Getting Durdy w/ recycled soil!

[Durdy]

sounds good what size pot size minimum would you use for a no till pot

I believe Gascanstan is doing no tills in 5 gallon buckets with great success

 

[Durdy]

Hello, some pictures.

A new batch of soil I have sitting, about two weeks in atm. 25 gal 1:1:1 Pumice/SPM/[Vermi]Compost the usual ammendment goodies. A cover crop of barley, rye, vetch, wheat, and dutch white clover. My Idea being to get a root system developed in there before the cannabis goes in hopefully producing a more complete soil food web.

Maui

God's Gift

Crazy Train Starting to show flowers

Indoor Dino Kale / Romaine

 

[Durdy]

Things are moving along.

The crazy train is getting a bit of yellowing, it got a kelp / fish tea a couple days ago

Other things getting ready for the bloom room
My biggest struggle with the conversion to ROLS is keeping myself from doing things. Less really is more. You can see some burning on the leaves and I'm pretty positive it's from an alfalfa tea I gave them. It was only 1/4 cup alfalfa for 5 gal H2O but even that was to much, they just want water.

The cover crop on a soon to be NO-TILL, Been cycling for exactly 4 weeks today. Another two weeks (depending on where the veg plants are at) until planting

Chopped it down and cut it into small pieces, then covered it with a an inch or two of EWC mixed with Compost

 

[DARC MIND]

groovy man!

 

[Stone Walls]

Awesome no till pot... I'm excited to see how your plants fare in them. Well done Durdy!
Aloha from Hawaii Island.

 

[scai]

Quite interesting to use chopped greens for cover.
I still wonder...don't they use some nitrogen when they start to deteriorate?
Anyway, process is so slow, that it doesn't affect too much, just wondering...
Nice grow, grats

 

[DuckDuckGoose]

Quite interesting to use chopped greens for cover.
I still wonder...don't they use some nitrogen when they start to deteriorate?
Anyway, process is so slow, that it doesn't affect too much, just wondering...
Nice grow, grats

i think i can answer this...if i'm wrong please correct me. awesome garden by the way.

those greens are green manure. it can be cut down and turned into the soil to add nitrogen and organic matter. it will also help to stimulate the biological activity in the soil (possible fungi and microbes)
barley, rye, vetch, wheat, and dutch white clover take little effort to grow.

i got my info from a soil amendment pamphlet that was given to me when i bought my clover seeds if you were wondering, but there is a great deal of info on other cover crop greens. i bought micro clover because it doesn't get tall.

DDG

 

[SeaMaiden]

Quite interesting to use chopped greens for cover.
I still wonder...don't they use some nitrogen when they start to deteriorate?
Anyway, process is so slow, that it doesn't affect too much, just wondering...
Nice grow, grats

Yes, they will fix some N before giving it back up.

i think i can answer this...if i'm wrong please correct me. awesome garden by the way.

those greens are green manure. it can be cut down and turned into the soil to add nitrogen and organic matter. it will also help to stimulate the biological activity in the soil (possible fungi and microbes)
barley, rye, vetch, wheat, and dutch white clover take little effort to grow.

i got my info from a soil amendment pamphlet that was given to me when i bought my clover seeds if you were wondering, but there is a great deal of info on other cover crop greens. i bought micro clover because it doesn't get tall.

DDG

What I understand scai to be asking about is what happens to that N 'in the meantime.' While microbes are decomposing*, they do indeed fix some N. Certainly none of the N in those greens is available for other plants to use until it has broken down, decomposed, what have you. It will be upon the deaths of the decomposers (fixers) that the N will become available.

You can force N fixation by microbes late in flower by giving sugar (we'll use molasses in this example) toward the end and causing a population explosion of bacteria. I always advise to go easy, and do spend some time observing how long it takes for that N to become available again because if too much becomes available, foxtailing can occur. Speaking from experience on that one!

*Edit: I think that sentence might be too easily misunderstood to mean that I'm talking about the microbes themselves decomposing after death. What I mean is that while the microbes are busy with the work of decomposition; i.e. they're the ones doing the eating. Then, they poop or die and that makes the fixed N available. Or at least, this is how I understand the process.

 

[Durdy]

Quite interesting to use chopped greens for cover.
I still wonder...don't they use some nitrogen when they start to deteriorate?
Anyway, process is so slow, that it doesn't affect too much, just wondering...
Nice grow, grats

My idea behind adding the cover crop was to get a root system developed while the amendments in my soil were cycling. To my understanding there are certain types of mycorrhizae that don't really get going without roots to form a symbiotic relationship with. I wanted to get them established while my soil was fallow so when the gals get transplanted theres already a support system in place for them. It was about building a more complete soil food web before transplant.

In terms of nitrogen I don't think anything will be lost, certainly while the plants are still living they contain some within themselves but, I won't be planting until the material has broken down. After they were cut down and chopped up I top dressed with 1 1/2" of compost / EWC and watered with molasses to get the microbes within the compost active and thriving and munching on the green material.

If anything the cover crop puts more nitrogen in the soil. It's not the plant itself that fixes nitrogen in the soil but a symbiotic bacteria that the plant attracts.

Keep in mind, I'm not the most knowledgeable about this stuff so take it with a grain of salt or whatever that saying is
I just like watching the grass grow!

Thanks for the love everyone

 

[Durdy]

A quote about the bacteria that form with certain legumes from This website

"Legume cover crops, such as hairy vetch and crimson clover, through a symbiotic relationship with the rhizobia bacteria on their roots, convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form plants can use to grow. When the cover crop is tilled under, the nitrogen is released for the next crop."

 

[Durdy]

This link has some basic information on the benefits of cover crops.

 

[Durdy]

The quote from below is from this link

"In addition to preventing loss of nutrients, green manures add important elements to the soil. All plants undergo photosynthesis, a process that captures carbon dioxide from the air and transforms it into sugars in plant tissue. Green manures that are in the legume family, such as peas, beans, and clovers, have an added bonus. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria living around their roots can take nitrogen form the air and convert it to a form the plant can absorb. Additional nitrogen-fixing bacteria may be added to the soil by treating the seed, or "inoculating" the seed to increase the amount of nitrogen fixed. Most seed dealers sell the inoculum which is actually bacterial spores. Apply by coating seeds, according to manufacturer's directions, with fresh inoculum before sowing. This nitrogen can become available to subsequent crops. Legumes break down fairly quickly when turned into soil or composted. Legumes work well when mixed with a grass crop."

 

[DuckDuckGoose]

hey durdy,

when you mixed up your soil, how long did you let it sit before you planted your cover crops?

DDG

 

[Durdy]

I planted my cover crop the same day I mixed the soil.

 

[DuckDuckGoose]

kool, so you just mixed it up, potted it and planted the cover crop...i was wondering if the soil would heat up too much and kill the seeds or something.

 

[Durdy]

Nope, they sprouted and grew vigorously.

 

[BlueJayWay]

Nope, they sprouted and grew vigorously.

Cool stuff ya got goin on man - how was Hawaii? I miss Kauai......only visited once 5 years ago but I felt at home especially in the jungle....

It's kind of funny, as cannabis growers everything can be so precise and so careful....you know the whole paper towell sprout method, no nutes for 2 weeks, yadda yadda you know the drill...

...but with growing many other plant species alongside the weed, seedlings of all sorts sprout right through clumps of leftover alfalfa from teas, or sprout teas, or receive these teas before/during and immediately after sprouting and by golly if they just don't keep growing happily along.....

Long story short - chemi hydro myth based gardening really fucked with the basics of gardening for so many people trying to grow their own

- dont panic, its organic!

 

[Durdy]

Hawaii was awesome! can't wait to go back, it was especially nice seeing as it was so cold here when I went. I nice break from the west coast "winter". I've heard great things about kauai, would love to do some back packing there. My favorite part of the trip was a bike ride I took through a coffee plantation and up into the foothills of this mountain. There was an amazing vista where you could see the plantation then the high rise hotels on the coast stretching in both directions, then the channel on over to the desolate shoreline of Lanai, it was got dang beautiful!

The only thing missing was a bowl of my homegrown!

Yeah I love cannabis and all but it's pretty funny listening to all the funny things people think it requires. I'm taking several horticultural classes and what there teaching is great, but a lot of what the other students know is questionable, but thats why were all there to learn! I've definitely been labeled an organic nut lol. I send people many of the links we share around this forum, and get funny looks when I break out laughing about store bought soil.

I fell victim to many of those myth based gardening things, and it honestly took all the fun out of it for me, it's nice to feel inspired and motivated again, and be able to apply all the things I'm learning to my entire yard. I'd be in the goddamn poor house if I tried applying the majority of "specialty" cannabis techniques

So it's been about 12 days since I chopped and dropped the cover crop, it's pretty much completely broken down, some material left. But I see it as a good thing, it's the O horizon of soil on top of the A horizon. I transplanted some God's gift and J-ones into the 25 gal first round no-tills last night. The roots of the cover crop penetrated deep! The texture of the soil was beautiful, very happy with the results so far, we'll see how the girls take to the pots.

Got an enzyme tea that will be ready tomorrow, thinking I'm going to add a little coconut water to it and water the new transplants.

Oh and I'm picking up the last component for my outdoor project tomorrow, then the mixing, potting, and greenhouse construction begin! Life is good

 

[W89]

sounds like you a busy man! all good fun tho init

 

[Durdy]

Indeed my friend. I'm one of those people that has to be crazy busy, too much free time and I get lazy, which i need sometimes........