So who here is growing in true organic living soil?

Comfrey you have to watch. It's invasive and nasty UNLESS you get the Bocking 14 variety. It's sterile and only reproduced by root sections.

That sounds to be very useful too.

I am happy to report that all three plantings of the Bocking 14 Comfrey
have thrown up new leaves.

Onward and upward,

JD

Great! You'll love the stuff!!

Its also if not the best one of the best herbs for bone and tissue.
Im still upset i had to leave my comfrey plant in Ohio, it was an original from the farm i grew up on,,,crap now i feel even worse.

Ps dont ingest it

Rrog said:

Comfrey you have to watch. It's invasive and nasty UNLESS you get the Bocking 14 variety. It's sterile and only reproduced by root sections.

Click to expand...

It's easy to order online. That's what I did

Me too. No problems at all.

Paying more for shipping than the cost of the plants sucks ass,
but the total was less than $20 IIRC.

Onward and upward,

JD

Onward!

so i just got distracted and grabbed the wrong bucket from my bubble station and fed about half my organic plants hydrogen peroxide. i didn't notice at first but when my hands started stinging and i got a whiff i pretty much knew i was toast..... I've asked others and it seems the consensus is to flush well then reapply tea shortly after? any other suggestions to turn this into a win? most were at 4 weeks or so and 1 was at week 1.... very critical times to have micro life!!! I'm so bummed out lol

and my buddy is using roots organics soil and it came bagged with soil mites..... any suggestions? i know they are carnivorous so they are kinda beneficial? still creepy lol any ideas besides the obvious of dont use roots soil lol? he's stuck on it and i just wanna try to help him get past these bastards.

HGK420 said:

and my buddy is using roots organics soil and it came bagged with soil mites..... any suggestions? i know they are carnivorous so they are kinda beneficial? still creepy lol any ideas besides the obvious of dont use roots soil lol? he's stuck on it and i just wanna try to help him get past these bastards.

Click to expand...

Are you sure they are not hypoaspis miles? I know fox farm started putting them into there soil. I have them and never see any gnats, they are good to have around they eat fungas gnat larva and thrips among other things and feed on decomposing plant materail when they don't have bad bugs to go after.

thats probably what they are. i looked up a mite chart and they looked alot like the one called soil mites. alot of places online claim they are beneficial like you said. he's running just the roots original mix no fox farm. he had some seeds in solo cups and i bet you could see 50 at a time on the cups... was pretty gross actually lol made my skin crawl and reminded me so much of spider mites!

Where is this groovy "mite chart?"

i was lookin at it on my phone il see if i cant google it up now.

Is it possible to have worm predators of some sort invade a worm bin? I have 3 bins, and the worms from one of my bins have vanished. Gone. Disappeared like a fart in a wind storm. They definitely didn't escape, so all I can think of is some type of predator ate them???

I'm stumped

I killed mine when I gave them the wrong food. It seems that this
other food better supported a swarm of smaller worms....whether
they actually ate/killed the wigglers, or just beat them to the food
I am not sure.

I can add that the replacement worms are *much* stronger and
healthier than the ones my City's Worm Bin Program provided.

JD

HGK420 said:

thats probably what they are. i looked up a mite chart and they looked alot like the one called soil mites. alot of places online claim they are beneficial like you said. he's running just the roots original mix no fox farm. he had some seeds in solo cups and i bet you could see 50 at a time on the cups... was pretty gross actually lol made my skin crawl and reminded me so much of spider mites!

Click to expand...

If his plants look healthy and there is that many running around they are probably Hypoaspis miles. Make sure he doesn't kill them off because they will combat almost any pest that lives in the soil for a period of time. In fact if you wait a few weeks just to make sure they are what I think they are you might want to consider grabbing one of those cups and spreading them around in your garden. Or you could buy some http://www.evergreengrowers.com/stratiolaelaps-scimitus-womersley-hypoaspis.html
http://www.everwoodfarm.com/Organic_Pest_Control/Beneficial_Insects_Listing/ENTOMITE-M_Hypoaspis_miles

The Hypo mites are great and aggressive. Love them.

St0w- predators would surprise me, they didn't move to a different layer in your tray condo? Is that the type of worm bin you use?

Javadog said:

I killed mine when I gave them the wrong food. It seems that this
other food better supported a swarm of smaller worms....whether
they actually ate/killed the wigglers, or just beat them to the food
I am not sure.

I can add that the replacement worms are *much* stronger and
healthier than the ones my City's Worm Bin Program provided.

JD

Click to expand...

I noticed a TON of tiny white worm-looking critters. I wonder if they're the guilty party?

Rrog said:

The Hypo mites are great and aggressive. Love them.

St0w- predators would surprise me, they didn't move to a different layer in your tray condo? Is that the type of worm bin you use?

Click to expand...

No, I have 3 rubbermaid containers. Each container is separate unto itself. They're just gone. If they would have escaped I think I would have noticed some dried up dead worms on the floor. I'm pretty sure they became a food source for something in that bin. Either way I tossed the bedding from that bin along with whatever critters were in there. Looked to be a ton of springtails and some little white worm'ish things too.

Might the area have become too wet, St0w?

Rrog said:

Might the area have become too wet, St0w?

Click to expand...

I suppose that's possible. Although I have 3 bins that are all on the same schedule/regiment and the other two seem fine. It really threw me for a loop. Either way I ordered more worms from Uncle Jims and they arrived today. I don't want to be buying anymore bagged castings damnit!

edit- If it became too wet, wouldn't they just suffocate and/or try to escape? There were NO worms in there, carcasses or otherwise.