Hi, I don't know if this is the appropriate subreddit to ask this question but here it goes. I'm currently writing my master thesis on digital soil mapping of SOC. For my introduction, I'd like to find a good source explaining the basics of soil organic matter/carbon which I can cite, but I'm having trouble finding it, most scientific literature on SOC I can find is on more advanced topics. Does anyone know a good book (chapter) or other source for this? (Preferably freely available online, I have institutional access to many scientific literature databases through my university.)
I am starting new raised beds and my compost won’t be ready for six months or so. Is there something I can buy from the big box stores that can help? I really would like straw, alfalfa pellets, coconut coir but I am really concerned about herbicides. Also, don’t want to spend too much money. Even outside the box stores. Doesn’t have to be fancy. Something that can be mixed into the soil without robbing the nitrogen. Not so much fertilizers but rather organic matter. Coffee grinds, wood ash, herbicide free straw, alfalfa, along those lines etc. TIA
After reading a little about aquaculture, I feel like trying to harvest some natural organic matter from the bottom of my ~1/3 ac pond for soil amendment. I have this plastic sampling wand, a ~quart-sized cup on a 5 or 6 ft handle, that I thought I'd try dredging with. I know it's a pretty thick layer, since I lost a sandal to it when my canoe tipped over.
It's overstocked, so I'm not averse to pulling out some catfish to put in my pots as well.
Any thoughts on whether pond mud needs to be sterilized before introducing it to an indoor grow?
Soil organic matter is arguably the most important element to sustainable cropping. Practices like tilling and digging provide short term boosts in nutrient availability, but at the cost of burning up soil organic matter. After just a few years soil will degrade and crop yields be lower and less nutritious.
So what is soil organic matter (OM)? It's the stuff that makes dirt into soil. It performs many functions, but I like to think of it as a sponge. It increases the ability of soil to hold nutrients and water until plants need it. It also can allow air channels. It's important stuff and modern agribusiness doesn't do much to conserve it, leading to the coming topsoil erosion crisis.
Building OM in your gardens is a great way to improve water retention (less runoff and better drought tolerance), reduce nutrient leaching, and generally make the soil better for growing food. There isn't one to build up soil. Historically terra preta was made in the Amazon with charcoal and organic waste. In modern times it's often done with cover crops. On a small scale it's easier and harder to create organic matter. Two main ways to do it are to apply compost/other natural materials or to cover crop. In ideal situations some parts of the garden will be left fallow a year or two to allow the soil to build, but in the future I don't know if that's a luxury that all can afford.
Compost etc pros and cons
Commercial compost - often a great product but can be quite expensive, even in wholesale amounts. If you can afford it it's a good way to start.
Homemade compost - beyond a pile where yard/kitchen scraps rot, it's really hard to do compost right at home without a ton of materials laying around.
Manure - may be available free or cheap. Ask people with a few horses, chickens, etc. Need to watch nutrient levels in chicken manure. I am fortunate that I am able to get all the high quality horse manure I can use. Be aware that animals fed cheap food will have low nutrient manure. See the book Gardening When it Counts for info on manures.
Leaves/grass clippings - free! Need to watch carbon/nitrogen levels. Leaves may have weed seeds if collected from other people.
Charcoal/ash - avoid wood ash, it can cause pH to drop. Charcoal is good for building soils. I sometimes burn my yard waste on the garden (branches, garden debris, etc) and spread it out in winter.
Mulching - the success of mulching seems to be highly region and soil dependent. I like to use permanent aisles tha
... keep reading on reddit ➡I'm a long-time photoperiod grower, but this is my first year growing autoflowers. My first run of 3 autos, I used all organics. My second run, I did the same... but while fertilizing my regular flower garden with some cheap 10-10-10, I impulsively tossed a small handful into one of the autoflower containers. Not sure if it was just the strain, but the f*cker grew super fast, and is growing bigger buds compared to the all organic plants. I've been vegging indoors and transferring outdoor if that info matters.
Good day everyone, I'm going to be using Bonsai Jack for my terracotta pots now and I'm wondering what kind of soil or organic matter can I pair it up best with? I used to use 50/50 perlite and Miracle Gro succulent soil but I found Miracle Gro holds too much moisture in my experience and it doesn't have the greatest reviews. I could go to my local nursery too but I'm not really sure what to ask for.
After doing some research, my primary concerns with using just Bonsai Jack are it drains too well too fast and I would have to use fertilizer periodically to make up for the lack of nutrients, which I really don't want to have to do. I live in a zone 7 where it snows so I'd have to take the majority of my succulents (which are zone 9 mostly) indoors for the Winter. I appreciate the help! (:
So, I was getting excited for gardening season and had a lot of dead plants and produce from last season. Decided to return it to veg patch in hope so soil would become more nutrient rich. The organic matter was placed pretty deep into the soil with the holes being around 2-3 feet deep. Only later was I told that they should be around 12 inches
Bearing in mind that I'm in Scotland and it is still Winter, how do you think this deeper compost trench will affect my soil. Is the trench so deep that my pile may not even be composted? Or will it just slow down the process by a couple of months?
Cheers guys
Im in Central FL, about a mile from the Gulf, and the "soil" here is nearly like beach sand. I grew in a couple 5 gallon buckets and 8-10" plastic pots last season (it was my first), and to say it was mediocre would be giving myself too much credit. I decided that I wanted to do some raised beds, but after building one and seeing the cost, decided to skip it and grow in the ground so I can have a much bigger area to plant.
That being said, the soil pretty much sucks. The back yard plot I want to turn into nice soil is 15'x30'. Instead of rushing it, and just adding like 30 bags of manure/compost and hoping for the best, I was thinking about an idea. What about growing something in there, like these mammoth sunflower seeds I have, and then letting them die back and using that as just a large amount of organic matter to begin to transform the sand into an actual soil?
I do have a city mulch heap that appears to be pretty well broken down into a black compost, but would it be better to do something like grow a huge plot of sunflowers that are like 8-12' tall and then let them die back, and just wait the rest of the year and winter for that big mass to break down and begin to transform the soil into a rich growing medium? Im looking to have a diverse food garden that will product lots of great stuff.
So what do you think? Would the sunflower option be a good one, even though it will put off my first real growing season until 2022? Or would just amending this current sandy soil with the city compost and some manure be good enough to get me going in the 4-6 weeks?
