Hey there, does anyone have experience with the Soil Food Web School? Considering the high cost of that program I'm concerned with their own accreditation as an institution, their exam processes and its accountability toward their students. The website states that they charge students for an exam-retake and their passing requirement is set at 90%! for all of their exams. I'm wondering if any of you have been through the program and what your experience with their exams was?
Also posted at r/regenerativeAG
Greetings dear fellow composters!
I have a question for You all. Did any of you have knowledge on soil food web, something familiar like on soilfoodweb.com ? Is there any look a like projects out there? I would be really pleased for your opinions and share of knowledge!
Hi fellows, i would like to ask you if anyone knows projects or lectures on soil web and could provide me with a link to that? Im looking for something familiar as soilfoodweb.com
Thank you all in advance
I'll start by saying I've searched this a couple of different ways, but think there's a small enough amount of info to merit another thread.
I've heard before "no need to pH your water with a living soil". That being said, mine comes out at almost 9.0. Two cap-fulls of acv brings it down to the acceptable range, but am I hurting the good living things in my soil? What do you think? Any good reading on this?
I'm still very new to cannabis and gardening. So unfortunately it's not as simple as "Do you notice anything wrong?" Because quite frankly, I still make plenty of mistakes. I wouldn't necessarily notice if it were taking a toll on my plants necessarily.
Thank you!
As the title states, I'm interested in advice on becoming proficient in soil biology for my own farm and I would like to analyze soil samples for income. Do I need to be certified? Do I need a formal course like soil food web school to learn or certification? I feel like they are the best source for knowledge on this. It's $6500 with a microscope. Any information or advice is appreciated.
Hi everybody!
I'm starting my no-dig garden and would love to follow the changes in my soil biology.
Budget is as tight as can be, but then again not so tight that I can waste money on a toy I would want to upgrade in a year.
Basically, I'm really looking for the cheapest option that would get me to where I need to go (follow bacteria and fungi populations in my soil).
Thank you all!
I recently have dove deep in Dr. Elaine Inghams lectures and am considering taking the 'Foundational Courses' she offers, which costs a lot more money than I would like to fork out right now. That being said, I am curious if anyone in here has taken her course and if you could share your experience. Can't find much for reviews online, except for what is posted on her website. I hope anyone reading this is having a wonderful day!
I’ve recently become a little obsessed with the idea of creating a no till grow. I’m currently learning everything I can about the subject and plan to set up a 100gal bed in a couple of months time.
Working my way through the Teaming With.. series and loving the KIS Organics podcasts too. Also found a BBC prog called Deep Down and Dirty - The Science of Soil which I will be watching soon. The more I learn, the more questions I have!
Are there any other good documentaries out there worth watching? Maybe David Attenborough has narrated something on soil life? Also, any other notable podcasts that focus on smaller grows as opposed to commercial? Many thanks
So I'm in the process of plotting out where and how to create the foundations of a future (ideally next year but I know there's much to do and it could take longer) permaculture style garden. I have looked into Dr. Elaine's work and am reading "Teaming with Microbes" and am fascinated with the science of soil health. That being said, our land is basically pure ledge with most available areas only having less than a foot of dirt. I have some ideas of what options I may have, but I would absolutely love to somehow build up and amend the soil of the majority of our land and as bonus points amend our lawn area so that my ex-traditional landscaper husband can be satisfied with a permaculture style lawn and stop using questionable fertilizers... Does anyone have experience with creating successful permaculture ecosystems over ledge or know of any good resources to look into? are raised beds the only way? Thanks!!
My wife and I just bought a 13 acre farm in upstate NY. The land has been farmed (mostly, but not exclusively, dairy) for the last ~200 years or so, but the soil is rocky and much of the land is pasture, not fields I can till or even really hand dig. Among other features is a gigantic above-ground boulder that's bigger than many college dorm rooms I've seen. So my point is, we've got rocks. The land also has a series of spring-fed ponds, and also a lot of other little ephemeral springs that tend to pop up in low places around the property. So my point is, we've got water. I'd like to try growing food in something other than wet rocks, so I'm interested in building some usable soil wherever I establish the main vegetable garden. If it's the right thing to do, I can truck soil in and build raised beds to hold it, but I don't know if that's actually the right option.
The farm has also got:
-A barn with about 2-3 tons of extremely old hay forming a dense 6" to 8" deep layer on the floor. The hay is slowly rotting, and taking the floor with it, so it has got to go.
-About 2-3 tons of horse manure in a long pile. The manure was accumulated for about 25-30 years of horse ownership by the previous owners, but it's piled at the top of a steep hill, so if I want to use it to build soil I'll need to move it. The last horse died 3 years ago, so the manure is all quite decomposed.
-Next to the manure is a sand-bottomed horse arena about 75ft by 150ft, surrounded by an electric fence with a buried electrical line from the barn. My wife and I think horses are a waste of time, so we see no value in keeping a horse arena for horses we'll never own.
My brain wants to go "Sand helps soil drain, and your wet land means drainage will be useful. Organic humus nourishes plants and holds water and soil microbes. Electric fencing might be a part of a good deer exclusion plan. So, you should till the hay and manure into the sand in the arena, cover the whole thing in a plastic sheet to kill any grass or weed seeds with heat, and then focus all of your non-orchard plantings and gardening in there for the foreseeable future."
But then, another part of my brain goes: "You don't know what the hell you're talking about, and you can't just improvise a soil recipe. Surely there must be some university extension service you can contact to figure out what makes the most sense for your land. Don't throw a bunch of different farm resources together in a big pile a
... keep reading on reddit ➡Hi notillgrowery,
As the title suggests I'm looking for any information about the optimal temp range for living soil, and where the two ends of this range may fall. Any anecdotal evidence or links to studies or info on the topic would be much appreciated. Thanks, and happy holidays!
Click Here for an Overview Table (neem spray referred to in table will be in part 4!)
Establishing the Soil Food Web
Now we’ve got our soil set up and our plants, but we’re not done yet! Now we must begin to build up our soil by establishing a robust soil food web. Other guides will go into deeper detail of why this is important and how it helps your plant, but for now you must understand only the steps it takes to keep the life in your soil happy, and get it to work on your behalf to take care of your plants.
We won’t ever be using fertilizer in our living soil garden (and certainly not chemical/chelated fertilizers). Instead of feeding the plant, as you would with other forms of growing, this style of organic growing focuses only on feeding the soil. Feeding the soil means feeding the microbes. That’s why organic compost can be thought of more accurately as microbe food, not plant food.
Water
The water you use should be free of chlorine and chloramine, as these compounds are deadly to soil life and can lead to the disruption of the food web we are trying to establish. As the web breaks down, plants will become malnourished because the microbes that feed them will have died. If the healthy soil food web is not re-established, opportunistic microbes may move in and cause additional harm to plants.
> Public water is treated with chlorine to kill pathogens. To remove chlorine, you need only let your water sit overnight. The chlorine will evaporate by itself. Many municipalities, however, have switched to chloramine. Chloramine can take weeks to evaporate fully, however it can be removed by passing water SLOWLY through carbon filtration—I.e. purchase an on-facet carbon filter and pass cool water through it at half speed or slower. Catalytic carbon requires 1/4th the contact time to remove chloramine than activated carbon.
pH
One large advantage to growing with a living soil is that the soil life has a particular pH it is happiest in, and so has evolved various mechanisms to buffer the soil pH (keep it from becoming too acidic or basic) for its own livelihood. Living soil growers benefit from this by not needing to pH the water they use to make teas/sprays with, or use to water their plants. So don’t worry about it!
Kelp
Kelp meal contains nearly every single macronutrient and micronutrient your plants need to grow, as well as hormones and compounds that may encourage plant and beneficial bacterial/fu
... keep reading on reddit ➡In 2004 Dr. Elaine Ingham published a paper out of Oregon State University, the Compost Tea Brewing Manual. From her 55 gallon concoction rose a groundbreaking contribution to agriculture: a simple a cheap process to create billions of beneficial bacteria and fungi in under two days. "Species diversity may be as high as 25,000 species to as many as half a million species in a gram of compost or tea", according to the guide.
Moreover, anyone with a simple air pump can do it.
As author of the Soil Food Web four years earlier, Dr. Ingham brought intimate understanding of life on the microbial scale, cataloging an entire food chain as robust and intricate as mammals.
The beauty is that by simply combining these two discoveries, great changes can be brought to barren depleted land, replacing life to inert dirt particles.
AACT's are widely used in Agriculture.
What are your experiences with them?
Hey there, does anyone have experience with the Soil Food Web School? Considering the high cost of that program I'm concerned with their own accreditation as an institution, their exam processes and its accountability toward their students. The website states that they charge students for an exam-retake and their passing requirement is set at 90%! for all of their exams. I'm wondering if any of you have been through the program and what your experience with their exams was?
Also posted at r/soilscience
Hey there, does anyone have experience with the Soil Food Web School? Considering the high cost of that program I'm concerned with their own accreditation as an institution, their exam processes and its accountability toward their students. The website states that they charge students for an exam-retake and their passing requirement is set at 90%! for all of their exams. I'm wondering if any of you have been through the program and what your experience with their exams was?
