From Chopping Board to Soil- The Compost Cycle

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by surfsem, Jan 28, 2015.

  1. So basically out of all of this I'm getting about three/four topics. Composting, rock "dusts" or mineralization, thawing and freezing and its relation to acceleration of de-composition, finally soil recycling? Well I'll do my best to give my opinions on these topics. Here we go! Lol.

    Compost - personally I don't buy compost, and I honestly detest commercial compost. That being said my compost before it gets added to a soil mix takes a year to compost (dependent on ingredients used). Typically I have a thermal composting pile that goes for between 3-5 months or so, that then gets amended (often times with some sort of bone meal, and a but load of native seaweeds) then it gets fed to the worms for between 6-9 months. If I have fish materials, then I'll Bokashi that then add it to the thermal pile. Often times I try to steer away from anaerobic digestion tho, because you loose lots of beneficial nutrients in the process. Say for example you open your Bokashi bin, then you get a whiff if some sour shyt, that's typically a sign that you've lost nitrogen by means of Methane. What you could do is to the top of your Bokashi with activated charcoal, bio char, whatever, the carbon will soak up the excess nitrogen and you'll keep all nutrition. Personally I don't wouldn't accept Eco scraps, menehune magic, or even niu. They'd be a good start for a worm bin but not exactly what you'd want to use to build a soil. You can also check out a place called Ohana green house, they've got Malibu thermal dynamic, and worm castings also. Again, if it were up to me I'd make my own, but if I'm going to use commercial try looking there (http://www.ohanagreenhouse.com).

    Rock "dusts" - basically when it comes down to it Hawaii's basalt is world class! Why do you think sugarcane, pineapples, papayas, coffee are all such huge money makers? Hawaii has minerals galore! It's organic matter that's in need. I use basalt, from Home Depot. Masonry department, pick up a big bag of basal "sand" 50# for like $6 or so. It's by far better than paying $10+ for a single pound of Canadian rock dust. While you're at it get a bag of coral while you're there. This is where you say something like, "well it's sand and not dust, that's not gonna work". Yes it's going to "work". Here, walk around in the mountains long enough and you'll find plants growing in rocks, the plants themselves create secretions, compounds, exudates, enzymes so on and so forth that all have very specific purposes to break down rocks and mine minerals. That's what plants do! Your "sand" is not going to provide your soil with nutrition now, it's going to be breaking down continually for 3+ years to come. You are going to recycle your soil right? Then your gonna want to have that in there. As beneficial Hawaii's basaltic rock is (maybe 30+ nutrients?), coral has 70+! (Check it out at gocoral.com) oh and it's an incredible source of calcium btw, don't worry about salt, it's washed!

    Thawing - now here's a fun one to discuss! Basically this you'll learn this from anyone that knows how to cook, steak especially! Think of your steak in the freezer, after it thaws it's not "the same" right? Well that's because while the steak or meat proteins are in their natural state, they have specific chemical bonds that hold them together. When they freeze these molecules, pause or dramatically slow to a semi-stop. The water between the proteins bond, and when it thaws these bonds are then broken, which then gives your steak a really disgusting texture. That form of "pre-digestion" is what's happening with your frozen foods, which then makes it a lot easier for other organisms to then consume them. I hope that makes sense. I tried looking for a video, sorry I was unsuccessful lol.

    Oh and I'd use peat and rock cinders just fyi lol.

    Anyway I hope that was helpful, umm lmk lol.

    Aloha
    SD


    Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono
     
  2. #22 surfsem, Feb 7, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 9, 2015
    Yeeeah Sean! Mahalo for the knowledge

    I'm glad you stopped by before I bought the niu bags. Long term goal of course is to use only my own compost but the time will come. I'll check out the Malibu stuff for my soil mix.
        Should I still pick up some niu chicken poo and compost just to start a couple more smart pot worm bins? - stuffs cheap, thinkin mix 50/50 and hit with act and sit for week before adding worms.
        After the 3-5 thermo period, what do you mean by amend? - do you let those added materials compost with the pile a bit or just mix it and directly feed afterwards? What 'form' of seaweed? Dry..freshpicked...bought..


    I had no idea about the biochar+bokashi thing. Makes total sense can't wait to apply it. Also gonna give the store a visit.

    I saw bags of 'from hawaii, for hawaii' basalt sand at city mill. I was seriously considering running it through a cheap blender...lol I like the sand form. The lady and I visited waimea valley just the other day and appreciated everything a lot more after learning so much from this site about..life and all its forms haha. Beautiful native plants growing straight out of the cliffs!that's some good rock. Real good farmers market too. You on the gathering place too Sean? Anyway
        What size is the coral? - I don't remember seeing this one at HD. You use it for aeration? Oh wait that's cinders..
        What's your cinder source?- niu bags some and sells at HD. I'm guessing they have some nice local minerals or something yeah
        Do you know of any local biochar sources?

    Thanks for freeze break down. Good visual. Mmmmm...steak....

    I appreciate all the input. Do you have your kamaaiana soil mix recipe posted anywhere? If you can either post it here or lead me in the right direction that'd be great. I'm just gonna replicate it with what I have available. 

    Mahalo!





    random side note- life is wonderful!!!
     
  3. Hey dude!

    J
     
  4. Good tip on the weathering part! Inbibition can do wondrous things in nature. As well, the flexible cell wall means that root can split a foundation in two, no problem. Also, it's good to keep in mind that the protists in our soils do the exact same thing, albeit much faster.

    Good stuff, man.
     
  5. Local knowledge. Can't beat it.  Hope this sets you on the right path man!!
     
  6. Sorry for such a late response, now you can figure why no one bothers with me anymore lmao.

    I'd say go ahead with the chicken manure. It's a cheap source of nitrogen.

    I amend the "finished" compost, before adding it to the worm bin. Why? Eh, just cause I guess lol. Kind of bump up the casting quality. I primarily use the thermal compost to do bulk break down, and I always use fresh brown seaweeds. Limu kala specifically, always cut it off, don't pull the root off of the coral, you'll damage it and also loose material from your future harvests.

    Those sand bags are exactly what I'm talking about, don't worry about grinding it down, you also have fine particulate in there also. Coral is the same. You don't have to pay top dollar for the same things. That's why there's Ross dress for less stores lmao. The cinders you can also get from the depot. But wash it first, they add oils to the cinders to make for easier processing, you don't want that stuff.
    As for my soil mix. I'll get that to you shortly if that's ok.

    Aloha
    SD



    Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono
    Hey J!

    Great to hear from you bro! Hope you're doing well! You also RD!

    Aloha guys
    SD


    Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono
     

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