Soil Questions

[Keffka]

it's all the same to the plant

I don’t agree with this but also don’t have the science to argue why lol.

I view it similar to multivitamins and nutrition shakes. Yes I can get my daily requirements from multivitamins and nutrition shakes but that doesn’t mean it’s the healthiest or most beneficial way to get them. I can survive on a feeding tube, but I don’t want to survive, I want to thrive.

You (the plant) miss out on a lot of the positive interactions and benefits of obtaining your requirements through a balanced diet. I think it’s these molecular level interactions that make organically grown products have fuller and more vibrant profiles.

Then again I could be full of guano and am just having a placebo effect to justify my expenses

 

[Chrondocious]

I read what you say about cooking living soil and I hate to disagree about the living soil thing it needs to sit before using after reamending it still has a thermal reaction, it doesn't cook but it gets a little warm for the tender roots in seedlings and young plants in the rhiosphere from plant based inputs it does heat up maybe not to 150/ 160 like unfinished compost but it does heat up due to the bacteria breaking down the plant based products as food so We agree to disagree on that

I never re amend.

Sorry, but you need to look up the definition of the word chelation. Chelation is a type of bonding of ions and molecules to metal ions. Nothing in GeoFlora is chelated. Chelation is what is done to bottled nutes, to lock up some of the minerals in a salt bond so that they can't interact with each other in the bottle.

Second... you can't just mix up the components used in a living soil and immediately use it as a soil. It MUST be cooked or composted first. To make living soil out of a mix, it needs to be "cooked" or composted for a while to break down and merge the individual components into the congealed substance that we call soil.

Third, I about choked when I read your advice that you must use plant based inputs. OK... find me a plant based source of potassium please. Or a plant based source of calcium, iron, magnesium, etc etc.

I will make my main point again. To be an organic grow means that the raw materials are there for the microbes to process. The plant sends signals to the microbes to tell them which nutrients are needed and then the microbes get rewarded for doing so. The gardener has no role is this other than keeping the soil moist, the microbes feed the plants. This is the organic feeding cycle. Whether it happens in coco with GeoFlora providing everything that is needed to allow this to happen, or in a living soil where the elements are cooked in and the microbes thriving, it is still an organic grow. This label has very little to do with being all natural... even a man produced supplement, supplied in a way that the microbes can take over and deliver it to the plant, can still support an organic grow.

Yes you can use living soil straight. Ive done it.

 

[Chrondocious]

So how come I dont need a direct source of potassium in my grows? Sorry i made you choke, but it is what it is. I soeak from experience. ...and banana is an excellent source for potassium. Why havent i needed a supplement for years? I can plant directly into my vermipost, so theres that. Say what you want....I know what works and what is not necessary. I also know what I consider organic/natural, and what I dont. Chelation as far as I understand, is just the process in which nutrients become available to the plant. Either way....your miracle product is either chelated chemicals, or suspended microbes in sugar, or some sort of extract, concentrated Im sure.

 

[theG3RMAN]

It’s pretty simple to go organic, especially now. Unfortunately big NPK has really warped people’s understanding of how plants grow so this is a misunderstood concept. This is why organic acid based nutrient systems that fly OMRI make people feel like they’re organic. It’s just a synthetic mindset with organic acids, you’re still forcing the plant to your will.



Yikes that’s an expensive mistake.

Absolutely thats why I am stopping GH nutes.

 

[seaofgreen18]

So how come I dont need a direct source of potassium in my grows? Sorry i made you choke, but it is what it is. I soeak from experience. ...and banana is an excellent source for potassium. Why havent i needed a supplement for years? I can plant directly into my vermipost, so theres that. Say what you want....I know what works and what is not necessary. I also know what I consider organic/natural, and what I dont. Chelation as far as I understand, is just the process in which nutrients become available to the plant. Either way....your miracle product is either chelated chemicals, or suspended microbes in sugar, or some sort of extract, concentrated Im sure.

Lets just all get along. I'm moving on from this thread . Good luck

 

[Chrondocious]

Lets just all get along. I'm moving on from this thread . Good luck

Yeah..I agree.

 

[Keffka]

Chelation as far as I understand, is just the process in which nutrients become available to the plant

Yes and no. Chelation, chelates, chelating agents, chelators, chelation therapy, etc. There’s a ton of different applications, uses for chelation and chelators but one of them is the process of making nutrients available.

This is why the cooking of the soils is usually an important step in LOS grows. Microbes get to work naturally chelating the different nutrients by consuming them and holding them in their bodies. Upon their death they release the nutrient in a form available to the plant. This is chelation in its most natural form and is what most companies are trying to mimic with their synthetic chelators.

There’s quite a bit of nuance and variety to this obviously, since there’s billions and trillions of microbes actively working. Some chelate nutrients by consuming them pooping them out, a lot do it by consuming then dying. While this is technically chelation, it’s usually a much slower, more natural method of chelation than surrounding a metal nutrient in Organic Acids or EDTA and delivering it straight to the plant.

Lets just all get along. I'm moving on from this thread . Good luck

It’s okay to have disagreements. Walking away when things get uncomfortable or people don’t agree isn’t always the best option. People get hardened into their stances and positions and become closed off instead of receptive to new information.

If someone feels disrespected or slighted that’s a bit different, but around here, if you feel that way I’d suggest mentioning it, some of us are autistic af and may not realize we’re offending people. In real life I have a habit of offending or making people feel uncomfortable without even realizing it so I can see it being doubly easy to do it online without realizing it.

 

[Keffka]

Yes you can use living soil straight. Ive done it.

I never re amend

This is likely why you find you don’t have to cook your soil. You’re never re amending. If you’re not adding raw amendments into your soil there’s nothing to cook/decompose. You mentioned vermipost. It sounds to me like what’s occurring in your garden is your vermipost contains your nutrients. Whatever is creating the vermipost is likely naturally chelating your nutrients for you as it goes. You can do the same with straight EWC if you’ve fed the worms the correct nutrition. You’re cooking your soil, just in a more natural and lengthy process than say adding a bunch of blood meal to kick off the process.

 

[slyclone]

Would have been nice to have a go with geoflora but trying to get it to Australia is verry expensive unfortunately. The list of ingredients on the packaging is a good start for building your own soil