How to get started growing indoors organically - No bottles

[ClosedCircuit]

bake/dry, same thing me guesses in this context. I'll have to go scavenge places where they process basalt and granite .. see if I can get some dust there.

Other then that, it seems that it is not even all that hard to collect a soil and build it.. I guess I can get live worms at a fishing supply shop .. or something like that.

How about horse manure and flax through the compost ? Should be good, right ?

If you are going to use manure it really needs to sit for a while before you can use it. I don't about there, but here composted manure sold at garden stores are kind of a mystery meat item. If you have good compost from just food scraps or wooded materials that would suffice. You really don't know what the animals that produce the manure were fed or treated with. If you must get it I would just go to a local organic farm and see if they will let you take a bag full of poop with you.

 

[SweetSue]

Well dang Conradino.
Thanks for setting me straight!

It looks like every high school chemistry student knows they are calcium carbonate and I got fooled by one of those posts in a marijuana growing site (not 420 mag)

I guess it's my own fault. In my 3rd week in high school chemistry, I got an A- on my lab report while my 3 lab partners got C+ and D-.
The teacher had decided that since we all turned in identical numbers and it was my hand writing that my lab partners had cribbed my measurements.
I explained that we had all measured and double checked each others measurements to reach a consensus measurement then independently written up conclusions. If the number is wrong he needed to give me the D- because I wrote it down.

The teacher started yelling in class and saying I needed to show respect, etc. I was ordered out of class. I said "If I leave you need to come with me because I'm going straight to the principal and tell her that your class is out of control, your attitude is out of control, and you have some weird ideas about scientific collaboration and the scientific method." That didn't go over well. Within seconds, the teacher was screaming and smashing things. I led a stomping march of about 2/3 of the class to the principal's office, had a short discussion with the principal and the teacher was never seen at school again.

Chemistry class was cancelled until next semester, and thus I really suck at chemistry.

Thanks again for setting me straight!

With me it was earth science in 9th grade, a class I found incredibly fascinating. Unfortunately, the teacher was one of the worst I've ever met and I was determined not to make him look good. So I didn't hand in projects. Made straight As on tests because I couldn't bring myself to fake that, but lacking projects put me at a solid D.

One day in exasperation he confronted me in front of the class, ending with a pronouncement that with my IQ I should be a straight A student. I responded with a cool "Then we know it's not me, don't we?"

Sometimes I can be a real pain.

He never bothered me again. I got a D in the end. I passed. Mother was very understanding. What a tolerant and loving woman.

PlanetJ, I am impressed with your progress so far. You are going to grow cannabis that knocks your socks off and surprises you with how easy it was to grow. Good work grasshopper.

 

[ClosedCircuit]

Good work grasshopper.

Padawan!

 

[Conradino23]

Oh Rad-man forget it you must In primary school I sucked already at chemistry, physics and maths Well, I turned out to be a different sort of student many years later and graduated eventually with a totally different major But yeah, it's never too late to brush up on these rarely used skills when doing something practical in the same time for your own well-being Yeah I really researched the subject at some point and there's no difference in cc from oyster shells and eggshells, but the latter ones are much easier to source. Actually Sue, you can bake them or char them. You van even turn them into calcium acetate which can be used as a foliar spray after diluting with water when it's ready, but I never tried it. Kind of reminds me of extracting mescaline from peruvian torch, but that's another story

 

[ClosedCircuit]

Oh Rad-man forget it you must In primary school I sucked already at chemistry, physics and maths Well, I turned out to be a different sort of student many years later and graduated eventually with a totally different major But yeah, it's never too late to brush up on these rarely used skills when doing something practical in the same time for your own well-being Yeah I really researched the subject at some point and there's no difference in cc from oyster shells and eggshells, but the latter ones are much easier to source. Actually Sue, you can bake them or char them. You van even turn them into calcium acetate which can be used as a foliar spray after diluting with water when it's ready, but I never tried it. Kind of reminds me of extracting mescaline from peruvian torch, but that's another story

I want to hear that story. I had only botched experience with powdered peyote that we messed up in the cooking process. Extracting the mescaline would be a more sure method...and less puking I think.

 

[SweetSue]

I never played with drug extraction, but suddenly I was reminded of the night - while attending a Christian University mind you - that a friend convinced me to try some mild LSD. You all will appreciate the fact that I was wearing a long, forest green skirt and a green checkered shirt and I spent that Texas spring night walking around the property in my bare feet lovingly touching and talking to the flowers, plants and trees.

Like a premonition of things to come.

 

[ClosedCircuit]

I never played with drug extraction, but suddenly I was reminded of the night - while attending a Christian University mind you - that a friend convinced me to try some mild LSD. You all will appreciate the fact that I was wearing a long, forest green skirt and a green checkered shirt and I spent that Texas spring night walking around the property in my bare feet lovingly touching and talking to the flowers, plants and trees.

Like a premonition of things to come.

IMO LSD is more fun in manageable doses, such as your experience. I hope its a memory that sticks with you for life. LOL When you mentioned the skirt I thought it was going to end up being an embarrassing streaking story. But it sounds like you maintained your constitution that night

 

[Sunny Oganics]

I read everything, grabbed a notebook to write down every single word that i didnt know what it meant, looked up up their definition, really put effort into this post, and i still have my doubts and questions. so many things to take into consideration...i can do this tho, with time and effort , i'll learn how to truely grow organic medicine. this post helped me a lot, but i bought all this other stuff already... if i want to follow this recipe i need to spend MORE money to buy the things that im missing...specially the rock dust thing( kelp, neem, crab meals also basicly the whole recipe). I heard really good things about rock dust, but i also heard it takesa longer time to "cook"?

 

[SweetSue]

Mine cooked a month Sunny. That's a minimal time for new soil. Longer (if you have the time) is always better.

I don't know how much you'll be growing, but I bought a CC-style nutrient kit from Build A Soil that had nutrients and minerals (all that rock dust) included in it. It made for an easy introduction. It cost me just over $200 in soil components to get started in two 7 gallon pots, and I'll probably invest another $100 or so on things like kelp meal, alfalfa meal, Agsil, aloe vera powder and such because I'll be maintaining a no-till. That means I won't need to make any more soil or repot anything. I have two pots that hold one plant apiece and they just grow and grow and grow into happy, healthy plants. I use one enzyme tea a week and one coconut water and aloe vera drench a week and water. I raise worms for fresh, vibrant vermicompost. I mulch.

Once you're past the initial stuff it's such a smooth and relaxing process. No second guessing yourself. In its simplest terms, you feed the soil and the soil raises the plants. The simplicity drew me in. It really is so easy to grow plants with this soil mix or it's equivalent. The clean potency of the harvest will keep me growing like this. I'm pretty sure the plants like it, if mine are any proof, and they're just one grow out of many.

Isn't there some way to incorporate what you've on hand into your soil mix?

 

[SweetSue]

Sunny, I have an entire folder jammed with pages and pages of notes on journals I've been studying. It never ends.

 

[Radogast]

Mine cooked a month Sunny. That's a minimal time for new soil. Longer (if you have the time) is always better.

I don't know how much you'll be growing, but I bought a CC-style nutrient kit from Build A Soil that had nutrients and minerals (all that rock dust) included in it. It made for an easy introduction. It cost me just over $200 in soil components to get started in two 7 gallon pots, and I'll probably invest another $100 or so on things like kelp meal, alfalfa meal, Agsil, aloe vera powder and such because I'll be maintaining a no-till. That means I won't need to make any more soil or repot anything. I have two pots that hold one plant apiece and they just grow and grow and grow into happy, healthy plants. I use one enzyme tea a week and one coconut water and aloe vera drench a week and water. I raise worms for fresh, vibrant vermicompost. I mulch.

Once you're past the initial stuff it's such a smooth and relaxing process. No second guessing yourself. In its simplest terms, you feed the soil and the soil raises the plants. The simplicity drew me in. It really is so easy to grow plants with this soil mix or it's equivalent. The clean potency of the harvest will keep me growing like this. I'm pretty sure the plants like it, if mine are any proof, and they're just one grow out of many.

Isn't there some way to incorporate what you've on hand into your soil mix?

"Just one grow out of many" is way too modest, Sweetsue.
You may have the best grow done with small CFLs that most of the growers on 420 have EVER seen.
Your results are stellar.

 

[ClosedCircuit]

Sunny,

Sue is referring to this product. I'm growing in two 3 gallon containers and it is more than enough for my needs 3 times over. It'll take alot of the guess work out of soil amendments and allow you to focus more of your time on brewing compost teas/biota. Once you get the hang of maintaining a vibrant microbe community you can add all the other steps. There's so much more we could all be doing with our grows. None of us have it down perfectly. We are all experimenting in our own ways - probing certain curiosities with questions and tasks. You'll be learning with us is all I'm saying.

Feel free to ask specific questions. I just like to give that primer to knew Living Soil folks...its not as scary at it looks. I didn't even know there was a "Living Soil community" when I got into this. I was just bouncing around sites researching teas and soils and training techniques...I didn't even start out on this site really. Me and one other guy on a Reddit board were the sole two people talking about Living Soil. I had an "ah ha" moment when I started mentioning living soil in my journal here and people started coming by to say hi. For all the research I did somehow I missed the community part of it lol....and I still messed up my first (current) grow a little. At least Sue had as she likes to call them a couple "adopted" grows under her belt lol. But she definitely set the bar high with her first ever grow from seed to harvest. I just sort of hit the ground running, but I'll be fighting her for the title next time!!

Ok I'm rambling... but this is pretty relaxed place so feel free to make mistakes. We want to see you do well. This is an endeavor (cannabis and natural organic farming) that only succeeds if the information gets out to as many people as possible.

 

[PlanetJ]

If you are going to use manure it really needs to sit for a while before you can use it. I don't about there, but here composted manure sold at garden stores are kind of a mystery meat item. If you have good compost from just food scraps or wooded materials that would suffice. You really don't know what the animals that produce the manure were fed or treated with. If you must get it I would just go to a local organic farm and see if they will let you take a bag full of poop with you.

I was planning on using the manure to feed the compost bin, and the compost bin will eventually feed the worm bin. These horses are riding horses, I know the owner, there is no cheap crap through their food. It would be flax and manure

I even have the option to use already decomposed flax/manure .. so it has been sitting for a while

If I have a lot of sand local, would that sub a part of the rockdust or is that not the way it works ?

 

[PlanetJ]

Also .. Sue ... you are way to modest

Also also; this LOS ... well ... made possible by your collective knowledge ... I'm good at selecting things to learn that will be worth their while .. you people reduced the learning curve to non-existent.

just rocks

 

[ClosedCircuit]

It is technically allowable to feed manure to worms, but I would wait until the bin gets hot and they are tearing through everything. I also wouldn't do it very large amounts. Really most places I have read about what not to feed a worm bin include manure. Composted manure could be ok, but fresh manure could ruin your bin. I don't know enough about that though. I've never tried it and I do t think I would do it.

 

[PlanetJ]

The idea is the following, please correct me if I am making an error here:

Get a compost heap/bin going. Throw everything on it that might be helpful .. incl. manure of non-meateating animals. Pee on it once in a while, for N content.
Once this one is about full, get a second heap/bin going, once that is full, the first should be about ready to feed to the wormbin.
Feed compost heap to worm-bin, and resulting product is what we top-dress with, make teas with, and use in soil.

Right ?

 

[36Gr0w]

Hey CoO,

Thank you for sharing all this and everything else you have given to us. You and sue sent me on a reading and researching spree that hasn't stopped. I'm doing a small hugelkulture (sp) for the veggies because you introduced me to it! Thank you!

I'm starting my first journal and hope that you and your followers can find some time to check it out. I would enjoy the insight, advice, and conversation with the knowledgeable people around here. Link is in my sig, thanks!

 

[ClosedCircuit]

Hey Planet J

I want to correct something I said before. I said not to use Neem...or rather that it isnt necessary because its just there to control pests. That is not entirely true. it is very much exalted as a great organic fertilizer. Your soil would benefit from having it.

Alright shutting up now.

 

[PlanetJ]

Worst case scenario is that I will be paying a hefty sum on shipping and handling, and order it from the US.

I realized that I have a couple of months to source it all .. as I will have to first wait till my compost heap has done it's job, then get a worm bin going, and run the compost through there .. and then I can build my soil. Doing it in a different order would mean I'd have to buy compost and worm castings .. and I rather not buy anything at all, and scavenge the ingredients or create them myself. No, I will not be growing a neem tree.

Thanks for thinking along and helping me get there Please dont shut up

 

[COorganics]

Good plan, earlier u posted that you could use mulch in place of SPM in your soil mix, to clear that up it's recommended to use leaf mold in place of SPM, not mulch.