crimsonecho
Self-Proclaimed Don Quixote
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Dude, I was roasting egg shells for my worms 20 years ago...... I found adding vinegar to break down the shells creates too acidic of an input for my worms, or cannabis for that matter. I found grinding the egg shells in a grinder into a fine dust, and applying that is far more effective. Let the microbes break the egg shell down, and not the acidic vinegar. On top of that, I add 6 egg shells a day to my 1 yard of worm bins I keep in the garage during the winter. When those castings are done, I still add a butt tone of calciums and P. If you are trying to grow a plant with egg shell inputs, your plants will be very hungry.
Can you explain how "By using enzymes, microbes, etc we are breaking down the nutrition inside of plants making some readily available." I always though when growing organically, we allow microbes to break down organic food and the root exudates pull that raw form up as nutrients. How are you breaking down nutrients "inside" the plant?
Those books I recommended talk all about how nutrients are taken up by plants, and what the ideal base saturation levels are in the soil. I think it might really help out. Wish you luck.
I never said anything was useless. I was genuinely asking if any of those techniques could be applied to a large garden, and the answer was clearly no. Unless you live on a banana farm....... The concept however is what all organic gardeners do, is utilize organic inputs from local farms. Just no banana farms here. Without a banana farm, I am trying to imagine how this works...... You go down to Safeway and buy a pallet of banana's? How much does that cost?
I clearly said I don't add ionic fertilizers, why would you accuse me of doing so?
Liquid bone meal? Yea, that is fairly soluble and a great product. Still not even close to the boost that Monopotassium phosphate adds. I love bone meal, and add about 20# per yard every year. I add mine in the fall so it's broken down by spring. Cause I know how long that stuff takes to break down, years. How big does that bottle have to be to soak the bone meal? I have almost a thousand yards I ammend, at 20+ lbs per yard we are talking 20,000 lbs of bone meal. Better get a bigger bottle, lol. To reach 80+% base saturation, bone meal is one of my main calcium's.
You guys seem to be preaching to the choir. I am an organic grower, with many organic tricks. My only point I was making is organics are very hard to produce the same yields as a grow with chemical boots given at critical points of influence. Need further evidence? Go read a giant pumpkin growing book. Those guys have really set the path. Just trying to share what I believe, and trying to not putting anybody else down in the process.
All of these techniques can be applied on a bigger scale. Now i think you are not differentiating between what is inconvenient and what is impossible. Clearly possible to do all of these in the manner you proposed. You know buying shit ton of banana and eating them all so you can ferment the peels. Not very feasible. But it doesn’t mean they don’t work. You may also live near or have a connection with a food processing company and you can get the banana peels from them or a banana farmer who could sell you all his sub-par bananas for very cheap etc etc. you can find a way to make it work is my point.
I was ranting on another thread about just this. I’m not a commercial grower and i’ll never produce other than for myself, so i can do these ferments and peels of 10 bananas can sustain me thru a years worth of grows. There are many people who grow for themselves and these techniques can be easily applied by them. For a commercial scale, you have to go local. You have to make best whats around you. So? How does that worth having an argument about. Technique works, you just don’t utilize it because economically its not feasible to you. Ok, i can accept that and you should accept that this is a great way to produce zero waste while getting a great fertilizer for your plants in every scale. You’re missing the fact that bananas are not the only solution, potato skin, cucumber skin and grapefruit skin are all viable options for a potassium boost. I’m sure at least one of them could be sourced if you wanted to but again that defeats the purpose natural farming a little bit.
Well monopotassium phosphate is an ionic fertilizer. It breaks up into ions when mixed with water. If you’re adding monopotassium phosphate you are adding ionic fertilizers. If not, why are you trying to sell us on it or let me better rephrase, why are putting down the organic alternatives which are widely used in every scale. With giant pumpkins, genetics play a role too. Yeah maybe it’ll produce a bit more than organics when you use ionic, havent tried it but again commercial problems. I stick to organics and get a gram less per 20 maybe. No biggie. I’ve seen charred to shit plants because of too much pk. My banana peel ferment doesn’t do that.
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