Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

Chunky Stool

Chunky Stool

Well-Known Member
hillbill said:
I sell bait. Night Crawlers will die and a lot of dead ones could do harm. Belgium or European Nightcrawlers are surface dwellers and are fine at room temp with plenty of moisture. My red wriggllers aka manure or tiger worms do fine in warm conditions and some show up when I dump mix after harvest. Homemade castings are just too cool.
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The only down-side to using my homemade castings was that I had tomatoes growing in everything -- and I mean EVERYTHING.
Mrs. Stool bought a pack of 'golden nugget' tomatoes for a snack tray and most of them ended up in the worm bin.
I've got a LOT of golden nugget tomato plants... :shock:
-- edit --
This started as a marigold in a half gallon pot but got outclassed quickly by the golden nugget...
IMG_1894.jpg
 
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Chunky Stool

Chunky Stool

Well-Known Member
Miyagismokes said:
Yeah, I wish I could get a worm bed together... This year I'd probably bake the lil' bastards though, it's been hot! Next spring for sure, though...
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You can always bury the bin in a shady spot to keep em cool.
It also keeps them from freezing in the winter if you don't want to bring them into the garage.

Last winter I used a 30 gallon cloth pot buried ~75% and they did just fine.
 
Miyagismokes

Miyagismokes

Well-Known Member
Chunky Stool said:
You can always bury the bin in a shady spot to keep em cool.
It also keeps them from freezing in the winter if you don't want to bring them into the garage.

Last winter I used a 30 gallon cloth pot buried ~75% and they did just fine.
Click to expand...
I think I may have a spot, but my yard is pretty damn sun blasted here... I might be able to make one in the back corner, but I feel like my neighbor might complain about the compost smell.
I don't have a garage, so winter might be something of a problem.
 
NugHeuser

NugHeuser

Well-Known Member
Hey guys I got a question,
I made my second batch of SS a couple weeks ago and I've read about 50/50 people say stir your mixture every few days and others who say they simply let it sit for a good month.
Also have read people initially watering down there soil with a tea, such as alfalfa to give it a kick start.

My first batch I kept stirring every few days and it stayed steamy warm and smelled excellent inside the barrel the entire time.
This second batch I brewed an alfalfa tea for a few hours, maybe 5 give or take. Watered down the soil, mixed real well and left it sit without mixing there after. Batch stayed warm for about a week and now is cold to the touch and does not put off much of a smell. Leading me to think that the microbes and what not are dead?
Does it sound like I "killed" the soil one way or another or do you simply think its finished cooking and ready for use?

I'm just thrown off because my first batch stayed steamy and rich smelling the whole way through(about 2 months) until it was gone.

Appreciate any word on this!
 
F

firstnamelast

Well-Known Member
When re amending harvested soil for no till with a topdress, how much neem, kelp, and malted barley do you add per cu ft? Any different than re amending by mixing it back in? Thanks
 
619kt619

619kt619

Well-Known Member
NugHeuser said:
Hey guys I got a question,
I made my second batch of SS a couple weeks ago and I've read about 50/50 people say stir your mixture every few days and others who say they simply let it sit for a good month.
Also have read people initially watering down there soil with a tea, such as alfalfa to give it a kick start.

My first batch I kept stirring every few days and it stayed steamy warm and smelled excellent inside the barrel the entire time.
This second batch I brewed an alfalfa tea for a few hours, maybe 5 give or take. Watered down the soil, mixed real well and left it sit without mixing there after. Batch stayed warm for about a week and now is cold to the touch and does not put off much of a smell. Leading me to think that the microbes and what not are dead?
Does it sound like I "killed" the soil one way or another or do you simply think its finished cooking and ready for use?

I'm just thrown off because my first batch stayed steamy and rich smelling the whole way through(about 2 months) until it was gone.

Appreciate any word on this!
Click to expand...
Super soils are amended HOT and need the composting time to break stuff down so as not to burn your plants. If it only stayed hot for a week then something went wrong. composting requires air, and moisture. Since you weren't mixing the pile I am sure the microbes didn't get enough air and died off. You can get it started back up though, just hit it with some microbes and turn the pile like you did the first time around. If it is still not staying hot then I would assume that the microbes have fed off all the amendments, in which case it would be ready for planting. However I would be concerned with having enough nutrients in the soil to sustain a grow if composting was shorter than a month with a "SS"
 
T

TheBeardedBudzman

Well-Known Member
hillbill said:
I sell bait. Night Crawlers will die and a lot of dead ones could do harm. Belgium or European Nightcrawlers are surface dwellers and are fine at room temp with plenty of moisture. My red wriggllers aka manure or tiger worms do fine in warm conditions and some show up when I dump mix after harvest. Homemade castings are just too cool.
Click to expand...
Always go with wrigglers. Them big night crawlers are too temperamental.

Easier to harvest castings with surface dwellers.
 
T

TheBeardedBudzman

Well-Known Member
Chunky Stool said:
The only down-side to using my homemade castings was that I had tomatoes growing in everything -- and I mean EVERYTHING.
Mrs. Stool bought a pack of 'golden nugget' tomatoes for a snack tray and most of them ended up in the worm bin.
I've got a LOT of golden nugget tomato plants... :shock:
-- edit --
This started as a marigold in a half gallon pot but got outclassed quickly by the golden nugget...
View attachment 4171023
Click to expand...

I was feeding what was leftover of a harvested Cotten field. It was an incredible food for them, but I had cotton growing out of fucking everything.
 
T

TheBeardedBudzman

Well-Known Member
Miyagismokes said:
I think I may have a spot, but my yard is pretty damn sun blasted here... I might be able to make one in the back corner, but I feel like my neighbor might complain about the compost smell.
I don't have a garage, so winter might be something of a problem.
Click to expand...
Put a black landscape fabric ceiling over your bed. It helps keep the soil surface temp down from the sun. If you keep them fed, watered and shaded they’ll be fine. Worm composting can be pretty odorless if done right too. Don’t compost really stinky shit and cover food scraps with some soil or castings. Only add what the worms can process within a few days or a week. Worms are really easy to keep.

I’m in Florida so haven’t had to worry about winters, but I like the suggestion of burying the pot 75%
 
hillbill

hillbill

Well-Known Member
When I mix a normal 30 gallon batch, it only stays warm a few days but it will grow anything that comes near! Some amendments heat things up more than others and so does unfinished composted manures etc.

I may add some European Crawlers in as they are supposed to break things done further than wigglers. They also are thicker and easier to bait a hook with.
 
NugHeuser

NugHeuser

Well-Known Member
619kt619 said:
Super soils are amended HOT and need the composting time to break stuff down so as not to burn your plants. If it only stayed hot for a week then something went wrong. composting requires air, and moisture. Since you weren't mixing the pile I am sure the microbes didn't get enough air and died off. You can get it started back up though, just hit it with some microbes and turn the pile like you did the first time around. If it is still not staying hot then I would assume that the microbes have fed off all the amendments, in which case it would be ready for planting. However I would be concerned with having enough nutrients in the soil to sustain a grow if composting was shorter than a month with a "SS"
Click to expand...
Thank you, exactly the info I was looking for. I figured if it went cold that something went wrong.
I started mixing them again and added a little water and the heat has slowly started to come back. Just going to mix it every few days.

I have a slightly different question now.
I had some soil, maybe a few gallons worth go bad(get a fowl, stinky feet type of smell to it) and I left it in the barrel with the lid off to dry and mixed every week or so. It stayed in the barrel with the lid off for a good month or so but didn't completely dry out. I ended up using the rest of this soil for a new batch, about two cubic feet.
Now I'm noticing after a few days of letting it sit, it starts to get a bad smell again until I mix it all up, then it smells good. So the question is, is that "bad bacteria" really strong enough for what I'm assuming wasnt much of it, to take over all them good microbes and bacteria and start killing them? I was under the impression that the good stuff would be able to over take what was left of the bad stuff.
 
Dmannn

Dmannn

Well-Known Member
Here my soil mix is used this year. Its pretty simple and effective. You can see pics of my plants in my grow journal. In 100 gallon pots smart pots. I do use AACT, LABs, and some organic liquid nutrient.

The base soil is out of Paradise CA. It's got some decomposed rock dust, gypsum, and topsoil with a bit of organic matter.
Each pot got:
Paradise topsoil filled until about 2/3 full.
a 30 lb bag of composted chicken manure
a 30 lb bag of worm castings
a 30 lb bag of fox farm soil
10 lb bag of bat guano
3 cups oyster shell flower
3 cups kelp
2 cups mycos
1.5 cups garden lime
3 coffee cans of perlite.
 
SCJedi

SCJedi

Well-Known Member
Dmannn said:
Here my soil mix is used this year. Its pretty simple and effective. You can see pics of my plants in my grow journal. In 100 gallon pots smart pots. I do use AACT, LABs, and some organic liquid nutrient.

The base soil is out of Paradise CA. It's got some decomposed rock dust, gypsum, and topsoil with a bit of organic matter.
Each pot got:
Paradise topsoil filled until about 2/3 full.
a 30 lb bag of composted chicken manure
a 30 lb bag of worm castings
a 30 lb bag of fox farm soil
10 lb bag of bat guano
3 cups oyster shell flower
3 cups kelp
2 cups mycos
1.5 cups garden lime
3 coffee cans of perlite.
Click to expand...
How bad was the Redding smoke up that way? Between that and the Ferguson fire we got choked out last week.
 
Miyagismokes

Miyagismokes

Well-Known Member
Dmannn said:
Here my soil mix is used this year. Its pretty simple and effective. You can see pics of my plants in my grow journal. In 100 gallon pots smart pots. I do use AACT, LABs, and some organic liquid nutrient.

The base soil is out of Paradise CA. It's got some decomposed rock dust, gypsum, and topsoil with a bit of organic matter.
Each pot got:
Paradise topsoil filled until about 2/3 full.
a 30 lb bag of composted chicken manure
a 30 lb bag of worm castings
a 30 lb bag of fox farm soil
10 lb bag of bat guano
3 cups oyster shell flower
3 cups kelp
2 cups mycos
1.5 cups garden lime
3 coffee cans of perlite.
Click to expand...
Your base is literally topsoil from Paradise?
 
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