Cooking Soil Cooled Off

Discussion in 'Growing Organic Marijuana' started by Weedweasle, Sep 23, 2021.

  1. Hello all,
    My soil batch has gone ice cold after 14 days, even after a re-inoculation.
    I started a 6 cuf soil outside, for inside grow. It was nice and toasty by day seven (it’s in shade in 100 gal fabric pot, covered with a tarp). I didn’t get to turn it for 7 days. When I added bio char yesterday, day 14, it was cold through and through. Watered the batch properly with an innoculant yesterday evening. Today it is still cold as ice. Moisture is just right, maybe one drop of water in a squeezed fistful. Soil is composed of:
    • Neem cake
    • Kelp meal
    • Crab meal
    • Fish bone meal
    • Alfalfa meal
    • Unmentionable meals
    • Rock dusts, Oyster shell, hort char
    Does it continue to “process” when it goes cold? After I reinnoculated it (Microbe Life Photosynthesis Plus in Ph’ed water) should it heat up again or is it done? Either way I will wait for 2 weeks for the char to get integrated. Will it get hot again?
     
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  2. Once the nitrogen has broken down things cool pretty fast. It won’t get warm again.
    Cheers
    Os
     
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  3. As OS said, once the N is used up by the bacteria that prefer hotter environments the soil will cool down.

    Yes, the soil will continue to process: other microorganisms that aren't heat tolerant will process materials, as will fungi and various other arthropods and worms. You don't really want hot soil, per se; most of the hot work would be done in the composting phase, then the cooled and matured compost would be added to a soil mix. Any added amendments would then be allowed to process for a period of time, if you wanted, but plenty of people here plant into freshly mixed soil with no problems. If it's heavily amended soil (e.g., would heat up from significantly added N) then you'd want it to process longer, of course.
     
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