Hey everyone!!! Me and my buddy have finally acquired a property that we will be staying at for a few years and so now we would like to start reusing our soil to reduce grow costs. We have been doing research on how this is done and been lurking many threads but we decided to start a thread of our own to get specific help as we'll as show our progress. Specifics: Our current soil is a mix of Black Gold potting soil and Lucky Dog soil, similar to Pro Mix #4 which we get sometimes. We have 7 five gallon pots that we need to dump out today and so we are at the beginning stages of building this pile.
Also we have a pile of high grade organic compost on site that the landlord uses to amend the gardens and we have been given permission to use this compost to mix into our recycled soil pile. Also check out the current grow in my Sig
Alright, so our first thing is we need to know if we need to try to separate out as much of the roots from the soil or do we just break it down as much as possible?
Roots will break down fairly quickly if you keep the heap moist. If it was me, if mix a mess of your compost into the soil, mix some of your dry amendments into it, wet it thoroughly and let it sit a little bit. Screen it before use (I use a 1/2" hardware cloth & 2x6 frame), add a little aeration if needed and you'll be good to go - over and over again. Get yourself some rock flour to add. I like adding some chicken manure pellets and alfalfa too. Neem cake is another great additive. To really jump in with both feet, get yourself some comfrey starts and start growing comfrey on the property. Add this to the mix. Your compost is the heart and soul of your soil - keep a good amount of compost always mixed in, make sure it drains well, add a few dry amendments here and there and you'll be able to continuously reuse your soil forever. Good luck. J
Being that we are very broke atm all we have to add is the blood, bone, and kelp meal and also some bat guano high in nitrogen. So as of now we have 40 gallons of the k9 dirt and the other potting soil, I dumped the buckets out in a pile mashed up the root balls and then added a cup of kelp mean and a half cup each of the blood and bone meal as well as the bat guano. Added about 10 gallons of compost wet it all down and mixed it all up!!
We lolli popped the plants last night so we shreded the greens we cut as threw it in the dirt pile along with the branches from our last harvest
Did some prepping in the veggie garden and moving plants to other areas to make more room. Built a soil screen from things I gathered around the house and shed!!! And here's a pic of the current pile of grown soil that I am trying to compost and reuse in a few months I plan to put the buckets of leaves on it and pile more soil on that and turn it a bit
I feel ya on being broke.. Anyways I hope you added more than just a cup of kelp and a half of the others.. I know you said you are broke but I highly highly recommend adding neem meal to your mix. Probably my top favorite amendment, with my respects to kelp meal. You'll need minerals too. Gotta remember if you are re-using your soil it's crucial to get the recipe as best as possible. Careful with the blood meal, it's very hot, and VERY water soluble. My must haves for soil recipes are crab meal, neem meal, kelp meal, and insect meal, bio char...
I'm adding more of those once I dump the next 20 gallons of soil on the pile next week, I plan on getting neem meal as soon as I can haha
if you are re-using it i'd also not forget the crab meal, in my opinion crabl/kelp/neem meals will shit alllll over bat guano and blood meal, waay more micros and chitin and all kinds of great stuff for your organic soil. Fish bone meal is another good one for re-using, anything that breaks down really slow is what you want.
Agreed! Neem meal, krab meal, and and fish bone meal are the things I plan to acquire in that order once I have the money haha. Stinging nettle grows crazy here so once it starts popping up I'll be collecting that to and adding it
oh! schnap-diggety... nettles is the goods. Throw a bunch in your compost pile or throw a bunch in a bucket of water and let them melt a lil Comfrey is great stuff too. don't forget your minerals too
if you are going that route, get some horsetail as well. Can't beat organic silica. good for a lot of things, I've also noticed mites don't like to be sprayed with horsetail either. Doesn't like eradicate them, but it does slow them down. dandelions are great too, and easy to find in most places.
Horsrtail as in the prehistoric plants? Those also grow prolifically haha. I live in the northwest and on a creeks so tons of green spring weeds and brush. Are skunk cabbage worth anything?
yup the horsetail that doesn't have any leaves or anything, kinda looks like bamboo minus the leaves. I love the pacific northwest, I have a good friend that lives on an island off the coast of WA... can't remember the name of the island.. I wanna say its Whigbey? or maybe Whitney? Whidbey? Cool place though, I may end up there someday don't know of any extra stuff the skunk cabbage would have, minus the natural value as a compost
Haha yeah it would be Whidbey island, it's a beautiful place I guess I'll have to pop into the organics lounge to ask about the skunk cabage