Ideas re. living soil

[Olderfart]

Hello all. I am thinking of trying a living soil grow indoors this winter. I have a kiddy pool full of soil, mostly recycled composted planter soil with earthworm castings, compost, and other organic amendments, as well as a happy population of compost worms. I will keep adding kitchen scraps for the worms over the summer, and likely put the soil in ~20 gallon fabric pots irrigated with Autovalves sometime in early winter.

So, I have a couple questions for the organic gurus on here. First, I am not going to fuss with testing the nutrient content of the soil, so is it even worth trying to grow in this stuff rather than starting with coco or pro mix? If I do this, I intend to try a water only grow, but if I run into deficiencies later, I will supplement with MC. I have seen a lot of grows on here get into trouble, so I am a tad unsure whether I want to go down this road...

Second, I am sure that the soil will have fungus knats in it when I bring it inside. What if anything can I/should I do about this? I can get hold of diatomacious earth and Mosquito Dunks here, but am not interested in chasing beneficial bugs or nematodes, or in using neem. If using this soil is far more hassle than sticking with soiless, I may not be interested. The soil will be great for other outdoor garden purposes. Also with regard to these little buggers, does the plastic mulch system used by the earthbox setup disrup them sufficiently if the larvae are already present in the soil? I can easily prevent emergence of flying adults from the soil, or access to the soil surface by flying adults from elsewhere, but am not sure this on its own will suffice if the larvae are already there. Again, if these little buggers are likely to be a serious problem unless I get excessively fussy, I may not be interested.

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[WildBill]

I'd do this in your shoes. It depends on the condition of your pool soil. Is it heavy and well composted or does it still have vegetative matter and still pretty light and airy? If it's light and airy and still has identifiable vegetative matter, you'll be able to add less new carbon source.
My idea is to incorporate you soil into a HOT compost pile. This will kill all the bugs and larva.
Make a new home for your worms and separate them from this soil.
Now, I would try to make a compost pile and incorporate the soil in question into the pile as you build the pile. Dump the soil in the pool on a tarp and use the pool to build the pile. If you don't have a carbon source you can use either use some cheap simple potting soil or a good cannabis potting soil. You'll need a couple sources of nitrogen, more the better for other trace elements......... Kelp meal, malted barley, alfalfa meal, dried unsulfurated dried molasses or something I started using in small batches.... organic, non-gmo, non=medicated(no anti-biotics) chicken laying feed in crumble form...not pelletized form.
Build this in your little pool
Layer everything and wet as needed as you go.....very key.
A layer of your bought potting soil or your home sourced carbon
Layer of nitrogen.....I'd go pretty heavy on the nitrogen source
Layer of your soil
I'd add some Mycos and maybe some bacteria just make sure you have active microbes
Repeat until you use up your soil
If your soil is pretty heavy, you may want to add some perlite to add some air.
Mix all together! It should have the wetness of a squeezed out sponge.
You should be able to feel the heat by the next day quite easily.
Probe with a temp gage of feel with your hand and when the temps begin to decline, turn the pile again to add air. Add water if needed. It should refire again my the next day.
May sound like a lot of work, but it's not really.
Otherwise, use it in your garden!

 

[Olderfart]

I'd do this in your shoes. It depends on the condition of your pool soil. Is it heavy and well composted or does it still have vegetative matter and still pretty light and airy? If it's light and airy and still has identifiable vegetative matter, you'll be able to add less new carbon source.
My idea is to incorporate you soil into a HOT compost pile. This will kill all the bugs and larva.
Make a new home for your worms and separate them from this soil.
Now, I would try to make a compost pile and incorporate the soil in question into the pile as you build the pile. Dump the soil in the pool on a tarp and use the pool to build the pile. If you don't have a carbon source you can use either use some cheap simple potting soil or a good cannabis potting soil. You'll need a couple sources of nitrogen, more the better for other trace elements......... Kelp meal, malted barley, alfalfa meal, dried unsulfurated dried molasses or something I started using in small batches.... organic, non-gmo, non=medicated(no anti-biotics) chicken laying feed in crumble form...not pelletized form.
Build this in your little pool
Layer everything and wet as needed as you go.....very key.
A layer of your bought potting soil or your home sourced carbon
Layer of nitrogen.....I'd go pretty heavy on the nitrogen source
Layer of your soil
I'd add some Mycos and maybe some bacteria just make sure you have active microbes
Repeat until you use up your soil
If your soil is pretty heavy, you may want to add some perlite to add some air.
Mix all together! It should have the wetness of a squeezed out sponge.
You should be able to feel the heat by the next day quite easily.
Probe with a temp gage of feel with your hand and when the temps begin to decline, turn the pile again to add air. Add water if needed. It should refire again my the next day.
May sound like a lot of work, but it's not really.
Otherwise, use it in your garden!

Thanks for the reply @WildBill, much appreciated. I may just do as you suggest, although I didn't mention how far along I already am with building this soil. It already has a 5 gallon bucket of kelp (now completely disappeared), some dolomite lime, steer compost, large bag of worm castings, some well developed forest and yard soil for microbes, and some organic fertilizer with the usual culprits of blood meal, bone meal, feather meal etc. etc. I was hoping that other than keeping the worms happy and letting it do its thing over the rest of the so called summer we are having up here, it would already do the job. I have a large bag of perlite, and will add 25% or more of it when I get ready for the grow.

Re. the hot composting idea, I figured the amount of soil I have would not reach temperatures that would kill much. The stuff I have read suggests that to get up to the needed ~160F, I would need a pile of mix over a meter around and high. Also, it could kill off all the goodies happily growing in there now. All food for the thinking cap though...

Thanks again for the response.