Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

bobrown14 said:
Been at composting a long time pretty much all my adult life. I just never tried leaves in bags. Interesting idea.

Aware of leaf mold. We have several acres of woodland. With may tree species. Thinning out the black walnut but I'm good with the leaves. They compost fine.

Our vermi-bins we let cook over winter and fill them all spring summer and fall. We let one go dormant and it finishes off by spring planting time. The longer the vermi-bin goes dormant the better the compost. We run 2 vermi-bins and rotate each winter. Shut one down and start using the empty one and repeat.
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Are we talking about worm piles being ate by worms. How are you moving all the worms? Im just making sure our lingo is the same here is all. I run a worm bing indoors. so Im not familure with worm piles outside? Shutting them down? I mean once their a pile of shit dont the worms just go to a new food source? Im interested for sure. Tell me more about this process. Id like to do the worms outside if i could. Does it freeze where you live? How do you handle winter? Im going to be honest, never looked into any of this so point me to a article i should read and im all about it..

hillbill said:
Neem Cake is what remains after oil is extracted. They do not have the same properties and Neem Oil will not feed your plants.
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So are you saying that that neem that i have mixed into my soil mix and top dressings will not have the same insecticide properties as neem oil does? I thought that was the point of neem. Tell me more. Shit I never did much reading into it.

green_machine_two9er said:
Nice stuff. I wondering about a water % after first time built soil. You think it’s close to that 5%. Sometimes I swear it take so much water to get soil to saturation
Thanks for the tips !
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Keep in mind that I also water with aloe. Now as a wetting agent that makes it so all the peat in your soil mixes takes that water in. Now dont get me wrong. Late bloom, ive been known to go back and give them an extra 5 percent straight from the tap. But I never EVER accede 10 percent. EVER. Let me say that again just to make sure everyone is listening. We dont EVER go over 10 percent lol
 
Would appreciate a recommendation on how to acidify my soil slightly?

Currently in my 2nd cycle and noticed the soils ph rises 0.1 every 2-3 months. In all three pots! Im watering with ph7 all along now stands at 7.3
 
Medskunk said:
Would appreciate a recommendation on how to acidify my soil slightly?

Currently in my 2nd cycle and noticed the soils ph rises 0.1 every 2-3 months. In all three pots! Im watering with ph7 all along now stands at 7.3
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how much are you mulching? Mulching and decompostion makes your soil acidic. so whats your mulch layer look like?
 
well mulching will increase acidity. that way when you water with neutral ph it will balance out. Go to your local nursery and look for composted mulch. throw that on top to start. Start mulching. Meanwhile, got a pic of your plants?
 
I do have a small hay bale but its been sitting outside for ages. After a spidermite run i had last year im hesitant to bring stuff from outside.

Heres one from two weeks ago at 63 days veg
2021-03-17_12.08.32.jpg
 
Medskunk said:
Would appreciate a recommendation on how to acidify my soil slightly?

Currently in my 2nd cycle and noticed the soils ph rises 0.1 every 2-3 months. In all three pots! Im watering with ph7 all along now stands at 7.3
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Lower the pH of your water can use vitamin C powder. Can bring the water pH down to low 6pH and shouldn't be harmful to the plants or the microherd.
 
m4s73r said:
Are we talking about worm piles being ate by worms. How are you moving all the worms? Im just making sure our lingo is the same here is all. I run a worm bing indoors. so Im not familure with worm piles outside? Shutting them down? I mean once their a pile of shit dont the worms just go to a new food source? Im interested for sure. Tell me more about this process. Id like to do the worms outside if i could. Does it freeze where you live? How do you handle winter? Im going to be honest, never looked into any of this so point me to a article i should read and im all about it..


So are you saying that that neem that i have mixed into my soil mix and top dressings will not have the same insecticide properties as neem oil does? I thought that was the point of neem. Tell me more. Shit I never did much reading into it.
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Neem cake in the soil mix will help with pests for sure. Neem oil well I wood never spray that on cannabis. Tried it once ruined my flowers nasty taste left and I used it in VEG not flower and bud washed. Neem cake I add to my soil mix and amend with it between runs.

On the worm thing. We run Vermi-composting bins. Its not a worm farm. The bins are 50 or more meters from our home because country living and critters LOVE compost.

Yeah so a vermi-bin is kitchen scraps, some yard waste leaves and I add some soil amendments like kelp meal and rock dust when I feel like it. The bins will attract worms and they will populate the bin. We use the bin and the worms eat the waste. In winter time temps are low enough worms die off after laying eggs. We let one bin after the winter time go dormant and begin using a 2nd bin full time.

As the dormant bin sits the compost breaks down ever further - it's not 100% EWC its composted scraps mixed with worm castings and eventually more worms. The worms in the bin make it to my containers or garden beds.
We take that dormant bin in the spring and sift it thru a screen and toss the larger particles back into the active bin and repeat.

Our vermi bins are 100 plus gallons and have a locking lid.... yup raccoons figure out how to open it and cats dig their way in. The challenge is real. Bears just tackle the whole shebang and why we have anther open pile we add bones and meat scraps to. Thats where the bear and the crows eat.
 
bobrown14 said:
Lower the pH of your water can use vitamin C powder. Can bring the water pH down to low 6pH and shouldn't be harmful to the plants or the microherd.
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Thanks for the response. Will try the leaves mulch for now and whatever comes i guess, cause everytime i ph'ed the water lower than 7 i got weird issues.



What if i bake the hay straw i have? Would that kill possible pests in it??
 
Medskunk said:
Thanks for the response. Will try the leaves mulch for now and whatever comes i guess, cause everytime i ph'ed the water lower than 7 i got weird issues.



What if i bake the hay straw i have? Would that kill possible pests in it??
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Go to the pet store and get a bag of timothy hay. Even wood chips would work.
 
Spider mites, Centipedes and 5 Lined Skinks and unidentified reptile eggs have made me very cautious about bringing the outdoors indoors.
 
Medskunk said:
Thanks for the response. Will try the leaves mulch for now and whatever comes i guess, cause everytime i ph'ed the water lower than 7 i got weird issues.



What if i bake the hay straw i have? Would that kill possible pests in it??
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Can top dress/mulch with some peat moss thats dampish and water thru the peat to slightly lower pH.

Sulfur is another option but you gotta be absolutely sure you need it.

You can have water pH between 6-7pH and you should be totally good.

What water are you testing ?? Run off / slurry test / tap water???
 
bobrown14 said:
Can top dress/mulch with some peat moss thats dampish and water thru the peat to slightly lower pH.

Sulfur is another option but you gotta be absolutely sure you need it.

You can have water pH between 6-7pH and you should be totally good.

What water are you testing ?? Run off / slurry test / tap water???
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Got the tent in my room so any chemical or peat is out of the window lol
Definitely going for the timothy hay option! Hyped!!

I water from tap ppm is about 110. Sometimes i do water below 7 in the last week or so but i chicken out to do this earlier in the grow :peace:
 
Medskunk said:
Got the tent in my room so any chemical or peat is out of the window lol
Definitely going for the timothy hay option! Hyped!!

I water from tap ppm is about 110. Sometimes i do water below 7 in the last week or so but i chicken out to do this earlier in the grow :peace:
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I've used different kinds of hay a lot in the past, it's easier to find unsprayed hay than straw because people want it for their guinea pigs n bunnies. Keep in mind, you'll get a lot of sprouts. Hay has more seeds than straw. It's also a little hotter than straw.
 
All these things about Nitrogen, seeds, being hot ect is why I said composted mulch from a nursery. It will avoid all of these issues and its a jump start on your composting mulch layer.
 
Medskunk said:
Got the tent in my room so any chemical or peat is out of the window lol
Definitely going for the timothy hay option! Hyped!!

I water from tap ppm is about 110. Sometimes i do water below 7 in the last week or so but i chicken out to do this earlier in the grow :peace:
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Peat moss is a natural organic soil ingredient.
You should be using water with a pH UNDER 7 all thru your grow. Specially if you're using and fertilizers.

ppm measurement doesnt tell you much about what those ppm's actually are..
 
I'm going to be using biochar in my next batch of soil. Do you guys find you need to make any adjustments due to its high ph? The stuff I'm getting isn't too high-7.5 I think, and I'll be soaking it in fish hydrolysate...thinking of adding it as 5 to 10% of the mix.
 
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