Inoculated soil with Rye and Chia

[Dr.Mantis]

Hey everyone,

I’ve been using organic amendments and soil mixtures for the majority of my grows. I like them a lot, but there are some drawbacks in my opinion.

My base soil is reused, but was originally made from about 1:1:1 of peat, perlite, and rice hulls with a small amount of worm castings. For fertilizer I used a formula made of fermented and powdered whole soybeans, crab shell meal, and leonardite.

While reusing the soil works well, I’ve noticed it tends to loose volume pretty quickly. This is a good thing in some sense, as it indicates a thriving microbial community mineralizing the components. However, after thinking about it more, I came to the conclusion that a 60% percent organic material soil, isn’t really representative of what cannabis would be growing in in nature. The most fertile soils in the world, like mollisols, are typically only around 2-6% organic material by weight.

I thought it would be fun to switch to a more mineral based soil, and rely more on the microbial community to supply nutrients, rather than go crazy with organic amendments. So, I took my leftover soil and added another bag of perlite, 5 pounds of magnetite powder, 5 pounds of greensand, and a couple of handfuls of diatomaceous earth.

Next, to inoculate this mixture I took a handful of rye berries and soaked them overnight in water. The next day the water was drained. After rootlets sprouted I added a pinch of mycoapply soluble max (excellent product) and a pinch of chia seeds. These seeds were then dumped onto the soil bin and allowed to sprout. Why did I do this? Symbiotic fungi and bacteria are the stars of soil structure modification, and they love grass roots as hosts. I had rye berries and chia seeds, so that’s what I used.

Anyway, here is the bin today. The plan is to grow the plants out a bit to colonize the soil, then turn them back in once I need it. I’ll be updating this in the future with microscope pics to follow along with the roots and microbes.


Close up of the sprouts, I’ll get better pictures later.

 

[chilliwilli]

Interresting. I also thought about if u could grow in the "soil" they use to plant trees(Stockholmer System) in a city. They fill the planting hole with coarse gravel and then wash in the sand based medium(fertilizer concentrate:sand=1:4) till everything is filled. That gives an airy but very stable substrate that helps water to get into the ground.
I was thinking of something like 20% max compost and the rest basal or pumice gravel. Fertiliced with some organic amendments.

I like your idea with preplanting because that rooting will help new roots to establish. My concernes with my idea is that i don't think roots will have a easy time to grow in a too dense substrate made from gravel but your mix should be doable.

 

[Dr.Mantis]

Interresting. I also thought about if u could grow in the "soil" they use to plant trees(Stockholmer System) in a city. They fill the planting hole with coarse gravel and then wash in the sand based medium(fertilizer concentrate:sand=1:4) till everything is filled. That gives an airy but very stable substrate that helps water to get into the ground.
I was thinking of something like 20% max compost and the rest basal or pumice gravel. Fertiliced with some organic amendments.

I like your idea with preplanting because that rooting will help new roots to establish. My concernes with my idea is that i don't think roots will have a easy time to grow in a too dense substrate made from gravel but your mix should be doable.

Back in another life, I used to grow tropical plants in coarse lava cinders and sand. Worked well, but you had to water a lot!

I was also concerned about the density of the substrate. To be honest I planted a few ssh Catpiss bx4 seeds in some of this mix that didn’t have extra perlite. It was heavy, and didn’t drain well. So far the plants are very happy though. My hope is the inoculated rye roots will help with the soil aggregation and help with bulk density and drainage.

 

[Dr.Mantis]

Update:

The bin is alive and well, looks like the rye is doing great and most of the chia is sprouted. One of the very cool things is you can actually see the mycorrhizae on the roots on a few of the plants. Sometimes I see photos or videos of “look at the mycorrhizae” on a pile of compost, when in reality it’s probably some saprophytic fungi. Myco must have a connection with roots to grow.





Another cool thing myco do is secret a mix of glycoproteins that act as soil glue and help with aggregation. I can already see the soil is less “clay like” and more structured. I hope the ladies like this soil when it’s ready.

 

[Bio boy]

So no real fertilisers? No kelp neem or anything? What's feeding stuff are you using fpjs?

 

[Dr.Mantis]

So no real fertilisers? No kelp neem or anything? What's feeding stuff are you using fpjs?

At this point nothing except what was leftover from recycling the soil. For the plants I use aspergillus fermented whole soybean powder. I do have some kelp powder, but I’m worried about the sodium content and need to get it tested before I incorporate it. My plan is to basically collect all the green and brown waste, fermented with aspergillus, grind, and recycle it in the mineral soil.

 

[Bio boy]

At this point nothing except what was leftover from recycling the soil. For the plants I use aspergillus fermented whole soybean powder. I do have some kelp powder, but I’m worried about the sodium content and need to get it tested before I incorporate it. My plan is to basically collect all the green and brown waste, fermented with aspergillus, grind, and recycle it in the mineral soil.

Kelps sodium upsets me too and I was told I’m daft we all use it lol I stil haven’t dared add it Since I sodiumed my soil lol or crab shell
also I don’t like neem cause of the aza effects can cause lung problems so why smoke what can cause it sue so alfalfa helped me there
bokashi brans and fish ferments home made

 

[Dr.Mantis]

Kelps sodium upsets me too and I was told I’m daft we all use it lol I stil haven’t dared add it Since I sodiumed my soil lol or crab shell
also I don’t like neem cause of the aza effects can cause lung problems so why smoke what can cause it sue so alfalfa helped me there
bokashi brans and fish ferments home made

I’m in the exact same boat! If you looks up the mineral analysis of ascophylum nodosum it’s almost 3% sodium, yikes!! Likewise, I used to use crab shell meal but it has tons of sodium and waaaay to much calcium. I’ve got some alfalfa meal that looks great on the mineral side of things and will incorporate it too (at least in veg). I don’t like or use neem products either, just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s healthy, especially when burned!

For real though, even if sodium isn’t bad for cannabis, it is terrible for soil, and I want to continue to reuse my soil.

 

[Bio boy]

I’m in the exact same boat! If you looks up the mineral analysis of ascophylum nodosum it’s almost 3% sodium, yikes!! Likewise, I used to use crab shell meal but it has tons of sodium and waaaay to much calcium. I’ve got some alfalfa meal that looks great on the mineral side of things and will incorporate it too (at least in veg). I don’t like or use neem products either, just because it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s healthy, especially when burned!

For real though, even if sodium isn’t bad for cannabis, it is terrible for soil, and I want to continue to reuse my soil.

Haha wow same same same
yeas defiantly dolomite also compresses the soil structure should be foilar if needed otherwise never add it to soil limestone and oyster are different there isn’t mg which is already abundant in even deprived soils ,
the ca I don’t mind I use gypsum for that mainly but I do avoid crab now and use insect frass too for sar effect and npk that stims fungi

ca is needed high as hell in veg you need to load it in thick it develops everything , saves a lot and preps them for flower , if you don’t push ca in veg I found you can’t push k in flower as it will become deficient somwhere so I push ca in veg then in flower I use sulphate of potash at 175ppm 3 times it has become famous for being k without any sodium and some soft rock phos for p if needed

nor any I wash veg if stems purple spray soft rock phos and if showing deficiency’s a weak kelp as on leaves it’s fine just not in the damn soil lol they have a sugar salt relation on leaves which they can use but without salting soil up long term


worm cast alfalfa and fish teas bout my only addition and that’s in microbe man’s dose too so the fish is for the fungi and is so slow at 0.65% of the mix without looking at the recipient I use it’s a drop lol

ive started using chicken poop and gypsum sorts out any small salt that it Carrie’s lol

 

[chilliwilli]

I use a 1:1 mix of arctic krill and gammarus abrasion to keep sodium a little low. Imo because the gammarus are sweet water creatures they will not have the same spectrum of trace minerals as the krill but way less sodium.