Living organic soil from start through recycling

[canna woop!]

YS

sounds real interesting. What rate are you adding lime into the soil? how do you measure the persentage of "saturation" if at all?

I am also wondering if you think sand has any thing to do with CEC? because I know materials like minerals may, because of their elemental calcium and are basically fancy sand. Then other air amendments like vermiculite can bring the CEC up.

Then again I am still trying to figure out a reply to the sales pitch that "trichoderma are aggressive bennie's"

 

[YosemiteSam]

You have to go to a lab for total cec testing and base cation saturation. CaCO3 is not the only Ca source by a long ways. EWC may provide plenty with no additional adds...you just gotta check.

IMO...cec is best achieved with peat and some sort of humus (ewc, vermicompost, thermal compost, etc). Maybe a little bit of clay...particularly the stuff that contains diatomaceous earth also...MM referenced it earlier.

I am not a huge fan of vermiculite. Balance Ca and Mg and you get proper drainage/water retention and a very good place to maximize microbiology...no other tricks needed.

I think living organic soil is the way to go...but I think you can work within that framework and still follow Albrecht ratios and Tainio's sap pH theories. Do you absolutely need to...no, but what if you do???

Just my opinion.

 

[Neo 420]

Funny you bring up the Albrecht ratios. In my quest for more knowledge, some of his work came up in a few papers I was reading. Its seems farmers have shown to produce solid output with "minimum" nutrition to the soil supply capacity. I concluded that ratios are important but not to the extent Albrecht claims

But like you said to each his own. Do what you makes you comfortable and produces results.

 

[unregistered190]

Hey man,does anybody know where to get Oyster shell at? I've looked everywhere,and can only have it shipped for around 36.00(large bag) You can't get it at the hydro store,and you know why.

i wouldn't know........why not at a hydro store?

 

[ClackamasCootz]

Hydro store? It's seldom available and when it is you're going to get f*cked on the price

Grow Store: Down-To-Earth Oyster Shell Powder, 6 lbs. @ $10.95

Farm Store: Pacific Pearl Oyster Shell Powder, 50 lbs. @ $9.75

Down-To-Earth packs the Pacific Pearl product, i.e. they're the same material

 

[DARC MIND]

This may be an option for you:
http://www.kisorganics.com/products/shop/oyster-shell-flour

thats what i was led to believe...

 

[canna woop!]

Hydro store? It's seldom available and when it is you're going to get f*cked on the price

Grow Store: Down-To-Earth Oyster Shell Powder, 6 lbs. @ $10.95

Farm Store: Pacific Pearl Oyster Shell Powder, 50 lbs. @ $9.75

Down-To-Earth packs the Pacific Pearl product, i.e. they're the same material

I was just down at the local hy-dro store, and tried to impress a couple of lady shopper's with my "been there, done that, now save $40 on bottled water" shpeel. Didn't stop them from picking up a gallon of flora kleen and plastic dome's for their seedlings in rockwool. my time would have been better spent doing cutting's of a wandering jew or a difficult to root plant for that matter.

 

[ClackamasCootz]

You don't use FloraKleen to remove excess nutes? Really?

I buy the 4 x 1 gallon cases to make sure that I never run out of this magical elixir - it works much better than Tidy Bowl to get the Dankity Dank ready for smokin' and vapin' - pure gold! Makes for a better & more complete flush!

 

[Seandawg]

You don't use FloraKleen to remove excess nutes? Really?

I buy the 4 x 1 gallon cases to make sure that I never run out of this magical elixir - it works much better than Tidy Bowl to get the Dankity Dank ready for smokin' and vapin' - pure gold! Makes for a better & more complete flush!

I use a toilet to flush! It gets all the shit out lmao

 

[Heliopolis]

CC, did you say that you got a lot of Luther Burbank's writings from Project Gutenberg? I can't seem to find any there.

 

[OrganicLearner]

Hydro store? It's seldom available and when it is you're going to get f*cked on the price

Grow Store: Down-To-Earth Oyster Shell Powder, 6 lbs. @ $10.95

Farm Store: Pacific Pearl Oyster Shell Powder, 50 lbs. @ $9.75

Down-To-Earth packs the Pacific Pearl product, i.e. they're the same material

I always wondered before if there was some drastic difference between the 50 lb bags at feed store vs. hydro store 5 lb boxes...besides the obvious moths flying out of wallet after hydro store experience what other differences could make such different prices? Particle sizes,stronger, quicker dissolving, pelletized...blah blah blah

Not that it matters because there's no feed stores with a variety of these ammendments within my reach anyways..waaaaaa

 

[Mr.Fastcast]

i wouldn't know........why not at a hydro store?

The way I see it is that way you buy bottled cal/mag at an inflated price.Never seen it at a hydro store,never.(oyster shell)

The last time I asked for some Oyster shell,the guy tried selling me some Ocean forest soil.

Yesterday I went to the nursery,and asked for some agricultural lime,and the women tried selling me some hydrated lime.

 

[OrganicBuds]

I love bulk buying, it's cheaper 50lbs than a 6 lb box would be of the same material. I got about 10 5gal buckets with Kelp, alphalpha, oyster shell, dolomite lime, feather meal, greensand, Bloodmeal, Guano, soft rock phosphate, rock phosphate, gypsum, fulvic acid ore, and Azomite. My plants love me for it, and with the cheaper prices I can feed all my veggies and fruits with my organic ingredients as well.

 

[nerd4life]

I love bulk buying, it's cheaper 50lbs than a 6 lb box would be of the same material. I got about 10 5gal buckets with Kelp, alphalpha, oyster shell, dolomite lime, feather meal, greensand, Bloodmeal, Guano, soft rock phosphate, rock phosphate, gypsum, fulvic acid ore, and Azomite. My plants love me for it, and with the cheaper prices I can feed all my veggies and fruits with my organic ingredients as well.

I'm looking to buy in bulk, where do you go to local farmers or ebay?

 

[greenmatter]

finding bulk products on the shelf in my area is hit and miss.

the feed stores don't carry a lot of things and the nursery guys don't carry big bags of anything most of the time

i hate having things shipped,because the shipping usually costs more than the product i am buying

sucks ass IMHO ...... but who said life is easy

 

[Scrappy4]

I'm looking to buy in bulk, where do you go to local farmers or ebay?

In rural areas there are farm or feed stores that may be handy. Some animal feeds are what we use as fertilizers, like kelp meal.

Another idea is to find organic (non mj) farmers in your area. I did just that using the google and found valuable local info from organic farmers in my area. There are not many around me but they love to talk and share organic talk. Good source of manures as well. There may be organic farming groups or associations in your area too? And then there are agricultural schools or orgs who assist farmers, both those addicted to chems and organics.....scrappy

 

[rrog]

Scrap, as I mentioned elsewhere, I'm looking for a bunch of veg compost, or organic animal manure if you have any leads. We have Morgan Composting and their Moo-doo, but I don't believe the cattle were organic, so we're sure to have antibiotics, vermicides, etc.

 

[Scrappy4]

Scrap, as I mentioned elsewhere, I'm looking for a bunch of veg compost, or organic animal manure if you have any leads. We have Morgan Composting and their Moo-doo, but I don't believe the cattle were organic, so we're sure to have antibiotics, vermicides, etc.

One benefit of composting is it reduces not only organic materials but also chems. If composting took place that's a good indication there are no more antibiotics. I have never bought compost, other than castings' so I'm no expert, but I have heard those who used dairy doo were happy with it.

You might want to look into local manures too. Horse, rabbit, and chicken are good to use. Rabbit manure can even be used fresh.

There is a yuppie hobby horse ranch near our new digs' and I'm itching to get acquainted, lol. Hi folks, i'm really interested in your horse's shit, lol. How's that for a conversation starter? We may even raise some rabbits and chickens at some point. Cue the green acres theme song....yee haw.....scrappy

 

[rrog]

I use the dairy-doo currently. Have for a few years, actually. I thought compost could be actually tested for chemicals. They warn about using manure in Teaming With Microbes for the reason.

I would LOVE to hear otherwise. I'd LOVE to know that our little microbes dismantled these chemicals into harmless elements. That would be a much cooler story

 

[Gascanastan]

There are oyster mushrooms that consume oil...it's a start.

http://www.crazyaboutmushrooms.com/