Question: could I add a small amount of alfalfa and kelp meal to my spray bottle and let it sit for a day and spray the mixture on my plants as a make-shift compost tea? If so what measurements should I use for a small 1 liter bottle? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Possible problem you might have is that the material will clog most sprayer lines and nozzles. Kelp meal is really hard to avoid in this aspect. I usually strain that stuff and still end up with just enough bits to clog the nozzle anyway.
Thanks for your help guys, I'll make it work for now until I can pick up a pump and air stones!😅 good to know it'll be beneficial. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Well, considering use of a top quality compost/vermicompost/EWC as 1/3 of your soil base, this mix pretty much supplies the full range of nutrients needed for healthy plant growth. You can use the soil over and over again with minimal amending. The "no-till" technique is interesting enough all on its own... Give the whole thread a good look over when you have some time... http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/1299862-no-till-gardening.html/page-1#entry19926523
I don't see a problem with peat moss it grows real fast. Here are the simple facts. Canada has over 270 million acres of peat bogs which produce peat moss. Each year the peat moss industry harvests only 40,000 acres of peat moss mostly for horticultural use. If you do the math that comes to one of every 6,000 acres of peat moss is harvested each year. And here is the cherry on top. Peat bogs are living entities. The peat bogs grow 70% more peat moss each year than is harvested. With that data I consider peat definitely a renewable resource.
well TBH my opinion was based off what I read on these forums, so...it still is even if you're right? haha
Then go and do just a little bit of research, you'll come to the same conclusion, but have a little bit more than "I read it on the weed forums" for support.
And a large percentage of the information is in error simply due to poor or incomplete research, opinions passed off as facts, or, simply repeating erroneous information that was read on a forum. It's not called the *errorweb* for nothing. Wet
Last time we talked about about peat it was brought up that peat bogs are really old and dont make enough over time to meet the commercial demand of humans to sell the stuff, which made sense at the time. The dude was smart, thats why i trusted him wet! lol Honestly, whichever is the truth, the REAL reason I didnt research further is that we all came to the conclusion that ANYTHING you add to a living organic soil can (in theory) be used indefinitely for growing goodness so I saw it as a positive thing either way. And now I just feel a little less guilty and still hate buying stuff in plastic, Im going to start my leaf mold experiment so I can stop depleting peat bogs and my hard earned $12 in about 2-3 years if what i heard on "some weed forum" was right
None of that was directed at you Jack, just observations from the web in general. There are also plenty of smart people with an agenda who can twist truth or facts to support whatever view they want. I think I recently related a story about a scare article in Fl concerning heavy metals in fish from fresh water canals and man made lakes. The story wasn't in error, but what was left out was the fact that a person would have to consume something like 20lbs of fish/DAY for an extended period of time to have any negative effects. The woman had an agenda, she was anti fishing and really anti eating her finny friends. The sad reality was, many people remembered the original article and not later articles that exposed her manipulations. IIRC, she did lose her job with the state, but many people, families, kids quit spending quality time on a canal or lake bank catching some dinner or catch and release. They were scared to even handle the fish. Always remember the Mark Twain quote ... "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics". Wet
Demand does not dictate harvest levels whatsoever. That is determined by a number of factors and involves several agencies, organizations, etc. both in the USA as well as Canada. There are only 14 companies allowed to harvest peat moss in Canada. Having said that one company, i.e. Sun Gro Horticulture, harvests 51%+ of the total amount. In other words they harvest more than their competitors combined. The second largest company, i.e. Premier Tech Horticulture and their wholly-owned consumer division, Premier Tech Home & Garden, harvest around 30% of the total allotment. The problem discussing this bogus coir vs. peat moss paradigm is that the coir importers failed miserably in the commercial nursery sector and refocused their efforts to the consumer market. That is why the claims about sustainability are without merit as it relates to coir. What is never discussed is deforestation, slave labor, child labor, poisoning of rivers, estuaries, lakes, etc. Plus I would bet my last f*cking dollar that less than 1% of coir users could accurately assess where the specific coir product that they use originated from - Jamaica? Mexico? Thailand? South India? Vietnam? Sri Lanka? The image that they want to sell you is a beautiful beach somewhere around the world where a few coconuts are collected and somehow this magical material 'just appears' out of thin air! Compressed coir bricks? LMAO! Yeah - that's some real good shit! CC
haha i've come so close to trying coir for that very argument but a bale of peat lasts so long that I never got the chance looks like I'm sticking with Sphagnum until I get my leaf mold aka Jack's "forest hummus" soil amendment lmao
Jack, ya think those sustainability claims were written or started by someone with an agenda? A little tweaking of the facts or statistics perhaps? The deforestation is nothing new. I recently read 2 different WWII historys concerning the South Pacific and in both there were photos of ANZAC troops fighting in coconut plantations in New Guinea and other islands. I mean, coconut trees in nice lines as far as the camera could focus and this was 70+ years ago. I will tell you one thing. It is really enlightening to read about the same event(s) from 2 different perspectives. Sometimes the versions are so different you wonder if they are talking about the same thing. The truth is in there somewhere. Wet
Yes mono cultures for everything! I believe the only way to find the truth is by wallowing in our own dirt for years on end Cured living soil always brings things to light, right?
I'm moving to organic soil next week! I'm sooo excited My plant needed an emergency transplant and was moved to Fox Farms Ocean Forest soil, and now she is going through K lockout and whatnot, so I'm really happy to get her in a new mix! This is what I invested in: - Sphagnum peat moss (organic) - Perlite (organic) - Earthworm castings (organic) - Clackamas coot's nutrient mix on Build-A-Soil.com Anyone have ratio recommendations? She's in a solo cup now but she's getting big and I'd like to get in in at least a 1gal pot, if not a 5gal bucket. Thanks guys, so excited to be getting in the organic game!
If you like real dank frosty buds you are on the right track. the ffof I've used worked ok but Not as well as my mix You do realize you have to let your mix cycle right? They will be in the FF for a bit longer, got any pics of them? the soil may not be the problem.