Using cover crops, dried banana peels, red wigglers, bone meal, alfalfa meal, bamboo!

[Crow]

You know I'm at the end of my grow that has been covered, from the 4th week, with an assortment of cuttings and such with red wrigglers doing their thing in the soil underneath, amidst the roots. My cover has been much thinner than I see you are doing and not as studied. I trusted that my soil which is an organic mix out of the bag had enough going for it and that my "experimenting" too much by might ruin a good thing. Next grow the soil will be more complex as I intend to keep this current soil and the resident worms active all through the winter in my, soon to be, worm bin. Have to admit that this is lots of fun!

So freddyyola you are using a milk crate lined with landscaping cloth - or with a smart pot set inside? Either way sounds lie a good idea as it makes for stable & movable pots. Could be a good solution to keeping my grow shed organized and arrangeable. I like to spin the plants every few days to optimize full "sunshine" , i.e., 3 - 600 wattt LEDs.

As an aside - Has been in the low to mid- 20°s F this past week with a few overnights below that. The grow shed has been cold 55° to 58° at night even with the ceramic heater. I have stopped using my fans and run the heat all day on low with the 3 LED units to just jeep it around 65° F. (Glad there is only a week, at most left - might give up and harvest this weekend.) Anyway - came home today after 8 hours away and found that the heater with the lights tripped the surge protector. Was 36° and dark when I opened the door at 4 this afternoon. I was actually more worried about my worms . Yeah, I know they will be fine and so are the plants. A day of near freezing isn't the same as days of actual freezing. Anyway - all back to normal now. Rearranged my outlet situation. All good.

Have fun out there!

Crow

 

[freddyyola]

yeah its a milk crate lined with weed fabric if you can get your hands on some for free people actually use crates to grow because you can stack them side by side really modular and you can move them! but i will be trying to have bigger pots in the future because i think itll be better for what im trying to with no tilling/live soil.

while you plan on keeping and reusing your soil i think you should toss some new compost and maybe some amendments and some cover crop seed mix to sprout and by the time winter is over or when you are ready to plant again just smash the cover crop down and make a spot for your new plant... the mulch/cover crop will be worm food/humus layer and if you added any kelp bone meal blood meal or whatever itll also be broken down or breaking down.. the cover crop helps keep the soil soft and alive with microbes and also a + for worms.

first cover crop seed i suggest to start out with is crimson clover its one of the cheapest! super cheat at 1.50$ish a pound you can cover ALOT! probably 10 big plants/pots worth.

the great thing about crimson clovers are they pull nitrogen out the air into their leaves and roots so when you smash them and break their stems they die leaving the nitrogen to break down into your soil.. so its almost free organic plant available nitrogen! plants have everything a plant needs so feed plants.. plants!

 

[freddyyola]

if i plan on lining pots ever again and decide to go bigger i think a good idea would be to make a square using something like 1 inch wire hardware cloth or the wire fence with 2x3 in. holes stuff people use to make chicken coops and compost bins out of and then line those with the fabric.

another cheap way is to get some reusable wal mart fabric bags they are a decent size if i can find some ima try it out you can ask a local feed store for used feed bags too.. amazon has fabric pots for cheap too!

 

[Crow]

I like the idea of a cover crop over the worm bin. Can I assume then that there would be no need for a layer of cloth or paper, as so often recommended? Won't the cover crop require light to grow properly?

Thanks for the ideas.

 

[freddyyola]

yeah just put a little light maybe 1 big cfl the cover crop will grow and be the blanket the blocks the light and if you leave the bin open since you have the cover crop growing the worms wont try to escape cause the light above so you wont need a cover or lid.

every 4-6 weeks crush down the cover crop and add coco coir on top of that then toss in new seeds to grow on top and repeat..

 

[freddyyola]

heres an update to my no till crate plant..

 

[freddyyola]

im gonna add alot more red wigglers since all my bins are outside and i want some worms inside just in case.. plus they slow down alot in the cold and since the crate will be optimal temp/home i might as well throw more in there..

 

[Crow]

With your inspiration, I'll start a proper warm farm after Christmas and get some great composting for my next grow. Figured out today where inside
I can keep a worm bin going. Will be fun.

 

[GreenhouseEffect]

If you ever need to have some worms that can live outside and make it with the cold, the Super European Night Crawlers are the ones to get. Uncle Jim sells them to, and I think they eat almost as much as the wrigglers, just more cold hardy. My collection is a mix of both, along with whatever native enilids are in my soil. I do love the crazy little kids, kinda like having the lowest maintenance pets in the world, Lol! Good humble little critters.

 

[Crow]

Good to know. Me and my LMPs

 

[freddyyola]

yeah i treat my worms like they are my pets i feed them good give them a good home and spoil them! lol im thinking about getting another species of worms but so far ive been adding native earthworms to my outside pots since they are native to the area they do good although its tough to keep em alive ina worm bin but they do fine in my pots outside since its mostly good soil no till type of grow and i add native soil in with them and i think thats why they stay alive.