[Bulletproof]

I heard you have to premoisten a homemade organic mix so that the nutes can become available, but what if you mix the ingredients and plant straight in, won't the nutrients be time released as you water then or does it not work that way?

[Suby]

When you wet the mix and assuming all the right elements are there the composting process begins, basically it's the dawn of a soil microbe world and there will be fluctuating conditions in this microbial system until it finds equilibrium, fungus and bacteria will then condition the soil in a balanced way.

One of the the many stages of soil development is the thermal phase which results in a certain type of microbial agent giving alot of heat but this is more of an issue when doing an industrial or a large scale composting of "hot" organic sources like manure, in a home based scale all these phases are overlaping and heat is not really an issue.

Other than giving your soil a jumpstart it is possible to skip the composting and use activated EWC teas to boost them, it just really helps the soil to work the kinks out and get the microbes fueling the organic process properly to best benefit the plant.

Sub's

[Verite]

I wouldnt do it with seabird guano as that stuff it pretty hot [alkaline] and will burn the roots when it comes in contact with water.

[Desiderata]

Verite, I've heard you talk about seabird guano before......way alkaline. Well I have alot of it and I usually make a 24 hour tea with kelp. I didn't use it this time around; or not yet anyway.

After 24 hours aerating, with air stones, the ph was 7.0. Do you know a better way to use or apply it. No wonder it was ph 7........because it is high in N also.....what, 12-8-5 something like that. Do you not like it?

Edit: It just came to me.....last fall I mixed it in my soil mix...........well now I remember I had a burn issue I attributed to not letting the soil mix sit for a couple weeks. I used 1 TBL/gal mix. but that was with everything else....blood, bone, epsoma, kelp, greensand, lime, and woodash.......and compost......

[Closet Funk]

I never water my soil mix until my plants are in it. I do mix mine up every couple of days.

[muddy waters]

if the substrate is excessively dry, it will inhibit the growth of the microfauna that suby alluded to. once you watered, those microbes would begin to populate the medium. the more of them, and the better established their equilibrium, the faster things will get processed for your plants. so you might as well start the process ASAP.

mycorrhyzal fungi and nitrifying bacteria aid your plants in ways that nutes alone cannot. they break down complex organic compounds into things the plant can use. some speculate that the richer tastes in organic produce are due to the hormones and other complex molecules made available to the plants this way.

so you have to think about taking care of these tiny little organisms--and they'll keep your plants taken care of.

[whoami]

the other reason why u prewet your soil before hand is to make sure that there are no dry spots...which can make for root rot or uneven growth. plus then when you have filled the pot and transplanted you will know what the weight test should feel like

[Protostele]

I grow in a large bin that contains around 50 gallons of mix. The time I used an organic fertilizer containing alfalfa meal as the nitrogen source, the soil temperature probe indicated soil temperatures of over 100 F. Temps dropped after a few days and stabilized at around 80 F. I haven't noticed as dramatic an increase when using other nitrogen sources, but then I haven't used seabird guano. I use Phillipine bat guano, 0-14-1.

I would also recommend pre-moistening.

Protostele