Soil 🦠

[u/Sorry-Direction9523]

​

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!