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organic Organics 101

     I got bit by the gardening bug today. I started a batch of seedling soil using about 6-7 gallons each of ProMix and peat moss. To that I added about 2.5 gallons of perlite. For nutrients I mixed in about 3 cups each of bone meal and blood meal. I ordered a bunch of kelp meal today and will be adding a few cups of that once it's here.
     I also started a batch of compost tea using commercial EWC, a handful of my own compost and a few tablespoons of unsulphered molasses. That's what I'll use to wet the mix once the kelp gets here. 
     After it's mixed, I'll place the tub it's in on a seedling starting mat and wrap the sides of it around the tub. Then I just need to set the thermostat to about 80o and give it a stir every couple of days for the next month or so. It should be ready to go by the time I'm ready to start seeds in early-mid January.
     I had great results last year (once my seeds germinated). The mix I made last year seemed a bit weak nutrient-wise, though. I needed to add supplemental fertilizer a couple of times before outplant. So I'm adding about 4x the initial fertilizers to the mix this time around. We'll see what happens.
     Anybody else using a living organic soil for seedlings this season? 
 
Hybrid Mode 01 said:
     I got bit by the gardening bug today. I started a batch of seedling soil using about 6-7 gallons each of ProMix and peat moss. To that I added about 2.5 gallons of perlite. For nutrients I mixed in about 3 cups each of bone meal and blood meal. I ordered a bunch of kelp meal today and will be adding a few cups of that once it's here.
     I also started a batch of compost tea using commercial EWC, a handful of my own compost and a few tablespoons of unsulphered molasses. That's what I'll use to wet the mix once the kelp gets here. 
     After it's mixed, I'll place the tub it's in on a seedling starting mat and wrap the sides of it around the tub. Then I just need to set the thermostat to about 80o and give it a stir every couple of days for the next month or so. It should be ready to go by the time I'm ready to start seeds in early-mid January.
     I had great results last year (once my seeds germinated). The mix I made last year seemed a bit weak nutrient-wise, though. I needed to add supplemental fertilizer a couple of times before outplant. So I'm adding about 4x the initial fertilizers to the mix this time around. We'll see what happens.
     Anybody else using a living organic soil for seedlings this season? 
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I always use a mix of peat, perlite, vermiculite and ewc for my germination mix...I'm switching to terra soil for all other plant stages in my high value plants. It is really expensive but can be reused and out performs all other mediums I've seen, by far.
 
ColdSmoke said:
 
I always use a mix of peat, perlite, vermiculite and ewc for my germination mix...I'm switching to terra soil for all other plant stages in my high value plants. It is really expensive but can be reused and out performs all other mediums I've seen, by far.
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     Any nutrients?
 
There's all kinds of stuff in it...not a lot of nutes but a lot of natural pH balancing and disease and bug resistant stuff. I'll stop by the shop and get the little pamphlet. I know it has peat, volcanic ash with a ton of minerals, vermiculite and DE. Can't think of what else....good stuff though. 
 
found this...not the exact product I get, but this is the stuff
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6cQyPRfuTE
 
I still have a lot of depleted MG for a base and will add pro mix to it from here on out gradually reducing the % of MG.
I also started a compost pile last year and will add to it this year. At the end of last year I could see it breaking down into a usable media. It was very encouraging.
 
CAPCOM said:
 At the end of last year I could see it breaking down into a usable media. It was very encouraging.
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     Good to hear you took the plunge! There's nothing like compost pile for making the best growing material possible for the cheapest price possible. How big of a pile were you able to amass?
 
CAPCOM said:
Probably enough to fill 3-4 15 gal pots
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     Good start. Do you plan to spread it around and inoculate as many container plants as possible, or only make a select few plants really happy?
 
 
 
     Also, an update on the soil I started last week.Three days after mixing in the compost tea and kelp, I noticed that the thermostat for my seedling starting mat that the soil tub is on was reading way too high. After looking at it and checking the soil, I found out that the heating mat had shut off and the thermometer probe in the center of the soil was actually reading the correct temp - 95oF. It turns out the soil has gone thermophilic!
     If this keeps up, the soil should be ready to go sooner than I thought. I'll just stir it twice a day to keep it from going anaerobic until things cool down. Every time I check it and mix it, it smells less and less like kelp and blood meal and more like a warm deciduous forest after a rain. I'll post pics of mycelium if I see any running.
 
SavinaRed said:
I went this route a couple of months ago. My first batch should be ready very soon. It takes longer in the cold weather.
 
 
http://www.hayneedle.com/product/rotocomposter12cubicfeetcompostbin.cfm?redirect=false&source=pla&kwid=CompostBins_GID001&tid=GID001-1&adtype=pla_with_promotion&kw=&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=GID001-1&gclid=CPzC9tet2ckCFdgDgQodLs0MdA
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     Nice composter. Do you find that the black color of that one raises the compost temperature appreciably? What kind of temps are you seeing?
 
Great thread guys! Lots of good stuff here. 
 
I just purchased 2 Geobins that I plan on starting as a winter composting project. I'm hoping that the abnormally warm weather here in Ohio continues long enough for me to get it cooking.
 
I've been reaching out in search of local free resources. So far I've got a local tree trimming company providing wood chips, local Starbucks giving me as much used coffee grounds as I can handle and a local brewery providing spent grains. I am also planning on reaching out to a local pet rabbit rescue house about their rabbit manure and local stables about whatever manure they have (assuming mostly just horse manure but who knows). I may or may not take the horse manure until I know I can maintain a cooking compost pile hot enough and long enough to kill off any seeds. I wish I was more proactive because my area does curbside leaf pick up. I could have had leafs for days but slacked off... always next season.
 
Cool. some great ideas there as well. I have heard of coffee grounds being used but dont they start molding easily?
 
From my experience I haven't had any issues with coffee grounds and mold. Coffee shops go through so much coffee that you can get it the same day the grounds were used and add them to your compost pile. Plus if you're hot composting temps can get high enough to kill just about anything that's a concern. At least that's my understanding. Please correct me if I'm wrong anyone as I am no where near an expert with composting.
 
2016 season is here. My ever evolving goals are ever evolving so all is well. I grew in the ground last year simply because of $$$.
My ultimate goal is to container grow 100 plants in 15 gal containers. I am sure if I bought all the containers at once I could get a really good deal on them. The other issue is filling 100 15 gal containers. I am envisioning a HUGE compost pile in my yard.
 
Regarding coffee grounds in you organic super mix. What % of coffee grounds would be the max? Getting daily Starbucks donations will add up really fast. When does it become too much?
 
You're going to want to try to follow a good brown to green ratio. There are a lot of more precise ratios like 20:1 brown/green or 30:1 brown/green mixes. I have found it's pretty hard to get too overly precise in real life applications. I generally did a 1 lawn bag of leafs layer then a 5 gallon bucket of coffee and would wet it down. I would keep going in that same pattern until I ran out of material. I personally don't think it's a big deal to be exact. The key is that if your ratio of greens and browns gets to far out of whack your compost pile can run into problems like bad smells. If you run into an issue you can adjust the ratio accordingly.
 
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