m4s73r
The Laziest
Hold on, adding compost is feeding the microbes. Microbes still break down composts. Thats why so many people top dress EWC. Compost still requires decomposition to break organic mater. The point he was making is that continually adding compost from animals is high in Phosphorus and can damage the environment around it. And over time too much can cause bad things to the soil. This is why you wont see gardeners dumping bags and bags of compost on outdoor raised beds. Its leaves that are piled on. Not animal compost. This is also why i dont just use EWCs only in my beds. I cut it with mushroom compost.Right - but the entire process of living soil is feeding the microbes. You don't feed the plants. EVER. yet they grow. Feeding the microbes IS the ballgame. Discounting that simple fact - or glossing over it to prove some other point is when I knew he had an agenda of some sort - or wasn't as smart as he thinks he is.
This is true but takes time to really fuck it up. Most people will fuck their soilless mixes up from all the top dressings they do. they keep adding compost and amendments over and over. They never throw on some leaf mulch, perlite, or anything. Well if you start at a 1 part peet, 1 part compost, 1 part aeration and top dress for a year well now you got some heavy ass pots full of compost and not enough peat/aeration. This is why earthbox guys have to dump every 3rd or 4th run. Eventually its all compost. It is very hard to get the bacteria and fungi out of balance. You have to almost intentionally be trying to do this. This is why I preach mulching leaf material rather then top dressing dry amendments and EWC.Hell, I ain't trying to steer anything. Your living soil is only good as long as your "microbe balance" is in correct ratios, and the right microbes are there to start with.
You'll find out one day when they get way out of balance or somehow you get invasions of critters you don't know are in there and everything starts going to shit and you have to toss all of it away and start from scratch. I know you guys are on top of the organics, it's great when it's great.
When it's not, it's a major "dick punch".
The only time I would ever throw out a soiless mix is if someone salted it. But I have been doing this for awhile.
So is my basement. BAS is just so convenient. LOL.Hell ya man. My basement is full of BAS shit. I started with straight FFOF at first, but I've added tons of other things. I knew it was gonna be a challenge starting out with the no-till mentality, and I wasn't wrong. But I'm learning constantly, and am always trying new things.
Never had any burning with my bat guano's, but I have with the seabird guano for instance. I precook top dressing sometimes. And that stuff actually can get hot to the touch depending on what you use. I've measured like 106 degrees F before, but it can get hotter I'm sure.
If it's something that I know gets hot like that, is when I pre-cook it for a few days until it cools down.