Hey CB, I think this thread would be a great standalone topic too. Do you want to start it? If not, I’m happy to!
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The working title I have in mind is:
Invertebrate Shit: What we know about Vermicomposting 🪱💩
Edit: It appears there is a thread, last post May of '22. Definitely not as snappy of a topic title.
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You know me: anything worth doing is worth doing yourself right 
Using EM you will get a very specific type of LAB. When you make it yourself you get a broad diverse collection of LAB.
Much more “E”ffective
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Yes @BeagleZ ! A man after my own heart. I too, support wild culturing microorganisms when possible. Not only for the incredible diversity, but also because it is a part of your own local flora and fauna in the environment where your plants will be grown.
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Yeah, thanks Heady! Forgot to mention the importance of the “I” in IMO 
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Shit! I’m apparently watching that thread.There is also the “ show us your worm bins” thread which hasn’t had much activity since Dec. 22. Let's see your worm bins!
Which do we want to flash mob?
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I think you could get away with starting a new one if the OP was both an invitation to share practices, and also a detailed description of, for instance, your complete vermicomposting setup.
They might merge the topics, but at least it would bring the other one back to life. (And maybe we can change the title 
)
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I think you gotta use the Let’s see your worm bins one, since it’s got 800+ posts and was recently active.
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Party pooper 
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This looks like the same method as the guide I followed way back when from rodale / gil carandang. I also remember people were saying that the curd is really attractive to worms in their bin but don’t think mine cared much either way. Thanks for posting that, now I didn’t have to dig up a guide and will just follow this whenever I do it!
Good to have you here as well as everyone else! Ya that’s pretty much the situation I’m in. If I didn’t corrective over-water them then they would be too dried out by the time I get back. I like @Dirt_Wizard 's suggestion of trying to increase the o2 levels of the water as well. Might try to find my air pump that I used to use for CTs later on. Don’t think I want to mess around with peroxide but a pump setup should be an improvement over stagnant water jugs.
Absolutely. Plus it gives me an opportunity to seek out strategies from others.
I remember watching a dog video in the past and the guy making the video made a comment along the lines of ‘this is why every professional dog trainer has one of these dogs (talking about high drive dutch,malinois,shepherds), because they make you look like an expert’. I feel similarly about quality compost as well. Takes the gardener out of the equation and the plants just grow themselves.
Yeah figured as much, plus you don’t become reliant on a bottled product.
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Right?!? Everyone is like your plants look so good and I’m here going “just put the Oly and the EWC in the bucket and let the microbes be smarter than you”
Q: How do you recycle your dirt so well, Dirt Wizard?
A: absolutely mindlessly by adding lots of things that smell stinky in that good alive way and leaving it alone, adding all plant matter back in and occasionally weird stuff like rolled oats or cooked rice but mostly just compost tea sludge, cold composting the dumb and easy way instead of trying to be Mr Hot Composter
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Well to continue in the spirit of documenting the clown show
I made the switch to a digital timer once I flipped to 12/12. I’ve only used those mechanical pin timers in the past and the idea of not having to correct the time or compensate for lost hours during power outages was very appealing to me. I rushed through the programming and accidentally had it set to turn off at 7 and turn on at 7. Only problem both were AM and so I’ve been on 24 hours of light this past week…
To my mind this makes a lot more sense as to why 500 uMol was too intense as that was over 40 DLI @ 24h. Going to have to test tomorrow to make sure the timer is programmed properly but with that update in mind tomorrow is the first day of 12/12. A few new participants are going to be joining as well tomorrow.
At least I figured out what the problem was and figured I’d share the dumb mistake with you all.
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At least you’re not scratching your head trying to figure out the issue with the plants running harder than usual. Also, you could have pulled my mistake with the digital timer, programming it come on for 2 hours in the middle of the dark cycle when you’re trying to flower 
Glad you figured it out.
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Here’s another run of Goji x ssdd they go in the 10th of next month
they getting some bones on them …
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Going to phase out and cull a few of the SSDD bubbashine clones pictured earlier that are getting a bit too large. This was always the plan and they were just backups in case the new plants didn’t make it.
Swapping out and replacing the extra SSDD clones with
1 untested SSDD F1 female
and 1 untested Triple Sunshine F1 female
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So far everything is looking better after fixing the timer issue. Will try to get a picture or 2 this weekend. Hope to be able to get to either topdressing or mulching some of them tomorrow.
I found a relatively inexpensive small bottle of hygrozyme and added 10ml/GAL last night. I feel like you shouldn’t need to add enzymes to a functioning soil but considering the humus source isn’t that great I’m open to trying it. Also found my old DIY humidifier, air pump, stone and CT stuff. If there’s time I may mess around with a bit of it this weekend. Probably not any compost teas since I don’t have any quality compost to brew anyways.
Also was looking through some old lower quality SunRa pictures lately. Really am tempted to try some more after this project is wrapped up so that I could pollen chuck some SSDD @ some SunRa.
SunRa 1
SunRa 2 - cedar pheno
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Found some tumbler compost from 21` or so when I was going to fill up a bucket with some straw. I know a lot of alfalfa & poultry manure went into this and the Goji OG F2s clawed pretty hard when I used some of it. Topdressed half of the plants with it anyways and then mulched. Did some with straight store-bought wormcastings as well.
Don’t see much in the way of activity but the color and smell is fine at least. Taking a risk / gamble on this.
Also noticed the comfrey outside is finally starting to come up.
And here are some plants
SSDD #1 Male
SSDD #2 - female
Waking Dream - female
Triple Sunshine (tk x ssdd) C
SSDD "bbshine pheno"
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Since you’re a living soil and science-y guy, I’ll put this out there: I’ve been looking at how they probably make the enzymes in Hygrozyme, not sure about the rest yet but the cellulase is almost certainly a byproduct of pseudomonas growth.
This is the bacteria that produces the most cellulase and it looks pretty easy to culture at home if you wanna get weird with it:
https://www.carolina.com/bacteria/pseudomonas-fluorescens-living-tube/155255
You probably already have plenty of bacillus subtilis in your soil but that was the #2 producer
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Same man! Excited for all that Spring brings!
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Thanks for the link, skimmed through it and does seem pretty interesting. The fact they were isolated and derived from soil reinforces my thinking that any absence of organisms that break down organic matter is a soil-quality issue first and foremost.
I knew someone who did bio-remediation work with enzymes and bacteria long ago (15-20years+) as well as a non-horticultural related business owner that specialized in enzymes of some sort. I think they were ultimately for cleaning products but not sure and definitely is not a subject I know a lot about. Would have been cool to pick their brains on it in retrospect. I’m up for trying anything and wouldn’t mind the cost of the bottle long term if it seems to bring some appreciable benefit. Will try it as a skeptic with an open mind.
I think any kind of tinkering w/ inputs is definitely interesting but I love the simplicity of living soil, and so I think an active healthy compost or vermicompost would be my primary source ideally. Dramatically reduces the chance of me screwing something up. In my opinion a healthy and active worm bin or compost setup will have sufficient levels of microbes associated with the decomposition of organic matter (enzymes play a role in) to the point where an application isn’t necessary. In small pots that can be harder to achieve but I still feel like the issues there relate to constricting and die-off of the feeder roots more than anything.
I need to figure out a good low-no effort bedding solution that isn’t coco-coir haha.
Also forgot to post this plant, a Triple Sunshine (tk x ssdd) A female
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