I decided I am going to try something new for this grow. I am reusing my soil from my last grow but I decided to mix in some dryed grass clippings I had laying around in my backyard. How long does this mixture have to sit before I can put my plants in it without having to worry about roots getting fungus or something? ottytrain1:
Dry grass is a brown or carbon rich material so the only thing to worry about is providing some green materials Fresh grass is green material In a living system healthy soil aids healthy plants. Healthy plants fend off pests and diseases better. If you are going to recycle your soil and you used bottle ferts first flush the soil. Even with "Organic" bottle products people report salts build ups when recycling the soil. Is your dried grass from a clean pesticide free source? Keep an eye on things.. Are you composting this soil?
the dirt is sitting in my backyard in the sun. the kids and i dug up some werms and threw them in the pile today so if thats what you consider composting then yea i guess.. the thing i am worried about is when i dumped all my soil out to mix it i also mixed in a bunch of fresh weeds and crap that was already on the ground into the soil. im worried that thease "greens" as you call them will actualy be a problem in the end... how long will it take for the worms to decompose the greens?
Well the soil is a home for things. The worms will eat what the can/want and move on. There is active and passive composting. with a pile of soil and materials such as old soil and grass clippings in time the materals will decompose. With a pile of soil mixed in with new greens and browns that is big enough the microbes take over and decomposition happens faster. One is easy... just build a bin and toss stuff in at will. You want to keep the pile off the ground because nutrients will leach into the soil below. In time yiou can take and screen the materals that have decomposed and use them. The other is more work but faster.. on method is twin bins one to have the pile in and one to shovel the pile into to turn it. There are compost tumblers which one just turns by a hand crank and there are many many products for bins. The process of decomposition is done by microorganisms ( see the FAQ organic growing compost/composting entries ) Basically the nitrogen rich materials and the carbon rich materials feed microbes they in turn populate the materials. By the billions I assume... in a pile they cause heat and by keeping the materials full of oxygen by turning the pile and keeping it moist by watering the materials break down. By recycling the soil it's much the same. New Greens and Browns are added and the soil is treated as a pile and the process of microbes runs it's course. After this is complete it is important to "restock" with things like alfalfa meal , azomite, and what not. Adding nitrogen is a big thing as it will have been depleted.. The upside of this is that humus is produced over time and the best of natural soil processes are harnessed for us indoor growers. At least that's what I believe. Be it growing tomatoes in containers or other wonders of nature by using materials that are natural and avoiding liquids that may have metals or other salts in them nature can handle it IMO. It sounds like you and the kids would love to do a proper Organic Garden in that case do have a google and read up.. There are so many resources for composting and vermiculture ( worms ). I'm a bit unfocused this morening and I can't decide if I want coffee or beer so ask me anything you like if I failed to answer your questions directly.. I will try to answer honestly. Oh and if yall are interested in worms you can do that in a tub under the sink! Virmicomposting or vermiculture I think are proper search terms. That can be a fun thing for kids.
