Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

[ShLUbY]

What's up all you ROLS heads?

Been reading a hell of a lot over the last month on living soil. From the Rev, to here and eyecmag and I've decided to make the leap.

I've always wanted to go true organics, way back when I wanted to use super soil!

Anyways this is my base mix

1/3 EWC
1/3 Potting Soil
1/3 Perlite

To each C.F. of the base I will add

0.5 cup crustacean/crab meal - (still need to source this!)
0.5 cup neem/karanja meal - (still looking for this as well)
0.5 cup alfalfa meal
0.5 cup kelp meal
0.5 cup dolomite lime
1.5 cup glacial rock dust
1 cup greensand
0.5 cup gypsum (still need to source)

I'm also looking for some fish meal and fish bone meal to add to that list, although I could do without.

Anyways I'm really looking for some input on this mix, does my recipe look balanced?

It'll be my first time mixing my own soil so I'm trying to keep it simple, but looking for any tips y'all might have for me.

for what its worth, i put the fishbone meal in my mix. you have plenty of N with the crab meal, neem meal, and alfalfa. the fishbone will add a little more N, but more importantly the Phos. I think it's the better choice between the fish meal and the fishbone meal

 

[CanadianDank]

you could also do a half and half of oyster shell and dolomite lime. i would actually tone down the rock dust to 1c, or even a 1/2c, per cu. ft.

Half and half would work too. And yea i didnt realize it said 1.5 on the GRD i thought it said .5 for some reason. But yea i would tone down the GRD and up the gypsum. I usually try to keep around 3-4 cups total mineral sources in my mix and I've had nothing but good results.

Thanks for the responses guys.

Yeah i went high on the GRD and added a bit of dolo because ive been having trouble finding a lot of the common amendments you guys use. I know I should be able to find gypsum but they didnt have it at either of the large garden centers i visited. I do see it as essential to balance out my c:m ratio. I know i want a 5:1.

for what its worth, i put the fishbone meal in my mix. you have plenty of N with the crab meal, neem meal, and alfalfa. the fishbone will add a little more N, but more importantly the Phos. I think it's the better choice between the fish meal and the fishbone meal

Yeah good call, i may not be able to get the crab meal here this time of year, im in Canada and we are entering the frozen season LOL. In which case i will go with fish bone meal, should be a little easier to find and i have been worried my mix was lacking P. Again, im learning and willing to topdress and brew teas when required. Hell if i have to ill use blood/bone meal, at least to get my feet wet. but id rather not.

I mean, I can get it all online, but shipping is ridiculous! Maybe i need to search harder.
Anyone in Canada have some ideas where to source these?

 

[TheSpaceFarm]

for what its worth, i put the fishbone meal in my mix. you have plenty of N with the crab meal, neem meal, and alfalfa. the fishbone will add a little more N, but more importantly the Phos. I think it's the better choice between the fish meal and the fishbone meal

Good call

 

[TheSpaceFarm]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Yeah i went high on the GRD and added a bit of dolo because ive been having trouble finding a lot of the common amendments you guys use. I know I should be able to find gypsum but they didnt have it at either of the large garden centers i visited. I do see it as essential to balance out my c:m ratio. I know i want a 5:1.



Yeah good call, i may not be able to get the crab meal here this time of year, im in Canada and we are entering the frozen season LOL. In which case i will go with fish bone meal, should be a little easier to find and i have been worried my mix was lacking P. Again, im learning and willing to topdress and brew teas when required. Hell if i have to ill use blood/bone meal, at least to get my feet wet. but id rather not.

I mean, I can get it all online, but shipping is ridiculous! Maybe i need to search harder.
Anyone in Canada have some ideas where to source these?

Yea fuck shipping. And local is always best imo. You seem to have a pretty good idea of what you're doing man proceed with confidence lol

 

[CanadianDank]

Yea fuck shipping. And local is always best imo. You seem to have a pretty good idea of what you're doing man proceed with confidence lol

Word!

And thanks for the kind words man, Its much appreciated. I'm lucky to have such a wealth of knowledge to draw from!

 

[projectinfo]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Yeah i went high on the GRD and added a bit of dolo because ive been having trouble finding a lot of the common amendments you guys use. I know I should be able to find gypsum but they didnt have it at either of the large garden centers i visited. I do see it as essential to balance out my c:m ratio. I know i want a 5:1.



Yeah good call, i may not be able to get the crab meal here this time of year, im in Canada and we are entering the frozen season LOL. In which case i will go with fish bone meal, should be a little easier to find and i have been worried my mix was lacking P. Again, im learning and willing to topdress and brew teas when required. Hell if i have to ill use blood/bone meal, at least to get my feet wet. but id rather not.

I mean, I can get it all online, but shipping is ridiculous! Maybe i need to search harder.
Anyone in Canada have some ideas where to source these?

https://www.rollitup.org/t/canadian-suppliers.954133/page-30

Bustan. Ca

Blackswallowsoil.com

Amazon

 

[CanadianDank]

https://www.rollitup.org/t/canadian-suppliers.954133/page-30

Bustan. Ca

Blackswallowsoil.com

Amazon

Damn you just solved my sourcing issue right there. Thanks a mil.
Amazon I'd tried already. Shipping was ridiculous for what i could find.
Your the man!

 

[MyFloridaGreen360]

This is one of my current blends I'm utilizing. Regardless I have some different blends running too with more fixings however I genuinely trust this is an incredible begin for everybody that is sensibly evaluated. I used to revise commerical soils until the point when I got edify.

 

[CaptainT]

Boogiebrew.ca
Blackswallowsoil.com

 

[ACitizenofColorado]

Hey everyone. It's been a while. I have a single, hopefully simple request: can you advise about how much of this (attached pictures of earth worm compost mix) to mix in my soil?

The first question to address, how finished does this ewc look? Second, my standard approach is to sterilize all soil that is added to the grow in an oven at 200-210 for a few hours. Do other people also do this to prevent introducing pathogens?

I hope to adhere to the 1/3 compost, 1/3 aeration, 1/3 peat/coco standard, unfortunately, the way I made my earthworm compost has complicated things.

The base was coco/peat. Over time, I added pumice and rice hulls. I do not know what the ratio is of peat/coco to aeration to ewc. Can anyone let me know what you think this looks like, regarding ratios?

I have a pre-made aeration mix with 1/3 bio-char, 1/3 pumice and 1/3 rice hulls. The plan is to inoculate the aeration in a compost tea, separate the solids in the tea from the liquid, then add the solids from the tea to base soil mix, inoculating the sterilized soil and tea solids with the tea liquid.

So here's the question. I will also add oly mountain fish compost to the ewc mix to a ratio of 30%-70% to 50%-50% ( oly mountain to ewc). Regarding just the compost component, can anyone advise about a ratio for oly mountain to the shown ewc?

Once that oly mountain is added to the ewc, given the possible ratios, can anyone advise about compost to aeration to peat/coco mix?

Should I be adding in more peat?

Could I assume there are equal 1/3 parts rice/pumice, peat/coco, and ewc in the included pictures, and that this could represent 2/6 of the mix? Then, I would need an additional 1/6 of everything: aeration(rice/pumice/biochar, possibly heavy on the biochar), coco/peat, and oly mountain, with an extra 1/6 left over to fill in with any of the above.

The mix has various other amendments that I'll describe in another post. For now, I'm hoping to address this first.

Thank you to everyone that has considered this.

 

[Big Perm]

Can anyone let me know what you think this looks like, regarding ratios?

It looks like 10% perlite, that's about all I can add.

 

[ShLUbY]

Hey everyone. It's been a while. I have a single, hopefully simple request: can you advise about how much of this (attached pictures of earth worm compost mix) to mix in my soil?

The first question to address, how finished does this ewc look? Second, my standard approach is to sterilize all soil that is added to the grow in an oven at 200-210 for a few hours. Do other people also do this to prevent introducing pathogens?

I hope to adhere to the 1/3 compost, 1/3 aeration, 1/3 peat/coco standard, unfortunately, the way I made my earthworm compost has complicated things.

The base was coco/peat. Over time, I added pumice and rice hulls. I do not know what the ratio is of peat/coco to aeration to ewc. Can anyone let me know what you think this looks like, regarding ratios?

I have a pre-made aeration mix with 1/3 bio-char, 1/3 pumice and 1/3 rice hulls. The plan is to inoculate the aeration in a compost tea, separate the solids in the tea from the liquid, then add the solids from the tea to base soil mix, inoculating the sterilized soil and tea solids with the tea liquid.

So here's the question. I will also add oly mountain fish compost to the ewc mix to a ratio of 30%-70% to 50%-50% ( oly mountain to ewc). Regarding just the compost component, can anyone advise about a ratio for oly mountain to the shown ewc?

Once that oly mountain is added to the ewc, given the possible ratios, can anyone advise about compost to aeration to peat/coco mix?

Should I be adding in more peat?

Could I assume there are equal 1/3 parts rice/pumice, peat/coco, and ewc in the included pictures, and that this could represent 2/6 of the mix? Then, I would need an additional 1/6 of everything: aeration(rice/pumice/biochar, possibly heavy on the biochar), coco/peat, and oly mountain, with an extra 1/6 left over to fill in with any of the above.

The mix has various other amendments that I'll describe in another post. For now, I'm hoping to address this first.

Thank you to everyone that has considered this.

if i felt the need to sterilize something to bring it in to my room, it just wouldn't enter my room period. i've brought in compost many times, and also use compost in my worm bins. i wouldn't be concerned, especially with a good aerobic compost. it looks pretty finished. you could buy some 1/4" mesh screen and sift it a bit if you wanted too, but not necessary. looks good n dark.

for what its worth, my current base recipe is 40% drainage, 40% peat, and 20% organic matter. because i recycle my soil, i rely on roots breaking down to add the majority of new organic matter to my mixes, but I always do add a few handfuls of various compost to my 4cuft. recycle mixes, just for microbial diversity reasons. always good to reintroduce populations!

and also, rice hulls are not the greatest for drainage. i like them as a mulch. I'm a pumice guy all the way.

 

[Wetdog]

^^^THAT^^^

The whole point of a "LIVING" Organic soil is promoting a healthy, established, micro herd. Building one just to sterilize it is counter intuitive to the max. Pathogens are usually found because of poor aeration/drainage in a too dense mix.

Just from years of making my own mix and observing the plant growth & health, my mix is very like ShLUby's with a 40% - 40% - 20% ratio and the aeration edging close to 50% over time. Not just the roots breaking down, you are also constantly adding organic material from various seed meal amendments as you top dress.

I use perlite over pumice just because of the costs. There are none of the 'right' volcanos anywhere near SC (plenty of granite though), and I simply cannot afford the ~8cf worth of aeration I use in a year. Rice hulls are used somewhat in the worm bins, but only tried *once* as aeration. LOL

Wet

 

[hillbill]

Rice hulls domwell for one cycle and eventually mostly be composted in a few months leaving rice hull remnants.

 

[Trippinout]

Damn you just solved my sourcing issue right there. Thanks a mil.
Amazon I'd tried already. Shipping was ridiculous for what i could find.
Your the man!

Black swallow soil has everything you’ll need and they are great help

 

[CanadianDank]

Black swallow soil has everything you’ll need and they are great help

Yeah they sure have a great selection, between them and Bustan I will be set. Just waiting for my next pay, things get tight for me around xmas.

so far this is what i have cooking, id love some input on what else i should add. Ive added no amendments with P, but i dont want to overdo the N.

Base Mix :
1/3 EWC
1/3 Potting Soil (Ritchie's Feed n Seed house brand)
1/3 Perlite

Amendments :
(per cubic ft)
0.5 cup alfalfa meal
0.5 cup kelp meal
0.5 cup dolomite lime
1.5 cup glacial rock dust
1 cup greensand
0.5 cup gypsum

I'm torn between adding Fish bone meal, Crab meal, and Neem meal.

I need a small P source, as well as a little more diversity. (I will def be adding the crab meal, need those chitins.)

Let me know what alll you guru's think.

 

[ShLUbY]

Yeah they sure have a great selection, between them and Bustan I will be set. Just waiting for my next pay, things get tight for me around xmas.

so far this is what i have cooking, id love some input on what else i should add. Ive added no amendments with P, but i dont want to overdo the N.

Base Mix :
1/3 EWC
1/3 Potting Soil (Ritchie's Feed n Seed house brand)
1/3 Perlite

Amendments :
(per cubic ft)
0.5 cup alfalfa meal
0.5 cup kelp meal
0.5 cup dolomite lime
1.5 cup glacial rock dust
1 cup greensand
0.5 cup gypsum

I'm torn between adding Fish bone meal, Crab meal, and Neem meal.

I need a small P source, as well as a little more diversity. (I will def be adding the crab meal, need those chitins.)

Let me know what alll you guru's think.

neem meal and crab meal are a must for me. the fishbone is a nice addition as well and you could just run it at .25cups per cuft if you wanted... if your recipe included all three of the things you're thinking of adding, it would be very similar to mine.

 

[CanadianDank]

neem meal and crab meal are a must for me. the fishbone is a nice addition as well and you could just run it at .25cups per cuft if you wanted... if your recipe included all three of the things you're thinking of adding, it would be very similar to mine.

Thanks ShLUbY!

I may do that, it would be my preference to include all three with some reductions in amounts.
Just comes down to my wallet, and shipping costs I guess.

What is your soil composed of?

 

[ShLUbY]

Thanks ShLUbY!

I may do that, it would be my preference to include all three with some reductions in amounts.
Just comes down to my wallet, and shipping costs I guess.

What is your soil composed of?

I have a couple different recipes posted in my thread. Link is in my signiture. I wanna say they’re posted Somewhere around pg 25-30

 

[kushking42]

Soil peeps,
Ive been trying to no till in 65 gallon pots. I seem to consistently run low on fertility since switching over to the cmh fixtures. About 3 weeks ago i scratched in a fist full of each of the following: fish, kelp, langbenite,rock dust and gypsum. Topped with a litre of bu's and a few.cups fully amended fresh coot mix.. it looks like they are hungry again. And two months before the most recent re amend i threw about two cups of every dry amendment i had on top with turkey compost. Can anyone help with a plan to keep my fertilty in check? When i used to till and re amend my fertility seemed more manageable. Thanks for any help guys.