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

[AuroraIndica]

Im here

 

[bobrown14]

I don't see why you wouldn't be able too mix it...and no problem, just passing info along...just got taught about malted barley recently from a member here...glad to share the info

Yes ... you can add in your LABs and your nettle and seaweed tea to the mix of your malted barley and water in. The nettle and seaweed tea is REALLY REALLY great as a foiler as well. You can water in the barley - be sure to grind it to a fine powder.. mix into water no need to aerate. That's how I do it.

The only things I aerate are EWC and Kelp Meal to make a ACT (aerated compost tea). I've been really lazy lately and haven't done an ACT for a while.

The Malted Barley just add to water - 1oz to 3 gal water and add you other goodies in there as well, water in. Don't over use the malted barley - do it 1/2 way thru VEG then again after switch to flower and again 1-2 weeks later... all you really need. You can do another dose in flower as the plants are really drinking a lot and growing flowers so hard to hurt them.

I've over done it with malted barley watering in every other watering and so forth. Messes up the soil. Now I mix it in with my soil mix and amend the soil with it at up-pot along with other amendments. It's "go to" for me. Cool that you get coots mix down under.. and sounds like your person that gave you a sample knows whats going on... a valuable resource.

The malted barley gives you enzymes and more plus shortens the flower period ... I can grow photo period plants just as fast to finish as AUTOs using the malted barley deal. Coots FTW.

Comfrey.. ahhh ohhhh... its the shit but its green shit! We call it a green manure.. Yes you can just lay the leaves down around your plants and add a little water... it will be gone in a few days it's really an amazing plant. It's the dry land version of sea weed but with more N.

You can make a tea.. but its going to smell like ... well manure. What I do with Comfrey to make a tea is add them to a mason jar of water and let it sit for 6-9 months until its clear... the leaf debris will settle to the btm of the jar = finished. Can add that to you malted barley tea with all the other goodies and foiler too. Takes a long time tho.. so short term we use it as a composting tool, harvesting every 6 weeks starting in early to mid spring all the way to first HARD frost. Lay it around flowers outdoors as a mulch... its the best.

Nettles are right up there as well. We grow both outdoors in our gardens and use them pretty much the same. Many many medicinal uses as well, just like cannabis. Humans have been using all 3 for a very very long time.

Hint.. go find some woods and go for a hike and look for worm castings around dead logs... scoop em up.

Put them in the tea and your soil mix for the beneficial micro herd and some Mycos from the decaying wood. You will have worms in you soil after that as well.

Timing for Comfrey is best in VEG since it's high in N. We don't want our cannabis plants growing leaves instead of flowers. So I try and not use any teas high in N in flower. Not that Comfrey is all N.. I prefer to use composted comfrey and add that compost to my up-pot at flip.

AG - hope that answers a lot of your questions.. definitely feel free to ask questions in my journal... we're all living on a learning curve. Interactions with others experiences, that's a good thing. Pass it on, side to side!

420mag - yay us.

 

[Guy Cavallero]

I don't know how you keep all that stuff inside your head but you are a huge wealth of knowledge bob...... I haven't been on the soil thread for a while because I've been building my space but in the new year I am going to be heavily involved in my los so I plan on being here and much more.......lots to learn still!

Happy New Year everybody!

 

[SweetSue]

Actually its SILICA that's everywhere - pretty 100% on that one.

And....Not sure if serious.

"Neem brunt tips" FTW! I gotta google that one. BRB.....

Yeah.... That gave me pause too BB. I never saw any evidence of these burnt tips,mand I used it as a soil amendment, a topdress, and a foliar, so this is new to my world. I'll let you track down some proof.

The malted barley grain works wonders. If memory serves I used it about twice a month??? It's been a while since I dabbled in LOS. Jgrowlove now has most of those supplies. Watering it in without aeration made life much simpler, and the plants respond overnight.

BB, you are one of the site's greatest resources. I can't tell you enough how thankful I am to have opened a room you were drawn to actively participate in.

 

[SweetSue]

Im here

We're glad.

Aurora. May I call you that? I see you're new to our little paradise. Do you grow? Drawn to living soil, are you? You found the right room, that's for sure. Some of the contributing members are no longer with us, but the place stays hopping. Make yourself comfy. Pigeons 420 just posted a holiday Wake 'n Bake. Gotta run.

 

[Radogast]

Yeah.... That gave me pause too BB. I never saw any evidence of these burnt tips,mand I used it as a soul amendment, a topdress, and a foliar, so this is new to my world. I'll let you track down some proof.

The malted barley grain works wonders. If memory serves I used it about twice a month??? It's been a while since I dabbled in LOS. Jgrowlove now has most of those supplies. Watering it in without aeration made life much simpler, and the plants respond overnight.

BB, you are one of the site's greatest resources. I can't tell you enough how thankful I am to have opened a room you were drawn to actively participate in.

I have done 2% neem oil in soapy water as a foliar spray dripping from the leaves ever 2 days for the entire life cycle of multiple hybrid strains. None of them had leaf tip burn that I recall - I will check.


I shut down my grow to move, so plants are of various sizes, but these are the final harvests from my last grow, neem foliar sprayed every 2 days for spider mite control.

I don't see significant leaf tip burn issues. - maybe in hempy or hydro?



Tangerine x Blue Dream (Ghita)

Caramelicious (Quiffa)

AK47 Bonnie - late afternoon photoshoot

Harvest Day - Snowcap Stacy


I took Stacy outside for some morning air before trimming and washing.

I have filled the basement smoking / trimming area with boxes and gave away my trimming light.
I'll do my trimming on the old garden room Early Veg table. First, I need to clean up and organize a little.


Snowcap Stacy in the morning sun.

Her canopy came out fairly even with similar sized buds.

In this picture, her leaves look purple.

Harvest Day. Borderliner Iman[/COLOR]


Borderliner Iman. 61 days under 10.5 / 13.5 light.

 

[SweetSue]

There we go.... Looks like a strong argument for the safety of neem.

 

[bobrown14]

I don't know how you keep all that stuff inside your head but you are a huge wealth of knowledge bob...... I haven't been on the soil thread for a while because I've been building my space but in the new year I am going to be heavily involved in my los so I plan on being here and much more.......lots to learn still!

Happy New Year everybody!

Thanks for the kind words kids.... I've been at soil building all my life and I'm retired now... so yeah a long time. Was doing vermicomposting before it was a thing way back in the late 70s early 80s built my first home made Vermicompost bin in 1982 I think. So experience and reading books (back in the day before internet), I got a lot of knowledge that way (still read books all the time) ... there were a lot of hippies back then into "back to the earth" deal (and weed) and were sharing it with the world. I kinda jumped on the bus ..still riding the wave.

For me it all starts in the soil, and the soil gets going with composts...I study the soil.... and let the worms do all my heavy lifting.

If you ever go for a hike in the woods... most people are looking around at the trees and the birds .... me I'm looking down at the ground and noticing the ground cover on the forest floor and all activity going on there and how it relates to the trees and the overall forest health. It's really amazing to me. Nature's balance still going despite all the human "work" that is getting done.

SS - "neen brunt tips" ... I think I smell brain cell tips brunting... I don't know, I did research it and found nothing?

Brain Fart Alert:
I've used neem in just about every way possible.... brush my teeth with neem toothpaste even (highly recommend), neem tea from the cake (for plants) and also from fresh leaves (for plants and me) ... its part of Ayurvedic medicine/lifestyle and has been used by humans for more than 5K years... similar to cannabis and Karanja and a bunch of other plants. I don't know how humans survived without BigPharma, BigAg and BigBiz... for all those millennia. Oye.... ok /BFA

 

[Amy Gardner]

Thanks heaps Bb, and Sue & Rad for helping to clarify that neem question. . I used some in an experimental veggie garden bed, for the leafy greens, along with some mineral amendments and everything is super happy.

Can I ask too then, when making my foliar sprays, many say to add a bit of detergent or soap. Seriously? If so, how much? All the 'soap' like things I have here are plant based soaps, I'm assuming they would be ok?

.

Bb, I've been trying to source worm castings (or even worms for that matter) locally for months with no luck. I can't go hiking, but I actually live in a forest .. However, there's no way one could collect worm castings here with any joy. The forest floor is thick with eucalyptus leaves down to a fine layer of composting mulch from years of those leaves. I never see visible castings here. Not saying they'renot here, just not visible. Plus, the soil and the bottom, decomposing layer of all the beautiful mulch is quite acidic. I've taken a few pics recently of the forest floor with this very question in mind, will upload later maybe. Also, digging around in the mulch layer in this forest is a guaranteed way to get many ticks! .

I'm buying a worm farm for myself. Next season castings won't be a problem!

 

[kelticBlue]

Amy. The worm farm should be wonderful.
Local soil is a great fresh supply of beneficials. I take very little local soil to use but it helps keep my soil going. Like 1/2 cup.
I have waited till it gets cold out. I don't find worm leavings when it is cold. I do collect where I have seen the worms work. Fresh worms would be better.

Eucalyptus leaves can be pleasant nonetheless. : - )


Edit: I wait till it gets cold to help keep the pests at a minimum in my local soil. I get thrips but they seem to die off after breaking from the soil and never take hold.

 

[AuroraIndica]

We're glad.

Aurora. May I call you that? I see you're new to our little paradise. Do you grow? Drawn to living soil, are you? You found the right room, that's for sure. Some of the contributing members are no longer with us, but the place stays hopping. Make yourself comfy. Pigeons 420 just posted a holiday Wake 'n Bake. Gotta run.

Yes you may im all about organics and wanting to learn how to make a compost tea for my garden with the items i have on hand im fairly new to everything but ive done some homwork and learned a little in the past couple of year pigeons 420 is cool i like the way he does his videos

 

[Amy Gardner]

Building a Better Soil - Demonstrations & Discussions of Organic Soil Recipes

Amy. The worm farm should be wonderful.
Local soil is a great fresh supply of beneficials. I take very little local soil to use but it helps keep my soil going. Like 1/2 cup.
I have waited till it gets cold out. I don't find worm leavings when it is cold. I do collect where I have seen the worms work. Fresh worms would be better.

Eucalyptus leaves can be pleasant nonetheless. : - )


Edit: I wait till it gets cold to help keep the pests at a minimum in my local soil. I get thrips but they seem to die off after breaking from the soil and never take hold.

Yeah, there's plenty of that forest topsoil in my mix (based on your half a cup approach - about that per cubic foot would be my guess, give or take). Our veggie patch has been a combination of that, mushroom compost from the garden centre and our own compost for a few years, plus it's just everywhere anyway and a added some of our clay layer to each mix when I was blending the soil. When I do some soil tests later on, I might even do a test on our forest soil, just to see...
Yes eucalyptus leaves are very pleasant indeed . but they are very acidic as mulch!

.

 

[bobrown14]

Not sure what worms live in the woods down under... red wigglers are pretty much everywhere around the world and are the best vermi-composters for several reasons. But there are other options. I'll do a little research and see if I can find what's available local to you.

Let me know what area of Assie you live in.. you have a unique environment but there are worms there for sure. My experience with worms is vermicomposting and not a worm farm per se... I'm lazy and a worm farm requires attention.. a vermicompost bin .. just put scraps in and let the worms etc work them down. The only work is keeping a bin in the kitchen and emptying it into the bin...

Worm farming is more labor intensive. But you get results faster.

Isn't there an animal that eats eucalyptus?? I would be scraping up that poop... but thats just me! hahahhaha

Anyway - happy new year!

 

[Tony Urban]

Lots of vast forests in AUS, most definitely some form of worms to break down the surface litter, shouldnt be hard to find someone selling them. Look at the closest large gardening centre, give em a ring, and see what they have to say. bob almost has me sold on vermincomposting...just havent told him yet lol

 

[Amy Gardner]

Building a Better Soil - Demonstrations & Discussions of Organic Soil Recipes

Not sure what worms live in the woods down under... red wigglers are pretty much everywhere around the world and are the best vermi-composters for several reasons. But there are other options. I'll do a little research and see if I can find what's available local to you.

Let me know what area of Assie you live in.. you have a unique environment but there are worms there for sure. My experience with worms is vermicomposting and not a worm farm per se... I'm lazy and a worm farm requires attention.. a vermicompost bin .. just put scraps in and let the worms etc work them down. The only work is keeping a bin in the kitchen and emptying it into the bin...

Worm farming is more labor intensive. But you get results faster.

Isn't there an animal that eats eucalyptus?? I would be scraping up that poop... but thats just me! hahahhaha

Anyway - happy new year!

Haha - yeah. Koalas are about the only thing that can stomach the eucalyptus leaves (and only 1 type of euc I think). Apparently they get the equivalent of stoned from them, there's a story that goes around that this is why they are so slow and nap on & off all day. Maybe that's urban myth, I'm going to have to look that up now... I don't have koalas in my forest here. We have plenty of grass eating kangaroos tho', they're our lawn mowers actually so we always have that poo around and I've definitely thought about using it, just haven't got round to it yet. It takes some effort to collect, plus I've read that they use the pop to identify family groups /locations etc. so don't want to be messing things up there. They're an important apart of our little property set up - we have only mown the lawn 3 times in 4 years thanks to them!!

I know there's worms here, they appear in our compost or soil piles when we move them or set them up new. No problem there. Just can't see their activity in the forest (bush) because of the thick layer of bush mulch - that you really don't want to be scratching around in (to get a small glimpse of the bush hazards you can always check out my journal - I have a critter of the week thing going on...). So also, I'm not physically well enough to do the labor involved in collecting wild castings - the basics of what's involved in growing already, with a paid helper at times, is already a little too much. So I'm hearing what you have to say Bb about letting the worms do the work with the comfrey and the nettle. I've done a nettle tea and it did smell royally for a time - literally like shit, yeah? - but that seems to have settled. Is a lot of work tho, as you say.

A question actually, for anyone who might know, when do you know if an FPJ/FPE or your LAB starter has turned anaerobic (or whichever one has too much of the bad bacteria). Is that a smell test as well?

The worm thing I'm getting kind of sounds like what you said about the vermicomposting. It's called a 'worm cafe', so maybe I didn't mean farm at all .. I'm pretty sure it's low maintenance and I'd better confirm that, as that's a prerequisite for me!!

Will get back about those stoned Koalas. . .

Oh and since you very kindly offered your assistance, much appreciated, I'm in south east Aus. - coastal. Between 3-7 driving hours south of Sydney. That should give some idea .

 

[ginganinja30]

Happy new year BB
...

 

[SweetSue]

Amy, The worm farms are pretty easy to run, once they get established. I had a small one under my sink for a time that was producing fairly well, until I forgot about them during a trying time.

I'd think the way to tell when any bacterial community has flipped would be to smell it. The bacteria we try to avoid smell like you should avoid them.

While I'm here....

 

[Amy Gardner]

I'd think the way to tell when any bacterial community has flipped would be to smell it. The bacteria we try to avoid smell like you should avoid them.

Mmm - this is where it's tricky. Many of the instructions on making the fpj say that when it stinks, it's ready (others say when it's stopped foaming - mine stank before that!). So anyway now it doesn't stink like manure anymore, smells more like sour fermented nettle, which is what it is. Thing is it smelled bad to me when it was apparently ready to use. So I'm not sure about judging this one.

The LAB on the other hand smells a little bit like brewing beer...

.

 

[Amy Gardner]

Will get back about those stoned Koalas. . .

So current science says this is an urban myth...

But I’m sure I recognise this face...

Ok - enough off topic from me, I’ll stop now - just couldn’t resist when Bob asked about critters that eat eucalyptus!

 

[kelticBlue]

adorable i needed that