Soil growers advice please

[itchybro]

Yep, just instead of cutting that 1" ring, cut it at 3"- 4" instead, and have 2"- 3" sticking out the top so you could loosely seat a end cap on that. Or even get rid of the lot and just use a end cap on the pipe. Can't see any other reason of using the flyscreen, other than to keep his soldier flies at bay.

One thing that comes to mind by capping it. How well do worms hold up high temps and excessive humidity?

generally the worms do OK with high temps , i had a " Can O Worms " worm farm in the back yard , it would get morning sun till about 10:30-11:00am then was shaded for the rest of the day , on really hot days I'd put a bunch of ice cubes in an old sock & sit it in the top to melt / drip through to the bottom , always left the worm farm tap open with a bucket under it to catch any juice , as well as to give the worms an escape hatch via the tap if they need it

if it gets hot in the PVC tube they'll dive down , I'd also not stick to much pipe above the soil level to help with that too

what are you planning on putting in as feed @Hudo ? you can go full on with costly amendments or cheap with kitchen scrapes

 

[Hudo]

so yesterday I mixed my concentrate base to cook for next run. 2 X 30L bags black marvel compost 2 X 30L bags of worm castings. which then got 2 cups each of rock dust, lime, gypsum, insect frass, sea bird guano, kelp meal, neem meal, fish meal, crustacean meal, then 200grams humic acid and 4 cups of malted barley. I have an old school flour mill so I ran everything through so it was powder. it was almost a 10L bucket full. went and had a look this arvo and it was as hot as fuck so I'm gathering its cooking lol. in about 3 weeks time I will add 120L coco and 120L of aeration (scoria probably) and maybe some rice hulls. my question is have I done the calculations right and not added to much. the finished volume will be about 360L

 

[itchybro]

generally i would mix all the ingredients together from the start , compost/castings , peat , aeration & amendments , that doesn't mean your fucking up because there is more than one way to skin a cat , i'm guessing 360L is a little hard to mix as a sigle batch so your going to add the coco & air as you fill pots , that should be fine , if you wanted to be sure the mix won't take plants out , you could buy yourself a small pot & a veg seedling & transplant into it a week before you use your mix as you plan , if the seedling is fine after that week you know your mix is good

Amendments sound ok , some of those items i might add more of some i might add less of & some i wouldn't add at all but once again the proof will be in the pudding , run a veg seedling & see how she go's before putting all your eggs in the one basket , it'll give you peace of mind or an oppertunity to re-work the mix if needs be

 

[Donothing-garden]

so yesterday I mixed my concentrate base to cook for next run. 2 X 30L bags black marvel compost 2 X 30L bags of worm castings. which then got 2 cups each of rock dust, lime, gypsum, insect frass, sea bird guano, kelp meal, neem meal, fish meal, crustacean meal, then 200grams humic acid and 4 cups of malted barley. I have an old school flour mill so I ran everything through so it was powder. it was almost a 10L bucket full. went and had a look this arvo and it was as hot as fuck so I'm gathering its cooking lol. in about 3 weeks time I will add 120L coco and 120L of aeration (scoria probably) and maybe some rice hulls. my question is have I done the calculations right and not added to much. the finished volume will be about 360L

Save the flower mill for the amendments but U probably don't want to destroy the natural physical structure of your compost. Also, I agree with Itchy, just mix all the compost, amendments and peat/coco together, then mix aeration through. THEN cook it. Turn every 3 days until cool.

 

[Hudo]

Save the flower mill for the amendments but U probably don't want to destroy the natural physical structure of your compost. Also, I agree with Itchy, just mix all the compost, amendments and peat/coco together, then mix aeration through. THEN cook it. Turn every 3 days until cool.

Yeah I only used the mill on the amendments and it got the better of me and I mixed up 260L today so I'm only about 100 short

 

[Hudo]

Yeah half the tent will be my standard run I'm not confident enough to completely pull the pin yet

 

[Kloud9]

Yeah half the tent will be my standard run I'm not confident enough to completely pull the pin yet

You will in time, when you taste how much better the buds are in a good soil mix.

 

[Hudo]

It's been 3 weeks since I put my clones into my living soil experiment and im very impressed. The initial small batch was 90litres with 1.5 cups each of the following Insect frass , fish meal , neem cake , kelp meal, crustacean meal , dolomite lime, gypsum, combination rock mineral, coffee grinds (from home coffe machine) bio char, malted barley and 50grams of Humic acid all run through the flour mill so it was all powdered . The base consists of 30L coco 30L perlite 15L each of black marvel compost and worm castings. It's wet cause I just sprayed it with juice before the lights went out

 

[Hudo]

My ebay flour mill grinding rock minerals

Before and after

 

[Mellow oldfark]

Nice work..... Good thing your not feeding a warehouse grow -op.

 

[Mellow oldfark]

How's the insect barrier working?

 

[Hudo]

How's the insect barrier working?

Was working well I've re potted into bigger pots and read that they don't like worm castings so have top dressed about an inch of castings then neem cake then bokashi then mulch and watering with BTI in the water I think they got the message

 

[Yamumzbum]

I’ve jumped into soil too. I’m using 40L wicking planters which make them very low maintenance.

Used gro dirt lite from High Powered Organics and really liked the results.

I think the key with soil is container size. If you are in small pots the microbiological life just doesn’t have the room to do its thing. But if you have room then grab the biggest containers you can.

I looked into the grassroots fabric beds too and still may grab one but time, budget, kids etc so didn’t end up going that route.

I've been using hpo Grow Dirt for 12 months now and I couldn't be happier although I discovered it's very beneficial to make use of all their amendments like herb superb balance and antimatter is another fantastic product.

Also prior to planting into the medium I've been allowing a few weeks for the microbial populations to build up while keeping moist and covered before chucking plants in.

I found this to give a noticeable difference to help settle in to the new home.

 

[Hudo]

What's everyone's thoughts on this compost I noticed being sold up here

What is the Morpheus Blend?
This is made in Mooloo on our biodynamic farm, the pile gets to 60 degrees and is carefully monitored, turned and hydrated with mineral rich spring water from our terraced ponds. We shift the pile through different fermentation stacks and lengths according to the needs of the individual pile, to ensure the highest concentration of microorganisms, bioavailability of nutrients, maximum nitrogen capture and humus formation. This is a high energy blend full of potent aromas, with a sticky stable humus structure. We are currently the only place in the country you can get this grade of Humified BD compost.

After using our Morpheus Blend you can expect:

• Higher yields

• Deeper blooms, more often

• Higher disease & pest resistance

• Higher water holding capacity of your soil

• Higher brix content / nutrition in plants

• The correct soil biology for crop production

• To grow crops in degraded soil

• To revitalise landscape yard soil's

• To bring back sad, tired & dying plants

Contains:

• BD500

• BD502

• BD503

• BD504

• BD505

• BD506

• BD507

• Fermented herbs

• Volcanic rock minerals

• Microfine lime

• Farm cultivated micro-organisms

• Post heat mycorrhizal inoculation & fermentation

• Lactating cow manure

• Chicken manure

• Mombasa high carbon grass

 

[itchybro]

sounds good

 

[Donothing-garden]

Sounds very good except the mycorrhizal inoculation... Make sure U use a good Myco inoculant applied to the roots directly if you want colonization.

 

[Sun Ra]

What's everyone's thoughts on this compost I noticed being sold up here

What is the Morpheus Blend?
This is made in Mooloo on our biodynamic farm, the pile gets to 60 degrees and is carefully monitored, turned and hydrated with mineral rich spring water from our terraced ponds. We shift the pile through different fermentation stacks and lengths according to the needs of the individual pile, to ensure the highest concentration of microorganisms, bioavailability of nutrients, maximum nitrogen capture and humus formation. This is a high energy blend full of potent aromas, with a sticky stable humus structure. We are currently the only place in the country you can get this grade of Humified BD compost.

After using our Morpheus Blend you can expect:

• Higher yields

• Deeper blooms, more often

• Higher disease & pest resistance

• Higher water holding capacity of your soil

• Higher brix content / nutrition in plants

• The correct soil biology for crop production

• To grow crops in degraded soil

• To revitalise landscape yard soil's

• To bring back sad, tired & dying plants

Contains:

• BD500

• BD502

• BD503

• BD504

• BD505

• BD506

• BD507

• Fermented herbs

• Volcanic rock minerals

• Microfine lime

• Farm cultivated micro-organisms

• Post heat mycorrhizal inoculation & fermentation

• Lactating cow manure

• Chicken manure

• Mombasa high carbon grass

• Lactating cow manure ........ lol.

 

[Pixie]

• Lactating cow manure ........ lol.

Very technical cow shit

 

[Hudo]

Very technical cow shit

I missed that bit I wonder what the difference between lactating cow and bull shit is

 

[Hudo]

Sounds very good except the mycorrhizal inoculation... Make sure U use a good Myco inoculant applied to the roots directly if you want colonization.

I've got that myco brand one and you just reminded me I totally forgot about the shit when I potted it's up in the cupboard out of site out of mind. Can I poke a hole and put some down or wait untill I report again. I'm in 30L pots but am moving up to 60L when the flower tent is free