Living soil kits

[Guest]

now we getting into the wizardry shizzle

forget the teas and shite

top dress and water it in. jobs a gooden. when ya interested in going hole hog in house check out chris trump on youtube

I keep tellin ya You need a mix of aerobic vs anaerobic

I seen a lot of the chris trump stuff now. He's pretty good.

I'd like to see more proof of why you think compost tea's are a waste of time? Or just persona; preference?

[spoink47]

Hi buddy, as a vegetable gardener I couldn't say for certain re the kind of herbs you are growing but, in theory there should be enough nutrition for that length of time. As mentioned previously, they were launched in multiples of 25l as some people are using small pots. The castings alone should have enough nutrition for most plants for 5-6 weeks. the issue as I see it is whether the pot can sustain the microbial life in such small volumes which is why I think you may need an occasional tea or something to reinvigorate or refresh the microorganisms.
These kits are a long term solution and the re-amendment is to ensure consistent levels of organic matter, minerals and micro nutrients for the microbial life to do their thing with rather than straight plant nutrition.
I'd highly recommend use of barley and cover crops whatever size you do. The advantages they bring are becoming fairly well known.

Will this work in a 25 litre pot, yes with some extra work and monitoring. A forty litre is what I'd suggest as a minimum, 50 litre is my recommendation. I've priced it so that 50L is the same price as everyone else's 40-42.5l packs and the inclusion of fresh castings where most systems seem to be using a combination of Coco and peat should give you an edge. I've never tested in smaller pots as the guidance is 40+L / 10+ gallons so I couldn't give you a definitive answer. I hope that makes sense buddy. A few of the chaps here have run smaller pots though from what I've seen and it does sound like they work for it a little.

That's a great advice, mate! I just listened to it and got a pretty good outcome. Thanks!

[Vador]

Interesting read, just learned i know absolutely nothing about growing organic.
I like the sound of this living soil though.

Couple of questions
1. When you chop the plant down do you dig the rootball out or do you try avoid disturbing the soil too much?
2. can the soil be reused straight away after harvest or do you have to cycle pots of living soil?
3. Does one of the living soil kits have everything youll need for one plant up until flower or is it advisable to get anything else to have on standby

Thanks

[GMO]

now we getting into the wizardry shizzle

forget the teas and shite

top dress and water it in. jobs a gooden. when ya interested in going hole hog in house check out chris trump on youtube

I keep tellin ya You need a mix of aerobic vs anaerobic

I seen a lot of the chris trump stuff now. He's pretty good.

I'd like to see more proof of why you think compost tea's are a waste of time? Or just persona; preference?

Im just of the thinking that teas and extracts are for when you dont have space to add stuff to your pots. if you can top dress and water in you just watering a tea every time you water

[GHO]

Interesting read, just learned i know absolutely nothing about growing organic.
I like the sound of this living soil though.

Couple of questions
1. When you chop the plant down do you dig the rootball out or do you try avoid disturbing the soil too much?
2. can the soil be reused straight away after harvest or do you have to cycle pots of living soil?
3. Does one of the living soil kits have everything youll need for one plant up until flower or is it advisable to get anything else to have on standby

Thanks

In a big pot 50L+ leave it in. It'll break down on its own, but you can speed it up with humic acid and Barricade (one of my microbe products) which will digest stubble along with pathogens.
You 'may' need to top dress occasionally. I find need for topdressing reduces in amount and frequency over a few cycles. Some plants are hungrier than others so you'll need to feel that out but I ran tomatoes for five months on one topdress this summer in a fresh mix. All looked healthy when I finally cut them down. That was 32L pots.

You can plant straight back in, do give it a top dress though.

My approach has evolved a bit over the last two years with some testing etc. There's a learning curve to soil as @GMO will no doubt confirm. But take the time to learn it and it's not much work. the revised kits will be available fairly soon when I pull my finger out

[Vador]

In a big pot 50L+ leave it in. It'll break down on its own, but you can speed it up with humic acid and Barricade (one of my microbe products) which will digest stubble along with pathogens.
You 'may' need to top dress occasionally. I find need for topdressing reduces in amount and frequency over a few cycles. Some plants are hungrier than others so you'll need to feel that out but I ran tomatoes for five months on one topdress this summer in a fresh mix. All looked healthy when I finally cut them down. That was 32L pots.

You can plant straight back in, do give it a top dress though.

My approach has evolved a bit over the last two years with some testing etc. There's a learning curve to soil as @GMO will no doubt confirm. But take the time to learn it and it's not much work. the revised kits will be available fairly soon when I pull my finger out

Thank you, definitely going to give this a try.
A little bit worried about the weight of the pots in the bedroom, might have to try and shed some weight in other places first. Just trying to picture how much space a 50L pot takes up, should get 3 in a 1.2x1.2 tent i guess?

[GHO]

Mate you'll get four in there easy maybe more depending on pot dimensions. Weight isn't bad, four 50L pots would be about 80 kg if that much.
Regarding resources, books by Jeff lowenfels is a good place to start. Depends what you want as there's many different ways to do it and not a great deal of relevant literature due to differences. These days I'm using regenerative products coupled with plant production techniques and testing as I go which takes ages. I steer clear of knf and jadam as it seems labour intensive and as a business it doesn't make sense to pursue stuff everyone is already doing from a book or webpage at home. There's a lot of blue Peter kudos seems to come with making your own stuff though. Best thing to do is start with a kit and a few bits and go from there.

[Vador]

Thanks @GHO, thats a relief about the weight, thing is ill be able to remove loads of stuff from the groom so realistically the weight will probably be about the same anyway.

Ive got ‘teaming with microbes’ and ‘teaming with nutrients’ read them both once already a few years back so will give them a read again soon.

Can you let me know please when you have the new kits back in stock please. Definitely want to try this living soil but dont have a clue how to build my own, would rather a kit like yours.
Many thanks

Edit: its just occurred to me ill be able to put my microscope to good use

[GHO]

Will do pal won't be long.