I’ll bet they are these or something very similar !
Yes, those would be them…Fast little fkrs…
Good to know they are beneficial…I never really noticed them before, then I focused my eyeballs…The entire bed began to swarm haha…
Thanks for letting me know Buddy.
K.
Ya there almost hard to see just scanning the area you kinda have to concentrate on an area and they begin to appear ya there constantly on the move hard to get on video I’ll bet!
Bumping this thread ! Watched this video this AM good watch indeed JOSH from BOOGIE BREW gets on a soapbox with this vid!
I’ve watched almost all his videos lol. He has a ton of good information and explains it well. I used to use boogie brew until I started making my own specialty mixes. The open source nature of it is one reason I looked into making my own mixes. I can explain whats and whys every amendment is in it.
Ya I like josh but John C can get on my nerves rather quickly! lol a lot of babbling IMO.
I’ll more than likely incorporate more humic acid in my top dress and teas though I think my DTE all purpose has a bit in it will have to look.
If you’re using good compost there should be more than enough humic and fulvic acids in there for your containers.
My only issue with the DTE line or DE line is their heavy use of feather meal, blood meal, cottonseed meal, etc. I’m not a fan of high number amendments. It makes me think it’s not as complete nutrient as it could be if that makes sense.
Anybody have a beginners mix using peat instead of soil?
And what’s the chances of getting bugs in my grow room if I garden this way?
I’ve never had a bug in my grow room growing with bottles and that’s sort of a big deal to me
So if it’s impossible to go bug free on this then I’d have to pass.
I’d probably mix up 2 gallons max if I were to try…
What would you experienced organic dudes do in this scenario?
Ps I’ve never grown a single plant in soil so I have no experience with that. Been soilless or pure hydro only
I just posted this on the Dolomite lime thread.
7.5 gallons is 1 cubic foot
3 half filled 5 gallon buckets is 1 cubic foot of soil, this is how I measure for mixing.
Hope that helps
Edit: my mix would look like this.
1/2 bucket SPM (peat)
1/2 bucket aeration (perlite)
1/2 bucket compost or EWC
1 cup lime
about 2 cups of amendments such as kelp or something like garden tone
I add 1/2 cup Gypsum also. I have a specific blend but this is a simplified version.
@MumenRyder give this a read
As for bugs… mulching iver your soil with straw helps with that problem as well as keep a live beneficial environment beneath it.
Takes a run or 2 to get things how you like them as everyones different but once its going its going and your overheads come way down too as you can constantly re use your soil. Costs a little to set up but then its done. Nothing better than soil grown organic bud
Good luck
For a mulch give rice hulls a go. I did straw and rice hulls are really clean and easy for indoor growing. I buy a 50 lb bag from the local brew shop every 3 years for $30. I also recommend getting a worm bin going. EWC were a life changer for me.
I use straw outside and love it. Nothing against it and it is a less expensive option for outdoor growing.
So I’m probably missing something, but I didn’t see any actual dirt in the mix mentioned in the article?
Looked like equal parts of perlite, peat and compost/ewc?
So it really is a soilless recipe? Or is compost/ewc considered soil?
How would you get bugs in a recipe like that? They would be in the ewc?
Thanks for going over this
Thanks man! I appreciate the info on how to get those amounts. I wasn’t sure how to measure in cubic feet!
Looking forward to digging into this more when I am back on the homestead. I have always grown organic in the few times outdoors, and grow an organic vegetable garden in my back yard every year but for whatever reason have turned to coco and jacks hydro for my indoor experiences for the past couple years.
I built my own worm bin but that needs to be cleaned and replenished after not using it in a couple years because of… whatever reason… and have always been really interested in korean natural farming as well.
Cheers
What you’re doing is building a soil like how nature would do it just way more simplified. Soil is typically material consisting of a mixture of organic remains, clay, and rock particles. Sphagnum peat is great for water retention and good drainage. That is your 1 third to your base and it is generally ph neutral too. Next 3rd … Aeration… i substitute perlite with clay aggregate but see rice hulls are working well for folks over the pond. We cant get them here unfortunately. 3rd part to your base is your compost/ewc… basically the living part … that’s your diversity of micro-organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, protozoa, algae and nematodes and worms. Basically the becoming of your soil.
Ewc on a microscopic level, the bacteria in the worm castings is perfect for your plants. This helps enhance the overall health of your plants, while protecting them from diseases and harmful bacteria. The bacteria in worm castings helps promote nitrogen in the soil too and has a good balance of other minerals like potassium, magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus. This mixed with a good compost abd a couple of amendments will be a powerful food source for the microbial life as well as your roots.
Another additive that is vitally important to a soil mix is 10% of your total mix must be clay. Organic matter is an important reactant with clays and the cation exchange properties of clays are among their most important properties in retaining plant nutrient ions… Cation selectivity of clays influences soils as a plant growth medium and as a disposal medium for waste… you can literally just use a red clay soil from a field or somewhere…
With thew right management the longer your soil stays in your pot the better it will get… just like nature …
One tip i can give is definitely go for bigger pots or fabric bags. Let those roots thrive bro.
Oooooooops, wrong thread …
Thanks again for all the details!
If I skipped the compost and only used EWC, it seems like that would eliminate the primary source of bugs?
In the article I don’t see anything called clay directly. Is gypsum, glacial rock dust or basalt, clay?
Thanks again
Yeah that KIS organics article was just a basic outline… of you go tjrough the site and podcasts you’ll find a lot more info.
Those minerals you mentioned are not clay… no.
Clay is not really scratched on in most soil recipes but it makes a great difference adding it in. Ive been building soils for a long time and stumbled across a talk on the importance of clay in soils so started adding it to my mix. Best thing ive ever done for my soil mate
Try a 50/50 blend of ewc and good compost… not sure about your products out there so only speak from my experience with our local and home made castings and compost. So im sure someone can better advise according to where you are.
I add a couple handfulls of biochar to that too.
Remember your soil mix will have to cook for around 30 days to allow those amendments to break down to make them more soluble for the plants. As the microbes break down the amendments they create a compost generating heat that “cooks” the soil… you can turn it once a week until it starts cooling down. You will know when your soils cooking too cos it gets pretty darn warm.