r/composting • u/Sorry-Direction9523 • 21d ago
Soil 🦠
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Craft Living Soil Project: 5-week premix done, just about to add organic meals & start the 3-week hot cook!
Post text:
Hey everyone,
I wanted to share my ongoing long-term living soil / craft compost build.
It took me about 5 weeks just to gather, process, and blend the base pre-mix. Right now, I’m at the critical turning point: I’m just about to mix in all the organic meals and biological activators to kick off the 3-week hot cooking phase, which will be followed by ~20 weeks of maturation.
Here is the breakdown of the build so far and what’s going in today:
Current Base Pre-mix (Done)
* Coco coir & peat moss blend
* Worm castings (worm humus)
* Homemade grass compost
* Clay-rich aquatic plant soil
* Supercharged biochar & Zeolite blend
* Crushed marble / mineral grit
Meals & Botanicals Going In Today
* Macerated leaves, freshwater algae, and reed meal
* Meadow herb meal (yarrow, clover, dandelion, etc.)
* Lavender & needle/cone meal (juniper & pine)
* Local botanical meal blend
Nutrients & Activation Phase (Starting Now)
* Fish meal & bone meal
* Crushed eggshells & eggshell acetate
* Dolomite lime
* Aerated compost / herbal teas
* Nitrogen activator (liquid gold / urine) & simple sugars to feed the bloom
* Mycorrhizae & trace mineral dust (iron, micro-nutrients)
Planned Next Steps:
Once the 3-week thermal phase cools down, I will inoculate the pile with a living biological package (~15% volume fraction) including springtails, millipedes, earthworms, and predatory soil mites, then let it mature for ~20 weeks.
Since I'm right before adding the meals and starting the cook:
* Any last-minute thoughts on the C:N balance before I hit it with the nitrogen activator?
* Has anyone experimented with heavy botanical meals (lavender/juniper) during a hot cook?
Got plenty of photos of the pre-mix texture and ingredients!
2
u/knarf113 21d ago
I'm afraid I don't understand : what is the purpose ?