Ivermectin is actually used orally in humans as a anti parasitic drug for roundworms. So other than killing our worms,I don't see a grave danger in that one. I understand you take every precaution with your compost sources and have your soil mixes tested. I do not have mine tested and I'd guess most personal use growers do not. I have a lot of respect for you and you have taught me a great deal. But, it won't change the fact I don't trust the FDA or EPA. For small personal use grows I would always suggest sourcing composting material from our own property if one can. Whether it's grass,leaves or dynamic accumulators. We have much more control knowing what has or hasn't been contaminated.
Agreed, but unfortunately that's impossible for a lot of growers. That means either we pay out the ass for gucci niche inputs or we hold our nose and hope for the best. It all boils down to riding a fine line between personal ethos and practicality. Very subjective to each individual and their limitations. Cannabis can grow just fine in miracle grow potting mix and tomato fertilizer tbh. Sometimes we let our own "snobbery" establish the dogma of which we can't see past. In a perfect world we wouldn't even NEED a discussion on any pesticides/herbicides... alas this is the world we live in. Ugh.
You should poke around that pile with a fork and look for worms. I bet it’s a worm heaven. They usually tend to work a depth en mass. Take note of that area, and try to utilize that portion first. Cheers Os
I was a hydro grower for years. If I lived in the city and had limited access to organic materials I would still be growing that way. I understand growing organically and sourcing composting materials locally doesn't fit all growers situations. We all love to grow. I'm just happy I have the resources to do so in the way I choose to.
Probably too much food. I don't think it's warm. It'll sort itself out huh Sent from my Pixel 3a using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Do you have any dry material like shredded leaves or cardboard? You can soak up the excess moisture that way
I went with your advice I took some of the leaves that were on top and flipped them in the soil a bit, really not that wet. Didn't check very bottom. Maybe I'm just smelling chunk of mold. Not much left I don't think so worms and other critters in there should finish it soon I hopes Sent from my Pixel 3a using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Fwiw, unshredded straw makes horrible bedding. Tried mixing it with compost and it just wants to mat as the compost falls through. It doesn't want to absorb water. I have no idea what I was thinking. This was a pretty crummy idea. should have just stuck with shredded cardboard... what a clusterfuck ugh
I completely agree with all of this. I don’t trust the government at all. Lol. Maybe I came off the wrong way, my apologies. Someone (forget who) casually shrugged off the notion that pesticides/herbicides are a problem. My post wasn’t meant to encourage this idea. The intention was to show how incredibly long some of these pesticides persist and the means by which they degrade. It’s a serious pain in the ass and time consuming to make sure it’s good to go. Without testing, the bioassay is the best you can do. I wish I had access to leaves like you guys in the northeast. Very few in my yard and this year it snowed early so none of my neighbors had em raked up this fall. RD
My friend this hobby requires patience above all else. You lacked the patience with your vertical flow thru by removing all the material from it. It was also lacking with Doug fir bark and it’s also lacking w the straw (probably hay, since rabbits don’t eat straw). On Xmas eve I took dry grass hay from under the rabbit hutch, packed a 5g bucket half full, added some Garden Giant inoculated grain and water. No big surprise the experiment failed since I didn’t pasteurize it. The bucket w potatoes has holes in the bottom and was placed on top of the hay....mostly so the wife didn’t find it! Here’s my compost pile. Grass hay is easily the #1 ingredient. It was completely dry 2 weeks ago and I only add 1/2 gallon of water a day as I water the chickens. You are absolutely correct that it makes a horrible bedding. It will hot compost potentially overheating your bin. It is safe to use as a mulch layer. RD
That's probably me you're referencing I think. It's not that pesticides aren't a problem, it's that the time, energy and money spent chasing the perfect inputs isn't feasible for a lot of growers, unfortunately. Take myself for example. Living in a big urban, densely packed city, where commuting even a few blocks is a massive undertaking and where everything is insanely expensive... it is beyond my capabilities to wild-harvest or self-grow much of my inputs for compost/vermicompost. Either I pay an insane premium for quality organic inputs (which I do occasionally), or I take the best I have available and cross my fingers. I don't like it, but that's my only option at the moment. If you have a career where your reputation depends of quality and you live in a rural setting, pursuing/producing gucci inputs, bioassays and testing is certainly possible and admirable. But if you're a home grower in the middle of the urban jungle, it's impossible. It's like the Wealthy Vegan complex. The only ones who theoretically "may" be able to healthily live a vegan lifestyle are those with the means to fund it, the time to devote to it and the energy to sustain it. Similarly, the sliding scale of organic growing ethics depend on ones ability to satisfactorily meet them. I have to cautiously accept free craigslist rabbit manure, because paying 30 bucks a bag for premium organic compost that takes an hour to get is unfeasible in my situation, and producing my own thermophilic pile is not possible. Thus, vermiculture with less-than-pimptastic inputs is my only option. A man's gotta know his limitations. I apologize if this post sounds snarky, not my intent at all lol
it’s usually pretty easy to find boutique coffee shops, juice bars, and specialty health food stores in the city. Have you ever thought of going to a coffee shop and asking if they’d give you their spent coffee grinds?You could also go to breakfast restaurant and ask them for their eggshells. Another option is to go to a grocery store and ask for the expired produce... If i was living in the city that would be my approach. Id also be doing a lot of bokashi fermentation and would probably invest in a plastic bin composter that could be easily consealed in a small city backyard or porch. The Bokashi—>Thermophilic—> worm bin technique is great way to streamline the process of converting plantbiomass to usable compost. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Look for non corporate, unless the workers are humans. I've tried all around in my area and they all gave me the same not allowed shpeal, wouldn't even let me grab the bag from their dumpster. Then again I am in grand rapids, so there's that. Sent from my Pixel 3a using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I source kitchen waste through my employer's cafeteria, with moderately decent success. Unfortunately it has to be on the downlow because bubbleheaded lawyers love their red tape to prevent liability issues. I've never tried bokashi, but I've heard anecdotal reports touting it's efficiency for situations like mine. I'd like to explore it, but I've also read there's PH concerns when introducing bokashi to a vermiculture bin... I'd have to read up on it further
I'd question the lawyers and tell them I'm taking food scraps to compost and garden with and with their red tape liabilities they like to hide behind, I would battle with, what exactly are you secretly putting in this food that you don't want discovered haha Like gas stations that have to dump out food at the end of the day instead of give it for free because it's old.... We've been utilizing our prefrontal cortex for centuries, at this point is there any normal human that isn't away of the dangers of spoiled food? If one were to eat it and get sick and try to sue, perhaps they should face a mandatory education seminar, although we wouldn't want to degrade the adult having to sit in a class of 7 year olds Sorry, I've been lurking in the politics section lately lol. Sent from my Pixel 3a using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Yea, Walden is right, the tape. We used to give pallets away at a newspaper I worked at and ended up with 2 goons about to fight in our parking lot over scrap wood.
Anybody use wood shavings as a portion of their worm bin bedding? Seeing as how I'm having trouble sourcing the right type of bark, I'm looking into other options to provide enough moisture retention and carbon to my compost for the worms bedding. I'm good to go on aeration with my rice hulls atm I'm currently browsing the local pet store and there seems to be a lot of animal bedding options like aspen shavings, some type of paper pulp nuggets and other stuff.
For shits and giggles I was wondering how difficult it would be for me to source bagged compost in NYC. This is the only material I would really need to run a worm bin. The Urban Garden Center has compost and various bark mulches...looks like they even deliver. Soils Mulch & Stone - Soils & Soil Conditioners - Page 1 - Urban Garden Center This place has Black Kow compost that a lot of guys really like. NutHouse HardWare - ProductInfo - INT-RM16RW To keep the worms from shredding up the compost too quickly I would supplement with food scraps and cardboard. A really fun trick to feed them is by growing some oat, barley, wheat, etc. for them in a cloning tray. I kinda stumbled upon this one winter, I grew the tray out just to have a nice patch of “green grass” inside. When I realized I was short on compost...it made some nice worm food. HTH RD
Right on, great links! I'm actually sitting on about a yard of compost at the moment, had a big order last spring that I could only use a portion of. I've been using the leftovers as a portion of my bedding lately. It's relatively dense and crumbles into fine grains, I'm not sure how much further worms could work the material. Thats why I asked about options to introduce carbon options, to try to bulk it up a bit and introduce better texture. My current mix is compost, soaked shredded straw, cardboard and rice hulls in equal proportion... it seems to be a decent enough ratio so far, maybe a tad too much aeration. I'll see if I can take some pictures of the compost after work. It's pretty decent stuff considering it came from a bulk supplier, it's just dense, fine grained and tbh "done", if that makes sense. My impressions (as uninformed as they might be) is that it won't be optimum for the bin unless I add some extra inputs to make it slightly more habitable for the worms I'm probably just overthinking this as I usually do