lakesidegrower
Well-Known Member
Hey all! I've had way tom much time on my hands working from home, venturing down a soil build and waiting for my inputs to arrive. I've wanted to source soil amendments from my natural environment around me (live in a Borreal forrest). We have 4 feet of snow and its currently -20C but I ventured in the bush to dig up some of the organic layer on the forrest floor to se if it might make a good soil input. I've attached the pics, but the trees around are a mix of deciduous and evergreen, with the area I sourced being majority deciduous.
There is a distinct litter layer on top, but immediately below is an organic layer made up of composted leaf and pine needles. Unless I am mistaken, the other part is worm castings... take a look at the pics and let me know (pics attached of it picked from the soil, then crushed) it would likely have come from earthworms and they dominate the worm pops locally. The insects are dormant now obviously, but I've found a few small back beetles alive, I'm sure more life to come with it now being inside lol. There is also decomposed wood chunks and root material, there and also traces of sand and tiny snail/crustacean shells. The consistency when broken up is fluffy like peat, seems to have the same water retention qualities as peat. The smell is incredibly earthy, its like spring forrest in a bucket haha
So my concern is that I don't want to just be tossing this into my mix without giving it some thought as to how it would benefit my mix. I plan to do 1:1:1 or 40/40/20 of peat:aeration:EWC/humus. I also have kelp meal, alfalfa meal, insect frass, glacial dust Gaia all purpose 4-4-4 and bloom 2-8-4 and makes flower myko on the way. Also plan to include charged biochar. Ultimate goal is to build a (potentially) water only no-till soil. Looking for advice on how to potentially proportion in the forrest compost...
I also am aware that pine needles tend to acidify the soil, but my understandings that about 4 weeks after the fall to the ground the pH starts to drop and ends up being between 6.0-6.9 once the terpenes and chlorophyl degrade and all that is left is the pine husk - this is what makes up the 'pine needles' proportion of the compost. I do plan to pH this compost, just waiting on my new reader but hopefully its in line with something between 6 and 7. I can see myco on the decomposed pine and birch woods, and also see myco threads throughout the soil. I'm wondering if there would be value in amending or 'processing' the forrest compost further before adding to soil (ie. adding dry amendments to further break down the mix, or inoculating with an activated EM1 like lacto b, or even adding some Bokashi to the forrest compost mix and letting it cook for a bit before cooking with the final mix).
I've also read about using this layer as a mulch on top of the pots, and the guidance tends to be to bake natural inputs like this to eliminate the risk of unwanted pests or disease. But to me this almost defeats the purpose of using it and benefiting from the micros and life that is inside it. Unless killing what's there and adding your own micros is the way to go about it.
Have leaned a ton from many of you guys - any advice/info/harsh criticism is welcomed!
There is a distinct litter layer on top, but immediately below is an organic layer made up of composted leaf and pine needles. Unless I am mistaken, the other part is worm castings... take a look at the pics and let me know (pics attached of it picked from the soil, then crushed) it would likely have come from earthworms and they dominate the worm pops locally. The insects are dormant now obviously, but I've found a few small back beetles alive, I'm sure more life to come with it now being inside lol. There is also decomposed wood chunks and root material, there and also traces of sand and tiny snail/crustacean shells. The consistency when broken up is fluffy like peat, seems to have the same water retention qualities as peat. The smell is incredibly earthy, its like spring forrest in a bucket haha
So my concern is that I don't want to just be tossing this into my mix without giving it some thought as to how it would benefit my mix. I plan to do 1:1:1 or 40/40/20 of peat:aeration:EWC/humus. I also have kelp meal, alfalfa meal, insect frass, glacial dust Gaia all purpose 4-4-4 and bloom 2-8-4 and makes flower myko on the way. Also plan to include charged biochar. Ultimate goal is to build a (potentially) water only no-till soil. Looking for advice on how to potentially proportion in the forrest compost...
I also am aware that pine needles tend to acidify the soil, but my understandings that about 4 weeks after the fall to the ground the pH starts to drop and ends up being between 6.0-6.9 once the terpenes and chlorophyl degrade and all that is left is the pine husk - this is what makes up the 'pine needles' proportion of the compost. I do plan to pH this compost, just waiting on my new reader but hopefully its in line with something between 6 and 7. I can see myco on the decomposed pine and birch woods, and also see myco threads throughout the soil. I'm wondering if there would be value in amending or 'processing' the forrest compost further before adding to soil (ie. adding dry amendments to further break down the mix, or inoculating with an activated EM1 like lacto b, or even adding some Bokashi to the forrest compost mix and letting it cook for a bit before cooking with the final mix).
I've also read about using this layer as a mulch on top of the pots, and the guidance tends to be to bake natural inputs like this to eliminate the risk of unwanted pests or disease. But to me this almost defeats the purpose of using it and benefiting from the micros and life that is inside it. Unless killing what's there and adding your own micros is the way to go about it.
Have leaned a ton from many of you guys - any advice/info/harsh criticism is welcomed!
