Can I use rotting wood for humus

[canagen]

I was riding around the neighborhood and spied on a living tree with its' base hollowed out by rot. I scooped out about 5 gallons worth with plans to use it for a soil mix.

The texture seems nice and crumbly when dried. The larger pieces were broken off the innards of the still living tree and feel really nice and spongy. I know there will be bugs in this so before I mix up my soil, I was wondering what is the best way to prep it for later use.
Can I grind up some neem meal and mix it in then moisten with neem tea? I also have Pyrethrin on hand which I can mix up with Diatomaceous Earth which I can use to blanket the surface area.
As much as possible I am trying to stay away from commercial products which I know will kill them.

Many thanks for any insight.

 

[Bay707]

ive read somwhere that you can put it in the oven to " sanatize it".

 

[Stunger]

I would be interested in what those with experience say on this. I have a similar amount of crumbly old rotten wood.

 

[Tony Urban]

I can speak to this a bit.

I can’t speak to exactly what you have there, but I put some brown cubical rot into my soil mix to add some material.

it may have altered the soil mix ph. It may have introduced something funky. I can’t say for sure. I don’t think it harmed anything.

To me there was value in the texture, the potential for soil microorganisms to live in or on the pieces. Over time I would break up any decent sized chunks.


View media item 1628581
View media item 1628582
View media item 1628645

course woody debris

• Tony Urban
• Dec 13, 2018

A random piece of rotten wood. It is easily broken down

Medium course ground

• Tony Urban
• Dec 13, 2018

Wood rot

Fine ground wood rot

• Tony Urban
• Dec 13, 2018

 

[Tony Urban]

I wanted the bugs and organisms. But if you want to kill them, bake them in the oven as mentioned.

 

[canagen]

Thanks for responding all. I figured someone out in the vast internet would have had the same idea. And @Bay707 and @Tony Urban are right as further research has found.

@Stunger , apparently the trick is to bake them to 160F for 1 hour or 180F for half hour but temps cannot exceed 190F or it will kill everything. Which is what I don't want to do. I want to retain some of the good bugs and fungus in it.

Another project in the works I guess. I think what I am going to do is let the big chunks dry up a bit then crumble them pea sized. Then try to sanitize in the oven. Fun stuff!

Cheers.

 

[bobrown14]

No need to bake. As long as the wood is mostly broken down you can use it. The challenge with wood chips that are not broken down is the micro-organisms that break down wood need Nitrogen for energy to do the hard work.

The use of Nitrogen to break down the wood (takes several years) is called Nitrogen Fixation.

Its a fine line from wood chips to humus. But yes if the wood is already composted or mostly composted (say 4 to 5 years) go for it. No need to cook it. We use it all the time. Have a huge pile of wood bits and saw dust from wood chopping. Pile it up like a compost heap. We usually sift it thru a screen to take out the larger bits and put those larger bits back on the pile. They will be ready in a year or so.

 

[TurboBucket]

As @bobrown14 mentioned my concern would be with the wood locking up too much N. Pretty much any hardwood takes more N to break down than it releases and it's all unavailable to the plants during that period. Breaking down wood in your soil is kind of a loss nutrition wise.

 

[bobrown14]

This ^^^ Sift out the chunks use the screened goodness.

 

[canagen]

Since I had to re-amend the soil I used for the first grow, I figured that adding these instead of more peat would give me enough organic material to work with.

I have since added neem, karanja, gypsum and malted barley along with the rotted (and ground up) wood. I was able to crush the bigger chunks into a nice powdery form with just my fingers and I left some bigger chunks for added aeration. These I could easily sift off now that you mention that the process will be counter-productive. I also scooped up most of the loose "dirt" along with leaves that were already mixed in from that hollowed tree trunk.

Maybe I am getting beyond my ken on this but will this affect the CEC or my understanding of it?

Thanks for all your responses. At least now I know that my worms are alive and kicking. Would that be an indicator of soil health ?

Cheers.

 

[bobrown14]

CEC is coming from the rock dusts. So you're good there. If you're able to break up the wood chunks with your hands that'd be the same as screening it thru a screen and how we do it. Was just doing that yesterday in our outdoor garden and using that humus for a top dress instead of peat moss and compost mix. So yah will work great.

I don't usually amend with peat moss. Its acidic so maybe add in some 1x a year or so. As the soil ages the pH will rise slowly as the SOM (soil organic matter) breaks down. Adding in a little peat moss every so often helps there. Dont need to to it every round.

I use Kelp and EWC and of course malted barley as amendments to the hole at every up pot along with mycos. Sometimes I sub in vermi-compost for the ewc if I have it in hand. They are pretty close to the same thing.

 

[canagen]

Thanks for your input @bobrown14. I'll have to keep your info in mind.

In the meantime, I figured out why my GDP damped off. I am using hard pots with not enough drainage which I fixed by simply drilling holes at the bottom. I plan on laying pieces of landscaper's cloth at the bottom to prevent soil leakage as well as keep out those fungus gnats. I have noticed that since I top dressed with neem meal and watered with neem tea, there has been a significant decrease of these pests after only a few days of application. Good stuff inspite of the smell.

One last question, if I may. I have also acquired crab meal and feather meal (among other amendments) I had planned for version 3 of my soil mix but was wondering if my current mix would benefit from a top dress. The first cycle went through quite well, suffering only from my watering practice. The plants never showed any deficiencies. If anything, I may have had slight N toxicity due to my use of EWC for my humus. The WW I have going is identical to version 1 of the mix with the exception of using compost for humus.

I have listed my mix here:

Canagen's no-till second run

I'm back with my adventure into organics. The Punch Pies I had growing in 15G turned out alright despite the fact that both hermied on me. I wasn't surprised as it was bagseed from a feminized plant so I expected it. What I mainly wanted was to cycle my soil through at least once and see how it...

www.420magazine.com

Again, many thanks.

 

[bobrown14]

Well you wont get an N toxicity from EWC. It's got everything in the proper proportions for plant growth and actually it will be light on N but not enough to do harm there.

Your mix has a few things in it that I steer clear of :

1/2 c mineralized phosphate
1 c blood meal
1 c bone meal.

Those last 2 are where all your N came from and the rock phosphate well its not needed here. I would go very easy with alfalfa meal as well.

For cannabis you want your soil to be high in Ca more so than N. You cannot add it in during the growing cycle organically unless you go to chemicals. Your addition of crab meal will be an excellent source of Calcium one of the best really.

For watering when they are young you need to let the soil get drier... not DRY just let the soil dry out some. Once the plants are a month or so old its going to be very difficult to over water unless your soil isn't getting any oxygen. You need soil with good aeration - I didn't see anything that gave your soil better tilth. You need to add in something that gives your soil some air space to breath like Per-lite or rice hulls and this should be about 1/3 of your mix.

I even add clay pebbles about 2" thick to the btm of my pots for drainage and my pots actually sit in water. Without aeration your soil can go anaerobic and bad bacteria grow and that will stunt growth and kill your plants.

If you're getting gnats your soil is not drying out enough could be from the lack of aeration in your soil. So add per-lite and a fan on the soil line will make short work of your gnats. They cant fly very well so poof they gone. They need soil to reproduce. Fan blows them off the soil no more gnats.

 

[canagen]

Well I think I finally got control of my gnat problem. I did as you said and let the pot dry out. I've also added more drainholes at the bottom sides.

This is the Afghani starting week 4 from sprout. I honestly didn't think it would make it and damp off like the GDP. I spread crushed eggshells on the surface so that the gnats could not access the soil. It seems to have worked but time will tell.

The WW is gone as it turned out male. I wasn't too keen on keeping pollen off a male from a supposed feminized pack. Another lesson learned.

 

[bobrown14]

Add a fan on the soil line. Gnats can fly very well the wind on the soil blows them away from the soil, they cannot lay eggs = gone.

The egg shells look like they will work too!

 

[canagen]

The eggshells seem to be doing their job but yes I need a fan blowing over the tops of the pot.

Now that I have my soil worked on, I need to concentrate on the environment especially humidity. Just can't get it up to par. Best so far is 30% at lights off. I may need to humidify the whole room.

As an aside, if there is anyone out by Edmonton reading this, the Whitemud Equestrian Centre has a big pile of horse dung that has composted and by the smell of it might be ready for use. All free of course.

Cheers.