xmobotx' "true organic" method & discussion

[xmobotx]

I remember that popsicle mould thing. There's also one where a guy makes mini coco pucks using an ice cube tray.

Oh man, you keep geckos? Cool! They hang around my house. I noticed when I had that huge fungus gnat problem, their numbers rocketed

yeah that popsicle mold he showed it outdoors like a guerrilla cloner

our geckos are leopard geckos a little bigger than those ones. those remind me cause my wife and i went to florida last fall and saw some little native geckos down there. noticed too how they have to have their trailer houses chained to the ground - yikes!

what does charcoal do? and what kind of charcoal

you can buy agricultural charcoal at the seed stores where they say it "sweetens" the soil (which is what they say about lime too)

check out this terra preta thread though

thanks to silver surfer OG for that awesome thread (it's a sticky!)

there's a lot of info there and i bought some "cowboy" brand charcoal for my experiments

hmm geckos as grow room predators. interesting. always looking for new troops to add to the army.

i m also interested in reptiles as pets/co2 producers. the ultimate grow cab would be integrated w/ a cage setup where the ventilation went back and forth between the lizards/snakes and the plant chamber(s) what's more, you could use the wastes from the cage to produce ferts w/ insect or fruit eating reptiles!

******Thanks to: BurnOne, LC, Clackamas Coot, xmobotx, VerdantGreen, 3lb, CT, and and more, who unknowingly put this together.******
Hopefully I have not offended anyone by condensing what i have picked up form IC.

actually thanks for dropping by - thats awesome listing like different options but we can see how similar the mixes are and how you can use the same base then feed in myriad different ways

i m trying to hang out down w/ the simplest mix and simplest feeds - but many will argue that bubbling EWC and/or compost teas leave the "simple" behind

I don't know if this will work, but maybe...
Peletized dolomite lime might help if amended into the coco. I'm thinking the clay may hold the d.lime with in the coco. If it holds it would be a slow release of cal mag. Then you may or may not need to add d.lime to the tea. If you do this your coco won't be straight, it will have a very small percentage of clay. You might also be able to top dress powdered d.lime, but i have never tried with coco. Again I don't know if any of this will work. Something to think about though.

i will be using the pelletized lime. i m back and forth as to whether i need it during the EWC phase. so, what i m going to do is use EWC alone for seedling and then EWC w/ 1/2 strength lime (1/2 tsp/qt water) prob same for cuttings but treating the cuttings like early root is "seedling" stage

i want to emulate the "3 amazing shits" formula. but, learning about plant teas recently has got my thinking off in different directions.

 

[NUG-JUG]

i will prob show some pix from my conventional garden and composting process
but, i will have to get a med card or hope for the legalization to happen to post an canna pix

There are so many people growing terrible hydro "medicine" here in my legal state. Move here and help the organic growers! Or just grow!

Seriously though I'm looking forward to seeing your conventional garden, and composting. I'm trying to revive my back yard from a sun-baked clay wasteland.

Bejium thanks for that list of mixes\teas. It seems like you found almost all of them.

 

[beejium]

yeah that popsicle mold he showed it outdoors like a guerrilla cloner

our geckos are leopard geckos a little bigger than those ones. those remind me cause my wife and i went to florida last fall and saw some little native geckos down there. noticed too how they have to have their trailer houses chained to the ground - yikes!



you can buy agricultural charcoal at the seed stores where they say it "sweetens" the soil (which is what they say about lime too)

check out this terra preta thread though

thanks to silver surfer OG for that awesome thread (it's a sticky!)

there's a lot of info there and i bought some "cowboy" brand charcoal for my experiments



i m also interested in reptiles as pets/co2 producers. the ultimate grow cab would be integrated w/ a cage setup where the ventilation went back and forth between the lizards/snakes and the plant chamber(s) what's more, you could use the wastes from the cage to produce ferts w/ insect or fruit eating reptiles!



actually thanks for dropping by - thats awesome listing like different options but we can see how similar the mixes are and how you can use the same base then feed in myriad different ways

i m trying to hang out down w/ the simplest mix and simplest feeds - but many will argue that bubbling EWC and/or compost teas leave the "simple" behind



i will be using the pelletized lime. i m back and forth as to whether i need it during the EWC phase. so, what i m going to do is use EWC alone for seedling and then EWC w/ 1/2 strength lime (1/2 tsp/qt water) prob same for cuttings but treating the cuttings like early root is "seedling" stage

i want to emulate the "3 amazing shits" formula. but, learning about plant teas recently has got my thinking off in different directions.

personally i stir my mixes. i keep an aquarium pump and air stone in there, but it's not really strong enough to negate the stirring.

 

[xmobotx]

i like to shake/agitate as well - splash it around a little like waves/waterfalls and get air in between the waters

 

[xmobotx]

There are so many people growing terrible hydro "medicine" here in my legal state. Move here and help the organic growers! Or just grow!

Seriously though I'm looking forward to seeing your conventional garden, and composting. I'm trying to revive my back yard from a sun-baked clay wasteland.

Bejium thanks for that list of mixes\teas. It seems like you found almost all of them.

ha ha - yeah our yard was pretty weird when we first got here - all really dry and prickly nothing like anything i saw before. had pretty much written off any gardening.

first couple years we just mowed w/o a bag or raking

then we went to bagged mowing and started a compost pile

now, we've run around w/ a spring tooth cultivator and broke it up/mixed (mostly trying to intercept the knapweed)

but, when i saw what we had developed w/ those simple steps (and about 6 years) i was truly surprised. it's loamy and rich w/ organic matter - last summer i was really struck by the diversity in the "weeds."

meanwhile we have a couple of plots we double dug and amended w/ the compost - pretty excited to see how they do this year since it seems like everything is just looking way richer and lush.

the main thing we have done is amend w/ organic matter and it really woke this area up.

 

[TexasToker]

hmm geckos as grow room predators. interesting. always looking for new troops to add to the army.

Now is the best time to grab em. I try to keep quite a few in my closet. They eat up gnats like crazy.

 

[xmobotx]

not very exciting yet since it's still early spring here (45*-50* highs and 28*-35* lows @ nite)

but here's the cold-frame pots - cool because these are all summer plants outside w/ wintry temps

spring crops are sprouting here's some broccoli onions lettuce spinach carrots etc they get covered w/ a tarp when temps go below freezing @ nite - i think its gonna be a good year for broccoli

and the compost pile is a smallish windrow about 6 ft by 3 ft (looks like a grave from the old west) i keep it covered when it's not raining to keep moisture in

and i went around to grab some of the diversity just coming up on it's own

just some quick snaps today - i m seeing the hemp weed that volunteers all over since cultivating -excellent because i like to compost it to feed any MJ i might grow and get fungi from it's roots for AM

 

[Danks2005]

I just started a compost pile about 3 weeks ago. I am currently growing in the ground with added manure and chem ferts. I'll be buying organic additives throughout the year,I am hoping by next spring I will have enough compost,additives, and other supplies to build and fill 4'x4' raised beds in everyspace that gets enough light. My wife just recently told me not to grow mj any more (been making her too uncomfortable). So, I now have the largest vegie garden I've ever had, and am really enjoying it. In the mean time I'll wait for legalization, and make to move to full on organic in the veggie garden.

Insects are a huge concern in my local, how do you guys deal with pests, organically, and safely? I am currently using seven dust, and spending a lot of time in the garden allowing me to kill bugs by hand. So far so good, but things are just blooming, and i know its gonna get bad.

 

[Danks2005]

I am even reworking my veg closet now, so that I can have lettuces and other salad fixings year round indoors, as well as start all my plants from seed and no longer buying starter plants. I'm gonna do tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants in my flower room during their outdoor offseason. I know it's prolly not cost efficient, but I really love the control of indoor growing, and don't plan on stopping just changing plants.

 

[redneck shogun]

Insects are a huge concern in my local, how do you guys deal with pests, organically, and safely? I am currently using seven dust, and spending a lot of time in the garden allowing me to kill bugs by hand. So far so good, but things are just blooming, and i know its gonna get bad.

Organic gardeners take a more gentle approach to pest control. there are organic insecticides but they should only be used as a last resort because they can wipe out both good and bad insects. The best strategies are developed to control pests by understanding their life cycles and habits all the while striving to keep a balanced ecosystem.There will be some damage in a balanced system but it is tolerated.

A stressed plant is going be more attractive to pests and disease, it is like a lion that looks for that animal that is going to be the easy meal. Make sure your soil gives the plant it's proper nutrition so it remains healthy. More plant diversity will also help and there are plants that can serve as companions that will attract the top level predators of the pests you want dead. Get to know your bugs and what they are attracted to and avoid conditions that are attractive to destructive ones and vice versa.

 

[beejium]

Redneck shogun has you on the right track. Also throw that 7 dust poison out and switch to diatomaceous earth (DE). DE is safe for humans, but is deadly to most insects. It even has trace minerals that your plants can use. You can normally find Concern in the same isle, which is 99.9% salt water diatoms. There is also food grade available online and at health food stores that is used as a human / pet tapeworm remover.

 

[xmobotx]

i have found gardening in soil outside that pests are something of a fact of life. i try to control them w/ natural means. its the "balance" mentioned. for each pest, there is a predator and the pests attract the predator.

for instance, we're lucky to have praying manti all over.

it seems like the 2nd year or so is the worst cause the balance hasn't been struck yet but the pests are attracted on the 1st year. i tend to write off early yields to pests.

DE seems like an excellent suggestion but i havent tried it to vouch. i really dont have much pest trouble and havent for a while.

worst has been potato bugs - i get them w/ a shop vac.

 

[xmobotx]

so, here's a no-till prep of this area in my garden space (for spuds)~

remember, this was hostile earth 8 years ago w/ no hope for gardening.

in the montage, (1st up left) i broke sod, using it to strengthen the grass along my little fence then toss the 1st layer stuff from under the sod onto the center of the site (2nd up right) i dig a wheelbarrow full of compost from my compost pile (3rd down left) dump the compost on the site (4th down right) and finally using a rake i mix the compost w/ the dirt forming a rough seed bed.



i m just going to lay the spuds right on this "seedbed" then mulch in w/ straw (lots of it) since i have to get the straw (dammit) thats how far i m

well, i m off to drench the outdoor garden w/ compost tea

that looks like this:

 

[xmobotx]

easily amazed? brace yourself; it only took me 4 days to get a bale of straw!

ha ha - well this straw mulch thing is one of the methods i always wanted to try w/ potatoes (aka spuds)

montage:


it's a small pic but shows the spuds laid out as an inset then mulched in w/ straw below the "inset" (since it's small-ish its hard to see that the spuds are spuds - lol)

did the same thing in the fertile area left as i roll the compost pile

but i did the pic different since the above needed some description

as a kid living way rural in the mountains we had several neighbors who mixed the canna in w/ their regular garden -or had a separate little "pot patch"

seems like such a logical thing and really makes me wonder why anyone would want to challenge our freedoms by restricting this basic right to garden herbs -and somehow they make it seem so cut and dried. amazing what mind control the masses have been subjected to and what this indoctrination has brought about in such a short time.

 

[ScrubNinja]

What "strain" of hay? I like lucerne! Nice and leafy and breaks down a treat.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

Barley straw is a good option - if available in your area.

 

[xmobotx]

ironically, the feed store was out of straw - this is a bluegrass hay

i don't anticipate problems but sometimes w/ grass mulch, the breakdown process will tie up nitrogen

this is pretty dry and they were selling it as "straw" (crossing my fingers)

oh, and yes - i would have preferred barley straw

 

[guest2012y]

Not to trip up the topic,but I think this fits here ........What do you guys think about using the used (shatted up) straw bedding from the hen house...incorporating it in the compost actually. I've done this before and think it's a good thing. I was just wondering what tips or do's or don'ts I should be aware of.

 

[xmobotx]

Not to trip up the topic,but I think this fits here ........What do you guys think about using the used (shatted up) straw bedding from the hen house...incorporating it in the compost actually. I've done this before and think it's a good thing. I was just wondering what tips or do's or don'ts I should be aware of.

since the straw is high carbon, this is one of the best ways to incorporate it -as it's already "nitrogen-ized" by the chicken manure.

i would definitely run it through the compost pile before anything more than mulching. a lot of folks "cold-compost" (or "sheet compost" if you prefer) by using "hot" ingredients as mulch. but, this won't necessarily be your best option

definitely get it broke down in a hot pile before incorporating in a container mix.

on a side note, i m watching Grass: The history of Marijuana on youtube - it's about 1 hour and 20 minz and really kind of disconcerting

amazing the heap of crap hoisted on the minds of the masses - what a travesty

 

[guest2012y]

since the straw is high carbon, this is one of the best ways to incorporate it -as it's already "nitrogen-ized" by the chicken manure.

i would definitely run it through the compost pile before anything more than mulching. a lot of folks "cold-compost" (or "sheet compost" if you prefer) by using "hot" ingredients as mulch. but, this won't necessarily be your best option

definitely get it broke down in a hot pile before incorporating in a container mix.

on a side note, i m watching Grass: The history of Marijuana on youtube - it's about 1 hour and 20 minz and really kind of disconcerting

amazing the heap of crap hoisted on the minds of the masses - what a travesty

I just saw that yesterday on netflix. Funny,but not really!

My method has been to take the hen house straw and pile it until it gets of decent size,hitting it with the hose if I think it gets to dry,then transfer it to the compost and turn it in after a few months. Thanks for the feedback.