I was at the feed store a while back, and someone is marketing large smart pots as composting pots. I would give it a shot, I don't know why it wouldn't work. It might work really, really well when the outdoor temps are still low, but the sun can hit the sides of the pot. Sometimes that little jump start makes a difference. cheers os
As for the mixing heres a post I made a couple years back that might help. Sizing is a much more complicated question. As Scoobie said I'd fill as much floor space with soil as possible. However you also need to consider space to work and the range of your reach. A 3x3 seems possible but very cramped and hard to reach into. A 2x4 up the center or along the back would still be tricky but possibly easier to work. You can still trellis out your canopy into some of that open space above. I need more info. Are you limited to exactly 4x4 or could you go bigger? Do they make tents with doors on opposite sides? Do you have to use a tent? Another big consideration is your veg/transplant plan. Keep in mind that if you transplant into a big bed after harvest you're gonna lose a little time each round allowing your veg plants to spread their feet in the new soil/fill your canopy a bit. My ideal setup for big soil is 2 identical rooms. When one is flowering the other is in veg and then they flip. This allows my plants to fully spread out into their beds while avoiding transplanting big plants or moving heavy soil. If you can't make that work maybe the biggest pots you can possibly move between rooms is a better answer for you. If you do stay in pots I'd oversize them and roll the sides down a bit to spread your soil more horizontally. This allows for more volume while eating up less vertical space.
I don't have the pics but they are in another thread. But for mixing I use a grout mixer and a 20v drill. I recently mixed a 20g tote and it was super super easy. All raw material. Fresh compost etc. I'd imagine it would work well even in a bed as long as it's not deeper than 2'. I plan to mix my 3x6' beds this way and they'll be 16" deep. Beds will hold roughly 180g of soil, I plan to mix 150g initially. I've done the tarp. Not a fan at all honestly. I mixed my 20g tote in probably 2 minutes. Took far more time measuring out material than mixing
Yea limited to 4x4 tents and forced to use tents cause of smells. Not gonna trust a carbon filter in an open room. Needs to be sealed and i already have the tents anyways. Yes theres side access to most, if not all tents. That perpetual process is exactly how im gonna do it. Plant in veg room, when its done vegging, switch to flowering room, plant again in veg room. Didnt want the pots to be so huge to not be able to carry. Is the payout really as equivalent to soil size continuously even if you veg for the same amount of time? For example, vegging for 2 months in a 30gal vs vegging for 2 months in a 40 gal, is there really any difference anyone can prove? I always figured the bigger the pot, the more time youre gonna desire to veg. Or the smaller the pot, the shorter the veg. Trying not to spend more money after already clocking in all the details for 20gal pots. Heard anyone say no less than 15, 20, 25, 30, 40.. Makes me think its pure preference.
I do believe pot size does have somewhat of a reflection of veg time to an extent. The other main aspect i believe plays a part in larger sized containers is the amount of biology it can house which leads to less inputs being needed down the road
You are going to do a no till style and keep growing in this same soil over and over for years right? If so I 100% believe that the more soil you can get in there the better. I have a spot where each plant gets about 90 gallons of soil. The cost of beds, extra soil and even that compost you cut from the budget is peanuts compared to the definite payouts in yield, quality, ease etc. Beyond that and probably more importantly you should be looking at this soil as a living ecosystem. You're not feeding your plants anymore, you're feeding the soil and all the little creatures in there now. A much larger block of soil will regulate itself better and be much easier to keep thriving. Also I think you badly misunderstood my 2 room system. Let me clarify. Both rooms will be designed identically and filled with the same volume of soil. You start with veg in room #1 and flower in room #2. When flowering is complete in room #2 you dont move your veg plants at all. Instead just change the light cycle in room #1 and it becomes the new flowering room. Your baby plants are started in room #2 which is now taking its turn as the veg room and so on and on... This system has many benefits. First off, moving big pots is a pain in the ass. Second, not moving pots allows for way more soil and because your plants are staying in there their whole lives they'll have room to spread their feet through all of it. The same is true for your canopy which can now be trained to fill its space for its whole cycle. Also consider a situation where your flower needs another week but veg is ready to flip now. No problem, just start flowering that veg at the same time while the original flower finishes. Theres more but this is already really wordy. Ive spent a lot of time designing and redesigning spaces around my soil and this is by far the best setup I've ever done. You have 2 4x4 spaces you can absolutely make it work.
So just keep them in the same tent. Yea thatll work nicely. Dealing with an inexperienced partner, so i wanted to keep details solid and definable without too much change to be communicated. Trying not to be completely domineering for my sake and share the workload; albiet, simpler work load on his part. Having to remind him which tent is which at each time might create a lighting schedule/light exposure mistake. But i like your advice, so most likely gonna go with it anyways. He aint dumb. Might go with 1x 40 gallon per 4x4 tent then, since I only roughly have 80gallons of mixed soil that just started cooking. No till is certainly something ive been switching multiple gears in my hydro brain about. While youre here, Do you topdress to reamend your soil after each plant has gone through it?
I ran a perpetual setup with one 2x4 tent a and a 2x3 tent. Not to sound ugly, because I've been that person asking questions that are easier found than asked once I kinda was guided in the right direction on threads. I've been on the organic kick for about a year now so I was asking millions of questions not long ago. Page 1 of this thread has literally everything under the sun for no till from soil crafting from scratch, to re amending used soil, to amending store bought bagged potting soil. Ipm. Watering. Everything. Here's some screen shots I've taken to help me out lol. Hope this helps.
Yea im capable of reading, was asking what YOU do. I dont read one thing from one source and think its the one all be all of knowledge. Same as the last guy tho, forsure. That supports that source through another source, making it that much more credible. I ask the same questions everywhere, doesnt mean i dont know the answers ive read before. Thanks for all the help man GC is bangin
Most of us do as I posted. I mean if I'm wrong please correct me folks. Each and every individual will have their own twist unless they choose to live "by the script". Most follow the most recent updates and tweaks to the original method I that I posted screenshots above. Take it or leave it. You have a base guideline of what works. Tried and true. This isn't one thing from one source. This is years of research, failure, success, bundled up in to a couple of pages. For YOU and ME.
This reminds me of something Coot used to say. He would say that no one really grows in coots mix because no one has his castings. In the end, everyones soil will be at least slightly different, even if you follow a recipe to a tee, and what works for most might not work for all, and vice versa.
Can we discuss bacterial vs fungal dominance in these soils? i got 4 pots sitting on the bench that ive topdressed with leaves and stems, OSF, gypsum, neem/karanja, bokashi bran, and malted barley powder. i lightly tilled the amendments into the top 2-3” of soil and covered with some aged pinebark mulch. After few days the mulch layer had a decent mycelium mat and became what i call a cookie basically the mulch became glued together by microbial exudates or whatever. i decided to peel back the mulch after couple weeks to see what was going on underneath. Leaves and amendments were gone and only the thicker stems remained. there were plenty of worms,cacoons, millipedes and soil mites but no visible fungal hyphae. i did what i normally do and grabbed a handful of soil took a sniff and gave it a squeeze. The soil was still somewhat moist but lil drier than field capacity it was difficult to squeeze any water out. the soil smelled sweet almost like a fermentation type smell. im used to more of a mushroomy fungal smell. im wondering if my soil has developed more of a bacterial dominance and what i should do to bring it back into a fungal/bacterial balance. Any tips insight and advice is appreciated. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I think you want a good balance of bacterial and fungal. MBP will get the fungal growth growing, but I think you need something with cellulose of lignin for the fungi to eat once the mbp has been 'eaten'. cheers os
yea i got couple inches aged woodchips/pinebark on the mulch and a little in the soil. i just don’t recall my soil ever smelling this sweet. im probably just over thinking it. maybe just need to wait for fungi to colonize and do their thing. just used to the soil having more mushroomy smell and visible fungi. wonder if the bacterial numbers have spiked due to the heavy green material and amendments i put under the mulch and once the materials are further broken down the fungi will come back. not sure how that works. was hoping someone else has noticed somthing similar when they do heavy topdressing in between cycles Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I think you are over thinking it, but that’s ok cause your thinking about something that I think is interesting and have dwelled on for years now. As far as the different smells go, when things are breaking down, you get the sweet smell. I believe the smell comes from the bacterial decomposition. After the majority of bacterial decomposition is finished, then the fungal population takes off. That is when you really start to get the earthy smell. I get to see/smell this very clearly in my stacked, tray unit that I use for vermicompost. The top tray has the sweet smell. The bottom tray smells the earthiest. The top tray is basically the same as your mulch layer and top couple inches of soil. Eventually, the bottom of your container becomes nothing but worm castings and aeration, essentially the same as a bottom tray in my worm bin. The next time you dump a pot, smell the different layers. The bottom is where the earthy smell comes from. I have my own theory on this whole having a bacterial dominant soil in veg, and more fungal dominant during flower. I feel that over time you basically have vertical levels of decomposition that vary between bacterial and fungal. The top is bacterial, and lower down can be fungal if there is food. This is why I use bark in my mix, and why I think Hugelculture works so well. Long term slow release food for fungus is the key to longevity. When you mulch different materials in layers you encourage the microbe layering as well. A continual process of mulching and top dressing should provide a continuous food source for bacteria, especially in the upper levels of the soil. Eventually that becomes fungal food. So throughout the grow you have both types of microbe life. Cheers Os
It wasn't my best explanation. I blame the Skywalker x 3BOG I was testing last night for the long ramble. cheers os
welll it clicked with me man i must’ve been just as stoned lol. but seriously its what i needed to hear just gotta let the fungi do their thing be patient and trust the process it hasn’t done me wrong yet. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum