i tried to reuse my soil. this was a mix of lc's #2 and the bottom of the mix was sub's super soil. this soil worked very well on its previous crop,so i tried to reammend it,and added too much,burning the plants up. the remix was the following; 3 cuft of used soil,or 2.5 bushels 1 cup each blood meal bone meal kelp meal epsoma flowertone 1/4 cup biotone starter from epsoma. i have 2 garbage cans of this mix.cooking as i write this. what are my options to reuse this soil in future grows, what can be done with it so i can reuse it time and again with out burning up my plants? some things are not local to me,and its the middle of winter so making compost is sort of out of the question,but can be sourced at the local grow shop. one last question. is it worth my while to compost wood chips that are from my wood plainer,they are rather small in size,smaller that dust from a chain saw and larger than that of a circuler saw? if so,what can be added to it to break them down?
what's lc's mix? when you say the carbage cans are cooking? you mean they're sitting? cooking is like slang for composting. the wood shavings should be a great carbon ingredient for your compost, because a lot of it is needed to balance out nitrogen. If you can't do a full- process compost with those garbage bins it might be in your interest to let them just dry out. If you do want to compost some things to consider are a tumbler (or larger box you can turn with a tool), and the alfalfa.
yes,there cooking and getting hot, 95degrees last i checked. i do not have the room right now to set up a composter,inside anyway,and too cold outside. lc mix is all over the web,it consisted of; 6 parts pro mix 2parts perlite 2parts ewc per cubic foot of mix,the following; 1/2 cup blood meal 1 cup bone meal 1/2 cup kelp meal 1/2 cup azomite
That's what is killing your plants - unprocessed amendments basically composting in the soil. Let it sit for several weeks or at least until the soil temps are consistent with the ambient temperatures. HTH LD
will it be ok to use straight in 2 months? what would be your recommendation as to additions to future soil reuse? thank you very much ld, your advise is golden to me.
2 months? Easily finished. I was thinking that you'd probably be dancing in about 4 or 5 weeks. Don't use weeks as a guide - check your temps every 3 or 4 days. At some pint the temps will drop down to the mid-70's which is where the majority of actually thermal composting takes place. It will probably hold this temp for the majority of time. Once you drop down to 65F you should be good to go. Check it by planting a cheap plant (like a marigold) and see if things haven't improved for you. No big deal - patience will win out and you'll have a nice potting soil to work with, IMHO LD
You will be fine, sooner than 2 months. 3cf=~22.5 gallons. I use ~1cup for every 10 gallons on the re amend, so about double what you added, so that's not the problem. You're just trying to use it too soon, as LD noted. I also use LC's recipe for my basic mix. Wet
on future runs with this soil,should i stick with compost and worm castings only? in teaming with microbes, they speek of wood being broke down by fungus due to lignin in the fibre. would this be good to use in compost to aid in fungi growth,along with grass clippings and leaves?
I haven't read teaming with microbes but it sounds like you're right on track. Bamboo being a better material than many, and adhering to the correct ratio's for the different composting materials. the stalks would takes longer to break down but it's less of an issue with higher temperatures... so im not sure if adding the fresh bamboo into your soil mix would work well, a small leaf pile can't hurt but then you might want to add a cup of nitrogen to the pile.