Certainly.About your substrate crafting?
when you have a minute
I grow for medical reasons and want to grow as naturally and organically as possible. I'm also a bit of a tinkerer and like to explore things through various experiments, some of which involve making my own organic nutrients from stuff I can grow in my garden and using KNF (Korean Natural Farming) and Jadam practices. I document many of these excursions in the 'Plant Alchemy' thread in my signature.
Because I want to grow organically I was attracted to, and mixed up my own soil mix, using one of the living soil approaches which in my case is the 'Coot's Mix', essentially equal parts CSPM (Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss), aeration (like perlite, hydroton, pumice, etc) and worm castings plus a bunch of minerals and things like neem meals, crustacean meals, rock dust, etc. I used @bobrown14 's recipe he's posted in his cottage thread.
I've become increasingly frustrated with the CSPM portion because of the pH issues it brings as well as, and especially irritating to me, its hydrophobic properties. Once dried out it is difficult and time consuming to rehydrate. So, I decided to try something else.
In my case, I am moving from CSPM to ALM (Aged Leaf Mold). This is quite simply autumn leaves collected in a bag, barrel, or pile and left to break down over time. It works kind of like a compost pile but this is a slow and cold process, not a hot and fast one like normal composting.
And unlike the bacterial breakdown process in composting, this is more of a fungal breakdown. The downside is you can't buy it and it takes a couple years to make. The end product is a dark brown, almost black when moist, humussy end product. Same stuff you'll find in the forest below the current season's layer of newly fallen leaves. REALLY good stuff.
You don't want to use fresh leaves because they'll rob your mix of nutrients as they break down.
So far I've been quite pleased by this substitution. When I did my experiments I compared the water holding capacity of CSPM, Coco, and my ALM. Both of the former are known for their ability to hold water at least when finally moist. I found the ALM held as much, and even a little bit more water in the same volume so there is no compromise there. And it is MUCH easier to rehydrate which is what I was after.
Another benefit is that I keep a worm bin and feed the worms kitchen scraps covered by a thin layer of chopped up leaves. Turns out the worms love the ALM in my pots and they bring their famous unicorn poop directly and in an ongoing manner to my pots. Love that.
Also one of the key components of organic gardening and the Jadam method, is to build the microbe population in your soil, since they are what is needed to break down the organics you think you are feeding your plants but are actually feeding the microbes which then deliver to the plant what the plant is asking for at any given time.
When I did my water holding experiment, I oversaturated all three mediums overnight to try to get a fair comparison between them. The next morning, the ALM container was frothy with bubbles showing some very active biological activity, while the CSPM and Coco had no activity at all.
So the ALM brings its own microbes and fungi to my mix, and provides a great environment for my worms. Good stuff all around.
Finally, although I haven't had my mix tested, I saw the report of someone who did and they found it essentially half bacterially based and half fungi based. It is well known that some fungi really help bond with roots. I have no idea if that's what's going on with my mix, but can say the plants so far seem very happy. I know they say cannabis prefers a bacterially dominated soil, so my fungal addition may run counter to that, but so far, so good.
So, that's my story and I'm sticking to it unless I think something else might work better, or until this one disappoints.
It's what we do!
