Living organic soil from start through recycling

[MrSterling]

DM, I've no information on golden rice, that was shmalphy. My only opinion is that often anti-GMO sentiments in the organics community are based on passion and vague anger instead of actual evidence. Like my friend who wants to grow heirloom lavender to "save" it from "Monsanto gmo lavender". There are a lot of people who only know "Monsanto=Bad" and extrapolate from there. Not necessarily here but in pur community. I'm not a supporter of GMO products. I am however a supporter of educating oneself and taking all the facts in. I just want people to come to their conclusions because they understand the issues, not because they've been spoon-fed an idea.

 

[rrog]

The problem is, with a few billion dollars in marketing funds, Monsanto et al can keep everything in the dark for decades. Look at Big Tobacco.

So you're right... GMO might not be bad, but we'll never know for decades. So the safest conservative approach is to avoid them, if one is inclined to concern themselves.

 

[ClackamasCootz]

Not the greatest study maybe...but I see why the basalt rock dust is a good idea. Do you know if the Concentrates stuff has a high paramagnetic value Coot?

http://aftre.nssga.org/Symposium/1999-31.pdf

YosemiteSam

Basalt, granite, lava rock are very high on the paramagnetic scales. Phil Callahan, Ph.D is a good 'search term' if you're interested and Acres Magazine has several audio files from his presentations over the years.

This cycle is the first testing for me with the Basalt rock dust from Redmond, Oregon (Cascade Minerals) vs. the Canadian glacial rock dust (Gaia Green) that I've used in the past. The plants rooted about 10 days ago so I'll be watching.

I ran 2 plants with the glacial, 2 plants with the basalt and 1 plant with an equal mix of both rock dusts.

CC

 

[ClackamasCootz]

It's worth a gander! - Acres that is...

This grower buddy of mine, he's too much, I don't have mites at all, but he had a shit ton, so I gave him the cilantro recipe, well apparently he's not much of an instructions follower lol, but he called me up excited as shit saying he went from a 90% infestation to maybe 10% overnight. He didn't soak it, but he pureed a big bunch in some water and sprayed the hell out of the plants, he said he was a little worried because it was so thick and strong LOL, every plant looked better and nearly no mites the next day, except a very unhealthy lady she just up and died. He said his ratio was probably 3:1 water:cilantro

With the aloe /fulvic / protect cloning solution, instead he just smooshed up a bunch of fresh aloe in a "cup" of water and after a little bit it seemed to get real gel like, so I guess he soaked the cuttings in that, like a 50/50 water/aloe mix and before he put them in plugs he rubbed the stems through a cut of fresh aloe, for good measure ya know..... Well I get a call a week later and holy crap he says he's never seen so many roots and perky little cuttings in all his life, he's not young either lol.

Puts things in perspective for me, it doesn't always have to be exact, ya know what I mean

I always error on the side of caution when giving mixing ratios - LOL

 

[BlueJayWay]

I always error on the side of caution when giving mixing ratios - LOL

HEHE yeah it's a trip really how many different "ways" the same thing can work, but ya gotta be precise & cautious when providing mixing ratios otherwise it's your fault when someone fucks up LOL and probably there is a "sweet spot" to all things, more or less.

I was busting up when this guy was telling me how he mixed the cilantro & used aloe for his cuttings, it was cool though because he's so excited these things are working & it's reinvigorated his spirit and excitement about gardening - he wasn't doin' so well and some of the smallest changes have made the biggest differences - he's lucky, he's got a big ole greenhouse.... he thinks i'm a genius HA I tell him it's not me man just passin' on the good word...

 

[ClackamasCootz]

BJW

With the 'historical weather' we had in much of the PNW i have so much friggin' comfrey. I don't know what I was (not) thinking when I planted 4 starts and then by accident I added 5 more in what was supposed to be a pile of garden material just stacked to rot or whatever. The comfrey flower branches rooted and those plants are now over 3' which doesn't factor in the 4 plants I started with about 18 months back.

There's a ton of misinformation about comfrey as a 'tea' vs. as a green mulch and then there's the folks that grow herbs for their medicinal qualities. Huge disconnect to say the least. I tend to side with the herbal medicine crowd but that's just me.

A former poster sent me a PM several months ago and he told me how he used comfrey leaves and while I found it interesting and worthy of note I didn't do anything with the information. Since I have so much leaf material around I did what he's doing: Simply take fresh leaves, puree or grind to a pulp and add about 1 quart of this to 5 gallons of water and let it sit for a couple of hours. Strain and dilute it 2x water so you now have 15 gallons.

I sprayed all of the garden over the summer - tomatoes, chills, amaranth, mints, i.e. everything. Besides the 'nute benefit' this is one kick-ass fungicide AND pesticide. I had my doubts but the proof was in the health of the vegetable garden. Definitely a growth enhancer and the tomatoes showed very massive fruit sets (Potassium)

A good plant to have around for human & animal health and general gardening

CC

 

[Gascanastan]

After a summer w/zero rain...the past week of moisture is much welcomed for the fungus seekers of the local area.......I just found a 3 ft thick 40 ft long red alder loaded with oyster mushrooms....... ground score!!

Fall in N America is a great time to gather leaf litter....this stuff will be loaded with various fungi at this time of year and will also be partly decomposed before the freezing temps hits in a lot of places.

 

[rrog]

That's good info, Gas.

 

[BlueJayWay]

Send me some Comfrey! I have 5 starts i just put down a few weeks ago, two outside & 3 inside, just to be on the safe side in case the cold weather, or whatever, took the outside plants. Well a deer or racoon mowed down one of them, it had a decent start so i'm mulching it up and assuming it will be good to go come spring, the other was near some wild mint i transplanted from the stream to my house, it was untouched, maybe the little critter was turned off by the mint.... I do look forward to using my comfrey next year, I don't expect a ton in this alpine desert climate, but enough to boost up a compost pile or two.

That is a pretty simply way to make use of excess comfrey, or whatever, I guess when you puree, much of the plant material is small enough that many of the compounds are still usable as a foliar, in lieu or alternating with a full soak "tea"?

****

Fall is late down here, usually leaves have changed and on the ground by end of september (high elevation) but most are still green, actually color change has just started from a little cold storm last week....

...thinkin' of heading down to the creek to scoop up some rock dusts - "remineralize"

 

[Durdy]

So I was just looking at comparisons in mineral content between basalt rock dust, gaia green glacial dust, and azomite. It looks to me as though azomite contains all the minerals found in the other two. Which leads me to the question of why not just use azomite instead of the basalt or glacial?

 

[ClackamasCootz]

BJW

Let me bore you with a bit of the "comfrey growing learning curve" that I went through. Because of the amount of biomass this plant produces (3-4x that of alfalfa) you must water - a lot.

Even in Ory-Gun it is necessary to give the plants a really solid soaking (flushing!!!!! LOL) a couple of times per week during warm weather. Mandatory. I tried to get 5 gallons of water on each plant when I watered.

You'll be paid back in spades for your effort. I harvested over 4 c.y. this season from the original 4 plants I started about 18 months ago.

Then there was the Borage invasion (by accident) which was nutz as well. I made a lot of 'soak it for a month tea' with this stuff since this plant has 'maybe' 15% of the biomass of a similarly-sized Comfrey plant.

CC

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

I have found the same but i reckon once fully established the tap root might find some ground water to tap into... maybe

There is a big patch by the roadside here that has taken over a hillside under some feral apple trees. It sure gets by without anyone watering and we have some very dry spells.

The comfrey foliar sounds excellent!

 

[schwagg]

 

[rrog]

Oh...Wow...

Living art. And what an eye you have for this! Nice pic!

 

[schwagg]

finally found a BlueO x Cherrybomb female! ten more seeds up and outta the soil too!

 

[IncredibowlBoss]

Came across this in a gardening magazine - thought of everybody here

 

[b_all_in]

Local rocks and dusts

Local rocks and dusts

I was out collecting pumice today and found myself wondering what the difference is between the types that I found. Mostly light red to tan/white. I intend to use this in place of perilite. I then found this grey stuff that was extremely brittle and crumbled in my hands. Is this something that I can use to mineralize my soil? I live in an extremely geothermal/volcanic area that has tons of granite, pumice and obsidian. I have read a few posts about harvesting rock dusts from creek beds and there are many here that I would like to explore. Can anyone tell me what it is that I am looking for? Is it just the dirt in a creek bed? Nothing is ever that easy.

 

[BlueJayWay]

The fine dust like deposits, generally where water tends to "lap" at the shore etc. high mountain streams would be awesome but as long as its a clean flowing waterway, and your area you described sounds prime for rock n mineral collecting!

 

[BlueJayWay]

BJW
You'll be paid back in spades for your effort. I harvested over 4 c.y. this season from the original 4 plants I started about 18 months ago.
CC

Ideally I can eventually head back to my roots and buy property "up north" (Eel river - south fork). I love the climate.

I have trouble getting anything to really take off on my property, mostly big granite rocks and areas you think are nice to plant end up having boulders everywhere when you start digging. I need to do raised beds, or huge compost piles right where I want to plant, and then I have a 3 month growing season (tops) so it's hard to even bother..... Landscaping and garden, its on the endless to do list... I got one strawberry this year though LOL

 

[MrSterling]

3 months? I think I'm sitting on around seven months growing season.