Troi said:
Granted you are mineralizing the soil in the tamk and you may not have used the same mix but the principles the same.
milla...thanks for taking the time to hunt that out for me. I've read several very similar threads and they all seem to be Tom Barr clones, circa 2005,
http://www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/433-Non-CO2-methods and he is at best irrationally dismissive of non-mineralised soil substrate.
I was specifically referring to proper soil - what plants grow in - the stuff that's free from your garden or extremely cheap (by comparison) from the local garden centre. I just thought it would be potent mix that wouldn't require so much maintenance; the best of both worlds.
I use soil of many types, but I do not think I'm irrational about them
ADA As is soil also, so is rice paddy soil and delta clay where many species live, and the clays of Everglades, or the clays in irrigation canals that are loaded with aquatic weeds, or the various peat clays on the upper reaches of the floodplains in some of the rivers here, or the lakes in the alpine regions here in CA.
If I have appeared irrational about NON mineralized materials, well, ADA AS is not mineralized either, so I suggest folks to use that as well
Maybe I am irrational these days
I'd rather folks try the richer sediments personally, regardless of CO2 or not..........they offer the same good benefits. I have many pot test I've done with sediments over the years also. A good rice paddy soil is tops.
Like many folks, I use what is local and since we are on one the highest production per hectare Rice growing regions in the world, it's something I drive by daily for 20km.
I think some of the MTS crowd got carried away and think they knew a lot more than they really did. Most found after a few months, they needed to dose some N. Many wanted to not dose anything, but then they said they still wanted to dose Traces/K+ (much like ADA style of dosing), which works and adds a little to things, but most wetland soils..........not garden soils......are what we are talking about here........... end up N limited very often where plants are present. Denitrification and N uptake is great as the NH4 is used or converted to NO3 which is highly mobile, so it's not going to STAY in the soil, it's going to diffuse out and be lost/uptake etc.
Only NH4 is going to be bound.
The rice paddy soil? they just add liquid ammonia to it right before the flood and seed.They keep the soil flooded to reduce the nitifying bacteria(they needs lots of O2) so the NH4 stays put. Once you add garden soil, topsoil whatever....to water and submerse it....it's now subjected to the rules of wetland soil.
Mineralized or not....mineralization is going to occur before or after it's added.
In non mineralized, treat like ADA folks do, water changes a lot for the 1st 1-2 months, 2-3x a week, 50-80%.
If mineralized, 50% a week or more for the 1st month.
Hopefully this is a bit more "rational" hehe.