Soil, water, and tea questions

[slownickel]

Thanks.

Yes, my traditional mixes used a (roughly) 1-3-2 ratio for NP&K sources. The mix before this one was one for which I adopted a more classic/simplistic approach that called for a 1-2-1 ratio. And the latest one was a modified version of Dank Frank's water-only mix, that seemed to bring the ratio of P down some, while raising the N a bit, to more equal with K. More of a 1-1.5-1 mix.

The stressed (but initially impressive) mix that I trashed the notes from after too many male stress flowers (two brief harvests ago; the one that consisted of 5 mothers I didn't want to waste), and in which I believe the amount of langbeinite was a primary suspect, performed really well early on into bloom, and pretty much all of the later portion of veg; big happy leaves, awesome stem structure, etc.

But again, I believe the amount of langbeinite (and maybe the interaction with limited amounts of pot ash and Kelp, and related micr-nutes), turned something that appeared to be 'THE TICKET,' into an 'uh-oh'.... in a disappointing manner.

I did note a very limited twisting sideways of one of the larger leaves near the top (but not right at the top) of the suspect Goji OG plant.

Realize that there is 18% Mg or so in langbeinite. I used to be Mr. Magnesium, I was deathly wrong. I would see a good response and then things would dud out. And I am talking about thousands of acres, not a hundred plants. I had to go back and relearn what I was taught at my University, which they told me were the old school methods and are no longer used, yet still reported on every soil analysis (base distributions)!

I would say stick with that 1-2-1 or 1.2-2-1 if organic and watch it to the end. Put the magnesium away and make sure you have a good inventory of P and Ca in your soil to begin with, which obviously requires a soil analysis to figure out. For $50 or so, hard to go wrong getting a real road map.

So many growers want to go back to some magic spot they hit years ago. Yet, if done right, you can hit new heights of genetic expression if you do things with just a bit more science.

 

[moose eater]

Realize that there is 18% Mg or so in langbeinite. I used to be Mr. Magnesium, I was deathly wrong. I would see a good response and then things would dud out. And I am talking about thousands of acres, not a hundred plants. I had to go back and relearn what I was taught at my University, which they told me were the old school methods and are no longer used, yet still reported on every soil analysis (base distributions)!

I would say stick with that 1-2-1 or 1.2-2-1 if organic and watch it to the end. Put the magnesium away and make sure you have a good inventory of P and Ca in your soil to begin with, which obviously requires a soil analysis to figure out. For $50 or so, hard to go wrong getting a real road map.

So many growers want to go back to some magic spot they hit years ago. Yet, if done right, you can hit new heights of genetic expression if you do things with just a bit more science.

Thanks.

I have a home-style soil analysis kit from LaMotte's that's still relatively fresh, with no obvious expired components. Though I doubt this will give me the specificity of a real/quality lab analysis.

I've had years that I used what should have been -at least- sufficient K, where an older home-test barely showed just a bump.

I'll start there, and maybe call the local Cooperative Extension Service re. respected testing lab resources.

Like I've written before, there's likely a fair bit of variance in quality and content of commercially available organic amendments, not only from company to company, but from batch to batch. Just like there'll be some variance in content when 'mining' top soil in a given area.

Meanwhile, I'm going to soak some zinc hardware in water with some Pro-Tekt @ 3 ml per gal. of H2O, and see what they think of that, knowing that the affect will take a bit to get properly digested, & up and running.

All of the (currently 6) mothers have a ever-so-slightly darker overall green than ideal at the moment (most notably in the SLH, though she's always been a fairly light eater where N is concerned), and the couple of them that have a very mild but discernible fading to the green at the periphery of the leaves. That difference has, as stated earlier, diminished a bit for now.

I can tell when they're happiest in veg by the size of leaves, leaf turgor, 'position', and color, stem structure/stoutness (strong but pliable), and color of stems and petioles.

Thanks again.

 

[h.h.]

The boost in magnesium will effect your chlorophyll.
Nitrogen will effect growth.
Potassium stays in solution and helps to move sugars along which contribute to the cell walls.
Nitrogen and potassium need to be somewhat in balance or you get excessive growth with weak cells.

IMO. A soil test does the average Joe no good. Unless there's a glaring deficiency, even the experts disagree on the fine details. It is simply a snapshot in time. A place to return to and compare.
Sometimes these discussions get more academic than necessary. Sometimes we just need to dial back and use a little Epsoma.
Shotgun, I know.
Nature's been doing it that way for a long time.

My soil's coming along.

I like the rice hulls. I don't envision quantities over the internet. My supply will last my lifetime. I'll probably use them mixed in with SPM for worm bedding.
Reading tells me that replacing 1/3 of your perlite with hulls is optimal. Going by texture, that's about what I ended up with except I used rock and char and no perlite. There was a good bit of vermiculite in my old soil.

I like the marine char. The shape, the sizes, the smell. Worth the extra $$$. Can't say. Good zen anyway. I'd probably use it again though I'm not sure why. Read some good stuff. Using a 50/50 mix with biochar.

I decided to go with 12 gallon pots. The larger the pot, the more forgiving. Still light enough to move.
Soft pots.
A place out of Denver called Respect the Plant, sells on Etsy. Again a couple of $'s more. Better construction, better material, double layered, supporting small business, and designer colors.

Heavy felt on the inside and on the bottom. I think over time, they'll put Smart Pots to shame.

"Atonement"

Come on, Come on, Come on
Kill the rats in the gutter
Sings the voice in the choir
Bring your Father and your Mother
Sing it higher and higher
Shake the clammy hand
Repeat the 23rd psalm
Make you understand
Where it was you went wrong

Voices from tapes
Shouting with twisted tongues
Emotional rape
Hell fire scorched lungs

Come on, Come on, Come on
Pay close attention to this
Let me give you something good to eat
Bite down hard 'til it sticks between your teeth
Glory, glory we've killed the beast
Blinded by glittery diamonds
Resting on crooked fingers
Shaded eyes they are the ones
Who'll lead you to your deliverance

From the figure of doom
Force you to understand
Lock you in a room
With a holy roller and a one man band

Lucinda Williams

There's a Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
The flag on his wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing and both hands free
No one?s paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget?s just stretched so thin
And now there's more coming back from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore
And that big ol? building was the textile mill
That fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
'Cause we can't make it here anymore
You see those pallets piled up on the loading dock
They're just gonna sit there ?til they rot
?Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts around the square
There's a needle in the gutter and glass everywhere
You don't come down here unless you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore
The bar?s still open but man it?s slow
The tip jar?s light and the register?s low
The bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day
Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof, won't pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. C.E.O.
See how far 5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one your stores
I bet you can't make it here anymore
And there's a high school girl with a bourgeois dream
Just like the pictures in the magazine
She found on the floor of the laundromat
A woman with kids can forget all that
If she comes up pregnant what'll she do
Forget the career and forget about school
Can she live on faith? Live on hope?
High on Jesus or hooked on dope
When it?s way too late to just say no
You can't make it here anymore
Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
?Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore
Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate ?em for having our jobs today
No I hate the men sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their shit don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in their damn little war
And we can't make it here anymore
Will I work for food, will I die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
So let ?em eat jellybeans let ?em eat cake
Let ?em eat shit, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore
So that's how it is, that's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper, read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind if you're listening at all
Get out of that limo, look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone tell us all why
In Dayton Ohio or Portland Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That's done closed down along with the school
And the hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley and trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

James McMurtry

 

[moose eater]

Thanks h.h.

I've toyed with a proper soil analysis over time, often curious to test at the very point of fresh mixing of the various soils, to see (if nothing else) what the real properties of the amendments were; *see my reference to previous home-tests, and questionable readings. Either the kit was wrong, or the amendments were promising things that simply weren't so. Either one is possible.

LaMotte's has a decent name, as far as I can tell. I've used their older, simple ph test kit (the reagent 2221) for 20+ years now, with fairly decent accuracy.

I'm also contemplating going back to a soil ph of 6.7-6.8 or so as well. The newer 6.0 to 6.4 may or may not be a part of the new adjustments for me.

In that I'm running a much more varied sourcing of ca now, and no longer using dolomite in the concentrations that I previously did, a run-off test is in order now. Today.. Find a wiling and ready victim to hold in the air, and get enough drainage for a test.

I'm contemplating top-dressing a bit of gypsum as well.

On the more affected couple of moms I currently have very minor amounts of curling under at the lateral edges of leaves (-not- at the tips), some -limited- darker grey-brown mottling at the inter-veinal edges with necrotic spots specifically on the nearly-ancient California Indica that -look- like they could be phosphorous, among other things..

I'd added ~1/64 tsp of sodium borate to each gal. of H2O when I first hydrated this mix, but the lighter green at the couple of mom's growing tips and the slight curling of a leaf or two near the top on otherwise mostly-healthy-looking leaves, reminds me that symptoms of boron excesses can look much like boron deficiencies, and that adequate organics often provide plenty of boron.

Maybe I asked Santa for too much for Christmas?

When I added the amendments for the current (modified) version of Dank Frank's water-only mix, I questioned the amount of amendments in consideration of the overall volume of soil. The ratios seemed higher than I would normally use. But I was also aware of the intention of having the load carry the thing through with minimal further added amendments.

I've probably never had to transplant mothers from something the size of Classic 2000s; they become gangly and nearly untenable at some point, but it seems I'm headed into salvaging the mothers' levels of health by inverting, de-potting, breaking off as much soil as I can without completely obliterating the root structures, doing an Agnostic Chant to an often unseen and mostly unheard Deity, and mixing up something closer to what I know...

Still need to get new, clean, zinc-coated hardware to rust in H2O with the Pro-Tekt..

How do you think the newer cloth/felt pots will endure intermittent bleaching? My wife routinely cautions me re. my incessant use of smaller amounts of chlorine bleach in laundry and nearly everything else I cleanse with any seriousness..

In my case, I'd be hesitant to add the Borax I often use to the cleaning solution for pots, for fear of residual retention of excess boron in the fabric. The stuff often dries into a granular residue, even after a bit of rinsing.

I'm going to give my amendments the Rodney King lecture this morning; "Can't we ALL just -get along-??!!"

I think the mix with increased langbeinite, but with everything else measured out meticulously via ratios, that initially went ape-shit, with everything looking good until stress flowers appeared in bloom, is something to dial back to, but with a noted reduction in langbeinite. In that I shredded that list of notes, I'll fire up the trusty calculator this A.M.

It's also possible that with all of the additions that purportedly aid in digestion of nutes, the same levels of nutes as before, are now too much. Another thought that occurred in the night.

Seems Mr. McMurtry and Ms. Williams share at least a part of my assessment of the Country's status at the moment. Rome; bread and circuses. Distractions from the fires and diseases by way of short-term wiping of the memory if you got tickets to the Super Bowl on the 50. Treat the symptoms with the latest Rx drug with a fresh patent, offering a 100,000% mark-up, as though the deserved malaise isn't supposed to be there, and can be wiped away for a profit, never mind that the drugs in question were developed on U.S.-tax-payer-funded grants for the research that led to the latest poison to litter a PDR with 4 pages of outrageous side-effects.

Seems fitting, Kate McKinnon's portrayal of Jeff Sessions as a descendant of a possum on SNL.

Still waiting for my t-shirt, and to touch Steven Tyler's and Jesus' robes, in hopes the fortune (or misfortune) rubs off, and I too can be either a millionaire or a Supreme Deity. If only....

At this point in time, after many sincere efforts, there are times I say, with some amount of deserved bitterness, "Let the motherfucker burn. Let the distracted and self-involved collect their due for lack of proper care, guidance, and parenting of their Country."

Every neglectful parent should justly suffer the humiliation of the outcomes they've earned in their self-absorption and lack of effort or energy expended...

And many times, some times, I mean just that...

 

[MedResearcher]

Kelp is so broad spectrum and gentle.

Have a friend who has ran a nursery and been an organic farmer for some 40-50 years. Anytime I have asked her about some sign of a deficiency, she sort of shrugs and says, "ya it could be this, or it could be that, you could TRY to fix it with this, or TRY to fix it with that... but personally I just use more kelp."

I can see if your using a lot of strong synthetics, and micro sulfates. You might get something so far out of wack that a little kelp wont do anything. If your in the ballpark though, a little kelp or extra kelp will really green stuff up. I try to foliar kelp about twice a week. Kelp and hydroslate fish, 2 ounces of each per gallon. Make the garden smell like the ocean as well. Main drawback I get, is it can tend to attract bears.

Mr^^

 

[moose eater]

I previously used a couple varieties of kelp extract in liquid form for nearly every watering when I was doing earlier efforts at organics with guano teas. At the same time, a controlled and carefully measured amount of kelp meal was added to the soil mixes back then, and now..

The down-side of kelp, aside from the general trend downward over time where K content is concerned, and the apparent increase in salinity over that time period, is the concentration of micro-nutes in it, and that at some threshold, they can cause a forcing of male stress flowers and/or hermaphrodism in lesser stable plants.

I've used it for what seems like forever. It would be one of the better reasons to live on the cloud-covered coast, frankly. But it's one of those things I tend to use with a fair amount of attention to detail.

 

[h.h.]

The outside of the pots is a plastic weave.

I don't know how the felt would hold up to bleach. Maybe use H2O2.
I 'd maybe just rinse them out with a spot of soap, if anything.

 

[moose eater]

Do you suspect the weave and felt of the reusable pots allow for direct air exchange for the roots? Or is the fabric impermeable to the point of not permitting for that?

It occurred to me that might be one benefit, over the classic fossil-fuel based plastics I have a small warehouse worth of..

Borax with bleach has been my go-to combination for all things cleansed for possible contamination in the shop, though I've used 99% lab grade alcohol for cleaning trimming and chopping sheers, as well as cleaning the hash tumbler, and other odd jobs..

I believe H2O2 works on some fungus and anaerobic bacteria, but wasn't sure of how wide a variety of nasties it treats overall.

I guess if I wanted to sterilize without the chemical concerns re. fabric or unintended residual retention of Borax, I could use piping hot water in the utility sink, too. Heat seems to be effective with many things.

Visited the moms a bit tonight after everyone else went to bed, and applied the equivalent of <5 ml Pro-Tekt/gallon, with the equivalent of 2 cups of H2O2 to the same gallon, and gave a bit over a qt. of the fluids each, to the two most valued, uncooperative or afflicted (depending on perspective) plants.

I admit I'm befuddled.

All 6 moms are in (more or less) identical soil, with both batches of soil being churned -quite- sufficiently. Same amount of hydration and content when first wetted.. All have been watered using the same (admittedly subjective) assessment methods. All have been fed the same stuff (nearly nothing to speak of).

This time around they don't look as bothered as they did, but the Goji OG #8 is clearly less happy than the Goji OG #2 (my numeric designations for two solid moms from the same batch of beans).

SLH is moderating away from her darker green, and more or less looks about as happy as she can be. WB is gaining her feet after being deprived light on death row for a week or so; she has no complaints. Looks real good, in fact. Goji OG #2 is doing pretty nicely, and while not setting any land speed records for growth at the moment, she looks good..

California Indica has the slightly mottled look at the edges of leaves, mostly in between veins (mostly limited to the top third of the plant), that looks like a limited P deficiency, and the slight fading of green around the edge of the leaves, like Goji OG #8 and GTH#1...

This is clearly one of those riddles wherein I'm supposed to learn something.

I scarfed a decent medium-size bud of WB, and think I'll contemplate this a bit more.

Maybe I hit those three accidentally with two doses at different times with the mag and the Thrive Alive, which would have potentially caused a blip of slightly more K, micro-nutes, etc.??

I may need to keep better notes I.D.-ing who got what, on what night? State-specific memory for folks who imbibe.. Not always a helpful thing..

 

[moose eater]

BTW, I ph'ed the run-off from the Goji OG #8 and GTH#1; Goji ran at ~6.5 & GTH#1 was at about <6.4. Maybe due to the different levels of alkaloids in each having an affect on soil conditions? Or different exchanges between the plant and soil in nute intake?

Another mystery.. At least for me....

I'd been sorta' hoping for an 'Ah hah!!" moment, that would more simply explain the previously logged disparities. But nope!! It was not to be.

 

[h.h.]

I was wondering if the soil had been cooked long enough. Too much activity in the root zone. Sounds like you have that aspect covered though. I've mistakenly buried manure in the past thinking I was doing right. With all the amendments if DF's soil...I don't know.

On salmonella, h2o2, and hot water.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15035354

e-coli
http://www.aseptix.com/flashblocks/data/PDF/Ecoli.pdf

mold
http://h2o2uses.com/mold-and-mildew-remediation

I use betadine as well as h2o2 for the kitchen. I don't sanitize my grow equipment. I wouldn't sanitize my garden. A closed in long term grow room may be different.
I know I've done the research in the past concerning the different pathagens. It's a matter of avoiding acidic and/or anaerobic conditions. Don't spit where you work.
With that, I'm not the one who has to tell your wife that it's all good. It may be easier to pull out the bleach. I'm not one to give marital advice.

Ninety-nine percent laboratory grade. With all your potatoes? Sound like a job for Bokabob. Beer keg for a boiler and 6' of 3" copper pipe filled with lave rock, with a cooling coil in the top.

 

[moose eater]

Thanks.

I figure the differences between outdoor and indoor gardening include greater drainage outside, a larger area of substrate or medium, more intense sunlight, greater air movement/volume, etc.

There's a lot greater chance of dissipation of threats in the 'wild.' or outdoors. Inside, with diminished air exchanges (in comparison to outside), less soil for drainage, etc. there's a greater threat of what might be 'little or nothing' outdoors, becoming 'something' indoors.

That all said, I treat outdoor tools differently than indoor tools. The point tip spades for outdoor use live under the rule of "don't use that to pick up dog turds, then dig our spuds with it. Use your head!" (*typically directed at my younger son). Little else.

The spuds are typically laid out on newspaper or brown paper grocery bags for a day or two after harvest, to allow the skins to dry before tossing them in burlap or plastic weave storage bags or wooden bins. As well as to give time for any unseen rot to reveal itself before going into storage; the rot they can hold can spread like cancer to good spuds, if not caught before hand..

Indoors, that same point tip spade that gets used to shuffle dirt in a kiddie pool for indoor efforts, gets dipped in a utility sink with a bleach solution at a minimum.

Betadine is handy and thorough, but MAN, that's some spendy stuff, even if using it properly diluted. I reserve that stuff for soaking infected parts of limbs & digits that won't quit interfering in life. Or when I ask my wife to be my surgeon (last year, most recently), and do some 'minor' form of surgery that I refuse to pay a Doc for. (*Note the darker stippled blood splatter on the ceiling in my 13' 6" vaulted ceiling in my bedroom; last year's experience with "Honey, can you remove this cyst from my lower back for me, please??"

We still laugh over that!! Seems there was a bit of pressure therein. Also the mark of a solid relationship when you can walk away from your partner having a razor knife in your back, while laying face down. Makes you at least briefly consider the terse words said over the years..

Yeah, with the concentration of amendments in DF's mix, and mildly modified by myself, used without 'baking,' it's occurred to me that the soil is waking up as it goes, and as stated last night, there's more stuff in there to make the amendments easier to digest. Possibly a good reason to justify cutting back a little bit, as a logical conclusion.

The differences in plants though, in same soil, that is what I find to be the greater riddle. Especially with 2 of them being the same strain from the same batch of seeds, in the same soil and regimen, but with some different expressions.

The whole world abounds with mysteries I'll likely die still saying, "Huh." about..

With the old stereotypical burying of a fish under plants, we know (and can calculate to some degree) the relative amount of nutes to be rendered from that (fish/fish waste/vertebrae with scraps), more or less, and the order of 'escape' that will be apt to occur, with the nitrogen and ammonia being first in line; almost as though the fish knows the different phases of needs of the plant, or at least nature knows.. But this isn't simply a dead fish.

I use the 99% lab grade alcohol mostly on scissors, table surfaces when undergoing specific aspects of mushroom cultivation (years' past) along with bleach, etc., and on some specific equipment.

Otherwise it's mostly bleach with Borax in sinks, sprayers (Borax is a pain in the ass in sprayers), buckets, etc., and sometimes Lysol for over-head and surface work of specific sorts.

Jars & such, I put into the larger 22-qt. pressure canner as a rule.. 15 psi and the heat to get there, kills all kinds of stuff. I'll do some more reading at the links you posted.

Thanks again.

 

[h.h.]

A fish buried under corn.
Actually alongside corn.
The natives showed the pilgrims who in turn thought they could one up the locals and dig it all in the same hole.
This adapted practice required more and more land as well as a lot of fish while more and more crops failed. Only those who kept with the native practice flourished while those who failed became politicians.


8, 18, 11, 15, 5, 4, 14, 9, 19, 1, 7, 17, 6, 16, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?
(2, 3, 10, 12, 13)

 

[moose eater]

I understand your meaning in the 1st paragraph. You lost me in the second. Obviously either a pattern, or statement of lack of pattern.

It did occur to me in re. to using this as a no-bake mix, that if amendments become active at different rates (and they do) a more complex mix might create a temporary (or greater) lock-out by virtue of amount of amendment becoming active before another, or group of others. Without the added issues of using microbial and other amendments that expedite or facilitate the plant's use of nutes.

If temporary, then seeing what I -think- I'm observing would make sense; a passing disability and passing symptoms. In which case, NOT reacting with any 'fixes,' and simply continuing to water with citric acid to bring the H2O's ph into proper range, and alternating smaller amounts of silica/Pro-Tekt, with the occasional fulvic and humic acids in scant supply, -should- continue to show signs of relief.

That -seems- to be what's is happening... Again, a bit more time will indicate whether this is a righteous assessment or not.

And in the midst of procrastination, with 100 things to do yet, that's probably a good thing. Sometimes I'm good at waiting. Other times, not so much.

Old Lowell George tune ('20 Million Things to Do').. "If it's fix a fence, fender dents, I've got lots of experience.... And I've got 20-million things to do, but all I seem to do is think of you, with 20-million things, to do...."

Lowell was cool. Took the sunburst path.

 

[moose eater]

BTW, It occurred to me that oysters are very high in zinc. I wouldn't want to buy fresh oysters in the shell to make any amendments with, but the fresh, untreated oysters in the jar, when at reduced price to avoid them passing the sell-by date, those might be viable for a zinc source.

Not that I'd ever publicly admit to feeding fresh oysters to the plants.. But N and zinc would definitely be on the menu therein..

And the fungus gnats would probably appreciate the effort, regardless of the effectiveness to the greenery.

 

[h.h.]

8, 18, 11, 15, 5, 4, 14, 9, 19, 1, 7, 17, 6, 16, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?
(2, 3, 10, 12, 13)
__________________

A statement of lack of pattern? A comment on religion? Artificial intelligence?
I failed. I became lost in finding the pattern when in the end, it was in alphabetical order.
Life is simple. We complicate it in our minds.

 

[h.h.]

Pea straw;
http://www.podgardening.co.nz/pea-straw.html

Bean straw;
https://www.feedipedia.org/node/12006

 

[moose eater]

A statement of lack of pattern? A comment on religion? Artificial intelligence?
I failed. I became lost in finding the pattern when in the end, it was in alphabetical order.
Life is simple. We complicate it in our minds.

I'd considered an alpha-numeric code, but never thought about an alphabetical order of the numbers as they're spelled. That was funny!!

A lesson in looking too hard for the obvious? Maybe. Even if not, it can stand as one. There's many such lessons. Most of them inspire some sense of humility, usually constructive.

 

[moose eater]

On the first link, I get a McAffee-sponsored security certificate warning. Which is a bit odd, unless sponsored by the site itself (unlikely) as I haven't used McAffee since they charged me good money to permit my box to get infected

(I've found and run much more effective and stout security since then, though pre-9/11 McAffee had some neat tracking toys they don't market any more, that once upon a time made it much easier to see who, exactly, was knocking on my firewall, resulting in some entertaining phone calls, asking folks in suits if they desired to know something, and telling them my door-bell worked just fine; not that it would incite any coffee cake exchanges on a Sunday morning.). ;^>)

I'll try the 2nd one now.

 

[moose eater]

The second link is QUITE cool!!


Our bean stalks, if correct variety, are a virtual potassium gold mine!! And not bad in ca, either.

Thus, I suspect the worms-to-be, though having to wait until September or so, will be quite happy and helpful with bean stalks... May have to name at least one of the wriggling little buggers 'Jack.'

 

[moose eater]

As far as processing 'fresh' (but dead) oysters from the jar to add to the medium, the only comparison that comes to mind for me is from when I would frequent salmon and fish canneries on the coast, take home a heavy drum liner minimally filled with fresh slime-line waste (guts/entrails, etc.) and till them into the garden where we'd lived on the coast, adding a bit of horticultural lime, primarily as a nitrogen and ca. source.

I can see the old SNL from the 70s or early 80s (?) with the Bass-O-Matic... but with oysters instead, and no SNL cast members.

Admittedly, I haven't done any further research on sources of zinc. I know the oysters are high in it, as stated. The ones in the jars, if left too close to the sell-by date, even taste metallic.

Too many unanswered questions in life, takes away the energy before it even gets leveled off.