TLO/Super Soil recipes

[DTOM420]

Wow didn’t know that about comfrey, just did a little reading on it ..... I’m going to have to get a few comfrey plants going .....

Yep on the eggs, be careful putting any remaining yoke into your bin, outside ok but avoid yoke inside and crush the shells as fine as you can ..... worms need course food to help digest their food, that’s why the sand or dust and I believe egg shells too .....

On the worms, be sure to “test feed” them by that I mean don’t put too mich of anyone thing into your binat once .... I like to divide the food up into the corners of the bin and let them have at it ....

Try this, put a piece of stale bread into the bin, maybe just half piece in one corner and wait about a day or two and turn over, you’ll be amazed .....

Best of grow and to the best gardeners on earth, the worm!

Glad I could turn you on to comfrey! I’m still very early in my learning. You might enjoy the podcasts from Tad Hussey of KIS Organics. Particularly the 3 with Clackamas Coot! He discusses his worm bins and feeding of them and he attributes the quality of his soil mostly to the quality of his worm castings and the use of malted barley both feeding the worms and feeding the microbes in his soil. I’ll put a YouTube link to the first one below, if you’re interested; but they’re also available on various other podcast platforms. I can’t remember which one contains the discussion on worms.

I included a little glacial rock dust, basalt, sand and oyster shell flour in the bin when I first set it up. So, I haven’t been putting egg shells in. Don’t you think those inputs would provide sufficient grit for the worms? But I do rinse my egg shells. I’m collecting mine (got a pretty good bag going) to make WCA - Watersoluble Calcium. When I prepare them, I actually heat them and remove the lining from the shell as well. I had thought about taking some of those and grinding them into a flour for the bins before I used the rest of them for my WCA. This would just to add calcium to the castings, really. But I could also just add a little WCA when the bin gets a little dry to get the Ca in there.

I just started feeding corners after I had a bloom of “worm mites” in my wiggler bin. Freaked me out. I really didn’t “feed” much but the compost I used to start the bin a couple weeks earlier is, of course, a food source. That, along with the malted barley, 3 old bananas and some Brussel sprouts I had around ended up with the bin teeming with those mites. Wasn’t easy to identify them either. Finally, Arbico and Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm both confirmed it from pics and videos I sent. I haven’t added any more food and I added some dry peat moss on top and it’s all under control now. But, I learned to feed the corners like you said to see how much they can eat and at what rate. Lol!

I knew overfeeding was bad but I forgot to consider the compost used in setup was actually a food! Live and learn.


Here’s that podcast I mentioned. The 2nd and 3rd parts of the interview are Episodes 7 & 8, respectively.

 

[BISCUITS]

Yes frass is mostly insect poop and is mostly water soluble.Yes it is different than just grinding up the mealworms which are not soluble and need to be broken down microbially which happens pretty fast with the ground malted Barley.The barley is full of enzymes which speed up the process.That is their main benefit and contain chitinase from my understanding which breaks down the chitin and signals the plant into defense mode.Also smart pot style potato grow bags make excellent worm bins with a bottom door for harvesting.As far as the molasses water and turning the soil we are feeding the microbes in the soil and helping them to multiply by turning every few days.You have to get away from the mindset of feeding the plant directly and learn to nurture the soil instead so it will nurture your plant.Make sense?

 

[BISCUITS]

Also myco fungi need to make direct contact with living roots or they will die within a few days of mixing with your soil.They are best applied at transplant direct to rootball or poke a series of holes around seedling and apply into the holes.Bacteria will be your main digesters while cooking and myco fungi are more of an extension of the root system.Myco are mainly phosphorus miners and do not do well in high phosphate environments and will atrophy.

 

[Jraven]

You have to get away from the mindset of feeding the plant directly and learn to nurture the soil instead so it will nurture your plant.Make sense?

Most important lesson I learned here at AFN!

 

[MrOldBoy]

I semI compost veg waste in small countertop bin, I put about inch of water in my bin before I start putting in veg waste ....... then that sits for few days until 3/4 full ....... then .....

I dump the small countertop compost bin upside down into a old bowl or even triple bag old grocery bags and put contents into freezer, I like to freeze before feeding, it helps break down food quicker ..... putting outside waste can go direct, no need to freeze .......

After few days in freezer I defrost bag into a 5 gallon bucket and mush up with my hands and feed worms ...... I like to put a thin layer of that brown packing paper over the top of the pile, dampen it some not too much and then put the vegetable waste over the brown paper and then a damp piece over the vegetable waste .....

I also never put too mcu of one thing into bin, even watermelon, they LOVE watermelon rinds, anyways I try to balance ......

I also supplement my worms with some Purina Worm Chow $12.50 for 25 lb. bag from my local feed store, they usually have to order but I get it locally and cheap .... I use once twice a week and the worms love it, I just put a thin row down the middle, not on much and next day it’s gone .....

Maybe Thursday I’ll score another load of horse manure, which is the best food for the worms!

 

[MrOldBoy]

Malted Barley sounds like the money along with the neem meal, kelp and I’ve gotta listen a second time as he spoke about Karajan, I’m not sure about that ..... anywyas thanks bro, made me smarter, gonna see how the worms like the malted barley ....

 

[DTOM420]

Yes frass is mostly insect poop and is mostly water soluble.Yes it is different than just grinding up the mealworms which are not soluble and need to be broken down microbially which happens pretty fast with the ground malted Barley.The barley is full of enzymes which speed up the process.That is their main benefit and contain chitinase from my understanding which breaks down the chitin and signals the plant into defense mode.Also smart pot style potato grow bags make excellent worm bins with a bottom door for harvesting.As far as the molasses water and turning the soil we are feeding the microbes in the soil and helping them to multiply by turning every few days.You have to get away from the mindset of feeding the plant directly and learn to nurture the soil instead so it will nurture your plant.Make sense?

Yessir, I understand about feeding the microbes and letting them worry about feeding the plant. Still trying to really internalize it. Lol!

Are there some smart pots with bottom access that are made for growing potatoes? I did a quick search but didn’t find them yet. I really like that Urban Worm Bag idea, though - makes lots of sense to me.

I’ll start turning my soil batch. Why is it that no-till is so popular then? I thought the purpose of no-till was to leave the microherd undisturbed so it could bloom and flourish. But that seems contrary to what you’re saying about turning the soil. Absolutely not arguing here, just trying to understand what I’m missing?

Thanks for all the great info!!

 

[DTOM420]

Also myco fungi need to make direct contact with living roots or they will die within a few days of mixing with your soil.They are best applied at transplant direct to rootball or poke a series of holes around seedling and apply into the holes.Bacteria will be your main digesters while cooking and myco fungi are more of an extension of the root system.Myco are mainly phosphorus miners and do not do well in high phosphate environments and will atrophy.

I did know that Myco needs to come into direct contact with the roots and I inoculate all my seed tap roots with it as well as sprinkling it onto all the visible roots during transplants. My thought was that I could introduce it thoroughly to the soil as I am building it so that the future plant roots could run into it regularly as the stretch out in the pot. This was not intended to replace putting it onto roots directly but as an additional way of introducing it to the plant. Is this a pointless attempt?

My research on myco has turned up the fact that it only works with root tips. The fungus won’t attach to the trunk of a root at it needs the exudates that are only available at the tip of a root. Since the whole point of air pruning it to help create more tips, which are naturally more near the outside of the pot, I would have thought that having the spores in place in the soil prior to the roots growing to meet them, would be advantageous. Is this incorrect?

Do you know if the myco hyphae NEEDS the plant to sporulate and grow or can it grow and exist without a plant? I was hoping that it could grow without the plant so that, by the time a root tip reached the hyphae, the structure was already in place and ready to mine the phosphorus from a broader area; rather than needing the tip in order to sporulate and THEN needing additional time to grow and stretch before it could really mine significant amounts of nutrients. Again, if the fungi can get started ahead of time it would be an advantage and the idea (I thought) behind no-till not disturbing the fungal structure would make a lot of sense. Your thoughts or knowledge??

 

[BISCUITS]

I totally understand.Try not to over think it.First of all yes the myco fungi will not last long without living roots to attach to.That is why it is not really advantageous to have it mixed globally in the soil unless you keep it dry until you plant into it or else the myco spores will germinate when activated with moisture and atrophy or die without living roots to attach to.I have found the addition of a chitin source with the myco enhances their chances of successful germination and growth.Your bacteria,Protozoa and all the other microscopic digesters in your soil are what break down the organic matter into snacks for the plant to consume.Cannabis prefers a bacterial dominant soil and myco fungi while certainly beneficial are not going to make or break your harvest.I myself use the pro mix with added myco cut with 20-25% worm Castings for sprouting with some added VAM mixed in and moistened right before placing the seed in.I also add some ground mealworms and malted barley to help kick things off watered in with Humic/Fulvic acid and h2o.

 

[Eyes on Fire]

the balance between the soil,microlife,texture,weight,and the Plant itself..? It exudes, or secreets all sorts of things. Not to mention the interaction between the Life and Rhizospere as well.then all sorts of balances are taking place as many of us know. But some I believe,do miss this system of feeding and something to look at and covet and protect as best as you can. Happy harvesting.

https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/how-do-plants-excrete.html

now we know that plants coexist with soil microorganisms, the roots do excrete subtances like acids that help meteorize clays and other inorganic materials for their own nutrition and facilitate the propagation of some of these microorganisms benefit to them like those who can fix atmospheric nitrogen (the symbiotic mycorrhiza is an extreme example) and those that do biological control over fungi like trichoderma. But many plants also excrete poisons, polyphenols acting as antimicrobials are very common in mangoe and pecan trees, complex amino-phenols are excreted acting as herbicides (eucalyptus is an extreme example). The SF theme that some plants could eventually evolve to exudate compounds that can poison our fresh water bodies and end humanity somehow is not an impossibility, esterilizing us, enervating us?


Reducing the availability and toxicity of metal pollutants before they enter plant body is one of the main mechanisms of plant resistance to metals. Root system is the first entrance of metal pollutants from soil into plant. It can excrete organic acids, amino acids, sugars, growth substances etc. into rhizosphere. Root excretion affects the metal absorption by plant through changing the physical and chemical characters(such as pH, Eh) of rhizosphere. The metal pollutants are detained outside the roots by chelation, complexation and disposition with root exudates. The quantity and activity of metals in rhizosphere are changed by root exudates through changing the composition, activity and excretion of microbes there. After reviewing the research advances on root excretion and plant resistance to metals, the authors pointed out the existing problems and the major topics and significance of further research.

https://byjus.com/biology/excretion-plants/