Screwdriver's reused soil in a bucket thread

[Flyinghigh]

Thanks for commenting. It would be cool to have a goat, but city hall says no farm animals.

I touched my bucket. Mixed each bucket.

LOL
But there alway a little pig!!

 

[screwdriver]

I love, love, love, love bacon.

I finally got around to adding my latest root ball to my buckets. The left bucket is #2 and right is #3. I forgot to mention that after I am done mixing I like to leave the soil as fluffy as can be and at an angle to get the most amount of surface area for air to reach. The amount of soil in bucket 3 was too much to effectively stir without making a mess so I added bucket #4.


I took about five scoops of the #3 soil and moved to #4 and added the used soil from the last harvest. Sprinkle some of the pondzyme and added some fish fert water.


How much water? When I say moist I describe that as when I pull the soil from the bottom, in a circular motion scooping, I don't want it to stick together in anything larger than pea sized clumps. If they are larger by the time they stop moving from the scoop motion they should have been broken apart.

 

[screwdriver]

Stirred my buckets today.

Another aspect to growing indoors is all the storage space needed for the other items you use for growing. Everything I have other than my dirt is in cabinets tucked away. Here's how much space I give my dirt.


I liked and probably only need two buckets but, my old lady likes my dirt (not my girls). She has given me some of her dead planters and taken some dirt for her plants in the house. I also see that I'm going to be getting a couple more planters soon which is a nice peat addition to the buckets.

 

[screwdriver]

Stirred my buckets.

This is bucket #4 and I only found one root ball still intact. The other is still in there but, its just a string roots that when I stir the soil I can see it breaking apart piece by piece. In buckets 2 and 3 it looks like everything has brokendown to the point of not seeing it in the bucket as I mix.


Thought I would test my #1 bucket soil to see how it performs compared to EFFOF soil. I didn't think this had to be a groundbreaking project so I pulled out a clean pipe and had a smoke. The ultimate goal is to get weed from both soils.:hubba:
I added perlite to each and will top dress with my amendments.

To keep track of this I put here in my white widow journal.

 

[Flyinghigh]

Good thread name Stirring my Bucket..

That some work there..

 

[HGB]

Thought I would test my #1 bucket soil to see how it performs compared to FFOF soil.

FF has changed there soil.... read the bag pretty sure just like my side by side test with MY soil against FFOF your's will out do there's


peace

 

[screwdriver]

Thanks HGB, I hope I can improve my setup.
I thought that FFOF was the prettiest bag and think with that kind of marketing it has to be good. Why would you do all that artwork and coloring if your product was inferior. I'm interested in the seeing the difference in root development and hope my soil doesn't embarrass me.

Maybe I should add more peat to my mix to fluff up more. There seems to be an abundance of peat in their mix. My soil has more "stuff" what I would consider the "dirt" part.
This is just to demonstrate what I'm trying to describe. I put my soil on the left and FFOF on right. I used my finger to gentle smear the soils. When i work with my soil, my hands get dirty. With their's I can slap my hands together and they're completely clean. That's a plus for FFOF.

 

[DLtoker]

This thread just got stickied. There is so much garbage out there talking about how reusing your soil is the biggest no-no. Well, here it is kids, living proof from people who actually do this. Maybe HGB can toss in some of his experience as well.

Great work screwdriver. :aok:

 

[HGB]

Thanks HGB, I hope I can improve my setup.
I thought that FFOF was the prettiest bag and think with that kind of marketing it has to be good. Why would you do all that artwork and coloring if your product was inferior. I'm interested in the seeing the difference in root development and hope my soil doesn't embarrass me.

your welcome,

FF soil is ok and works great but....can be improved on a bit. make's for a great base starter tho IMHO

look forward to see'n your next update.... and I read your GJ as well and see you add plenty of goodies to the mix:hubba:

grow on

 

[screwdriver]

Thanks DL ,HGB.

I always thought throwing stuff in the garbage was high risk. So just to keep everything inside I started to reuse my soil. I read that some do and I would like to see and hear about the methods that others use in more detail than just "stirred my buckets". I really don't mind if others throw up pictures and descriptions here. Learning is a byproduct of getting stoned.


Hey DL, can you change the thread name to just "Reused soil in a bucket thread".

 

[screwdriver]

So, I stirred my buckets today.

I cut up the rest of the rootball and stem that I could find in bucket 4. I took a bunch of clones from my Ruth and put all the unused trimmings into bucket 3.


The soil in the buckets 3,2,1 are becoming too dry. I am transferring dirt from bucket 2 into bucket 1 getting it ready for my new set of clones. I'll add water to bucket 1 soil but, not to the other buckets. I will still stir them but, I'll let the microbes chill until the next need arises. When I say dry I really mean less moist not as in arid.

 

[screwdriver]

I am preparing the soil in bucket 1 for next round. I think this will be for some cuttings of Ruth. More soil and amendments will be added later when I transplant Ruth for flower.


I like to use pictures.


I am starting by adding 2 teaspoons of blood meal, bone, epsom plus and a tablespoon of garden lime. I use my flower container for my "standard" size for square feet area and volume of soil. The amount of soil currently in bucket I estimate would be used for two flower containers so I add 1 teaspoon per container size. For the square foot area I use about a half sqft.


The blood meal package says water insoluble so I think thats means something else is needed to break it down. I use a pinch of this zyme product to assist in this. It says it has beneficial bacteria to breakdown organic material.
I used some fish fertilizer water mix to moisten the soil.

The amount I start off with seems to be a conservative amount to start. I like add other things during the grow and top dress so I can alter the NPK values with other types of nute sources.

 

[newgreenthumb]

Sounds like a great way to compost on a smaller scale. I have been reusing the soil from my last grow and since I use only organic ferts than I don't worry about salts building up. Although I have never gotten in-depth like you have. What is the purpose of the clearzyme and is it expensive to purchase? I figure the hydroponic store might have some.

 

[screwdriver]

Thanks for stopping by newgreenthumb. I think it was around 10us bucks. Its in the pond section of lowes and I have seen it elsewhere. It says it contains beneficial bacteria and enzymes to breakdown organic matter like fish poo, stems, leaves to maintian pond health. I just have a really dry pond. The grow store has the "real stuff", but I haven't seen what that stuff looks like.

Its just a white, granular media that I sprinkle in the soil. I don't know how much to use so I just use it sparingly. I don't know if it works, but there are no more leaves or stems visable in my buckets.


Stirred my buckets. At this point, the only thing to do with the buckets is to ocassionally stir. Its ready for use. Just add perlite and a little bit of npk stuff. I remember correctly, the girl from the last harvest looked like she was a little N def in early in flower and I didn't keep up with nutes for her very good. When the time comes to add, I'll try to remember to add a little extra N. Just guessing.

I don't keep good records about my plants; when I water, if I top dress, when I maintain things. So I try to put it out here and there is a place to refresh my memory. It keeps records of grow away from the grow and less things to misplace for others to find. Its all here.

So I refer back and its been 4 weeks since I put my stem and leaves from the last harvest and now they are all gone from sight. I vaguely remember putting them in there.

 

[Mutt]

Just a question...Will you ammend with some worm castings as well?
Was reading the 3lb's soil thread and said they had worms in there grow trays. Just wondering.

Excellent thread..I don't post much but have followed this thread with eager interest. Great thread screwdriver. :aok:

 

[screwdriver]

Hello Mutt. I've used worm casting in the past with my buckets, but don't have any this time around. I think its always best to use castings from your own worm bin. (Got to restart). One goal is to use a variety amendments like having a ten course meal and letting the plant and soil take what it needs.

I'm sure I've read 3lb thread somewhere, but my memory is weak sometimes. I wouldn't leave the worms in the same container as my plants. I'm definitely not a guru, but it seems to me that they wouldn't have as good as environment in my flower cabinet.

Lurking is welcome here and not offended at all. It maybe selfish, but this makes it easier for me. You can jump in anytime to share.

 

[screwdriver]

Stirred my buckets a couple of days ago and again today. Still moist, I will be adding a wet mass of alfalfa from my tea so no water should be needed for awhile.

I wonder how long my soil will last. I read about how salt build up isn't good. My soil, when drys after a watering, has a stiffen layer on the top. I'm led to believe that this is due to the "salts". I have noticed this with new soils and tend to think it has more to do with the speed at which the soil drys in my grow cabinet. I did a search on the salinity of soil and determined that mycorrhizal fungi is a solution. I use it all ready. May be I shouldn't worry about "salt" build up so much.

My buckets aren't exactly "organic". I still wonder how long my soil will last.

I question whats this pond stuff I use. It seems to work. So I was at the hardware store and picked up some stuff to put in a compost bin to assist in the process.


I look at the material and notice that it looks similar to my pond stuff. The look, feel, taste all the same. I didn't taste it, but got a sense what it tasted like. Sounds weird to me, but it was there. Compost maker has a real MSDS which it says the stuff is urea. "Mass production" law says this is petroleum based product. I had loads of fun reading about the history, uses, and manufacture of urea. I liken it to "magic".

I am making some tea. I like to make it an all around NPK tea. I put a pinch of my pond stuff in there and mix it gentle with my finger and notice the water temperature got cooler for a moment. I think urea lowers water temp when it dissolves. Go figure.

 

[HGB]

Compost maker has a real MSDS which it says the stuff is urea. "Mass production" law says this is petroleum based product.

would you happen to have a link to this product? the petroleum base part has caught my eye and I would like to read up a bit on that product... thx

mix away

:48:

 

[screwdriver]

This is the MSDS from the manufacture of this product.

In my travels on the internet I come across this site.

The "mass production" law is mine. It may just seem like everything comes from oil.

 

[screwdriver]

I squeezed most of the juice from my wad of stuff and tossed it in the last bucket in line. I won't be using this bucket for awhile so the rest will have time to breakdown.


Not sure how long I can let it bubble. My old lady says it smells like.......I'm just not going to describe it. Whats offensive to some may not be to others. All odors are kept in my room so it really up to me how long to keep it going and the smell is a nice place to visit, but I don't what to live on a farm.