Mephisto Genetics Cosmic Queens in not quite living soil

[calliandra]

I liked it, I read instead of doing much work today! It has put me over the edge, I am going to put worms in the pots with my plants. 2 or 3 of them :smoking:

Haha! Always fun seeing someone dive down the rabbit hole! Worlds of adventure await!

Is it as simple as good compost?

Yep! good compost and good maintenance practices for the soils it's mixed into :smiley1:

Thing is, good compost isn't simple nowadays lol
Unless you live near Lansing Michigan, I know the composts from Great Lakes Compost must be good based on the results they've been getting from their no-till setups using it
Or if you're in California, anywhere between Sacramento and Santa Cruz, Malibu Compost is a guaranteed shortcut to a good microbial community too, based on MountainOrganics' recommendation (AND results, he's the guy with no-tills on their 22nd round in soil built with it).

And there are sure to be other compost makers who have found their repertoire of inputs and pay attention to the composting process to promote the right kind of microbial herd, finding them in your area is the tricky thing. Asking for microbial assessment results (though it makes one feel like a snob lol) will quickly tell you who has an awareness and who doesn't. Whereby good compost can even be made without that consciousness, as long as the composter has things like C:N ratios, temperature, aeration and humidity sorted - the methods are out there!

The sad thing about store bought compost and soil mixes is that even IF the original producer did a good job, oftentimes careless transportation and storage will ruin a perfectly good product, and mostly we have no way of knowing that. Were the bags left out in the scorching sun or were they drenched in rainfall, or both?
LOL my big box store around the corner does that, and my mousehole method of obtaining samples has confirmed it too - as if the bad smells (rot, algae) weren't telling enough! They just don't have an understanding that the stuff in those bags is living matter.... Very abrupt swings in conditions will actually even KILL the microbes, because they don't have the time needed to go dormant (which is what microbes usually do to survive unfriendly conditions - and they can be reawakened, if with some effort).

And there are ways to assess compost quality without a microscope

• smell: earthy, shroomy, sweet
  
• structure: aggregated, kernelly, original inputs no longer recognizable
  
• color: dark brown NOT black (black is an indication the compost got so hot it charred - in such a state, nutrients volatilize, beneficial microbes are eradicated, and good conditions for pathogens created)
  
• if you run water through a handful, the runoff should be of 70% cocoa chocolate (I've never seen this to now haha, but then I've never seen any compost or soil with a high - as in 2 and upwards - fungal presence to now either)

So that's where lots of people start composting themselves.
Our humble kitchen vermicomposts, if cared for well, will give us a better microbial community than most of the products out there.
It's small-scale, and doesn't require much beyond a few containers and a batch of starter worms.
3-5 months later, you'll have your first batch of good stuff, and that's real quick in the composting world. It will probably be more on the bacterial side, but it's a first step in a good direction and the simplest entry point if you can't get a hold of finished compost in the quality we want it in.

I won't lie, it's not so simple at first if we need to make our own eiter. There will be questions as to input quality, trial-and-error as we get to know the characteristics of our specific input and their sources, and also frustration and heartbreak over the way we humans have been impeding and destroying natural systems...ugh lol

On the bright side, you can get lucky too!!
Either by finding a composter, who may not even know of the soil food web but whose process - and produce - is sound anyway.
Or by having access to plant material that has grown in healthy soils and thus brings its microbial herd along with it as inoculant.

I hope that isn't all too discouraging, it's not meant to be, but I wouldn't want a friend to run into this without a fair consciousness of what they're getting themselves into
Cheers!

 

[calliandra]

All I have to do is
Poke around in the
Yard and I will find some . Still kinda cold but I've see a few in places. Need to get my bugs under control then it is on

Ah cool you have a yard!!
Potential right there!
It's funny, people always say not to put the deep-digging worms in our pots, as they need more vertical space, but I've found that variety surviving even in small pots I had standing in the garden over summer, brought inside, for a long time... I may try adding a few of those come spring!
But mainly I have compost worms in my pots, as @johnp540 observed, they automatically come along with vermicompost, all we need to do is keep them fed, with fresh inputs topdressed as mulch and watered in as our diverse juices (I am trying to avoid saying "tea" as it's misleading), and maintain the soil sufficiently hydrated.
cheers!

 

[calliandra]

Such great information and a great thread!! Gotta go back an read a couple things but really diggin this!

Aw thanks for the kind words and the like storm too! I think I was stalking your thread just the other day too - it's all a bit hazy these days lol but I do recall some beautiful plants going in your garden! Cheers!

 

[johnp540]

All I have to do is
Poke around in the
Yard and I will find some . Still kinda cold but I've see a few in places. Need to get my bugs under control then it is on

Ya they're not too hard to find. I'll use water sometimes, but anymore I'll just wait until it rains. Me and my son have been saving worms lives for a few years, But then we go fishing lmao
This year will be a different kind of work journey for me. Looking forward to having a worm farm or 2. Never thought I'd be so excited about worms. Lol

 

[Dudeski]

Ah cool you have a yard!!
Potential right there!
It's funny, people always say not to put the deep-digging worms in our pots, as they need more vertical space, but I've found that variety surviving even in small pots I had standing in the garden over summer, brought inside, for a long time... I may try adding a few of those come spring!
But mainly I have compost worms in my pots, as @johnp540 observed, they automatically come along with vermicompost, all we need to do is keep them fed, with fresh inputs topdressed as mulch and watered in as our diverse juices (I am trying to avoid saying "tea" as it's misleading), and maintain the soil sufficiently hydrated.
cheers!

I was smart enough to buy Malibu compost and have some in my newest plants soil. It's kept inside too so I will try to keep it happy as it will last me a while. A compost bin in the yard is im the works too. But, I will have access to one good batch of it at my mother in laws house. She has had a bin going for years, rather large one too! Problem is it is 6 hours away and she passed away in October. I hope to get some and bring it home in a month or so.

I believe the light finally went off in my head, no just learning how to feed/care for the biology that's hopefully going to call it home. Sure am glad I have already had some coffee! Thank you for being such a good host

 

[johnp540]

Haha thanks! Yeah we'll see how well I can cater to Milady's needs lol

As for humidity, I used to be like you
Now, I've sort of relativated that, seeing how my plants reacted to the addition of humidity to a really very dry environment. Not to get lost in the details of it, I had started a Northern Lights#5 x Haze in a very rich soil but she was showing all sorts of distress signs that her nutrition was out of whack.
There's this concept called vapour pressure deficit, which measures how extreme the conditions are for your plant. Because the leaves need a certain humidity around them to do their photosynthesizing thing, the plant will pump water from the soil directly out of the leaves to achieve that under very low humidity conditions. So the plant gets so busy just pumping moisture, the nutrients in that solution just sort of whizz by the spots they would've been needed and don't get processed. I really saw that in my plant, and it all just stopped when I added some humidity to the air.

Also, a guy I'm following on another forum (growing in no-till soil) actually uses humidity to influence when his automatics start flowering: lower humidity will get them flowering sooner, whilst higher humidity keeps them growing in veg for longer!

That said, I still agree with you that the better the soil the plant is growing in, the less it will be negatively impacted by what otherwise may be considered harsh conditions.
I also am experimenting with regenerating soils my veggie garden, and this fall I noticed how the plants that have begun going mycorrhizal are much less affected by frosts than others. In fact, the roses merrily continued putting out buds, even the leaves took a long time till they finally started showing frostbite lol
So yes, that definitely is true!
Cheers!

Ahhh thank you for this. I too was experiencing the same thing with really low humidity. I've actually got a couple good reads on this in my journal, if you want to check it out. I'll give you the link. @Dudeski
Check it out. You had the info right here and didn't tell me lol

 

[Dudeski]

Ahhh thank you for this. I too was experiencing the same thing with really low humidity. I've actually got a couple good reads on this in my journal, if you want to check it out. I'll give you the link. @Dudeski
Check it out. You had the info right here and didn't tell me lol

The problem of following too many threads! My head becomes.mush some days.
My apologies

 

[johnp540]

The problem of following too many threads! My head becomes.mush some days.
My apologies

I know what you mean buddy. I was just going through the thread and seen it, figured I'd bring it up. No apologies necessary bud. I forget more often lmao especially while reading and trying to cram so much information.
I should mention @calliandra some strains aren't effected by low humidity as much as others.

 

[Dudeski]

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Been making a cake for my dad's birthday and going to my sister's tonight.

It's a BlackBerry jam cake, his mom made them. But no one has her recipe .

 

[calliandra]

I've actually got a couple good reads on this in my journal, if you want to check it out. I'll give you the link

yes please! I may not be able to read anymore today, but maybe you have some pictures?! haha
Just finished my first ever writeup of a microbial assessment for a friend in exchange for 2 citizen COBs he had lying about, so had to figure out how best to get it done, and my brain doesn't want to figure out anything else today

I should mention @calliandra some strains aren't effected by low humidity as much as others.

Yes! I definitely can imagine that!

cheers!