Alive with the Glory of Mycelium

What is soil and how does it grow? Most humans when asked what is below the grass, or their feet, will reply "dirt."

Dirt defined by Oxnard Dictionary, "a substance, such as mud or dust that soils someone or something"

"earth used to make a surface for a road, floor, or other areas of the ground"

Soil however is composed of organic material, imagine a deciduous forest floor. Layered with leaf, pine needles, plant matter, generally moist and fluffy below the surface.

As a farmer, grower and soil steward I believe it's important to realize the disconnection humans have from soil and consumable products.  Cannabis is bought in dispensaries, marketed at abnormal prices and sold in "smalls." People spending their paychecks on tokes and bongs...  But not many of these folks know where their food or smoke comes from, let alone the quality of seeds or soil it grew on.

How I "Grow" Soil for Outdoor and Greenhouse:

Shit. Poop, manure: whatever you want to call it, by the truckload. Dump trucks for certain endeavors if the field is large enough. I have also used manure pellets to provide nitrogen that breaks down over time. Keeping different poop piles allows time for the turds to break down, making nutrients more digestible to plant. Usually I lay manure a couple weeks before planting to avoid burning smaller plants.  Sheep, cow, rabbit, worm castings (worm shit), wildlife such as deer shit, neighborhood cats, blue jays that drive me absolutely nuts, turkeys, and millions of bugs are always pooping, dying, and eating one another.  More bodies, more soil, so let the bodies hit the floor.

Plant Tea: My favorite input because it makes me feel like a chemist or a witch, also the smelliest. I have used almost every plant and type of manure I can think of to make tea. Fill a bucket or 50 gallon drum 3/4 full with plant material, add water, and cover lightly so random animals do not crawl in and die. although their bodies are not bad for plants, it is sad to see floating frogs or exploding mice when you go to tea.. I use whatever plants are  growing during each season and keep the ferment going for a month, every time I use some I will add more water to the drum. Eventually it will start to smell, and this is why most people shy away from making their own ferments. Plants do not care, I promise, the only thing to be cautious of is to dilute any tea you make with water before feeding.  

I was hesitant to use my own ferments for cannabis at first because I had been using liquid nutrients and bagged soil for years. I started to think of it as guerilla growing vs. grow-bro style. Instead of spending money on "the best" products I looked around at what was available and how I could spend LESS. Researched nutrient values of cannabis and how it changed throughout the growth cycle, stopped wasting money during vegetation by using grass/ nettle/ comfrey teas.  I was amazed when these teas bubbled on their own without electricity or special products, the amount of Life in the barrel was endless. Oftentimes I was fearful of "bad" bacteria  but I realized that the balance was achieved by the plants breaking down in the most natural way and certain plants contained higher levels of nitrogen while others potassium ect... I realized that most of the store bought products I had used in the past were watered down variants of 4 specific elements: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium.

At the time I had come to a place with growing where it was not realistic to continue as a profession unless prices per pound skyrocketed or I cut my cost of production in half. I decided to cut production cost, and I am grateful I did because the amount of failures doubled but I learned three times as much. Most of the cost in the past came from buying 50 gallon drums of each individual nutrient, thousands of dollars and a fuck ton of plastic. Once I cut that out and made my own teas, spending only on flowering formulas, my greenhouse and outdoor beds not only produced the same amount of buds, the beds themselves grew. I struggled with pests at first, and spent every hour of "time" I possibly could combating them with organic sprays. I realized sulfur in small doses, 1/4 teaspoon per gallon, was the most effective.

As for nutrients, I began using nettle, comfrey, and grass clippings for nitrogen during vegetative state. Bio char provided phosphorus and potassium. Fish emulsions smelled the absolute worst to me, but I used them for extra phosphorus and nitrogen. Calcium was my most difficult element to recreate, as I had used bone meal for years. I began crushing eggshells, sea shells, and bones I found in the forest to the beds. I still felt that adding fish meal, or crustacean meal at the beginning of season was most effective for cannabis.

 To be brutally honest, there were times when I found pools of maggots swimming in tea drums, and other types of larva I could not identify. At first I gagged and took a few deep breaths, then I used the tea and dumped the remains onto the beds during a hot day, in hopes they would create food for worms, birds, any living thing... This was another reason I learned to cover the drums with a piece of wood and cinderblock, or shade cloth tied with baling twine. Also why I began doling out tea to the plants wearing clothes I would later soak in the creek. As for my shoes, forget about them. Every season a pair of sandals is dedicated to tea time and thrown away immediately upon harvest...

If you have healthy plants, kale for example, using any overgrown leaves as a mulch or tea is a productive way to utilize waste. The only things I would shy away from are powdery/downy mildew leftovers (I put mine in a separate compost pile), or active moldy plants. This includes branches, leaves, buds,  and random weeds.  If I find soil bugs such as symphylans even though I preach about utilizing everything, I still try to eradicate those fuckers by keeping the soil separate and treating it with small doses of hydrogen peroxide. After being confident they have become plant food, I rehydrate the soil and begin adding micro organisms.

Coming from a forest near you.... MICRO ORGANISMS, soils orgasms... These little entities (billions) exist and thrive in mycelium, creeks, manure.. pretty much every place you could imagine they are kicking ass and taking names. Digesters maneuvering nutrients, they thrive in homemade teas. To harvest, go  into the forest or an area near your garden with natural growth. Not a field that has been cultivated and stripped of nutrients or a meadow but a place with trees and native plants thriving. preferably an area with natural "mulch" such as tree/plant  debris. Dig into earth near a tree, using your hands.. I know it can be startling... About six inches into soil. If it breaks easily, and there are visible white mycelium webs forming on the wood chips or "dirt" you have discovered natures little secret. Life is available to every grower, in every possible format. If you really want to geek out, smell this soil... it will change your perception. Look at it closely and you will see it is like sand from the ocean. Tiny pieces of every entity you can imagine exist here..Add a handful or two of this soil  after tea has fermented for a day, and make sure to use it within 42 hours. The tea is not "bad" or unusable after this, but certain micro organisms die off as time passes. In order to achieve a healthy balance with the most available organisms, utilize the "bubbles"

 Grass/Plant Clippings: Collecting grass after mowing and using it as a mulch will keep down excess weeds and provide similar micro organisms to the specific bio region. Grass cuttings also make a fantastic tea, I usually add a few dandelions or flowers in bloom to spice things up.

Alfalfa/ Wheat Straw (Not the same thing, but I use them in the same way) They both make a good mulch when extra coverage is needed or to protect seedlings from extreme heat. Wheat straw has a tendency to seed consistently, however alfalfa can have a more diverse ratio of weeds that come up through the growth cycle. Unless there is a form of pesticide prevention, there WILL be weeds... hula ho's a growers best friend.. Or be like a grow bro and pay someone to do your dirty work.

Cover crop: I wish I knew about cover crops earlier because I believe they are a badass way to have a lighter work load and also add soil depth. In the off season, planting clover/daikon/mustard and let it go to flower. If it goes to seed it is not a big deal, mow or weed whip the beds and do a heavy watering. Next cover with any extra plastic you have lying around, cardboard, or row cover if you have extra cash. Let it sit until early spring or winter depending on your crop, uncover, and do a light till if needed. I usually fork small areas instead of tilling if possible because I love worms.( Because our climate in the Pacific Northwest seems to be getting warmer, I would not hesitate to uncover the bed a few times throughout the summer and give it a deep watering.)

Bio char / ashes: Bio char is a fancy way of saying charcoal, but not the same as "ashes." Not the type of charcoal you use for a barbecue. Bio Char is made by digging a pit, burning wood (carbon) beginning with small pieces and graduating to larger branches or logs. Once the fire is HOT, very little smoke will rise, flames appear as a tee-pee shape. Add material until the pit is full (earth level), let it burn for a few minutes or more depending on the size of your pit. Next  dose it with cold water, no need to flood it like Noah's  Ark, just use enough until the fire is out and slightly sizzles. The next day, pieces of "charcoal" appear shiny and flaky, this is soil growing gold. Add it to garden beds without breaking up the chunks during off season. Rain will "charge" the bio char, to speed up the process you can inoculate with micro organisms.

Inoculation:

"the act or an instance of inoculating, especially the introduction of an antigenic substance or vaccine into the body to produce immunity to a specific disease."

"the act or art of inoculating trees or plants."

Until writing this article, I never thought about inoculating humans and it made me laugh. Antigenic substance is not necessarily what I aim for in ferments, I am aiming for well rounded culture. Both "good" and "bad" micro organisms provide a more natural biome for root production. And although I mentioned only a few native plants, I encourage you to branch out and try different things based on your environment. I have never completely fucked anything up with a ferment, but there is a point to be made about using certain plants at different stages of growth. Look at what is growing around you during spring, summer and fall and research nutrient values of each plant. From my experience, fresh growth is usually the highest nutrient value. So much of this seems like a science when in reality all I am trying to do is emulate nature. Breaking down elements seems like an easier way to connect, but truly, I believe listening, observing, and imitating nature brings the most productive growth. Adding micro organisms to ferments or soil is considered inoculation. I compare my garden to a forest; are there bugs? Mold? Healthy weeds growing between plants? Does the soil contain worms? Is there mycelium beneath a crop? A mix of everything is a healthy biome.

Growing cannabis of course requires measures to be taken against pests, I am stating there are ways to prevent pests from becoming an issue, soil health is important to our longevity as growers. If I throw pesticides at an issue, or blast moldy ass buds into cartridges, overall it will do nothing but sell my crops in the moment. I suppose that is what most people are going for, but I will not stand for selling sickness. Everything comes around, call it chaos or karma but nature has its own ways of resetting.

a deep web of mycelium grows below us and it pre historic,

long before human or professors, creatures swam, flew through, and walked Earth.

A symbiotic relationship without thoughts or twisted emotion,

moments in which fresh water was potion, politics were unspoken.

if animals had egos the same as humans, they would have been experiencing similar troubles.

And yet, they thrived and died in their own ways.

without guilt, shame. they died without war but they did not die without experiencing death before. they did not die without loss,

simply animals and nature do not see Life the same way as us.

humans have a strange desire to explain ourselves, define our experiences, relate to each other to make things easier.

while mycelium thrives below us, herds of animals lose their companions and silently they grieve;

a deep understanding, language  between stars and trees.

they ask no questions, band together and continue to exist as both individuals and everything.

Lesson from the Underground: Nature is nearly impossible to emulate, yet easy to learn from. Micro organisms are more than willing to work with us.

Article and poetry by: Medusa G Rilla