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Mulch. Just do it.

S

schwagg

maybe it's hard for you to figure out a living organic soil that can easily support all kinds of life. why not take your shit attitude back to your pointless gravity thread. i'll even boost your rep for you!
 

h.h.

Active member
Veteran
Excuse my attitude. I only question the self described experts on their real expertise.
There is nothing magic about soil, living or not, where it can support all kinds of life. Not in a closed system under lights. Think of a crowed city.
 

GoneRooty

Member
It doesn't provide life support.
Can chop from a different area.
I don't need it for micro climate.
There is only decreased root habitat.
Improved soil structure is dependent on original soil structure.
Actually, clover is a member of the legume family and they are all nitrogen fixers, meaning they convert unusable atmospheric nitrogen into useable forms of nitrogen in the soil, seems like life support to me. If you chop it from another area, you're only getting part of the benefits of it. Every time you cut any green manure crop, it automatically increases the microbial activity in the soil, making nutrients more available for your plants. Also, legumes have deep roots, but not thick roots. They aerate the soil, making it easier for other roots to grow through, and allowing more oxygen into the soil for the roots.
I don't do a living mulch indoors yet, but I will in the near future.
 

GoneRooty

Member
There is nothing magic about soil, living or not, where it can support all kinds of life. Not in a closed system under lights. Think of a crowed city.

Everything magical in this world is because of soil! Living soil! Without it, we wouldn't have a living planet, no plants, no animals, nothing. And you can't compare a living soil with an overcrowded city. One replenishes itself and the other just overuses resources.
 

Rednick

One day you will have to answer to the children of
Veteran
Think of a crowed city.
Yeah, there is nothing magical about a crowded city.
No wonder they didn't have them sooner.
:blowbubbles:

Is this guy serious, or is this a late-nite drunken party?
Sometimes I get confused.
Hippies!!!
 
C

CC_2U

A good dose of 98% propylene glycol will make quick work of those germs in the soil!

About the crowded city reference - would that be like the 'dead zone' in Tokyo known as the Ginza? NY City's Time's Square? Golden Gate Park? Las Vegas?

Just curious as usual.

CC
 

GoneRooty

Member
A good dose of 98% propylene glycol will make quick work of those germs in the soil!

About the crowded city reference - would that be like the 'dead zone' in Tokyo known as the Ginza? NY City's Time's Square? Golden Gate Park? Las Vegas? Little Havana?

Just curious as usual.

CC
And it will make the nugs as dense as those over crowded cities too!
Ginza Kush!!! It's the next big thing at all the dispensaries!
 

Rednick

One day you will have to answer to the children of
Veteran
It's also possible for multiple individuals to be infected by the same fungus, so I think of my clover as a "bank" for keeping mycorrhizae.
Whooaaa there!
Fungus doesn't work like that.
Does it?
:blowbubbles:
"It is known to be one of the largest living organisms, where scientists have estimated a single specimen found in Malheur National Forest in Oregon to have been growing for some 2,400 years, covering 3.4 square miles."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillaria_solidipes
 
C

CC_2U

Whooaaa there!
Fungus doesn't work like that.
Does it?
:blowbubbles:

Depends on which fungi you're collecting and where.

IOW it's probably not a good idea to scrape the fungi from an infection of Athlete's Foot and then keep it like so many do with their toe nail clippings.

CC
 
C

CC_2U

Mad L

On the beds which were planted with the White Dutch Clover vs. those which have not yet shows that this plant definitely keeps the water intact - reduced evaporation. By leaps and bounds.

Pretty amazing actually.

CC
 

mad librettist

Active member
Veteran
living mulch: just... live it?

living mulch: just... live it?

you would think that organisms which use water would increase water needs, but I noticed the same as you CC.

a living mulch means less watering and more even distribution of water.


I'll try to put up pics of the soil surface in the flower room now. The clover is really dying off for lack of light. I'm still not sure if that's a bad thing. On the one hand I want to regenerate it fast when I chop, and I don't want to keep buying seed.

On the other hand, all the roots the clover put out are now feeding my ladies.


This may be less of an issue next run, because the clover is having much more time to establish itself.
 
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mad librettist

Active member
Veteran
Living Mulch 2.0

Living Mulch 2.0

Living mulch 2.0 -


Ok folks, who can guess which species are coming up?

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mad librettist

Active member
Veteran
btw guys, the crab shell meal you see on the surface is there because the gnat and springtail populations exploded when I put that one in the closet. The walls were just crawling.

I used the vacuum cleaner to suck most of them up and put out a thin layer of crab meal. 2 days later and the gnats are like 20% of what they were. I don't understand why this works, but gnats don't like crab meal.
 
C

CC_2U

The White Dutch Clover seeds that I broadcast on the raised beds is up about 5 - 7" and because I put 10x the amount recommended by mistake the roots in and around the vegetable plants are massive.

Before planting the clover I had a couple of buckets of castings that were loaded with small worms and hundreds and hundreds of cocoons. I layed that down first, tossed on the seeds and that was about it - I did nothing else as far as covering the seeds or use a rake to move the top layer of the soil around.

When I dug down today to remove a circle of clover to transplant a tomato plant the soil in and around the clover roots had worms everywhere. It almost looked like a thriving worm bin.

I just hope all those worms and clover plants don't rob the soil of the 'nutes' and kill the yield or growth rate.

CC
 

mad librettist

Active member
Veteran
I layed that down first, tossed on the seeds and that was about it - I did nothing else as far as covering the seeds or use a rake to move the top layer of the soil around.
needs light to germinate!
 
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