Natural Living Soil and No-Till thread for Beginners

[vonforne]

Great post Darc! That was a good explanation of why it is important to create and implement good compost in your programs.

I am currently setting up some bins and I will get the pictures and some information up tonight on how easy it is to do. I have been setting up some 45 gallon smart pots in the basement. Having fresh EWC on hand has many benefits.

V

 

[StayBlazinDawg]

I heard Jamaican bat guano is good for growing if you are turning the cannabis into a salve, other then that I never found bat guano to be that great. I have Sea Bird 0-11-0 crap that I switched too jury is still deliberating. Does anyone use soil mites? I had two types going big white ones and smaller almost orange looking ones that came with the Super Humus, I know they are still there and I plan on keep recycling so they should stick around? The smaller orange ones would cover my whole body standing in my compost bin getting pots ready earlier this year for this years outdoor friggin nutz first recycle run looking good!

 

[SpicySativa]

My soil also has mites, and I welcome them. I've got slow-moving decomposes, and fast-moving predator mites. Other creatures in my soil include springtails, red wigglers accidentally transferred from the worm bin (they actually seem happy/healthy in the pots), and also a few pot worms (enchytraeids, decomposers carried over from the worm bin).

 

[StayBlazinDawg]

@SpicySativa from the other post you asked if I had worms haha. I have had red worms need to probably buy more had to much going on and my bins had other bugs in with the worms, so I didn't introduce into the grow rooms was fighting two spotted mites at the time. They are for sale from a local guy a Jackson will buy a pound. I'm looking for an alternative to worm castings/manure compost so I can start experiment with a Vegan grow in the future. I see in here that Tansy and Wormwood are used in soils awesome I had no idea! I love eating that stuff and drinking tea going to make a tincture soon, but need to be careful when you start concentrating that thujone. I also have Enchytraeus Buchholzi "Grindal" worms love watching that soil move!

 

[BillMollison]

Wow I have been looking for a place like this! I was searching and all the other sites on organic growing refered to this place. This must be where they get all their information. Cool looks like I landed in the right spot.

BM

 

[vonforne]

I heard Jamaican bat guano is good for growing if you are turning the cannabis into a salve, other then that I never found bat guano to be that great. I have Sea Bird 0-11-0 crap that I switched too jury is still deliberating. Does anyone use soil mites? I had two types going big white ones and smaller almost orange looking ones that came with the Super Humus, I know they are still there and I plan on keep recycling so they should stick around? The smaller orange ones would cover my whole body standing in my compost bin getting pots ready earlier this year for this years outdoor friggin nutzhttps://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=48073&pictureid=1125523View Image https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=48073&pictureid=1125522View Image first recycle run looking good!

I have gotten away from the guanos......much better things to use and easier to source.....not to mention the price is much easier on the pocket also. And I don´t know if it is just me or does the guano make the buds taste like shit? Seriously.

 

[vonforne]

Here is a good introductory read to using weeds. Jaykush turned me on too this years ago. It is an e-book so just hit the link and read away.

http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/weeds/WeedsToC.html

 

[vonforne]

Couple of links for everyone to check out

Vermicomposting NC State

Worm Farming Alliance

 

[vonforne]

And here is a link that is a must read from one of own here......Microbemans site

Microbeorganics

 

[BillMollison]

Great links!!!!!!! I knew this was the right place to come. I have been reading Intro to Permaculture by Bill Mollison. I have seen the Microbeorganic site before. Should keep me busy reading with all this now just have to order those books.

BM

 

[BillMollison]

I have an ecoplus 1 that I picked up at a yard sale a while back.....I take it this one is sufficient for a 5 gallon brewer. I don´t have any castings yet would the bottom of my pile in the yard be good enough to use?

BM

 

[StayBlazinDawg]

I have use some Guanos in flower and not flush very much and had the smoke be pretty harsh. Speaking of feces here is a pic my Shit plant getting ready for blast off.

 

[vonforne]

Looking good SBD! Have you grown out the Shit before?

V

 

[Carlos Danger]

I can't see why guano specifically would do that. Perhaps it's the increase in available phosphorus? I'm thinking on the correlation between phosphorus spray and cancer in tobacco - perhaps the excess P is taken up by the plant and leaves a harsher smoke?

I've discovered I'm allergic to the bat guano in the same way I'm allergic to mealworm frass. Not surprised.

The past couple days has been sifting and separating worm castings. Worms, perlite, aeration removed I think I'm sitting on about 150 gallons of EWC. I feel like a king.

 

[John Deere]

I have use some Guanos in flower and not flush very much and had the smoke be pretty harsh.

...and not flush very much...???

 

[soursmoker]

The past couple days has been sifting and separating worm castings. Worms, perlite, aeration removed I think I'm sitting on about 150 gallons of EWC. I feel like a king.

That is awesome! Great for you! Wish I had 150 gallons of home made EWC!

How long did it take and how big was the operation? How many bins/worms?

 

[StayBlazinDawg]

Shit is getting flushed don't like growing it or smoking it for the most part. It is a bitch inside bugs love it, vegs slow witch sort of cancels out of the fast flowering time. Plus you need to defoliate the crap out of it to get light on it inside. Smoke wise like most short flowerers not much punch, decent daytime stuff I guess. Patients all like it and want more, but some people like diet soda over the real stuff lite beer over reg etc. Got a bunch of seeds from it or they might be a Blueberry cross of the Shit from bud from my flowering room?

I compost tea everything and like to just give straight H20 at the end, some bud finished earlier and I chopped with feeding them only a few days before. I should have boiled the bitch which I haven't done in a while cause of moral issues. How long do people flush with organics?

150 gallons I feel you man I did about 250 maybe more of picking out hydraton balls out of my soil.

Work sucks today time to have a canna cherry tootsie pop with canna Carmel middle and go with beam my up Scottie

 

[SpicySativa]

I do not "flush", but at the same time don't actively feed my plant toward the end of it's life cycle. I dont generally feed any liquid (bottled) food to my plants, so it's as simple as not doing any top dressing during the last few weeks.

 

[VerdantGreen]

i think the stronger ferts like guanos are probably more useful to growers who have limited soil volume. and are trying to get big plants out of smaller pots. its quite hard to get the re-amending right too ive found with guano.
using too much compost (within reason) is ok.
using too much guano, not ok. with mine its the N that you need to watch.

VG

 

[Carlos Danger]

Sour, I set these up around March or April I guess. Two 100 gal smart pots. The material bleeds water well so things don't get waterlogged, but 100gal was too deep without serious aeration. I filled them mostly with finished compost but have been feeding the bins regularly with house waste, greensand, gypsum, neem meal, oyster shell grit and kelp. The quality is higher than I expected at this point and I'm quite pleased. I'm running a combo of red wigglers and European nightcrawlers,which seem to burrow deeper than the reds.