Best top layer ( mulching)

greasemonkeymann

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
jstone1633 said:
Whats wrong with pine bark mulch? I've been using pine bark mulch as a mulch for about a year and I don't see any problems. Another grower I know uses it in his soil mix for the last 30+ years and says the only time he had any problems with it was when he quit using it based on what everyone on the Internet was telling him. Just saying....

And if you want minerals you should look into glacial rock dust, basalt, or granite meal. Those will actually benefit the plant within its life as opposed to greensand...
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nothing is wrong with bark mulch, he said pinetree mulch, which I gather as the stuff at the base of the pine tree..
I re-use my soil, and as it's well known greensand takes years to break down. My mineral recipe is from a broad source of ingredients. Rock phosphates, basalt, greensand as well as azomite, although I wouldn't do the azomite again.
A lot of my soils nutrients/minerals aren't available for a while, I prefer it that way.
and I know growers that have used miracle grow for years, that doesn't mean much.
you can grow pot with damn near anything.
 
J

jstone1633

Well-Known Member
greasemonkeymann said:
nothing is wrong with bark mulch, he said pinetree mulch, which I gather as the stuff at the base of the pine tree..
I re-use my soil, and as it's well known greensand takes years to break down. My mineral recipe is from a broad source of ingredients. Rock phosphates, basalt, greensand as well as azomite, although I wouldn't do the azomite again.
A lot of my soils nutrients/minerals aren't available for a while, I prefer it that way.
and I know growers that have used miracle grow for years, that doesn't mean much.
you can grow pot with damn near anything.
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Oh. Ok. Sorry for my confusion
 
May11th

May11th

Well-Known Member
The pine mulch locked out calcium in my peat soil base, I added a buttload of oyster shell flour and lime but still had all kinds of issues. Lucky it was just a veggie garden, had some killer looking tomatoes plants that had massive stalks.
 
greasemonkeymann

greasemonkeymann

Well-Known Member
jstone1633 said:
Oh. Ok. Sorry for my confusion
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no need to be sorry brother.
Nobody judging you.
I use LOTS of wood in my soil mix, but it's all from rotten fallen treelogs that I can just crumble the wood. works like a perfect little sponge that is probably ALL full of microbial life.
That's my theory anyways, sorta like an indoor hugelkultur thing.
Hugelkultur is some cool shit.
 
Smidge34

Smidge34

Well-Known Member
greasemonkeymann said:
no need to be sorry brother.
Nobody judging you.
I use LOTS of wood in my soil mix, but it's all from rotten fallen treelogs that I can just crumble the wood. works like a perfect little sponge that is probably ALL full of microbial life.
That's my theory anyways, sorta like an indoor hugelkultur thing.
Hugelkultur is some cool shit.
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I was turned on to growing pot by an country boy redneck in the late 80s. We only grew outdoor and he prepared his holes way back then by digging out probably 15-20 gallons of soil and mixing it with "stump dirt", which was the wood/organic matter left from a nearly fully rotted tree stump left over from firewood cutting a decade+++ back. He may have looked dumb, but the old boy was the son of one of the biggest farmers in the county and I remember him bringing up pH way back then. He'd tell me that the biggest, fattest blackberry vines grew in slightly acidic, perfect soil for weed and if you saw a lot of sage brush, it only grew in high alkaline soils. We would always find the stealthiest spot, regardless of soil type and the bigger blackberry vines meant you had to replace less soil with stump dirt and if there was lots of sage brush around, replace it all. Most fell in the middle.
 
DonTesla

DonTesla

Well-Known Member
Smidge34 said:
I was turned on to growing pot by an country boy redneck in the late 80s. We only grew outdoor and he prepared his holes way back then by digging out probably 15-20 gallons of soil and mixing it with "stump dirt", which was the wood/organic matter left from a nearly fully rotted tree stump left over from firewood cutting a decade+++ back. He may have looked dumb, but the old boy was the son of one of the biggest farmers in the county and I remember him bringing up pH way back then. He'd tell me that the biggest, fattest blackberry vines grew in slightly acidic, perfect soil for weed and if you saw a lot of sage brush, it only grew in high alkaline soils. We would always find the stealthiest spot, regardless of soil type and the bigger blackberry vines meant you had to replace less soil with stump dirt and if there was lots of sage brush around, replace it all. Most fell in the middle.
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Great story Smidge..love those classics.

As for gnats, cucumber slices (raw fumes) will make them fly away.. Bit better then adding a meal or drying out harshly maybe.. And I saw spicy pepper work wonders for a bigger pest issue (squirrels) has any y'all crazy cats used your peppers for defence?

The DE, tho may clump if moving around when moist, is nice for its elemental make up, especially Si and its cooling effects,..it also kills thrip pupae and interrupts there maturation into a dangerous adult.. 100 babies a week is no good mon

I wonder if moist newspaper would be good?
I don't like the bark mulch myself..

But as for clover, and living comp.crops, is white clover what everyone uses ? For its N recycling I guess?
 
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