professor microbeman

[cosmiccowboy]

what if i just bought a bale of alfalfa off one of these farms around me? could i make tea out of that? would'nt that be better than alfalfa cubes?

 

[jaykush]

yes you can, and no it wont be better. its the same material just compressed.

 

[cosmiccowboy]

yes you can, and no it wont be better. its the same material just compressed.

thanks j

 

[JackTheGrower]

I think we should skip the horse treat cubes..

I'd find a bale of organically grown alfalfa myself..

 

[Microbeman]

what if i just bought a bale of alfalfa off one of these farms around me? could i make tea out of that? would'nt that be better than alfalfa cubes?

Cosmic, I mentioned the alfalfa meal in reference to soil mixes and not so much compost tea, although I do use it in compost tea occasionally. If you wish to make a proper compost tea you should do some research on building a brewer. If you are using the stir method, you need only compost or vermicompost as an ingredient. Nothing else.

 

[cosmiccowboy]

Cosmic, I mentioned the alfalfa meal in reference to soil mixes and not so much compost tea, although I do use it in compost tea occasionally. If you wish to make a proper compost tea you should do some research on building a brewer. If you are using the stir method, you need only compost or vermicompost as an ingredient. Nothing else.

speakin of soil mix.should composted manure need to be sifted?...stuff i've got has small rocks,cticks,.etc..thanks a lot.

 

[cosmiccowboy]

I think we should skip the horse treat cubes..

I'd find a bale of organically grown alfalfa myself..

yea,when i get alfalfa it's gonna be a bale...the stuff these old guys grow is all clean..

 

[Microbeman]

speakin of soil mix.should composted manure need to be sifted?...stuff i've got has small rocks,cticks,.etc..thanks a lot.

rocks don't matter. remove wood because it will continued degrading potentially using up the N you want going to your plants.

 

[cosmiccowboy]

rocks don't matter. remove wood because it will continued degrading potentially using up the N you want going to your plants.

would i be better off to use worm castings?..quite a bit of wood in compost manure....still pertaining to soil mix:should i use soluble seaweed extract=technaflora,or kelp meal for basic mix?....gonna drive 170 miles round trip tuesday to get remaining ingredients so this has to be right....cant afford 2 trips right now...thank you sir.

 

[jaykush]

if you have to drive 170 miles round trip to get supplies, what do you have locally? there is more than one way to grow organic soil. you dont need off the shelf products to get good pot.

 

[cosmiccowboy]

if you have to drive 170 miles round trip to get supplies, what do you have locally? there is more than one way to grow organic soil. you dont need off the shelf products to get good pot.

j,i've researched on the net til my nuts are blue tryin to find another way..primary ingredient is ewc..shipping charges were about same price as ewc if i went that route...also,cannot locate any bone or kelp meal..all i wanna do right now is get my basic mix right and go from there... got 12 plants and have mixed and matched so much i aint got no idea whats goin on with half of em..hehehe.......thought i could get around the ewc when i bought compost manure but after studyin some more, it seems they are the primary ingredient for growin anything...i googled worm castings farm and wound up on "bigpumpkins.com'or somethin and all they talked about was pickup truck loads of worm castings...should have seen those fkn pumpkins...thats what i'm talkin about!

 

[cosmiccowboy]

one more thing j...im so inexperienced at this that i feel i need to start someplace and learn somethin..still dont know jack but i know one hell of a lot more than i did......and miles to go before i sleep.....rfrost

 

[jaykush]

one more thing j...im so inexperienced at this that i feel i need to start someplace and learn somethin..still dont know jack but i know one hell of a lot more than i did......and miles to go before i sleep.....rfrost

if you need some place to start and learn. check out the organic fanatic collective sticky. read the articles posted, visit the links, do some reading on the soil food web, soil nutrient cycling. learning things like this will get you much further than reading about "mix A" or "mix B" specially when it comes time to fix problems or you have to substitute "product A" with something else.

as for sourcing materials, with organics you dont need to rely on one material provide you with certain nutrients. for example, blood meal gives you lots of Nitrogen, but so do other things like alfalfa, bat guano,stinging nettles, chicken manure,etc... if you cant get something simply find something else that gives you the same things you need. same goes with all the other nutrients not just nitrogen. and 99% of the time everything you need is all around you locally.

 

[h.h.]

Maybe I'm cheap or just don't want to drive to the city, but I have to agree.

 

[cosmiccowboy]

if you need some place to start and learn. check out the organic fanatic collective sticky. read the articles posted, visit the links, do some reading on the soil food web, soil nutrient cycling. learning things like this will get you much further than reading about "mix A" or "mix B" specially when it comes time to fix problems or you have to substitute "product A" with something else.

as for sourcing materials, with organics you dont need to rely on one material provide you with certain nutrients. for example, blood meal gives you lots of Nitrogen, but so do other things like alfalfa, bat guano,stinging nettles, chicken manure,etc... if you cant get something simply find something else that gives you the same things you need. same goes with all the other nutrients not just nitrogen. and 99% of the time everything you need is all around you locally.

from what i've read,nothin will replace ewc.is that a fact?....what can i put in my soil to do the same thing as bone and kelp meal?

 

[cosmiccowboy]

i want to plant it and let it grow..been readin a lot of microbemans stuff...this is some interestin stuff.....

 

[jaykush]

from what i've read,nothin will replace ewc

of course there is, quality compost silly. also very high in micro organisms and organic matter.

 

[JackTheGrower]

yea,when i get alfalfa it's gonna be a bale...the stuff these old guys grow is all clean..

Well if you can cobble a screen together with some hardware cloth.. 1/2 inch should do and break up the leaf ( is that what part of the bale is ) over the screen into a tub or something.

I've given this some thought and I'd try and use two screens. 1/2 inch first.. Discard all that is too large like stems. Then use the 1/4 screen to grind the loose material through.

For composting this should be fine.. For tea maybe ground again through 1/8th?

Just some ideas.

 

[cosmiccowboy]

of course there is, quality compost silly. also very high in micro organisms and organic matter.

what can i put in my soil to replace bone and kelp meal?

 

[cosmiccowboy]

Well if you can cobble a screen together with some hardware cloth.. 1/2 inch should do and break up the leaf ( is that what part of the bale is ) over the screen into a tub or something.

I've given this some thought and I'd try and use two screens. 1/2 inch first.. Discard all that is too large like stems. Then use the 1/4 screen to grind the loose material through.

For composting this should be fine.. For tea maybe ground again through 1/8th?

Just some ideas.

jtg,that is somethin i also was wonderin about..right now dont have a clue..already have bloodmeal so will probably use that in soil mix...each and every time i try and take a shortcut,i wind up wishin i had'nt...hehehe...