Soil not heating

[unwine99]

I mixed the recipe below, 72 gallons worth, wet it down, and it didn't heat up at all. I thought maybe I didn't wet it enough (I didn't use any aact to wet it initially, just water) so I added a little bit more water and all that did was give it a foul odor -- not of ammonia -- just a foul odor.

At that point I figured I'd try drying it out and wetting it with compost tea, thinking maybe it didn't have enough microbial activity. I spread it out in a thin layer on a tarp, let it dry out for about a week, re-moistened it with an aact and Deja vu, same thing, no heat.

So theeeen, yesterday, after reading a post from a member who was giving advice to an individual with a similar problem, I tried layering it with grass clippings. I threw some grass clippings at the bottom of a 32 gallon trash can, put some soil on top -- did that two more times -- then I covered it with a tarp. I checked it this morning, no heat, and it still smells like all of the individual amendments -- not soil like at all. Now I'm starting to think I didn't do the layering right, and maybe I shouldn't have done it in a trash can. Actually, I don't know what the F I'm thinking at this point. I'm almost ready to just shit can all of it.

Any of you guys have any ideas on how I can fire up this soil?




Base mix:

• 50% Sunshine Adv. Mix #4 - e.g. 4 gallons
• ~25% Coco coir - e.g. 2 gallons
• ~25% compost or castings - e.g. 2 gallons
• Calcitic/dolomitic lime - Half cup (~8 tbsp)
• Eggshell meal - 4 tbsp

For amending, the following (all per gallon):

• 1.5 - 2 tbsp Alfalfa meal (Down to Earth brand recommended)
• 1 - 1.5 tbsp Kelp meal
• 1.5 - 2 tbsp Fishbone meal
• 1.5 - 2 tbsp Neem seed meal, if available*
• 1 tsp Azomite (or rock dust, etc. @ recommended rate)

 

[ShLUbY]

it's not supposed to get hot. it's not a thermophilic compost. the "cooking" process is for microbes to break down the amendments in the soil and make food available to the plants, and get the Ph balanced to their liking.

so relax, you're doing fine! let it go 30-40 days. put some worms in there, plant a cover crop, whatever you want to do!

 

[ShLUbY]

Here's what mine looked like today when i peeled bad the panda film i covered it with....

 

[unwine99]

Really? lol Are you sure? I just started mixing soil December of last year, so by no means am I an expert or even "experienced", but all of my other batches got smoking hot hours after I put it in the cans. This is the first time mixing this recipe -- I usually use the mix that most of you organifolk use around here......the 1/3 peat, 1/3 compost, 1/3 aeration, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, neem seed meal, etc. etc. etc. I guess I just thought it was supposed to get hot based off my experience with those batches......Now that I think about it, I don't recall ever reading that it has to get hot.

Hey, thanks dude. I appreciate the feedback. I'll just stfu now and leave the dirt alone.

Nice looking soil there too.......

Here was the last batch I mixed......just peat, perlite, castings and amended with plant tone. I used the plant tone to save some time but it turned out to be one of my best soil runs ever.

 

[ShLUbY]

Really? lol Are you sure? I just started mixing soil December of last year, so by no means am I an expert or even "experienced", but all of my other batches got smoking hot hours after I put it in the cans. This is the first time mixing this recipe -- I usually use the mix that most of you organifolk use around here......the 1/3 peat, 1/3 compost, 1/3 aeration, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, neem seed meal, etc. etc. etc. I guess I just thought it was supposed to get hot based off my experience with those batches......Now that I think about it, I don't recall ever reading that it has to get hot.

Hey, thanks dude. I appreciate the feedback. I'll just stfu now and leave the dirt alone.

Nice looking soil there too.......

Here was the last batch I mixed......just peat, perlite, castings and amended with plant tone. I used the plant tone to save some time but it turned out to be one of my best soil runs ever.
View attachment 3538347

View attachment 3538348

dang you got some life in there for sure!!!

I'm a newby man, but i know for sure they don't need to get hot. you must have had the amendments a little hot for it to get that warm??? I'm gonna look at the ingredients in that plant tone. It doesn't surprise me that it was a good run, they put some time and $ into creating that formula... so the shit should work lol. nice looking soil man.

 

[unwine99]

Ya, I don't think most of the die hard guys here would go near it because of the bone meal, composted poultry manure, and feather meal but I picked it up because the ingredients weren't too terribly soluble. It works nice though. Thanks again.

 

[green_machine_two9er]

Idk. I would guess that much aflafa would have gotten your soil warm if not hot.

 

[unwine99]

Idk. I would guess that much aflafa would have gotten your soil warm if not hot.

Right!? That's what I was thinking too.

 

[Wetdog]

Ya, I don't think most of the die hard guys here would go near it because of the bone meal, composted poultry manure, and feather meal but I picked it up because the ingredients weren't too terribly soluble. It works nice though. Thanks again.

FWIW *I* add some 'tone' to every mix just for all the benefical microbes that Espoma has in their blends. Guess I'm not all that die hard, but mainly don't let dogma get in the way of a successful grow.

The underlying reason was that I've pretty much stopped adding my VC to an initial mix. Depending on the mix, some would get quite hot and 'cook' the cocoons and baby worms that were in the fresh VC. But that fresh VC was also where the majority of my microbes were coming from.

Now, I add the fresh VC just before the mix is used, long after the 'cook' is over and cooled down. An extra step to be sure, but the results are well worth it.

Wet

 

[ShLUbY]

FWIW *I* add some 'tone' to every mix just for all the benefical microbes that Espoma has in their blends. Guess I'm not all that die hard, but mainly don't let dogma get in the way of a successful grow.

The underlying reason was that I've pretty much stopped adding my VC to an initial mix. Depending on the mix, some would get quite hot and 'cook' the cocoons and baby worms that were in the fresh VC. But that fresh VC was also where the majority of my microbes were coming from.

Now, I add the fresh VC just before the mix is used, long after the 'cook' is over and cooled down. An extra step to be sure, but the results are well worth it.

Wet

makes sense.

 

[green_machine_two9er]

FWIW *I* add some 'tone' to every mix just for all the benefical microbes that Espoma has in their blends. Guess I'm not all that die hard, but mainly don't let dogma get in the way of a successful grow.

The underlying reason was that I've pretty much stopped adding my VC to an initial mix. Depending on the mix, some would get quite hot and 'cook' the cocoons and baby worms that were in the fresh VC. But that fresh VC was also where the majority of my microbes were coming from.

Now, I add the fresh VC just before the mix is used, long after the 'cook' is over and cooled down. An extra step to be sure, but the results are well worth it.

Wet

Ive used biotone for this same reason. Rrslly does help jumpstart everything.

And always a good idea to use fresh ewc right before transplant.

Right!? That's what I was thinking too.

I wonder if you had to much water? Couppled with cooler temps? Just shooting in the dark. But damn, thats some awesome looking fuzzy soil there !

 

[Kind Sir]

dang you got some life in there for sure!!!

I'm a newby man, but i know for sure they don't need to get hot. you must have had the amendments a little hot for it to get that warm??? I'm gonna look at the ingredients in that plant tone. It doesn't surprise me that it was a good run, they put some time and $ into creating that formula... so the shit should work lol. nice looking soil man.

The plant tone is a good bag of stuff? I thought it was just some basics you can get from walmart, but if its legit Id like to grab it. I was looking at biolive which has a bunch of stuff in it.

OP - the pic of your soil has some CRAZY growth going on. Good job man

 

[Kind Sir]

Ive used biotone for this same reason. Rrslly does help jumpstart everything.

And always a good idea to use fresh ewc right before transplant.


I wonder if you had to much water? Couppled with cooler temps? Just shooting in the dark. But damn, thats some awesome looking fuzzy soil there !

So the Espoma brand is pretty good huh?

 

[green_machine_two9er]

So the Espoma brand is pretty good huh?

As far as i can tell. Only had positve results. Ive used bio tone and plant tone

 

[unwine99]

FWIW *I* add some 'tone' to every mix just for all the benefical microbes that Espoma has in their blends. Guess I'm not all that die hard, but mainly don't let dogma get in the way of a successful grow.

The underlying reason was that I've pretty much stopped adding my VC to an initial mix. Depending on the mix, some would get quite hot and 'cook' the cocoons and baby worms that were in the fresh VC. But that fresh VC was also where the majority of my microbes were coming from.

Now, I add the fresh VC just before the mix is used, long after the 'cook' is over and cooled down. An extra step to be sure, but the results are well worth it.

Wet

Interesting, I've never heard of anyone (not saying much coming from me) adding their "VC" subsequent to the cooking process. I suppose that would imply that you find having worms doing their thing in the pot with your plants beneficial -- or do you just not like the idea of killing off any of your worms? I guess it could be both. Now that you mention microbes and VC, that may be one of the components with regard to my pile not heating like I'm used to. I used organic mushroom compost from a department store this go-around -- thought I'd give it a whorl because it looked and smelled pretty good......probably less than ideal though.

Man, I need to get into this worm game. It would be amazing to have that stuff on hand whenever I needed it.

Ive used biotone for this same reason. Rrslly does help jumpstart everything.


I wonder if you had to much water? Couppled with cooler temps? Just shooting in the dark. But damn, thats some awesome looking fuzzy soil there !

Thanks! That could very well be true though. I had it sitting on the concrete floor in my garage, which is about 55 degrees right now. You could be on to something there. Hmmmm

The plant tone is a good bag of stuff? I thought it was just some basics you can get from walmart, but if its legit Id like to grab it. I was looking at biolive which has a bunch of stuff in it.

OP - the pic of your soil has some CRAZY growth going on. Good job man

Thanks man. I wish I could take credit for it but I just kinda aimlessly threw everything together -- I was tripping too when I lifted the lid and saw that. lol
And the plant tone mix has carried me through 2 months of veg, and 4 weeks of flower without anything but water in a #7 pot. No teas or anything. I forgot to add that I did throw some coco in that mix too. The base was equal parts coir, peat, castings, and perlite with 2/3 a cup of dolomite lime and 1/2 cup of oyster shell flour per cubic foot. Then I added, as per the directions, 6 tbsp of plant tone per gallon of base. Not that you're trying to do this exact recipe but it might help in whatever you decide to do with the Espoma.

 

[hyroot]

It only gets hot from composting. Unbroken down leaves, plant material. Anything high in nitrogen is what creates the heat and sometimes see steam rising from the mix or pile. When you have the white mycelium fungi fuzz. That's when its looking good. And everything is activating.

 

[Wetdog]

The very, VERY best thing you can do for your plants AND the soil, is start a worm bin. A 2' x 3' area is all you need in a out of the way spot.

If you have a yard or space outside, #2 and #3 are: Plant some comfrey, start a compost pile.

But get a worm bin going, like, last week or sooner.

Wet