Gardening Which container compost trials

[Reudyfam]

Hello, there is plenty of good peer-reviewed research showing bracken to be carcinogenic, no idea about it after composting, but I would be apprehensive about using it for anything that was to be eaten or smoked.

[oldtimer1]

16 hours ago, Reudyfam said:

showing bracken to be carcinogenic

A bit off topic, but while its true that where dried bracken is in hay or green in silage and eaten by a wide range of domesticated herbivores that  there is a raised incidence of stomach cancers. A similar relation applies in Japan where traditionally humans are eating young bracken fronds has also proved to raise the instance of oesophagus and stomach cancers.

 

During the composting process the heat created by microbes break down the carcinogen  found in bracken into harmless components.

 

Its also true that with bracken rich watersheds that  the water does get contaminated with ptaquiloside and it is not broken down in water or by water treatment plants where the water is soft, I don’t think that any uk water boards test for concentrations of PTQ in their supply chain, if you live  in areas where water collection comes from bracken land you could be drinking quite large concentrations from your tap water.

 

Alkaline conditions also break down ptaquiloside.

 

I would be more afraid of eating any roundup ready or roundup desiccated product, and that is a massive food range including all none organic cereal/soy products from pasta to bread, all soya and canola/OSR oil + meat fed on OSR and Soy meal! All contain glyphosate breakdown products, survive all heat treatments and processing and are present in nearly all food products now being sold. You can thank big Pharma for that, end of ww2 between 1 in 4 or 5 got cancer in their lifetime, today your current risk is less than 1:1

 

My advise is don’t eat  fresh bracken or wander through it when sporulating, its a real survivor but IMHO any risk from using composted bracken is so small as to hardly exist. 

 

[Degsy]

Very useful thread @oldtimer1 , great to see you posting , hope your eyes are OK

[highcontrast]

This topic always creates a good discussion. Thanks for sharing oldtimer, please don’t stop. 

 

[dubitup]

I'm using the Bord na móna growise on my current grow. Happy out with it so far and dirt cheap over here in Ireland. 

[kittythemonkey]

I got stuff in the supermarket,  allpurpose, white mushrooms grew out of it first.

In pots outside when I noticed lots of insects in it, didn't identify them, they were too many.

Then I read cinnamon is a fix so I mixed loads of it in water and dosed them all.

Then for good measure, I put slug pellets on top.

Then I sprayed the leaves with rose clear. 

Now 3 of them have yellow edges on leaves, others do not.

Pellets grew fluff on top.

I dunno wdf is going on cos clueless. 

 

I also added feed tablets for general use, loads of little yellow balls stuck together, shoved them in too.

Gave them a shot of blue Miracle grow last week.

They're autos and it's a million yrs since I grew and never successfully.

Also they're taking ages.. all stuck in black wet compost and i'm afraid to take them out and change it and wash the roots and stuff like that cos am awkward and would almost certainly break them.

One is a dwarf.

When they were seedlings , nails ate them. 

 

This will be a disaster I reckon,

But needs must.

 

And I keep looking at them, every 5 minutes, I'm out, like that's gonna do something.

Dog thinks am gone simple, he looks at them too.

 

I cannot understand why 3 of them have yellow edged leaves and others do not even tho' all got same 'treatments'/abuse.

[stickyblack]

A look at B&Q's GoodHome peatfree compost. Straight out the bag it looks to have far too much drainage imo, but with a good siv your left with nice fine compost. Looks about 4:1, so not a huge lose.  Will keep you posted.

 

Edited July 20, 2020 by stickyblack

[Twist90]

Could you tell me about John innes no2 soil please, it’s what I’m using and finding it’s constant wet at the bottom of plastic pot with 5 drain holes and I made about 6 air holes on the lower sides of pots. Thanks

[geoffo]

I use a mix of jon innes no2 no3 canna pro and topsoil dressing in a large black square recycling box, @ 85l i think.

I mix some benny bacteria and funghi in and transplant from 10litre pots.

Oh theres a handful of magnesium sulfate pellets and dolomite lime mixed in.

Just put 2 plants under 2xgavita 750w DE, aggressively defoliated and flattened the plants down,(vegged outside first)  they fill the 5x7ft  canopy growspace, im just working the branches through a screen as ive gone 12/12yesterday.

I prefer lots of smaller plants in 10l pots, 12-16 per 600w, get more gpw but these should give me @1gpw  without spending on fancy nutes, just GMB.

Ive just changed from 600w to the gavita 750w DEs be interesting to see if any benefits