On a mish to find a good prepackaged soil

[Chrystal]

Those MM's actually work pretty decently i have changed my opinion on them they most defiantly have a place in a grow room i think the regular watering will give a better yield over watering once every 3 days, the plants having access to the moisture throughout the daylight hours has seen these plants grow so fast and they have florished, these tomato plants are now flowering

 

here's a picture of how much water they had drank in 3.5 days i had to top them up today at 4 days as the 3rd from the left drank all its water but the 4th from the left could have gone another 2 days without water

 

the soils are comparable as in speed of vegetative state including the WC but its a clear winner which soil is preferred, the far right plant/soil is a winner it retains enough moisture to water once ever 6 days and it has exploded with healthy green growth, this bag of soil is from the "Far Garden Shop" or the massive industrial scale whole saler

 

what i can't believe is how some basic WC can turn a really shit potting mix into this!

 

 

[itchybromusic]

it's called inoculating shitty bagged soil with beneficial microorganisms

plus adding a bunch of plant available nutrients & pest suppression 

 

not bad for something that comes out the bum of a worm  

[Chrystal]

Haha its good shit literally I'm not surprised how poor the general bagged potting mix has done that is why i gave it up years ago in favour of hydroponics but seeing this i am keen to give it a try

 

a couple of those WC sellers got back to me about there castings both said they feed theirs manure and one said cardboard, is there anything with using the cardboard and the worms eating the glue used in making it?

[itchybromusic]

in general no 

but what go's in we want to use once it comes out 

 

if you feed worms with very little nutrients they poo out 

not allot of nutrients

 

no probs using cardboard , from memory it's full of lignin which worms love 

just like straw or dead root systems , 

 

having a diverse food source for your worms has got to be a good thing

for the castings they produce 

 

& this is the reason why some can ask $60 for 20lts of castings 

also the same reason you can get ripped off = 1 guy "says" he feeds well , the other actually feeds well 

 

DIY castings is the way to tailor a great batch of castings , just takes a long time to produce such a small

amount in your backyard   

 

it's the reason you top dress all the time , to make casting in your pot , if you have to wait for them to be made 

in a bin , cut out the middle man & make them in the pot 

[Chrystal]

54cm and 60cm in 3 weeks not bad for soil

[itchybromusic]

need to keep growth rates in perspective due to pot size , roots would have filled that pot buy now i would think 

& would be starting to run out of space  

 

have you been using a npk fertilizer , i ask because not allot of flowers on the plant , could be just the plant 

but i tend to find with toms too much N gives you plenty of growth & not allot of flowers 

[Chrystal]

I was thinking of just letting them go in these pots i'm happy with the results i have seen so far and seeing some fruit would be good, atm i am just running the potting mix with the WC no additional additives plant on the left has 11 flowers and stands a little taller than the one on the right which has 9 flowers

 

i could repot them but getting more WC is a pretty big drive about 1h 30min trip both ways

 

MM's are still cruising along, last night was a refill i took the MM's to the lowest i could that was around 100mls or a little less

 

 

[itchybromusic]

sorry wasn't suggesting you change anything , i was just saying in a bigger pot or the ground 

growth rate would be very different 

 

ahhh ok that's more flowers than it looked like by the pic 

[Chrystal]

I could put them in 250-300mm pots getting the soil is easy but just getting my hands on more WC is a mission, each plant only has a few full developed flowers but both plants have flowers of all sizes i counted all of what i could see tiny or expanded 

 

i have the tomato plants up around waist height so the pets can't get to them, i won't be able to put them in the ground being a toxic stain i just can't afford the pets getting in there ripping them up and chewing the roots,leaves and stems can't afford a expensive vet bill at the moment i am worried the wind will blow them over and the pets will chew them

[itchybromusic]

all good 

you gotta do what ya gotta do 

 

i have cats here & dogs in the past , i've never had any issue with animals & tomatoes 

i think there pretty tuned in to smells & what to keep away from 

 

but if you see it as an issue then my thinking is , go with what you think & not what someone else 

thinks , if it's fucked thinking then you only have yourself to blame , not to mention those little things 

a grower gets to see , smell , touch cos your there , makes for much better decisions making 

 

worm castings are def better homemade , you don't have to think of it as a refill bin , something you keep

adding to , you can start with a small pile that you fill a fabric pot with , straw , leaves , flowers , grass clippings 

plus add soil amendments , kelp , dolomite , gypsum , rock dust , neem cake , could even put the aeration 

in , then all you'd have to add is peat moss to have a castings soil mix , could even put the peat in up front as well = worm bedding 

 

this lot will make a lill more volume of castings than kitchen food scrapes will being they are mostly water