Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

[zonderkop]

@Pattahabi
Yes, this is an excerpt from the book shown by my avatar; the book is on pre-order at amazon and will be released on 30 March, if not sooner.

I think I'll re-name "liming agent" to "calcium-supplement". what do you think? I'd rather list these under "mineral mix", but it makes that section complicated. i'll also put "recommended" by the 50/50 mix of shell/gypsum. i've seen 75/25 too, but also trying to keep things simple.

Regarding rock dusts, I don't know the limits for each ingredient beyond 1 cup; from what i read, GRD can be used up to 4 or so cups per sq ft. I'll change "exclusive" to "up to 4 cups" to clarify.

@midwest
thanks for the suggestion! i'll add it. i initially didn't because i didn't want to overwhelm people with too many options, but what's one more wrinkle, right?

yeah, i wrote this book partly because i want more people to know that you can garden without being an asshole to the environment and still get good results. making a little ecosystem of worms, living mulch, and compost creatures is a fun way to garden.

i also cover container building, botantical teas/sprays, worm binning, and discreet growing. i think more people would grow this way if its accessible or made aware.

 

[Pattahabi]

I would say rock dust is rock dust and can be used at similar rates. Aluminosilicate clays are not rock dust.

P-

 

[Mohican]

Are there clays that are good to add? Can clays be used in teas to extract the goodies?

 

[earthling420]

Im going to be building a worm bin soon after countless evidence of what great casings can do. What would yall recommend to do? pictures would be awesome.
Would it be worth adding worms to my cannabis pots?
Could anyone tell a real difference going from a bucket brewing teas to a vortex?

 

[earthling420]

Sorry but their isn't any "life" in a sealed bottle after O2/food is used up............paying $$$ for dead colonies and water isn't a good idea imo

How does stuff like Great White work then?
I wasnt aware you could burn a plant with current bacteria and fungi strains. Can you?

ooooh only noticed this now... Yeah start fresh man. There is no coming back from this. You will find all the help you need here with these people on this thread, but trust me we will all be at a loss to fix this here. It will be an epic fail anyway so fastest road to a crop is get back to square one and re build a soil or at least let us know tour exact mix. We can take it from there. Also, what is your climate like in that tent? How hot, how close is the lamp and what lamp etc, what do you use to germinate under, how big is your area and vents and extractor... The more parameters tou give us the better the feedback will be... Take heart mate we all have runs we would rather forget.

The soil for this plant is off BAS. I made a cootz soil that is cooking as i add last couple ingredients.
Climate and setup is good. it was mainly a fucked up plant I was seeing if I could save from its ugly beginning. Thanks mate. lol pretty much. Still learned so wasnt a total loss lol Im gonna plant a new bean and see how it goes. im slowly getting more of the organic setup down. just need a worm bin an a compost bin. Hell maybe even a vortex brewer lol This will be. my first organic and los run so I'm stoked after seeing what you guys can do and reading what you post. Thanks!

 

[CannaBare]

Are there clays that are good to add? Can clays be used in teas to extract the goodies?

What special properties are you suggesting clay has? I thought it just had high CEC? I actually add a pinch of biochar to my brews ever since I bought a bottle of ful-power. It always looks like it has charcoal particles in it, and then it clicked. I've never noticed a difference though.

 

[Scotch089]

How do you guys deal with gnats? At the end of the season last year I was setting out vinegar traps to try and eliminate them buzzing around, it is now 9 degrees outside and I'm only 3 waterings into my Romas and already noticed the fuckers crawling on the surface of the soil and flying around.

 

[Midwest Weedist]

How do you guys deal with gnats? At the end of the season last year I was setting out vinegar traps to try and eliminate them buzzing around, it is now 9 degrees outside and I'm only 3 waterings into my Romas and already noticed the fuckers crawling on the surface of the soil and flying around.

Karanja / neem, then bti and vinegar traps. If that doesn't work put a half inch of sand on top of your grow medium.

 

[zonderkop]

Im going to be building a worm bin soon after countless evidence of what great casings can do. What would yall recommend to do? pictures would be awesome.
Would it be worth adding worms to my cannabis pots?
Could anyone tell a real difference going from a bucket brewing teas to a vortex?

I used plastic storage totes, with no problem. i first put a layer of small lava rocks, and then a mix of composted manure and moar lava rock. i just kept it open, without a lid, but you can cut out the middle of the lid and add a mesh for airflow.

i threw my worms in gardening pots big and small. they seem to survive and add free aeration and worm poo. i never did a side-by-side grow, comparing no worms to worms, but i like to mimic nature. in general, the moar life the better (pests aside).

everything you want to know about compost teas, including vortex brewers, is here: http://microbeorganics.com/

 

[Mad Hamish]

How does stuff like Great White work then?
I wasnt aware you could burn a plant with current bacteria and fungi strains. Can you?



The soil for this plant is off BAS. I made a cootz soil that is cooking as i add last couple ingredients.
Climate and setup is good. it was mainly a fucked up plant I was seeing if I could save from its ugly beginning. Thanks mate. lol pretty much. Still learned so wasnt a total loss lol Im gonna plant a new bean and see how it goes. im slowly getting more of the organic setup down. just need a worm bin an a compost bin. Hell maybe even a vortex brewer lol This will be. my first organic and los run so I'm stoked after seeing what you guys can do and reading what you post. Thanks!

No better way to start than ROLS! All my problems disappeared. I am not growing these plants they grow themselves now. Can't take any credit. Nature rules.

 

[Mad Hamish]

from my experience. De stops working when its wet and clumps.up too. It barely works when its dry.. Oil based /castile ipm's is the best way to go.

Hy... some people that stick to organic methods with their horses feed DE to help rid the animals of intestinal parasites. I use manure from these sources for composting and have indeed noticed my compost much less prone to gnat infestation, I am now saving on BTi by only ever needing it for the soil mix. It seems the DE in the manure does make an impact, but nobody has been able to confirm this for me yet. I thought you might find the info useful, I also found DE as a powder to be pretty cloggy and didn't like it much either.

 

[SupraSPL]

I may have mentioned it before but I use granular DE instead of perlite. I don't think it causes as much harm if any when it is wet but when the surface of the soil dries out it is probably a good deterrent. I also let house spiders live, by the grace of my wife and they go crazy for gnats, thrips and fruit flies.

 

[DonPetro]

I may have mentioned it before but I use granular DE instead of perlite. I don't think it causes as much harm if any when it is wet but when the surface of the soil dries out it is probably a good deterrent. I also let house spiders live, by the grace of my wife and they go crazy for gnats, thrips and fruit flies.

Supra my man...good to see you in the organic section. Had to double check to make sure i wasnt in the LED forum! Have you noticed that LED, in particular DIY, seems to go hand in hand with organics? I love the synergy!

 

[SupraSPL]

Haha yep I went from fluoro->HPS->LED->HPS and back to LED. So I have seen the same cuttings under many lights and conditions and can say with confidence, LED grows the dankest buds by far.

BUT I have not grown much canna with chem nutes so I can't compare. The closest thing I tried was "Age Old Organics". In all honesty even if chem grown weed was superior, I would still grow organic because I am curious about the terpene and cannabinoid profiles that the plant can express "naturally" with little more than compost and manure. I LOVE reusing my soil and not worrying about disease.

Kandy Kush, grown in ROLS that has been continually used for 3-4 years so far.

 

[DonPetro]

Haha yep I went from fluoro->HPS->LED->HPS and back to LED. So I have seen the same cuttings under many lights and conditions and can say with confidence, LED grows the dankest buds by far.

BUT I have not grown much canna with chem nutes so I can't compare. The closest thing I tried was "Age Old Organics". In all honesty even if chem grown weed was superior, I would still grow organic because I am curious about the terpene and cannabinoid profiles that the plant can express "naturally" with little more than compost and manure. I LOVE reusing my soil and not worrying about disease.

Kandy Kush, grown in ROLS that has been continually used for 3-4 years so far.
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Thats exactly what i meant! Building your own lights with superior efficiency and building your own soil mix that keeps on producing year after year! It truly is next level shit and the more people that realize it, the better off we'll all be. Hydro stores better watch out!

 

[Midwest Weedist]

For those that cook their soil indoors in like rubber maid containers, do you turn it every so often? I never have before but figured I may as well ask since the top of my soil is completely covered in mycelium.

 

[Mad Hamish]

For those that cook their soil indoors in like rubber maid containers, do you turn it every so often? I never have before but figured I may as well ask since the top of my soil is completely covered in mycelium.

I found if I didn't turn it periodically much of it would get a strange damp smell instead of being sweet and 'earthy' so I keep turning once a week in tubs.

 

[DonPetro]

I also turn it periodically. Helps keep even moisture throughout.

 

[Midwest Weedist]

Thanks guys, I'll go turn it now.

 

[a senile fungus]

That reminds me! Gotta turn my soil tonight!

The worms are doing well, they've stopped trying to escape their new home and are currently munching on the rotting food in there.

I've been leaving chunk of fruits and veggies to see what they prefer. So far they go nuts for my puree of banana peels, grapes, apples, green pepper parts, strawberries, lettuce, carrots, avocado skins, eggs shells. I have a bin where I let the puree start to rot, then it moves over to the worm bin and they immediately start working on it.

The also like the bananas as well, but definitely prefer the puree. That's good because I have a blender dedicated to them, and I will continue to mulch their food for them. It degrades much more quickly that way as well.