Hello there fellow blades, I live in the pacific nw and wanted to use forrest dirt mix with rabbit poo for a grow medium. would this be okay? if not why not? I really want to keep it as natural and local as possible. the forrest dirt here is acidic and consist on decaying pine matter I know lime would probably be use to bring down the ph in the medium. Or how would I go about using rabbit poo sometime in the grow? I have more rabbit poo than I know what to do with
Rabbit droppings is pretty much chewed grass. Rabbits have a very poor gut when it comes to efficiency. They often eat it to give it another run through. It's why they need to eat so much food in relation to their size. Because of this the droppings need to be thoroughly composted first. When it first starts to break down it actually absorbs nitrogen and the urea will contain a lot of ammonia that is poisonous. This also needs time to compost before it's useful. If you really want to use it well, build a wormery and feed the worms with it. They will break it down in to worm castings. And that stuff is ready to be used straight out of the worms ass
^bingo. You'd be better off feeding the rabbit to a snake, and using the snake poo. That said, up here, composting properly is a simple matter. We got the humidity, we got the plant matter, and any sporting goods tore has the worms...and, if you're on the wet side of the hills, your neighbors will think you're a great citizen who truly cares about the Earth, even if you DO drive a jacked up diesel Dodge with twin smoke stacks. I swear to god, this is the most psychotic and schizophrenic general population in the world... But really...you can pick up a composting kit at any store up here that has a lawn and garden section...in most of them, you can even find starter compost and liquid suspended bottles of the microorganisms you need, to jump start the process (a bag and a bottle and 3 times the weight of the starter bag in uncomposted "fresh" material, you have useable compost in just a couple weeks. As long as you add/remove compost in the same balance, it's a "perpetual" thing...take 3/4 out to use, put same volume back in of "fresh" material).
^ again, a "bingo"...lower the pH rating, more acidic the soil is. Acidic soil is also known as "sweet" soil. Also...I consider it extremely unwise to use lime at ANY time for indoor soil. yes, it will do the job, and reduce pH readings...but it'll be near impossible to control, and it's persistent...it STAYS in the soil, and anytime water touches it, it makes the soil more acidic that it was before, since more of it dissolves and is distributed. Buy soil sweetener for indoor plants. Use aquarium "pH up" chemicals (which are designed for use in aquariums with sensitive fish and aquatic plants without problems). Anything but liming the soil. If your pH is too high (base), that's how to do it. If your pH is under 6.5, you want to bring it UP, not down. If it's over 7, 7.2, you want to bring it DOWN, not up...a good way to do this is to run fresh pine needles and water through a blender, clear a bit of soil around the plant (about an inch and a half), spread your (fairly thick, not water consistency) paste with bits of pine needles into the soil at about that depth (don't uncover your roots). But ALL pH changes have to be done slowly...otherwise you can shock the plants, they die, you can cause nutrient lockout, they die. About half a point a week (5.5 to 6, next week 6 to 6.5, and so on), if you have ANY option to do it that slowly, and not have the plants croak in the meantime. No matter what, don't try to jump from, say 5.5 to 7 in one day.
I lime EVERY batch of soil that I mix. You seem a bit confused as to what lime does in soil. It's calcium carbonate (CaCO[SUB]3[/SUB]). It reacts in the soil when reacted upon by microbes (not water) that produce sulfuric acid. It then reacts with free hydrogen ions is solution to produce CO[SUB]2 [/SUB]and water, removing the free hydrogen from solution and RAISING the pH of the soil. Ionic calcium is also liberated to be absorbed by the plants roots or the solid soil colloid. "Lime" is very important in soil, especially organic soil mixes... And yes. Any animal manure used in soil mixes should be thermophilically composted first to kill potential pathogens.
Ack! You're right...lime basic, to counter "sweet" soil. My bad. Was reading klien bottle environments shortly before posting that. Mea culpa. You use lime in making lye, I should have remembered that right off the top of my head, instead of reversing it. I still don't suggest using it on commercial soil. Home mix, sure, but you're testing your balances as you mix, and using fine ground lime. It's persistent, either way, so if it throws your balances off, they're going to be VERY difficult to maintain. (Which you already know if you're mixing your own and using lime...that's WHY you're using it in home mixing, correct? To maintain a consistent balance you deliberately mixed your soil to meet.).