Building A Better Soil: Demonstrations & Discussions Of Organic Soil Recipes

[SweetSue]

re: Building a Better Soil - Demonstrations & Discussions of Organic Soil Recipes

SweetSue's Plan For Success


Build A Better Soil


LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT
LIGHTSurround[COLOR=00640]Your Plant [/COLOR]With LightLIGHT
LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT


Use Good Water



GROW AWESOME PLANTS!​

 

[NuttyProfessor]

re: Building a Better Soil - Demonstrations & Discussions of Organic Soil Recipes

sounds good to me

at the minute i am fermenting some wacky ingredients . under an air tight seal . this will be fermented for about 5 weeks then ill feed it gently to my compost teas , the good bacteria will thrive when the bad dies off with the oxygen the good microbes will feast on the bad , my soil is going be sweet and full of goodness , i hope the plants taste more fruity lol

this is what i am fermenting this time , there is another couple of ingredients not in the picture seaweed extract , sugar beets , and ten scoops of C and G

,

 

[SweetSue]

re: Building a Better Soil - Demonstrations & Discussions of Organic Soil Recipes

Thank you for the post Professor. I find your take on organics to be fascinating, and there's no denying your success. It demonstrates how wide and varied our approaches can be.

 

[NuttyProfessor]

re: Building a Better Soil - Demonstrations & Discussions of Organic Soil Recipes

feed your soil like you would like to me fed , full of goodness

 

[SweetLeef]

That is very interesting stuff Professor. Would you mind pointing me in the direction of more detailed instructions, maybe some background information on adding it to compost teas? That's really cool stuff.

 

[SweetLeef]

Just last monday I mixed up a batch of CC's Soil as well. I mixed up a bit more than Sue did and recorded the amounts of each ingredient I used. This should save someone some time and energy trying to put the ratios in actual amounts.


Here is what I used to mix up 1 cubic yard of soil based on Clackamas Coot's Soil recipe.

9cu. ft. of Alaskan Peat moss
9cu. ft. of Oly Mtn Fish Compost
9+ cu ft. of Red Lava Rocks (had to by 1/2 yard. I used some around the yard, but I'm sure the mix got a little extra. Cant have too much aeration right?)

Peat moss is packed very tightly in it's bail. A 3.8cu.ft. bail of Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss will actually cover about 6cu.ft. so for a yard of soil you need a little less than 2 bails. I was very fortunate to stumble across this tip moments before going to the shop to get this stuff. I would have added WAY too much peat otherwise.

For aeration I chose to use lava rock. It's got nooks and crannies that will give the micro-beasties lots of room to dance and sing as they see fit. Lots of air pockets too! Also the rock will eventually breakdown and add cool minerals back into the soil. Minerals what came from a volcano. That's pretty sweet.

13.5 cups of Kelp Meal
13.5 cups of Crab Meal
13.5 cups of Neem Meal (*when it gets here)
62 cups of Glacial Rock Dust
16 cups of Basalt
16 cups of Oysters Shell Powder
16 cups of Bentonite.

Most of this stuff comes in #50 bags and it really cheap. In my area I was able to get several of these ingredients by the pound, which saved me some money and storage space. I used the entire 50# bag of rock dust. It was about 19# of basalt and 10#-12# of everything else

One cubic yard of Beautiful Living Organic Soil in the works.

Pics time!

The Accouterment

Sphagnum Peat Moss, Alaska Peat Less than 2 bails is a lot of peat

All the Meals, Minerals, Compost and Aeration added, time to stir it up! I wish I would have gotten a picture of just the compost It was beautiful dark earthy fishy smelling. Cool

A lot of mixing and turning. A little over an hour later and we had a nice soil mix. A after a smoke break I watered it and covered it with a tarp, just as the sun went down. No better way to spend 420

That's how you big batch some soil. The only ingredient I haven't added yet is the neem cake as that isn't available in my area I had to order that from the soil build a website mentioned earlier in this thread. It arrived today so I will add it in on Monday when I turn the soil.

I am really excited to see my soil in action! I have seen what COorganic and Sue have done with this soil. I also had the pleasure to see some no-till plants in action recently.

I have grown in TGA Supersoil since I started growing. I have always loved the idea of a soil that can take a plant from start to finsih. And Supersoil definitely does that. With decent results, too. But it seems to lack the vigor and ability for great results. It's also only good for one cycle. Well, that's not true I did successfully run a few plants a second time through the soil, but they were a little smaller than the first run and definitely suffered deficiencies. At $30 1.5cu.ft, it's not cheap route to take by any means. So when I found out about this soil I was more then ready to step up my game.

It is my sincere hope that Real True Actual Organics will catch on and we can all ditch the snake oils and the chillates and all smoke a better healthier product as a result. We are talking about medicine here. Or at least something we are going to ingest in large quantities for fun. I want that pure, grade A, uncut, good shit.

 

[SweetSue]

Makes my heart beat faster looking at that huge batch of LOS SweetLeef. You are in for such a treat!!!


Edit : See? Had to go back and look again!

 

[GrizzWald]

Why can't the TGA supersoil be amended after a run?

 

[SweetSue]

Fell asleep at the keyboard. Time for bed. Goodnight.

 

[GrizzWald]

Sweetsue, I have a question or statement, or something to be told off and put down about, whichever, lol. I hope I'm saying this or asking advise on the right thread.... Ive never studied or read much about gardening until the last couple of years. I've always done things my way and when I read different things, I feel I'm doing something wrong but without any adverse effects ... I read a lot of people saying when their compost bins smell like shite, it should be thrown away, it's not composting right... I have a tumble plastic bin that all my food scraps go into. It does get a little on the nose at different times. What I do to compensate this, fix it up if you will, is I put 4-5 spade full of rich soil into it, enough to blend and absorb the smell with a few tumbles.. This seems to also help breaking matter down quicker and allow me to move it to the bottom of my soil put quicker...what wrong with this process for composting?

 

[SweetLeef]

Why can't the TGA supersoil be amended after a run?

That's what I said.

I believe it can

I don't know enough about amending soil to trust myself to do it. When I tried to research amending that specific soil it I just found subcool saying not to re-use it (read buy more of my expensive product) So I figured I would just move to something with lots of information about exactly what is in the soil and why, and keeping it going, as opposed to trying to figuring something out to keep something around that's not that impressive anyway.

I mean the results from supersoil are decent. If you want to spend 30 bucks a bag and don't mind dealing with fungus gnats the entire grow, you will get some pretty decent bud. You will not have any deficiencies, Auto, Photo, Indica, or Sativa. I grow under LED and I have never added any cal/mag to my ladies. never needed it. The pros outweigh the cons of supersoil or not all week long.... Until you compare it to the results people are getting from living soil. So I figured I would step up my game. Yet another reason is this CC mix is superior, is for the cost of 1/3 of a cu.yd. of supersoil I was able to make and entire cubic yard of a superior media. I now have enough soil to last me a very, very long time. The savings over time are insane. Not to mention the benefits of a higher end quality product. Better medicine, more flavor, more fun to smoke. I couldn't say no to that. So I halted any further attempts at researching the amending of supersoil.

Instead I think I will work the used supersoil through by using it for my clones and seedlings. Solo and #1 pots of used supersoil into #3pot of CC mix and then into the final 7gal no till pots for flower is I think how I will run it.

Sue, what's your potting up cycle for your no till?

 

[NuttyProfessor]

That is very interesting stuff Professor. Would you mind pointing me in the direction of more detailed instructions, maybe some background information on adding it to compost teas? That's really cool stuff.

sorry just seen your post , i am not the best speller in the world and very slow at writing lol its would take me all day to try post up .
the video is pretty funny also , ive watched it a few times

this is where i got the info , there is also a link to their web page , it explains every thing , all about the good and the bad and how to feed the good with the bad , its pretty cool stuff
Re-Mineralizing Soils with Bio-Fertilizer - Eco-Pioneers.org

 

[SweetSue]

SweetLeef, when I started with no-till my intention was to plant the seed directly into the pot and just let it grow. My initial plan was to stick to autos. Things have changed. The plant in my LOS pot now will grow as is. When I can upgrade with another light I will plant the waiting pot in the style DrZiggy is using with tiers. At that point I will learn how to up pot, but I'll be using a new technique with nested pots. It should be an interesting learning experience. I'll be starting in party cups and up potting to azalea pots that will then be set into the larger pots. At this point I have no idea about the timing.

 

[SweetLeef]

Professor, that video is awesome!

I see you are using a 5 gallon bucket, if you find the time, could you type up the ingredients and amounts you use in the 5 gallon bucket.

Can I take some out and use it and keep the rest or should I use it all at once?



Thanks Sue,

I think I'm going to just pot up like I would with any other soil and see how it works out.

I'd like to work through my used super soil. Put clones or seedling in solos, move to #1 then to a #3 and then into the 7gallon no till pot.

I'll have to remove a big chunk of dirt to put the plant in there from the #3. If I do it right though, I'll be dropping mostly roots in there.

I want a good long veg as I want to grow great big monsters. Planning on about 4 months. 2-3 weeks in the solo a month in the #1 and a month in the #3. A couple weeks in the final pot and then flip. With decent training I should be able to knock out some honkers.

 

[SweetLeef]

Sweetsue, I have a question or statement, or something to be told off and put down about, whichever, lol. I hope I'm saying this or asking advise on the right thread.... Ive never studied or read much about gardening until the last couple of years. I've always done things my way and when I read different things, I feel I'm doing something wrong but without any adverse effects ... I read a lot of people saying when their compost bins smell like shite, it should be thrown away, it's not composting right... I have a tumble plastic bin that all my food scraps go into. It does get a little on the nose at different times. What I do to compensate this, fix it up if you will, is I put 4-5 spade full of rich soil into it, enough to blend and absorb the smell with a few tumbles.. This seems to also help breaking matter down quicker and allow me to move it to the bottom of my soil put quicker...what wrong with this process for composting?

I'm bumping this incase it got missed. I just found it right now, and I am curious as well.

 

[NuttyProfessor]

sweet leaf you can just add molasses and yeast to keep it going just to feed the bacteria , my plan is to rerack the fermented so ive just gota nice liquid , sieve it

ingredients i am using is trial and error , its all natural stuff so cant see it being too much , just stuff i pick up , i read the labels see whats in it an say yeahh that will do lol , ill add it to my compost teas which will be
nettles
comfrey
epsoms salts
molasses

i grew a plant once using baby milk formula and some pee

main cola weight

 

[NuttyProfessor]

quote :Quote Originally Posted by GrizzWald View Post
Sweetsue, I have a question or statement, or something to be told off and put down about, whichever, lol. I hope I'm saying this or asking advise on the right thread.... Ive never studied or read much about gardening until the last couple of years. I've always done things my way and when I read different things, I feel I'm doing something wrong but without any adverse effects ... I read a lot of people saying when their compost bins smell like shite, it should be thrown away, it's not composting right... I have a tumble plastic bin that all my food scraps go into. It does get a little on the nose at different times. What I do to compensate this, fix it up if you will, is I put 4-5 spade full of rich soil into it, enough to blend and absorb the smell with a few tumbles.. This seems to also help breaking matter down quicker and allow me to move it to the bottom of my soil put quicker...what wrong with this process for composting?








with compost there has to be a balance , you need to also add plenty of carbon

saw dust in small amounts as it can lead to low oxygen levels
dry leaves and twigs , hay
rolled up cardboard to give carbon and air pockets i like to use the inside of toilet rolls , dont use any cardboard or paper that has ink on it , plain is much safer

 

[SBG]

Lots of info I will be back to have a better look into this. Subed and trying to keep ahead.

 

[SweetLeef]

So I've been thinking about the pot up dilemma my mind is having regarding "NO-Till"

Trying to disturb the soil food web the least amount possible.

When a plant is finished and you remove it, you are probably only cutting out an area not much larger than a solo cup.....

Perhaps I should let the plant get nice a root bout in a solo cup and then go staring in the 7gal. I was reading the with smart pots the roots don't circle, so planting straight into them shouldn't be a problem.

Seems to me the fabric pots make the plant feel more like it's in the ground than in a pot.

Thoughts on that, anyone?

 

[SBG]

I've had two crops in homemade fabric pots and the plants seem very happy and at harvest time the roots fill the pot but not a single one is circling the bottom of the pot they seem to go to the fabric and just stop. The amount of small roots throughout the whole pot is quite amazing. I made a couple of big 11 gal pots to try outside this year. And it's near impossible to over water them although they do dry out quicker. Not sure how a living soil would do in the fabric so much oxygen at the edges.