Hi buds

Was browsing on a us mj site, and noticed alot of people letting their compost sit for a few weeks, after adding supplements.

Suppose it lets the compost break down those extra nutrients added (bone meal, guana, worm castings etc)

Worth doing?

What do you mean by ´compost?´?

There is garden compost, made by adding green and brown materials to a compost heap - definitely let that rot for a year.

And many people confusingly like to call their soil mix ´compost´. I mix soil and plant in it straight away - the horse manure and wormcasts that I add are already well rotted.

It's well worth letting a compost mature for a bit when adding mineral supplements so that the bacteria in there can start to make those nutrients available for the plants. I let my own compost mix sit around for 2 - 3 months after mixing before I use it.

hi man, just an ordinary bag of compost, have seen people letting this sit for weeks (even though the compost is well formed)

I have bad problems when I plant straight from bag, want to get it nice next time
cheers



hi felix, thanks for dropping in mate, will do that now...

I'm going to use:
Westlands MP compost with added JI (sieved finely)
Calcified seaweed + dressing of maxicrop
Blood + Bone meal
Worm castings
Sulfate of potash

Anything else I could add please? (from local garden centre)
Cheers

Oh yeah, e2a, I believe this westlands compost gave me iron def problems, do you think there will be enough iron once that mix above cooks? (probably 3 months cooking)
thanks

Add some bat guano. Not sure if garden centres sell it but I am told Oxfam do.

Thanks Yeah, wanted to add Guana, but difficult to source.

I'll probably chuck in some organic chicken manure pellets instead, easier to get hold of.

Cheers

Seen some peeps add epsom salts as well

I think the calcified seaweed should take care of your magnesium needs

I give that purely as a liquid amendment - a teaspoon per gallon three times or so each season - a little goes an awful long way.

Righty O!
Cheers felix



Hi man, I know, I use it that way myself regardless of mag def's - I've just read alot of recommended 'soil mixes' with the salts added to the compost, and given a couple of months to break down... Then again I question this, as does the salts actually break down??? Perhaps they don't breakdown, and stay crystalised until moistened?

Which leads me to my next question, do you add moisture to it while it matures? I presume you'd follow the same method as a normal compost heap (add moisture and turn once a week to aerate etc)

Thanks for tips

You probably know already but as a word of warning be very sparing with the chicken manure pellets and don't use them with young plants, they can be very hot. I dug a little into a couple of planting holes in my garden beds and scorched the plants that went in on top.

If using "Potting Compost" from a shop (such as Westlands, or Bowyers etc etc), then I would never add anything as its good to go and has been formulated to a careful balance. Additions just throw that balance all to cock IMO. But if you're mixing your own from scratch (and not using a shop bought potting compost as a base which is, I think, a very questionable practice and likely to result in seriously over-hot compost), then time to ferment is essential.

Except a wee bit of rock dust and inoculant maybe?

And maybe some seaweed -. calcified and the other kind. Maybe a tad of guano. And some worm castings. And some dried ground up animal parts, most definitely gotta have that. Maybe some vermiculite and perlite, about 50%. Oh wait...

Or replace the vermiculite and perlite with coco and love the decision you've made...

I don't think that Epsoms would break down any more than what it is - it'd just stick around.

The more I read about coco products, the more I want to try it - something just feels like it might be 'right' for me.

It will be right.... Sooo right.

¿Become a bit of a hard-core coco fan then I take it, papaduc?

Just a bit... And wormcasts too. Making my own wormery soon. There's gonna be some comfrey growing outside soon as well.. Gotta love this organic meddling haven't ya....

I'm also quite fascinated by this Rootfood stuff by the same company who make rootgrow.

One small scoop into a huge big load of water and WHOOSH..... A whole load of darkness like you've never seen since silicon

"My oh my, What black shit" were my words when I first used this stuff...

Not nutrients, though. And in any case, they are not "needed", as such.
Things like seaweed etc are, IMHO (and that all it is), much better applied as liquids as and when the plant shows it has a need of 'em.

That suits me well, as I've got a bottle of Maxicrop seaweed that I haven't used yet. I just binned my grow tent (suspect it's off-gassing ) and bulit myself a growdrobe instead Nothing big, but enough to get me started. I found some award-winning organic compost that seems to be quite good, so I'm just gonna use it with a dash of coco for good measure and just add water and pot on until flowering. Well, that's the plan anyway, we'll see how it goes on this first trial run of my new drobe. I just gotta wire my RVK fan, install it, staple some mylar to the walls and and I'm off! Thank Gawd I got my hands on some Killer Skunk and Smile beans before they sold out Such precious beans are not for trials, though, so I reckon I'll give Hindu Kush Skunk from Seedsman a go first. As far as amendments go, I'll just use granules, so no fermenting required I suppose. Nice and simple