How to get started growing indoors organically - No bottles

ACT is (vermi)compost tea. A microbial boost to your soil. Microbes in the soil are necessary for nutrient cycling within your soil. See: The Nutrient Cycle | SSWM and Soil Quality: Soil Functions: Nutrient Cycling

SPM could be omitted entirely and leaf mold used in its place.
One of the things I can't stress enough is using Quality! humus in your soil mix. This is why everyone should be producing there own vermicompost. A high quality compost, some vermicompost.. These are a must in your soil. Fresh/ high quality vermicompost is unbeatable.
 
Are we starting to grasp how the no till pots work now? This is nothing like bottle (force) feeding plants. It's making a balanced, rich soil, with emphasis on a high cation exchange capacity, and letting the soil food web handle the rest. Simple enough.
 
COorganics said:
ACT is (vermi)compost tea. A microbial boost to your soil. Microbes in the soil are necessary for nutrient cycling within your soil. See: The Nutrient Cycle | SSWM and Soil Quality: Soil Functions: Nutrient Cycling

SPM could be omitted entirely and leaf mold used in its place.
One of the things I can't stress enough is using Quality! humus in your soil mix. This is why everyone should be producing there own vermicompost. A high quality compost, some vermicompost.. These are a must in your soil. Fresh/ high quality vermicompost is unbeatable.
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I'm getting giddy to mix my homemade vermicompost into my existing soil! It's going to be sexy. That is all.
 
Here's the way to make the best Vermicompost possible. Feed your worm bin finished compost and minerals, I use oyster shell flour and rock dusts in mine. Forget about feeding them kitchen scraps, that's for Betty homemaker. They will work through compost much quicker that rawer materials too, meaning you can harvest castings much more frequently.
 
COorganics said:
Here's the way to make the best Vermicompost possible. Feed your worm bin finished compost and minerals, I use oyster shell flour and rock dusts in mine. Forget about feeding them kitchen scraps, that's for Betty homemaker. They will work through compost much quicker that rawer materials too, meaning you can harvest castings much more frequently.
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That's what I want to work towards. Ever since I learned that feeding thermophilic compost to worms produces superior vermicompost I have been jonesing for an outdoor compost pile.

Do you compost all your kitchen scraps first? What kind of compost are you using?
 
Hi PlanetJ. At last a question I can try and answer. Humus is one of the fundamental ingredients of my soil mix. I'm afraid that it's unlikely that regular potting compost will really be an adequate substitute. Potting composts can vary tremendously: some have added fertiliser to the loam, peat and sand - the usual three main constituents. Humus is essentially leaf mulch, which takes at least two years to decompose. The forest humus which I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by supports many wild flowers and weeds and nettles and is a great soil improver in my regular beds. It's full of life and trace elements and acts as a terrific natural pH buffer. And it's free. I just filter it carefully now after I found a grub devouring a Durban Poison tap root last year. Do you have any woodland nearby from where you could collect it?
 
And don't forget to add some biochar :)
 
@ closed circuit
My worm bin currently is working on 1/2- 3/4 finished leaf mold. My compost pile is frozen solid under a snowbank for the winter. Bad planning. :)

I have a large smartpot in the garage containing a mix of fully mature leaf mold from michigan oak and maple leaves, and 6 month old aspen leaves from CO. I just grab some of this after screening castings and make a new bin. Dust some stuff on top and generally leave them be.

Here's a pic of what I'm currently feeding worm bin.
image19901.jpg


Once spring rolls around they will get some of my finished compost as well. I'm hoping to get a production worm farm going actually, and make a little money on the side selling premo castings at reasonable prices. At the earliest that would start next fall. I do love my worms!
 
I've tossed char into compost/vermicompost teas while brewing. My hope is that the char soak up some of the tea and attract new settlers. I toss the char into the worm bin or compost heap after that to let things cook and then introduce it to my garden with the compost. I'll also feed the compost heap molasses that's left over from plant feeding to speed the processes.

Vermiculite? Same thing, pretty much. Haven't tried volcanic rock yet, but if I had some of that I'd do the same.

Darned if I know whether it works magic or not, but it is at very least a good soil amendment that I can source locally for free. And my garden seems pretty happy.
:Namaste:
 
COorganics said:
@ closed circuit
My worm bin currently is working on 1/2- 3/4 finished leaf mold. My compost pile is frozen solid under a snowbank for the winter. Bad planning. :)

I have a large smartpot in the garage containing a mix of fully mature leaf mold from michigan oak and maple leaves, and 6 month old aspen leaves from CO. I just grab some of this after screening castings and make a new bin. Dust some stuff on top and generally leave them be.

Here's a pic of what I'm currently feeding worm bin.
image19901.jpg


Once spring rolls around they will get some of my finished compost as well. I'm hoping to get a production worm farm going actually, and make a little money on the side selling premo castings at reasonable prices. At the earliest that would start next fall. I do love my worms!
Click to expand...


I've thought about whether or not that would viable as well..but I need to be more learned before I can sell amendments...a probably be in a better state. If I cant find a new job soon I may very strongly consider moving out to COearlier than planned, save up, and try to get immersed in that environment....

Sorry, I'm at a cross roads in my life and just thinking out loud.
 
COorganics said:
C,
Do you "charge" your Char before using? Like soaking it with ACT, or urine?
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No, not really, but I mix it well with compost and soil and stuff. There are two things that are worth mentioning about biochar. First is that it's a perfect home for mycorrhizae and nitrification-friendly bacteria. Second is that it immobilizes ammonia form of nitrogen allowing nitrate form of nitrogen to be available much quicker, but in the same time it holds the carbon, which slows down any leaching off to minimum. You need around 5-10% to get your mix rolling, and it really helps, I can present some good cases :)
 
conradino23 said:
And don't forget to add some biochar :)
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ClosedCircuit said:
For the love of God, do NOT forget the Bio-Char!
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?? What is it, what does it do ??

I live near enough woodland to collect more mulch then I could ever use .. I'll get to collecting a bag :) I'm kinda worried about bringing in pests, and I think I am going to litterally cook my ingredients ... as in add to water, and boil. Would that render the ingredients useless ?
 
Don't do it! Don't boil anything! At best let it sit in a warm sun!
 
Yes it would essentially destroy what you're bringing the forest material in for. Please don't do that. If you sift carefully you will get any errant critters.
 
So, let me rehash what I think I learned so far:

I can omit the SPM, and use mulch instead. My basic recepy could look something like this:

1 part mulch + 1 part (vermi)compost + (1/3 part rice husks + 1/3 part perlite + 1/3 part pumice)

To each ~30 liter of that mixture, add:

130 ml (~ 1/2 cup) ground up neem seeds
130 ml washed and dried and ground up kelp
130 ml crushed & ground up crab and shrimp exoskelletons
1000 ml rock dust in 4 parts crushed glacial rock, 1 part crushed bentonite clay (kitty litter), 1 part crushed basalt and 1 part crushed oyster shells

Mix this up, put a covercrop in it like stinging nettles, then cut the nettles just above ground and throw on compost heap, thoroughly work soil to break up rootmass and loosen it again, plant cannabis, profit ?

My guess is that 2 compost bins and a worm bin are usefull too ? 1 compost bin for fesh compost material, 1 that is ripening, and a worm bin to feed on and enrich the compost ?


I was thinking .. we have a LOT of quartzy stones here .. the round kind .. the ones that have been under glaciers and been transported that way ... would this be a good sub for the glacial rock dust ?
 
Keep it up Jedi-man, just mind the amount of crushed rock as you need very little of it really, not more than 10-15%, and it breaks down over years, not months. Otherwise good direction to grow some super dankness that will destroy the Empire.
 
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