So who here is growing in true organic living soil?

kinddiesel

Well-Known Member
my soil is so organic and live, last night I went to water the plants, the soil had sucked my pit bull into the pots had him by the tail. little mouth formed out of the soil ! I had to grab my ak 47 and empty a clip of 40 rounds into the 20 gallon pot to kill the soil . to save the dog. guys be careful with that living soil unless you have high powered rifles around
 

HGK420

Well-Known Member
i had an Ant get stuck in the fuzz on top of my soil before and die... i got pics laying around somewhere, shits crazy
 

Rrog

Well-Known Member
LOL!

I gotta get working on my biochar burner... This weekend, maybe. I have nothing to grow, have endless shit to fix before I can sell this place... About all I have time for is the pissing and moaning about it.
 

Javadog

Well-Known Member
If you detail the process, then I will follow. :0)

I have used the sawdust pellets to grow mushrooms for years.

I want to do this.

BTW, I got my crab shells today. I decided to make one small batch
of compost with it, about 20 gallons. I made it veeeery rich, and it will
be cooking for weeks. I added some kelp flakes, sock rock phosphate,
feather meal, and humic additive, and a mess of wheat bran to fire it up.

My thinking is to mix this batch into my soil for the garden.

My main soil pile* just had six/two bags of horse/chicken manure, a bunch
of smashed up mushroom blocks, and coffee grounds added to it. I mixed it
up and watered it well. It will cook on its own in the meanwhile.

* BTW: I seem to be soil making more than anything else, as no matter whether
I have all my containers filled with plants, I am always working on a new pile
of soil. When I buy more containers, I make more soil. It is cool, as the soil
in So Cal is decomposed granite and is just a tad more nutritious than plain old
granite. :0)

Take care,

JD
 

Rrog

Well-Known Member
Very cool! Have you considered throwing some clover on that while it cooks?

I'll be detailing the biochar burner build. I'll be tweaking it to get the lowest temp char I can. Then anyone can just copy and go. And I hope many do. Same with the minerals. I hope many start using Michigan Rock Powders.
 

Javadog

Well-Known Member
I usually just mix manure and chopped straw as I make
mushroom compost, but this is a new experiment.
No clover available.

I watched a fairly simple biochar process. I cannot speak
to the quality of the product though.

It used driven air, up through a can with holes in the bottom
and a open top that was filled with sawdust pellets and lit
from above. When the fire line in the can reached the bottom
the process was complete.

Do you know of good links on this?

Good luck,

JD
 

Rrog

Well-Known Member
This is John Rogers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqkWYM7rYpU He started the double 55 gallon barrel deal.

Then along came Doug Clayton, who expanded the idea and called his version the Jolly Roger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg95KYrH8PI Doug calles these types of ovens the Jolly Roger Oven or JRO.

Then you have this fellow who did what I'm planning, but on a small scale. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LGB7lOOvV4

My concept introduces the double barrel to the JRO design, do I call it the Jolly Roger Oven- Double barrel, or JRO-d. So I'm working on the JRO-d version. Two 55 gallon drums, each with a 30 gallon drum inside. This lets us burn the wood gasses with less combustion to the lumber stock. The goal would be for a lower temp burn, which keeps more of the wood oil in the char. The microbes like that. Lower temp char also has a more neutral pH.

So much of what I'll be doing will be defining the air flow needs to get this clean, low temp burn.
 

Rrog

Well-Known Member
IMG_0363.jpg

My buddy flipped to flower. ROLS just transplanted to 15 gallon Geopots. He let these go a long time in 2 gallon Geos. Too long, but he's still figuring out what's up, playing with light placement, etc. He could have cut the veg time by weeks but so be it. Next round. They look nice I think.

Under LED

This is Swami's TO x BMR, although that one on the right looks wildly different. Could be an errant seed.

Note the clover living mulch. The last grow he used the 15 gallon geopots. After chop, the soil was amended with super VC, then clover was planted, and new seeds were started in 2 gallon Geopots. So while the seeds grew in the 2 gallon pots, the clover grew in the used 15 gallon pots.

When transplanted, the old root ball was gone completely, with just the little stump remaining. Microbes ate the root ball completely, storing the nutrients for this new grow.

So now this is Gen 2 of his ROLS. The clover stays put. (Thanks for the N!)
 
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