yabbah Posted February 6, 2022 Share Posted February 6, 2022 Second attempt at trying this living soil out. My previous run was terrible. I mixed GK organic fertiliser with soil and tried to grow a plant in a 6 litre container. The plant suffered severely from nitrogen deficiency and it wasn't pretty. From my reading it seems my mistake was not adding any EWC to the mixed my container size. Is that correct? For this run i've gotten a bigger container - 31 litres. Im going to run 2 plants in the container. This is what I have on hand and what i'm hoping to put in the soil: Random bag of Garden Compost Biochar Plagron EWC Kelp Meal Volcanic Rock dust GK Complete Organic fertiliser My mix is going to go something like this: 40% Garden Compost 40% EWC 5% Biochar The remaining 15% will be the amendments of Kelp meal, Rock dust and GK fertiliser. Does this sound like its a winner? Will I be successful this time round from what i have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindSoup Posted February 6, 2022 Share Posted February 6, 2022 Good list of ingredients, should have everything they need. I'd probably put more biochar in there, but it's my first time using it so I'm not an expert I just read 10-20% somewhere. Are you aware that the char needs "charging" in order to stop it absorbing all the available nutrients from the soil? Also I would definitely recommend getting some preemptive predators, I caused myself a lot of trouble by neglecting that with my most recent soil mix. Hopefully you'll have a lot easier time keeping the girls happy in that big planter, the Build a Soil guy always talks about the importance of your container not getting root bound with living soil, his most recent series really pointed that fact out for me. Good luck, I'll be following for sure. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RUFUS HOUND Posted February 6, 2022 Share Posted February 6, 2022 thought this was some scat related topic 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yabbah Posted February 6, 2022 Author Share Posted February 6, 2022 4 hours ago, MindSoup said: Good list of ingredients, should have everything they need. I'd probably put more biochar in there, but it's my first time using it so I'm not an expert I just read 10-20% somewhere. Are you aware that the char needs "charging" in order to stop it absorbing all the available nutrients from the soil? Also I would definitely recommend getting some preemptive predators, I caused myself a lot of trouble by neglecting that with my most recent soil mix. Hopefully you'll have a lot easier time keeping the girls happy in that big planter, the Build a Soil guy always talks about the importance of your container not getting root bound with living soil, his most recent series really pointed that fact out for me. Good luck, I'll be following for sure. Glad to hear i've most boxes ticked! I've literally only realised that the biochar needs charging today. Not sure will I even add it in this run as it seems like something that could go horribly wrong easily. As far as i'm aware you just need to let the biochar sit and mulch amongst some EWC, humus or animal manure for like 2 weeks stirring every few days? Im not sure how much of those things to add in to it as the amount of biochar i'll be using will be like 1 litre. What did you do to charge yours? The site i bought it from said they had their best results with 10% so i figured I wouldn't go full whack on my first go with it and settle on 5%. But who knows? they may all vary massively as its an organic product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindSoup Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 There's 2 main methods for charging, dry and wet. Dry is as you say, mix 50/50 with WCs or other rich organic matter and stir regularly for 2 weeks or so, wet is the same mix but you make it a slurry with water or compost tea and it speeds up the process. I chose wet because I was in a rush (as usual), I did about a 60/40 mix WCs/Biochar, added Biosys Tea until it was the consistency of runny porridge and then stirred every time I walked past it for 2 days. I did experience some pretty severe N deficiency to start with mind, so I'm not entirely sure I got it right. There's a lot of good information on YouTube as its really popular with the permaculture/regenerative farming community. It does seem to be really beneficial so I would recommend persevering with it, @blackpoolbouncer rates it highly and we've all seen what he's capable of. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Highgrade14 Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 My two pennies worth-If you’re not adding any other aeration like pumice, rice hulls etc then I think that extra 5% bio char like @MindSoup suggests would be a good idea as there doesn’t seem to be enough aeration in your mix. Good luck dude 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B0bbyBuds Posted February 7, 2022 Share Posted February 7, 2022 You can buy charged biochar. It works out more expensive but is available. carbon gold for example is 5kg for 20 quid. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yabbah Posted February 10, 2022 Author Share Posted February 10, 2022 On 07/02/2022 at 11:38 AM, Highgrade14 said: My two pennies worth-If you’re not adding any other aeration like pumice, rice hulls etc then I think that extra 5% bio char like @MindSoup suggests would be a good idea as there doesn’t seem to be enough aeration in your mix. Good luck dude Thanks for the input! Would the volcanic rock dust not count for? On 07/02/2022 at 2:35 PM, B0bbyBuds said: You can buy charged biochar. It works out more expensive but is available. carbon gold for example is 5kg for 20 quid. I've already purchased mine non-charged but i wish i knew about this beforehand. Been trying to charge mine today and after mixing in all my ingredients and adding water, i've realised my bottled water that I've bought contains chlorine/chloride..Trying to figure out is my whole mix ruined or not. I also went to tesco on the hunt for non chlorinated bottled water and it seems such an item doesn't exist.. What do all the organic loving soil growers use to water their soil since chlorine kills the good bacteria? I know tap water is heavily chlorinated so i assumed everyone would just buy bottled water. But I've realised all bottled water has the same problem.. Very confusing and getting frustrating. Organic growing was supposed to simplify things Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindSoup Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 (edited) 46 minutes ago, yabbah said: volcanic rock dust not count for? No not really, you'll get away with it for a single run, but if you're starting a no till bed you'll want something more. 46 minutes ago, yabbah said: Trying to figure out is my whole mix ruined or not. No don't worry about chlorine/chloramine its not as big of a deal as people think, in fact plants actually need a little bit to stay healthy. 46 minutes ago, yabbah said: Organic growing was supposed to simplify things Its as simple/complicated as you make it, the method is very simple, but the processes involved are infinitely complex. I must admit I usually end up going down the rabbit hole, getting myself all worked up about something only to realise I've made a mountain from a mole hill. Sit back and relax, let nature do her job and stay out of her way, you'll be laughing. Edited February 10, 2022 by MindSoup 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Smith Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 37 minutes ago, yabbah said: Organic growing was supposed to simplify things IMO, it is simple, yet there is a mechanism of the mind which soon makes simple appear more complex than what it is, esp. once you let it happen so it grows a part of the complex. FWIW; it helps stop fearing tap water kills much microbes in compost. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yabbah Posted February 10, 2022 Author Share Posted February 10, 2022 Cheers @MindSoup & @Jon Smith! Really put my mind at ease there. This always happens to me when i'm learning about something new and interesting - engulf all the information at once and then get worked up about one minor detail @MindSoup fair point, I'll grab some vermiculite from the local gardening shop. Was in there earlier and was looking around at the fertilisers. I don't really think I have anything high potassium in my mix? unless the kelp is? Was thinking of adding some potash to my biochar mix..or should i just leave good enough alone and add it to the soil when needed? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MindSoup Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 As the old saying goes, less is more, seems to be a lot more tempting to over feed than under feed, and if you get lock out it will be hard to recover from, so tread carefully. Do you follow Build a Soil on YouTube? If not I'd highly recommend watching his 10x10 series, Jeremy has all the knowledge when it comes to indoor/container organics and he's a brilliant teacher. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B0bbyBuds Posted February 10, 2022 Share Posted February 10, 2022 It is simple man. Microbes are resilient. A little this or that isn’t going to do anything, they will bounce back. There’s a lot of room for error. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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