Sitting out for "a day or two" won't do anything to chloramine. I put my city water in a 35 gallon plastic garbage can, add a 1,000 mg Vitamin C crushed fine in a coffee bean grinder and aerate it for a couple of hours.
Haha, no not really. Been a member here since '09, but was outta touch for a little while. I will admit to not fully knowing how to cut and paste quotes tho( I was waiting to be called out on that one). I was always a lurker, but recently decided to start joining in conversations.
Cool, well good to meet ya Mota! I appreciate the trick about the chloramine, but can you explain why and how it works? And what the vitamin C does? Many thanks again! 5sF
Nice to meet you as well 5 Star. I am no expert on it but apparently Vitamin C converts chloramine to chlorine and allows it to be off-gassed through aeration of the water. I did that last season and it worked great. You can also use compost or EWC in place of the Vitamin C to cause the same effect.
I thought it was the Adam Dunn show? Never checked it out myself but I've heard the name being kicked around. I could very well be wrong too !!!
It is the Adam Dunn show, I'm watching it right now. Ryan Dunn is the guy from Jackass/CKY who died from crashing his Porsche while drunk driving. Shoulda stayed home and got stoned, then he might not be lying under one! R.I.P. Ryan Dunn 5sF
one is steamed and one is unsteamed. now as far as some of the comments before we started talking about youtube and such, one thing said was greensand isn't available for a few years or something. i don't plan on having this soil MIX forever. i plan to use the same soil and just amend it with things further down the road after use. i wasn't sure of everything in here, but i figured if i throw in a wide variety of things, some that will break down soon and others that will take a longer time, it will be balanced over time. i plan to grow a few things for this myself so i know they're organic.
ok so this discussion didn't quite go in the direction i wanted so how about i'll ask a different question. if i wanted to make the most rounded, amended, and long term usable soil out of any and all of the things stated and unstated, what would you recommend? i know some of you are having great results with about 3 things in your soil, but if you were to add more, what would it be? i have about 30 gal of soil already made up w the revs mix so i could do a side by side of something recommended by the fine folks here. i start them in solo cups, then plant into a 3 gal pot, then into a 6 gal right before flowering, so using up soil quickly won't be hard. in the future i plan to use aeration pots, but that's a bit down the road since i already have pots that are working fine. i'll listen to your health and ecological concerns as i'm part of the cycle of the plants and it would be stupid to ignore them, but i'd really appreciate alternatives and not just a "don't use that". so of all of these things, what would your well rounded master mix be? fox farm ocean forest (or other bagged soil mix, what's your preferred brand?) coco perlite ewc fertilizer (bagged or do you use homemade? ratio and brand) greensand oyster shell - powdered oyster shell - crushed dolomite lime - powdered dolomite lime - prilled, fast acting bonemeal guano (12-12-2) feather meal bone meal bulb food soft rock phosphate gypsum - powdered kelp meal composted steer manure (do you use horse manure? dairy cow manure?) azomite - granular humic acid ore - granular alfalfa meal (will be grown by me next year) rock phosphate - granular organic basmati rice azomite - powdered bone meal - steamed cottonseed meal guano (0-5-0) gypsum - granular DE zeolite crab meal neem meal (i'm getting a neem tree for bonsai, so i'll have a few leaves available, but not many. will also be growing it in the same room as they like the same temps and lots of light and can take just about any rh so hopefully the presence will keep pests away as well) vermiculite glacial rock dust dry molasses nettles (picked from my yard) yarrow (already planted indoors) comfrey (will plant next year) dandelion (picked from my yard) clover (will have to check my yard, but if it's not there i'll plant some) borage (already planted indoors) karanja meal (comes from the millettia pinnata tree, same story as the neem tree, i'm going to bonsai one) insect frass chitosan epsom salt mushroom compost (have a friend who wants to grow his own shooms, would his old compost work?) peat bentonite aloe (i have many aloe plants in my house) soybean meal langbeinite wood ash (we also have a few wood burning stoves and mostly burn box elders and elms and a lot of cardboard and paper) so after reading what you guys said and writing this post i really want to do a side by side of the revs mix and a gc mix. pretend i have access to all of those things right now, what would your master mix include and how much of it? also what causes seedlings first set or two of true leaves become contorted? they're growing fine but the leaves of some aren't how they're supposed to be, they're twisting. they're in a mix that's only equal parts ff ocean forest, ewc, coco, and perlite under a 125w compact fluorescent.
If you want to add to the mix RD posted. You could add alfalfa and comfrey. But that would need to cycle a bit. They would be best added to your compost after it cools, but that takes a long time.
i did read the pdf and thank you for that. if coco is a no go, then it is what it is. however, there's the ecological side of it too as the peat bogs are being destroyed and such. however since i'm a bit of a selfish human being i guess i'd opt towards what is going to get me a better end goal and from what the pdf told me that would be the peat. however i've heard of a ph imbalance possibility with using mosses, is there any truth to that for you and if so what do you do to combat it if at all? also it breaks down faster than coco? and to keep everything from washing out of my buckets i have a mat of coco at the bottom, what do you guys use to stop from losing soil? i do use free 6gal buckets i repurpose from a local restaurant and drill holes in them, so i could go with small holes, but i don't want them so small that it takes a lot of water sitting in the bucket to break the surface tension and push it through. or is that just some paranoia i have that's not true? currently putting in either 1/4" or 3/16" holes. probably about 30 in the bottom. in what you were saying for your aeration, is there a difference between pumice and perlite? since you mentioned lava rock i would assume the pumice is in larger chunks than perlite is? i have about 10 pots of cacti and would swear by lava rock for them for sure, but that's more for a layer at the bottom, not much mixed into the soil. tree dog, i'm going to get a worm bin going some time this year. i have a dairy farm next door that also has some horses, so i'm sure manure from them will be free flowing. i wanted to add some things to that, but not a rediculous amount as is in my current soil. i guess the worms do best in manure and they also process it the quickest as its what they eat in the wild. but i wanted to add in a few things that would add ax extra little kick to it and the comfrey and stuff were among that.
If you want to avoid both peat and coco coir, I know Jerry111165 uses just amended leaf mold and maybe aeration. But this takes 3-4 year to make. re: perlite vs pumice. Perlite floats and will move upward in your soil over time. No pH issues with good compost and some crustacean meal I don't use anything to keep from loosing soil. it seams to pack down and I don't see anything in the run off water