charface

charface

Well-Known Member
meangreengrowinmachine said:
so you are saying 80 PPM is high?? I used to live in the city and my waters PPM was around 200 just out of the tap.. now i think the last i measured i had like 30 PPM... my water I think actually sucks for cloning as is, since it has next to nothing in it...Or i just suck at areo cloning lol... but if you are cooking organic soils I dont see why teas would be an issue.... but I just let the sht cook and use the teas later as top dressings every once in a while... I use all organic SIP's though and just use the teas to keep the top moist and keep wicking active and soil microbes active as well never enough to drain into the bottom rez
Click to expand...
He is saying his 2.2 recipe is not for use with anything above 20ppm with
Well water.

I use my water just fine everywhere else but he stresses at least trying to stick 100% to his recipe.

I will just have to use my 80ppm
No biggy, i just found it odd
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
I add any extra tea along with the sludge left in the bottom of the bucket back into my recycling soil bin. If you strain off the particulate matter or use a mesh bag or something throw all the spent materials in there too. Been doing that for awhile & works well. Does not make things go any faster; cooking time is to normalize the ph from the soil amendments you added in. If you have a decent quality soil probe you can always just check to see if it's done. Higher than 6.5 is good enough but if don't have one (I don't) you simply wait 30 days & there's really no need to bother checking ph. That's long enough for the microbes to begin breaking down the organic compounds so they are in an available range for your plants to absorb.
I use water collected from a dehumidifier as my main supply and supplement with rain when I collect it or use spring water when I go to the mountains and fill up my jugs. Dehuey water is in endless supply this time of year where I live; probably dump a few gals a day into the buckets and they all get cycled through in time. It has like 8ppm. My tap is about 75-80 ppm but is laden with chloramine. RO is super wasteful. I only use that as a last resort; Walmart has an RO machine for .37 per gal which is ok when in a pinch. Problem with using raw water is it has zero macros; so I add a liquid organic cal mag at 6-10 drops per gal.
 
charface

charface

Well-Known Member
Richard Drysift said:
I add any extra tea along with the sludge left in the bottom of the bucket back into my recycling soil bin. If you strain off the particulate matter or use a mesh bag or something throw all the spent materials in there too. Been doing that for awhile & works well. Does not make things go any faster; cooking time is to normalize the ph from the soil amendments you added in. If you have a decent quality soil probe you can always just check to see if it's done. Higher than 6.5 is good enough but if don't have one (I don't) you simply wait 30 days & there's really no need to bother checking ph. That's long enough for the microbes to begin breaking down the organic compounds so they are in an available range for your plants to absorb.
I use water collected from a dehumidifier as my main supply and supplement with rain when I collect it or use spring water when I go to the mountains and fill up my jugs. Dehuey water is in endless supply this time of year where I live; probably dump a few gals a day into the buckets and they all get cycled through in time. It has like 8ppm. My tap is about 75-80 ppm but is laden with chloramine. RO is super wasteful. I only use that as a last resort; Walmart has an RO machine for .37 per gal which is ok when in a pinch. Problem with using raw water is it has zero macros; so I add a liquid organic cal mag at 6-10 drops per gal.
Click to expand...
I like the idea of using the leftover tea gunk.

I may investigate adding 1 more canister type filter in my room to get my ppm with in acceptable range.

Probably time to set up a couple rain barrels
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
charface said:
And, lol
If I use recycled in my indoor am I going to have to rotate pots between grows to allow roots to breakdown?
Click to expand...
I would just get two tote bins with lids: one for finished soil and one for soil that is cooking down so you have a perpetual supply of amended mix. Roots and whatever else you add will be mostly gone in a month. Active soil breaks shit fine fast and the more times you recycle itbthe better it gets...
Here's a link to my thread if you want to see how I do it TLO style.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/dick-does-dank.909077/

Btw I love growing TLO but the Rev contradicts himself many times in Skunk mags and in his book. Use TLO as a general guide but it's ok to deviate a bit if you are creative.
 
charface

charface

Well-Known Member
Richard Drysift said:
I would just get two tote bins with lids: one for finished soil and one for soil that is cooking down so you have a perpetual supply of amended mix. Roots and whatever else you add will be mostly gone in a month. Active soil breaks shit fine fast and the more times you recycle itbthe better it gets...
Here's a link to my thread if you want to see how I do it TLO style.

https://www.rollitup.org/t/dick-does-dank.909077/

Btw I love growing TLO but the Rev contradicts himself many times in Skunk mags and in his book. Use TLO as a general guide but it's ok to deviate a bit if you are creative.
Click to expand...
I appreciate it,

What I have been doing is harvesting my indoor and then just putting the smart pots out in the weather until outdoor season. I leave the roots in place and just plant on them once outdoor season arrives.

Last year I didn't have to feed until the last couple weeks of outdoor veg,
That's what got me really interested.

I like what you are saying about two totes.

I kind of want to do indoor no till
But don't want my room shut down if there is a turnaround time getting the pots going again.

Anyway Ill definitely check out your link.

Thanks again.
 
whitebb2727

whitebb2727

Well-Known Member
charface said:
Im doing a lot of reading on cooking soil and I had one of them there burning questions.

Instead of simply adding water for moisture, what if we used aact?

Would the heat just kill the bacteria in it?

Any reasons it would help or hinder?

I was hoping to maybe jumpstart the process to speed it along
Click to expand...
Using a tea would be fine and jump start the process.

You got to start somewhere and your soil will get better with time.
 
charface

charface

Well-Known Member
whitebb2727 said:
Using a tea would be fine and jump start the process.

You got to start somewhere and your soil will get better with time.
Click to expand...
That will be nice, i messed with organic in the past but Im ready to dive in. Super sick of mixing nutes and buying bags but man is it information overload.
Clearly its one of those things that is super simple after several years. Lol
 
whitebb2727

whitebb2727

Well-Known Member
charface said:
That will be nice, i messed with organic in the past but Im ready to dive in. Super sick of mixing nutes and buying bags but man is it information overload.
Clearly its one of those things that is super simple after several years. Lol
Click to expand...
It's fairly simple in the beginning. Keep it super simple like any other method.
 
Dmannn

Dmannn

Well-Known Member
charface said:
That will be nice, i messed with organic in the past but Im ready to dive in. Super sick of mixing nutes and buying bags but man is it information overload.
Clearly its one of those things that is super simple after several years. Lol
Click to expand...
My base soil mix is 25%-30% chicken manure compost, like from home depot. A lot of information puts chicken manures down as they may be high in ammonia type nitrates. Growers have run into problems with it and generally avoid advising its use.

"Cooking off" soil mixes with AACT with addition rainwater (mix your soil early) with, wet and dry cycles, helps convert chicken ammonia quicker to usable nitrogen.

I find cooked off chicken manure is a REALLY good long tern nitrogen source in my grows because the soil continues to get better over time! I have reused the soil for second grows and even still into veggie garden and fruit/nut tree orchard amending. Worms love it! I think it is a great example of long term organic/no till gardening.
 
WeedFreak78

WeedFreak78

Well-Known Member
I water my fresh mixes with fish/ seaweed fert and a dose of left over hydroguard (Bacillus Amyloliquefaciens) I was using when i did hydro. If you have EWC in the mix, you don't really need to inoculate it with anything, just give it water and good aeration.
 
Chunky Stool

Chunky Stool

Well-Known Member
Dmannn said:
My base soil mix is 25%-30% chicken manure compost, like from home depot. A lot of information puts chicken manures down as they may be high in ammonia type nitrates. Growers have run into problems with it and generally avoid advising its use.

"Cooking off" soil mixes with AACT with addition rainwater (mix your soil early) with, wet and dry cycles, helps convert chicken ammonia quicker to usable nitrogen.

I find cooked off chicken manure is a REALLY good long tern nitrogen source in my grows because the soil continues to get better over time! I have reused the soil for second grows and even still into veggie garden and fruit/nut tree orchard amending. Worms love it! I think it is a great example of long term organic/no till gardening.
Click to expand...
Chicken shit is awesome!
I started using pelletized chicken manure on my yard and couldn't be happier with the results.
It's called Nutri-rich and only costs $9 for 40 lbs at my local landscaping supply company.

I've never used it in potted plants. Sounds like a fun experiment... 8)
 
Dmannn

Dmannn

Well-Known Member
Chunky Stool said:
Chicken shit is awesome!
I started using pelletized chicken manure on my yard and couldn't be happier with the results.
It's called Nutri-rich and only costs $9 for 40 lbs at my local landscaping supply company.

I've never used it in potted plants. Sounds like a fun experiment... 8)
Click to expand...

I use 100 gallon felt pots..all the way down to 5 gallons for regular veggies.
 
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