Hi folks, I live in a large city, yet want living soil organic composts and soil mixes. Here is what I did. :OVER VIEW: It's all about inputs...............outputs and the systems involved. 1) ....Food waste. via EM-1.....................................Bokashi Compost 2) ....Old dried forest leaf. via mold......................................Leaf Mold Compost 3) ....Used soil medium (or compost/leaf mold compost), ....rice hulls, cocoa hulls, coir, ....neem/crab/kelp/alfalfa meals, leaf compost, ....Hi P bat guano, fish bone meal, oat/other seed meals ....compost tea sludge, composted poultry manure, ....some comfrey, bokashi compost. (dab) via worms (small worm bin)............Vermi Compost 4) ....Leaf compost, rice hulls, ....food waste, yard trim waste, ....my ALPHA soil mix, sphagnum peat moss ....fish bone meal, Hi N bat guano, fish hydroslate powder, ....cocoa hulls, composted poultry manure, ....rock and oyster shell dust, pumice ....So Pol Mag, Sure Start, dolomite lime, hummic shale oar via thermo bacteria........................Thermo Compost This mix then sits in a compost sack and cures with some more comfrey added. Then we come to the actual container soil mix itself. 5) ....Sphagnum peat moss, coir, leaf compost, ....old soil mix or thermo compost, pumice ....rock/oyster shell powders, vermi compost, ....neem/crab/kelp meals. I think this is all right. I'm petty tired though.
Another way of looking at it. I want to draw a chart but not tonight. Bokashi Compost feeds the Vermi Compost and Thermo Compost. Leaf Mold Compost feeds the Vermi Compost, Thermo Compost and Soil Mix. Leaf Mold Compost, Vermi Compost, Thermo Compost feeds the Soil Mix. I'll post more details later. Requests taken.
So Bokashi, Leaf composts are doing well enough. The vermi compost is a bit slow atm, so supplementing with Agrowin ewc's. The thermo pile I'm going to start sunday. I'll be keeping a very close eye (and thermometer) on it. It will be in my compost tumbler for easy mixing and oxygenating when needed.
So my soil recipe then. This is posted elsewhere, but I'm trying to get all of my grow info in an easy to find spot as I get lost easily. The big changes is that I'm taking a lot of my old ingredients and instead of putting them in here, they'll go in my worm bin or thermo compost pile to get more throughly processed/cycled. =THE GOALS= Make approximately 360 gallons (48 cf) of 1.0 (my soil mix name) to fill 4, 100 gallon Smart Pots (or equivalent). This will be a no till garden, to run 3-5 years (we'll see about this guess), indoors in an urban setting. The urban setting strongly influences the design considerations for the soil mix, as does the long term run planned. One of the concerns in a long term run is compaction. Looking at soil horizons (or layers, pg 33 of Teaming With Microbes), I used that as a bit of a guide. The top layer would be the mulch (fibric soil), the next layer would be humic soil, following would be sapric soil. These first three layers described are in the O horizon. At the very bottom should be the thickest layer (this is where the roots mostly are), called only the A horizon in TWM. As I layer in ewc's and compost over time, I'm trying to do what I can to maintain these layers, although I don't think what I am building is quite the same as what we find in the wild. By any measure. Due to this long term use, I've decided on a soil mix that is in various stages of decomposition. Compost, leaf mold compost vermi-compost for example, rather than immediately available (like LD's mix, which strongly influences 1.0) As I keep top dressing and adding mulch, I will probably have to harvest some of my upper layers periodically, in order to maintain a fairly constant volume (within 20 cf) of soil mix in my air pots. Maybe I'll start my own bagged soil mix company. However I do want to do minimal tilling/soil disturbance, so the lower layers of A (maybe all of A) will probably never get disturbed. Hopefully this will help maintain a good, undisturbed fungal network for the roots to tap into. =THE FORMULA= this is one tumbler full X 3 to aprox. fill 4, 100 gallon sacks 16 cf (48 cf total) of base mix consisting of; 4 cf (12 cf total) of ewc's and, 12 cf (36 cf total) cf of Sub-base: ~3.6 cf (10.8 cf total) leaf compost ~2.4 cf (7.2 cf total) compost. This will be my old compost from previous grows, ( http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/920810-my-own-way-mixing-bagged-compost.html ), then from my thermo compost pile. ~2.4 cf (7.2 cf total) coir fibre ~2.4 cf (7.2 cf total) sphagnum peat moss ~1.2 cf (3.6 cf total) pumice. Bunch of amendments; ~80 cups =5 gallons (240 cups = 15 gallons/2 cf total), of rock/oyster dust (probably whatever I have left of my green sand as well) ~24 cups =1.5 gallons (72 cups = 4.5 gallons total/.6 cf) of neem/kelp/crab meals Obviously the first air pot loads won't be so layered as described above as the layer modality is to be implemented over time to deal with compaction and adding fresh toppings. Speaking of toppings, I'll have a cover crop of white clover in place before I drop my plants. I'll make my batches (3) probably all in the same day, fill the sacks, then water throughly and sprinkle the clover seed on. Allow to sit for at least two weeks (a month would be better) before planting my cannabis. This will be for 8 plants, 2 per 100 gallon sack.
Kewl man. What you running for light, and what kind of room, ventilation and such? It's hard to wrap my head around that much dirt indoors. Or is your grow is outdoors, in the city? Can you do that? MIW
Indoors, under 2.4KW (4 X 600W). I have a 8" extraction fan, soon to be 10". Plants sit in two, 3' by 6' trays. And in the city. This won't go for a bit. Finances are tight and I have plenty of herb put away to last me. I want to get the compost and everything perfect first. I still need to buy that big fan and one more light/hood/ballast. I have two 6" powered air intakes, circulation fans, a nice controller and all of that. When I am ready, I will start a journal in the organic grow journal forum. The room is a sealed room in the garage, although with a sloping concrete floor. I have a drain in the garage floor so my run off goes there. Once I am ready to do another run, I'll post details of my grow rooms.
Four six hundred watt lights is nice. I sometimes wonder if that would suit me better than the 2 - 1,000w hps lights that I do run, but to switch would cost me a million. 4 lights spread out over my 8'X8' table might be better to spread the light out properly. jerry.
I am a bit ocd. So I have to redo this chart I posted (and deleted) above. The error I made was to show that I was directing some of my vermi cropping output to my thermo compost as an input. Wrong on so many levels. The nice thing about this chart is that it clearly shows what comes first. Given how long it takes for leaf compost to be created, and it's significance in this chart, the implication is that a leaf compost pile should be a first priority. Given how cheap leaf compost is (virtually free) this shouldn't be a problem for most folks.
very nice chart, organization. I'm looking at a compost tumbler, this is the type: http://www.google.com/products/cata...=X&ei=8sPvTseuBaHYiAKU8InQBA&ved=0CJEBEPMCMAQ they are moving so I'm thinking this will work, for 70$... i'm thinking it will be great for my foraging, etc. are ya lookin at any other covers? i'm using a rye, buckwheat and crimson clover mix, it's in the early stages and the 1, 2nd sowing have done so and so- big hopes for my third sowing soon... i'm expecting the baby crop any day now
Hey folks, I'm on the road on my iPhone so can't cut/paste and such. Jerry I choose 600W lamps as, supposedly, they are the most efficient at converting watts to lumens. That's important to me as is coverage. Forbes I will probably just go with the white clover for now. Money is tight and I already have the seed. As far as your tumbler, it's cute. It will be good for mixing things up, but I've read a thermo compost pile needs a certain mass (3 foot wide and 3 foot tall) to be really effective. Maybe if you keep feeding it alfalfa meal when it cools down can help over come this? Speaking of thermo piles I started my first ever thermo compost pile in my tumbler. I'll post pics and a detailed report after I get done bowling and drinking beer tonight. At this point I feel like Lewboski.
weed i agree with ya about the 600. the coverage and penetration is just oo cute I may build a concrete platform, I don't know if that's hotter but maybe a wall to? about the clover,i guess some of it grows wild if you know where to find it...
I always ran 400w HPS fixtures because at the time that was the only product line made specifically for greenhouse supplemental lights. Later there were other reasons to stick with the 400w systems -the 400w HPS is the mainstay of the HID lighting industry having nothing to do with growing plants. I'm talking about the sheer availability of several bulbs and spectrums. I went to a 600w about 3 years ago. Great system and all of that but if I had it to do over again I would have stayed with the 400w equipment. LD
Hey LD. I'm stuck with a 600W system so it's forward, damn the torpedoes. Forbes, I saw a few different tumblers on my iphone when I clicked that link you provided. Now at home all I am seeing is this log looking device. That seems like a nice tumbler. The cute one I mentioned looked like a basketball. One reason why I like my tumbler is that it is big and being contained, will probably do a better job than an open pile would. I may try to look for some clover, it really depends on my time (or lack there of).
yah this's it Tumbling Composter it looks like a good deal but I might just allocate to the worm bins
:THERMO COMPOST BUILDING: my first ever, please don't laugh Hey gang, So my formula then: My tumbler comfortably holds about 16 cf (with room for air/tumbling). Since I'm going with a 2/3rds brown, 1/3rd greens compost formula, this is what I am doing. 10 cf browns: 8 cf of leaf mold compost (madrone oak leaf) ( http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/923357-black-leaf-mold-compost.html ) 2 cf rice hulls 5 cf greens: 1 cf food waste (frozen then thawed) and yard waste (weeds, comfrey, etc) 1 cf alfalfa 1 cf fish bone meal 1 cf of my ALPHA soil mix ( http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/920810-my-own-way-mixing-bagged-compost.html ) 1 cf mix of cocoa hulls, dried fish powder, composted poultry manure, Hi N bat guano Then: 2.2 cf of sphagnum peat moss 2.8 gallons of rock powder 1.8 gallons of oyster shell powder 1 cup of So Pol Mag 5 cups each of; Sure Start D. Lime Hummic Shale Ore Green sand 2 gallons of pumice (I may bump this up to 4 gallons) And a bucket of Bokashi Compost.
The pictures. Top left is the empty tumbler with a bit of left over ALPHA mix. Next is the same but with 2.2 cf of sphagnum peat moss in it. The moss was a bit lumpy and I tried to break it up by hand but it was a bit much. So I put it in my bread basket, rubber maid bin (picture 4) and sifted it to break up lumps and to mix the finer powders (which tend to clump and make balls in the tumbler) like the d. lime and such. The third picture shows the crank that makes rotating the drum very easily. Mixing is not an issue for this old man. Last picture is with the tumbler nearly full. What you see mostly is the leaf compost. Last bit was watering throughly. This was a very dry mix. Lots of powders and the leaf compost was nearly bone dry. Funny enough, when I dug into my leaf mold compost pile, the top layers were dry brittle leaf, but underneath was fibric soil looking material, well on it's way to being humus. After I watered, it was already starting to get warm.
For 65$ I would jump all over that. My big one (22 cf capacity supposedly, more like 16-18 cf) cost me just over $400. At the very least it would be useful for mixing your soil.
i'm going to check it out at nine am. I presume it should be useful what with making effective compost. edit- very nice recipe and ingrediants above, very nice!
Thanks man. Should also mention that tumblers are great storage devices for soil mixes as well. Tidy, lots of air flow and pretty easy to get soil in and out of. I have two (the other one is much smaller but still a rolling drum) and they just open up a world of possibilities in soil crafting.