ROLS- Soil,Teas,IPM

[daylighting]

Fascinating stuff, Clackamas! The Chinese are getting into organic gardening after all the pesticide scares over there and are using neem cake and neem oil. Urban gardening is really taking off there. So is indoor pot growing, something I never thought I'd see so soon. Once upon a time I used to smoke huge spliffs on the streets of China and nobody minded. They just thought it was a 'foreign' cigarette. I probably shouldn't try that now!

 

[MrSterling]

Depending on the "where" in China today you'd probably still be fine.

 

[high life 45]

Urban gardening is really taking off there. So is indoor pot growing, something I never thought I'd see so soon.

I wonder how much of this has to do with the fact that China makes most of the "equipment" sold in a "horticultural" store. Ballasts, tents, fans, meters etc...

My juicer is from Korea, the instructional video mentions juicing "hemp" I was really suprised.

Mixed up some more rols today. Got four more bales of peat to mix.
I gotta say the quality of Vitals EWC is much better than the other brands concentrates carries. Night and day difference.


Cootz 2.0
"[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Sprouted Seed Tea v2.0

Jon Stika of Brew Your Own Magazine describes malt as "barley that has been sprouted to the point where enzymes are produced that will convert its starchy interior to sugar." After the grain has been malted, the sugar is fermented by yeast to make beer.

This is an accurate overview of an article he wrote for those who want to make their own malt and here's the Reader's Digest version:

Weigh out 2 oz. of Barley seed and remove any foreign matter by the seeds into a large jar and fill it half-way with water and agitate to wash the barley. Pour off loose husks & dirt that float to the top. Drain in a colander. Repeat until everything has been removed.

Soak the seeds in water for 8 - 10 hours. Drain the seeds and weigh after completely draining the water off. Assuming you started with 56 grams, you want to hit a minimum of 84 grams at the end of these processes.

Let the Barley rest for 8 - 10 hours and then soak for another 8 hours, drain and weigh. Repeat if necessary but that's not too unlikely.

Take a piece of cloth and you want to use something as 'raw' as possible like hemp cloth, organic cotton, linen, canvas, flax, etc. - just check with a large fabric store. If you buy a piece that is a square it probably helps or doesn't.

Wet your cloth, wring out and fold it 2 times. During the rest cycles this is where you want to let the seeds rest. You want moisture surrounding the seeds but not water.

Once you hit 84+ grams, spread your seeds again in the middle of this folded piece of fabric, place that in a brown paper bag - 55F - 65F ambient temperatures will move this along quickly.

When the shoots inside the seed have grown the length of the seed you're done. You're not growing sprouts but rather activating the enzymes and the compounds in the endosperm as described in the post above.

Take these seeds and put them in a blender and some water and get it to a puree to the extent possible. Using 56 grams to start will give enough puree to make 5 gallons of tea.

Water your plants with this diluted tea. This will give you far, far more enzymes than the straight sprouting method. One thing about beer brewers is that they live & die by enzyme levels extracted from seeds and this article is cited on several home brew forums.
This is definitely the way to use Barley and other seeds..."[/FONT]

 

[daylighting]

The Chinese are cultivating a a huge appetite for all things American today, and many don't want Chinese knockoffs either! I think the pot growing thing was started by students returning home to China from overseas, or maybe from exposure to western movies. China is developing so rapidly, we may see Chinese breeders in five or six years. China is already one of the world's largest producers of crystal meth. They have labs up there that make Breaking Bad look like child's play.

They do indeed have access to much of the grow equipment sold in US and European stores for MUCH lower prices since shipping isn't so much of an issue. Having people there, I can benefit from this and shipping within Asia isn't too bad. Thanks to the forums, I can suss out what I want and get it cheaper by buying directly within Asia, although it involves a fair bit of homework.

My only fear is that this cannabis boom is going to cause landraces to go extinct. There are interesting wild plants in Sichuan, Yunnan and Xinjiang, and there are definitely more. The Chinese eat hemp seed and have for quite a while, but believe both alcohol and cannabis are poisons that still have medical uses if taken at the right time and in the right way. Chinese medicine is incredible stuff and I am only glancing the surface of the field now.

 

[xmobotx]

as far as EM? it comes from somewhere right? is there a way to culture your own EM rather than buy a product?

 

[daylighting]

Yeah, keep a sugar solution bubbling with EM and keep adding water and sugar to it as you use the EM. I think that would keep everything in there alive, but there's a good chance other stuff would colonize the solution.

Better yet, start composting with it and just use the compost to make a tea

 

[RanchoDeluxe]

Wow...some really interesting stuff here fellas. I need to read up more on Hinduism. Daylight- You mind kicking some of those landrace genetics my way. I watched a show the other day about pregnant women in China coming over to the U.S. on tourist visa's so they can have their child born in the U.S., and automatically become a citizen. One of the reasons for doing so was the quality of our food. A father said that they are afraid to eat just about anything...and I thought the Chinese ate everything.

 

[daylighting]

I only have Yunnan beans and they're pretty old. I had Sichuan ones and lost them. Wish I had them now!

Not all the food in China is dangerous. Just most of it!

 

[ClackamasCootz]

I gotta say the quality of Vitals EWC is much better than the other brands concentrates carries. Night and day difference

high life 45

That's true - sadly enough. Unfortunately that speaks to the general poor quality of EWC that they carry, i.e. Yelm Earthworm Castings would be at the top of anyone's list of utter bullish*t.

If you're willing to drive to Camas there you can buy some of the best castings in the PNW for $8.00 for a 5 gallon bucket, i.e. $12.00 per c.f. - you bring your own bucket and he fills.

If you are down around Salem you can buy the castings from Worm Power for less money than Vital Earth's version.

HTH

CC

 

[high life 45]

high life 45

That's true - sadly enough. Unfortunately that speaks to the general poor quality of EWC that they carry, i.e. Yelm Earthworm Castings would be at the top of anyone's list of utter bullish*t.

If you're willing to drive to Camas there you can buy some of the best castings in the PNW for $8.00 for a 5 gallon bucket, i.e. $12.00 per c.f. - you bring your own bucket and he fills.

If you are down around Salem you can buy the castings from Worm Power for less money than Vital Earth's version.

HTH

CC

Thanks Cootz, a friend of mine recently came upon some commercial worm bins. So looks like I might be starting a lil worm farm of my own. Im actually closer to Eugene, but dont mind the field trips for the quality ingredients. The amount I saved on ewc alone payed for the gas to get to Concentrates and back. Ill have to check out the place in Salem, or maybe even Camas when the wallet permits.

 

[ClackamasCootz]

high life 45

Here's a potting soil that one could put together at Concentrates for chump-change.

1 Alaska Peat Pony Bale (2.2 c.f.) - $9.00
1 c.f. Pumice (3 sizes to choose from) - $4.60
1 c.f. Oly Mtn. Fish Compost (certified organic) - $5.25

Total is $19.85 for 4 c.f. base potting soil

If one didn't want to buy full bags of amendments, they have self-serve bulk on the important ones. The current prices are as follows:

Cascade Minerals Balast - $.55 per lb. You would need 2 lbs. per c.f.
Crab Meal - $.95 per lb. You would need 1/4 lb. per c.f.
Kelp Meal - $2.00 per lb. You would need 1/4 lb. per c.f.

You would need 1/4 lb. per c.f. on Neem meal which you would have to source elsewhere

Once you plant your rooted starts in their pots you would want to top-dress with vermicompost - up to 2" is all that is required.

How's that for cheap? I have a cycle ready to flower that has this exact recipe/formula. Growth rate, health, vigor is picture perfect.

CC

 

[high life 45]

high life 45

Here's a potting soil that one could put together at Concentrates for chump-change.

1 Alaska Peat Pony Bale (2.2 c.f.) - $9.00
1 c.f. Pumice (3 sizes to choose from) - $4.60
1 c.f. Oly Mtn. Fish Compost (certified organic) - $5.25

Total is $19.85 for 4 c.f. base potting soil

If one didn't want to buy full bags of amendments, they have self-serve bulk on the important ones. The current prices are as follows:

Cascade Minerals Balast - $.55 per lb. You would need 2 lbs. per c.f.
Crab Meal - $.95 per lb. You would need 1/4 lb. per c.f.
Kelp Meal - $2.00 per lb. You would need 1/4 lb. per c.f.

You would need 1/4 lb. per c.f. on Neem meal which you would have to source elsewhere

Once you plant your rooted starts in their pots you would want to top-dress with vermicompost - up to 2" is all that is required.

How's that for cheap? I have a cycle ready to flower that has this exact recipe/formula. Growth rate, health, vigor is picture perfect.

CC

Its that easy? You may have just converted my buddies hydro room into organic soil. Its hard to argue with that....I wonder why concentrates doesnt carry neem?

Cootz do you have any peat-less recipes? Just curious..

 

[ClackamasCootz]

I wonder why concentrates doesnt carry neem?

It's not from me and others not trying or at least whining about it - LOL

Cootz do you have any peat-less recipes? Just curious..

You would definitely want to buy the premium coir from Sri Lanka and you have a couple of choices:

Teufel Coconut Fiber - 2 c.f. for $8.00

This is a loose pack product like all premium coir used in the nursery industry on the West Coast. Teufel Nursery was one of the first companies to begin importing this coir almost 30 years ago meaning that they have the supply chain dialed-in. They do not buy on the spot-market like 99% of the other coir products you'll run across.

Sunshine 'Just Coir' Coconut Fiber - 2 c.f. for $11.40

Same product but the advantage here is that it has a much wider distribution area. Even the kids at DTE's main store in Eugene carries this pack.

To make up for the lack of microbial activity in the coir you would want to use the best vermicompost you can find and better yet would be to make your own. If you can find high quality compost (best wishes!) then using both would be better still. There are a couple of slight adjustments to make up for coir's downsides like adding gypsum or elemental sulfur for terpene production and another 100 or more biological functions.

I would decrease the total volume of coir in a general soil mix and increase the pumice & humus levels.

Now try explaining to the typical weed grower that sulfur isn't a fungicide - best wishes on that Herculean task.

CC

 

[Microbeman]

I have made mixes with just topsoil and very old dried horse droppings.

 

[M.A.W]

Hey guys wasnt sure where to ask this...

I wanna make a little sul-po-mg slurry(sulfate of potash magnesium)
Im feelin a little low on sulfur and mg in my middle pots(not dixie cups, not final container yet)

I know i saw in either the original ROLS or mega ROLS thread that coot mentioned if he uses this product in a soil mixture he always bubles it and waters it in rather then top dress or even mix into a base soil....

My question is does anybody remember the recipe he posted or has anyone used this as a slurry/tea?

 

[ClackamasCootz]

1 tablespoon to 1 gallon of water. The aeration is only to get the pieces bouncing to speed up the process.

You could also use hot water and that would help. It is probably close to impossible to completely get all of the pieces 'solubilized' so get as close as possible, strain and hit the soil.

CC

 

[M.A.W]

Thank you kind sir!

Ill try hot water and i planned on agitating it over night (8-9 hrs or so) and watering in the morning.

 

[ClackamasCootz]

You'll be good to go with that plan...

Please do not spray your plants with this mineral compound...

 

[intotheunknown]

CC-

Im very interested in using your recipe for aloe/coconut, but Im having trouble finding it where I saw it last, and I for some reason did not write it down in my notebook.
Care to share that with me?
Thanks man!

 

[GoldCG]

Will concentrates ship out of state if I'm not a distributor?