Building A Better Soil: Demonstrations & Discussions Of Organic Soil Recipes

SweetSue said:
That's a very reasonable price. I'm pleasantly surprised.
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Yep, for less than the price of a new amendment you could find out exactly where your soil is lacking...Potentially saving you alot more money in the future and increasing the quality of your crop 10 fold.
 
I was thinking of getting my soil tested too. Guess I will make some calls tomorrow.
I have been thinking of a new amendment for my soil, it is a promising source of chitin and I can come up with large amounts of it reasonably quickly. I can also produce it myself cheaply. But I don't know if others would use it because of ethical reasons.
 
TheRoach said:
I was thinking of getting my soil tested too. Guess I will make some calls tomorrow.
I have been thinking of a new amendment for my soil, it is a promising source of chitin and I can come up with large amounts of it reasonably quickly. I can also produce it myself cheaply. But I don't know if others would use it because of ethical reasons.
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This is provocative. What could you be speaking of?
 
SweetSue said:
Smokey, the best I've been able to find is that the distilling process always leaves residual oils in the waste water, so anything contained in those oils would be benefitting your garden. With mint that's heaps of great stuff for plant health and immunity.
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"Steam distillation of essential oil crops produces residual distillation wastewater that is released into the environment. This study evaluated the effects of three plant hormones [methyl jasmonate (MJ); gibberellic acid (GA3); and salicylic acid (SA)] at three concentrations and the residual distillation water from 15 plant species applied as foliar spray on biomass yields, essential oil content, and essential oil yield of Mentha ×piperita 'Black Mitcham' and Mentha spicata 'Native'. Overall, the application of SA at 1000 mg·L−1 increased biomass yields of both species.

It was shown that the distillation wastewater of sage, thyme, and rosemary contained antioxidants and could be used as an ingredient in marinades for turkey meat to inhibit lipid oxidation and the development of rancid off-flavors.

This study demonstrated that the residual distillation water of some aromatic plant species may be used as a tool for increasing essential oil content or essential oil yields of peppermint and spearmint crops.

The essential oil analyses indicated that peppermint oil contained α-pinene, β-pinene, sabinene, myrcene, l-limonene, 1.8 cineole, paracimene, transsabinenehydrate, l-menthone, menthofuran, d-isomenthone, b-bourbonene, menthyl acetate, neo-menthol, b-cariophyllene, l-menthol, pulegone, germacrene-d, and piperitone.

The spearmint essential oil contained α-pinene, β-pinene, sabinene, myrcene, l-limonene, 1.8 cineole, cis-ocimene, y-terpinene, 3-octyl acetate, 3-octanol, transsabinenehydrate, b-bourbonene, terpinene-4-ol, b-cariophyllene, dihydrocarvone, transdihydrocarvyl acetate, transb-farnesene, α-terpineol, geracrene-d, l-carvone, cis-carvyl acetate, transcarveol, cis-carveol, cis-jasmone, and viridiflorol.

This study demonstrated that the residual distillation water of some aromatic plant species, a waste product from distillation that is currently released into rivers and streams, may have an effect on crop species and may be used as a tool for increasing essential oil content or essential oil yields of peppermint and spearmint crops."

Source - Effect of Plant Hormones and Distillation Water on Mints
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Thanks a bunch Sue! :)

I dug up a little because I have some more to do and wanted to make sure I wouldn't over do it. I have lavenders and balms as well so I just may have some fun with it. Some key notes above that caught my attention regarding some aromatic plant waste water.

I don't foliar spray but I will test a few as I get them done as a drench so to say. Maybe I will try a foliar in my veg room. I also plan on making an IPM from my catmint as well. I wonder if freezing or refrigerating the waste water would be ok though...
 
SweetSue said:
This is provocative. What could you be speaking of?
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I am married to a Mexican woman, in her culture it is very common to eat insects such as crickets and mealworms. Because we live so far away from her country I have learned to grow the food stuff she can't get here. Crickets of the acheta domestica species are commonly eaten in Mexico as "chapulin colorado". I can raise them in very large number and reduce them to a meal. They contain more chiton than both crab and shrimp, and their nutritional levels make them very attractive as a soil amendment. You can also change their nutritional content by varying their diets. But I would have to sacrifice thousands to make the flour.

ClosedCircuit said:
Grinding the bones of naughty children most likely lol.
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That came close second. The only downside being how fast they run!
 
TheRoach said:
I am married to a Mexican woman, in her culture it is very common to eat insects such as crickets and mealworms. Because we live so far away from her country I have learned to grow the food stuff she can't get here. Crickets of the acheta domestica species are commonly eaten in Mexico as "chapulin colorado". I can raise them in very large number and reduce them to a meal. They contain more chiton than both crab and shrimp, and their nutritional levels make them very attractive as a soil amendment. You can also change their nutritional content by varying their diets. But I would have to sacrifice thousands to make the flour.



That came close second. The only downside being how fast they run!
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That's brilliant roach! Why does it cost so much to raise them?
 
I would have to sacrifice thousands of crickets to make the meal haha I bet you are having your morning tokes! the crickets are super cheap to raise and they are also very tasty when roasted and served with spicy chili, lemon and a beer.
My wife and I have been looking for a provider of live crickets so we could start raising them (rearing them?).
Yesterday I spoke to a fine lady that sells many kinds of live insects, including crickets and mealworms. It was a very pleasant talk. I really like insects, even those you can't eat! She was very passionate about eating insects, I personally like the poor basterds when fried. I have tried the aforementioned chapulin colorado only. I'm always open to eat new foods. Looks like insects could be the answer to hunger in the world. Who knows, maybe someday you will be able to call and order a cricket burger with fried mealworms.
 
Re: making lactobacillus serum

Nutritional composition [%] and energy content [kcal/100 g] based on dry matter

Acheta domesticus (adults)

Protein - 64.38-70.75

Fat - 18.55 - 22.80

Fiber - 16.40 - 19.10 <------ this is the chitin content

Energy content(Kcal/100g) - 455.19

Acheta domesticus (juvenile crickets)

Protein - 55.00

Fat - 9.80

Fiber - 16.40

Acheta domesticus (nymphs)

Protein - 67.25-70.56

Fat - 14.41-17.74

Fiber - 14.92-15.72

Energy content(Kcal/100g) - 414.41

Mineral Composition (mg/100g)

Calcium - 132.14-210(adults), 1290 juvenile crickets, 120.09(nymphs)

Potassium - 1126.62 adults, 1537.12(nymphs)

Magnesium - 80-109.42 adults, 160 juvenile crickets, 98.69 nymphs

Phosphorus - 780-957.79 adults, 790 juvenile crickets, 1100.44 nymphs

Sodium - 435.06 adults, 589.52 nymphs

Iron - 6.27-11.23 adults, 19.68 juvenile crickets, 9.26 nymphs

Zinc - 18.64-21.79 adults, 15.91 juvenile crickets, 29.69 nymphs

Manganese - 2.97-3.73 adults, 5.28 juvenile crickets, 3.89 nymphs

Copper - 0.85-2.01 adults, 0.96 juvenile crickets, 2.23 nymphs

Selenium - 0.06 adults, 0.04 nymphs

Vitamin Content:

Vitamin A - 24.33 mcg(adults)

Vitamin E - 63.96 - 81 IU/kg(adults)

Vitamin C - 9.74(adults)

Vitamin B1 - 0.13 (adults)

Vitamin B2 - 11.07 (adults)

Vitamin B3 - 12.59 (adults)

Vitamin B5 - 7.47 (adults)

Vitamin B7 - 55.19 mcg(adults)

Vitamin B9 0.49 mg (adults)

Vitamins A and C respectively(mcg for Vitamin A, mg for Vitamin C)

Acheta domesticus (nymphs) 0.02-0.23, 25.47-25.50
Acheta domesticus (adults) 0.01-0.20, 23.90 -23.92

Vitamin E

Acheta domesticus (nymphs) 41.92

Vitamin A and E(mcg, IU/kg, respectively)

Acheta domesticus (juvenile crickets)f) 14.13, 71.00

Amino acid content (mg/g protein)

Valine - 48.4-52.2 adults, 49.4-60 nymphs, 57 meal

Arginine - 57.3-61 adults, 61-70.9 nymphs, 78 meal

Histidine - 23.4-22.7 adults, 22.1-25.7 nymphs, 25 meal

Serine - 49.8-52 adults, 41.6-42.9 nymphs, 43 meal

Proline - 54.2-56.1 adults, 55.2-66.1 nymphs, 46 meal

Alanine - 76.9-87.8 adults, 89-101.1 nymphs, 86 meal

Glycine - 45.3-50.7 adults, 52.6-60.6 nymphs, 59 meal

Glutamic Acid - 104.4-104.9 adults, 103.9-117.1 nymphs, 112 meal

Tyrsine - 44-48.8 adults, 55.2-62.9 nymphs, 53 meal

Met + Cys - 22.9-29.3 adults, 21.4-26.4 nymphs, 26 meal

Isoleucine - 36.4-45.9 adults, 40.6-42.9 nymphs, 40 meal

Leucine - 66.7-100 adults, 72.6-95.5 nymphs, 76 meal

Lysine - 51.1-53.7 adults, 53.9-62.3 nymphs, 59 meal

Phenylalanine - 30.2-31.7 adults, 27.9-32 nymphs, 34 meal

Methionine - 14.6-19.6 adults, 13-15.4 nymphs, 17 meal

Cysteine - 8.3-9.8 adults, 8.4-9.1 nymphs, 9 meal

Phenylalanine + Tyrosine - 74.2-80.5 adults, 83.1-94.9 nymphs, 87 meal

Threonine - 31.1-36.1 adults, 35.7-38.9 nymphs, 43 meal

Tryptophan - 6.3-7.6 adults, 5.2-6.3 nymphs

Source for nutritional information:

Rumpold, BA; Schluter, OK. "Nutritional composition and safety aspects

of edible insects." MOLECULAR NUTRITION & FOOD RESEARCH; MAY, 2013; 57; 5; p802-p823
 
TheRoach said:
I would have to sacrifice thousands of crickets to make the meal haha I bet you are having your morning tokes! the crickets are super cheap to raise and they are also very tasty when roasted and served with spicy chili, lemon and a beer.
My wife and I have been looking for a provider of live crickets so we could start raising them (rearing them?).
Yesterday I spoke to a fine lady that sells many kinds of live insects, including crickets and mealworms. It was a very pleasant talk. I really like insects, even those you can't eat! She was very passionate about eating insects, I personally like the poor basterds when fried. I have tried the aforementioned chapulin colorado only. I'm always open to eat new foods. Looks like insects could be the answer to hunger in the world. Who knows, maybe someday you will be able to call and order a cricket burger with fried mealworms.
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Ha unfortunately I have been dry for a while now. That's makes more sense though. I didn't think it would cost that much to raise them.

But how do you harvest that many crickets at one time? I'm thinking you could suffocate them...or throw them in a grinder? It definitely sounds like a good soil addition. I'd love to get my hands on some.

Ive never eaten a cricket intentionally :)...but they sound delicious!
 
You freeze them and then dehydrate them
, then just grind.
I feel like raising them just to use them as fertilizer is not very ethical.
Edit: Im also concerned about the high protein content. I know it is good as food but I don't know how soil will react. I guess I will research more into this matter.
 
Sorry, forgot to add you harvest them by putting them in a plastic bin that goes into the freezer for a couple hours. I want to figure out a way to dehydrate them in large numbers, maybe a few racks and a fan blowing warm air.
 
TheRoach said:
Sorry, forgot to add you harvest them by putting them in a plastic bin that goes into the freezer for a couple hours. I want to figure out a way to dehydrate them in large numbers, maybe a few racks and a fan blowing warm air.
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Ya it would weigh on me a little to snuff out thousands of lives just to put in my soil. Its like smoking a cricket genocide.
 
Hey guys, I was making some research and came to a conclusion regarding the crickets. I found this article that changed my mind regarding the senseless killing of crickets (I will still eat them by the thousands, but that's not senseless)
It comes down to using the cricket manure along with the crickets that naturally die in the farm.

Cricket Manure: A Great Organic Fertilizer76

By Green Lotus

If you are looking for an organic fertilizer for your garden that does not smell like animal excrement and is great for all your plants, shrubs and turf you might want to try a cricket manure fertilizer. It takes a lot of crickets (about 10,000 of them) to produce enough poo to fill a container of this wonderful plant food, but cricket farmers are happy to scoop it up and sell it to you for a fair price. Cricket manure is known by many names including cricket droppings, cricket litter, cricket poo, cricket poop and kricket krap, but they all prove to be a highly effective, environmentally safe, more pleasant way to make your garden grow. All organic fertilizers respect the balance of microorganisms in the soil making for a healthier environment, but cricket fertilizer is easy to use, economical, light-weight, non-sticky and odor-free.

I learned of the wonders of cricket fertilizer from master gardeners across the southeastern United States while producing programs for Home and Garden Television. There are two readily available brands of cricket fertilizer, (both harvested by Georgia farmers) - Kricket Krap and Cricket Poo!. Both are still relatively unknown as organic plant foods; - Chicken Poop, Bat Guano and Worm Castings leading the pack of popular organic poop products, but the commercially appealing, non-stinky Cricket variety is quickly winning over thousands of eco-conscious gardeners.

Cricket manure, an organic fertilizer is sold as a dry, sandy textured mixture.

Organic fertilizers like cricket manure work alongside nature providing plants with natural nutrients without killing off other bio-friendly organisms in the soil. In addition, fruits and vegetables grown organically are known to contain higher levels of Vitamin C and essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron and chromium as well as cancer-fighting antioxidants.

Cricket fertilizer is made by crickets, of course, but what is more interesting is how it became popular as an organic garden fertilizer.

Crickets are traditionally farmed and sold as pet food for geckos, other reptiles and as fish bait, but in the early 1980's an eco-conscious Georgia farmer, Bill Bricker, discovered that it was wasteful to discard cricket waste.

In his quest to find new uses for organic compost materials, he and his partner, Ed Hensley checked out a nearby cricket farm in Augusta, Georgia. The owner, Robert W. Whaley noticed his grass was growing out of control because he had been tossing the cricket droppings on the turf.

As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure and Bricker eventually proved it to be true. He suspected there was gold at the bottom of the cricket cage; but the road to cricket poop prosperity was still a long way off.

Why is cricket poop a great fertilizer? Yes, it is totally organic and high in nitrogen which plants love...but the real secret is that farmed crickets are fed a high protein diet of blood meal, fish meal, soybean meal, ground corn, and molasses. The fertilizer is blended with bits of cricket food, shed cricket skin and paper scraps from the cricket cages. It is then dried, making for a very effective slow release fertilizer. Kricket Krap lasts for months depending on the weather and the amount of rainfall. The fertilizer takes effect just when it is most needed, during the warm growing season. Mix it into the soil as directed, water well and enjoy the garden's bounty.
 
TheRoach said:
I would have to sacrifice thousands of crickets to make the meal haha I bet you are having your morning tokes! the crickets are super cheap to raise and they are also very tasty when roasted and served with spicy chili, lemon and a beer.
My wife and I have been looking for a provider of live crickets so we could start raising them (rearing them?).
Yesterday I spoke to a fine lady that sells many kinds of live insects, including crickets and mealworms. It was a very pleasant talk. I really like insects, even those you can't eat! She was very passionate about eating insects, I personally like the poor basterds when fried. I have tried the aforementioned chapulin colorado only. I'm always open to eat new foods. Looks like insects could be the answer to hunger in the world. Who knows, maybe someday you will be able to call and order a cricket burger with fried mealworms.
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Soylent chirp.

I believe it is perfectly ethical to raise animals as a crop.

Silk worm larvae are raised to be boiled before maturity for their silky cocoons. Similar ethics.

Sunflowers and meal worms are rasied as bird food - not much ethically different than soil food.
 
"Soylent chirp". :rofl: Gawd Rad, I love having you along. LOL!
 
Radogast said:
Soylent chirp.

I believe it is perfectly ethical to raise animals as a crop.

Silk worm larvae are raised to be boiled before maturity for their silky cocoons. Similar ethics.

Sunflowers and meal worms are rasied as bird food - not much ethically different than soil food.
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At first I had no qualms about doing it, but then I thought about the large amount I would be sacrificing to feed the soil. Also I wanted to eat them. I was between the wall and the sword with choosing between cannabis and fried crickets.

Radogast said:
It sounds like shed cricket skins and poo provide many/most of the advantages of whole crickets.
You can use cricket byproducts for your ferts :)
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I will still give the cricket meal a go, just for the sake of science.
Today I collected a local herb that has properties similar to those of comfrey, but has lot of saponins like aloe and growth regulators like coconut water. I am very excited with this find.
I will do more research to find the scientific name of this plant! In is called "solda con solda" in my country, and that also happens to be the common name for comfrey.
Have you ever felt you are the first human being to do something?
I am 100% sure that today these two plants met for the first time since the dawn of time.
I love this thread!
 
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