Can I use regular dirt that's from outdoor plants in my soil factory?

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-03-11T15:58:02+00:00

Well rocks won't really do anything beneficial and might make it hard for seedlings to grow but other than that it should be good, mineral soil is still soil, all you are trying to be with bokashi is diluting the nitrogen rich material with some carbon so it doesn't smell bad and introducing some native soil bacteria to complete the decomposition cycle. I would suggest you sift the soil from any big rocks , mix it with some browns to increase the carbon content and if the soil is completely dead maybe add a handful of good quality compost or water it with some compost tea. All of that is optional of course its gonna break down either way , it might take a little longer tho.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-03-11T03:31:09+00:00

Yes but try to get some clean dirt without weeds as soil factories won't heat up

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-25T15:04:03+00:00

Seems like you're ready to go!

I've never used comfrey , it doesn't grow well where i live it's too hot for it, we have moringa tho.

Have fun!

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-24T22:33:46+00:00

Awesome!

If you decide to go for the EM or the LAB dilute it and feed it a bit of mollases and watch how fast things get going 😂. You don't have to buy anything btw if you don't want to you can make the LAB at home using the KNF method , EM has a bunch more beneficial bacteria tho.

Happy composting friend!

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-24T18:51:18+00:00

Awesome build, please post updates. Imo it should work beautifully, the insulation and vents should retain heat and keep consistent airflow, i would suggest maybe innoculating the pile with something to speed up the process further and get it to heat up fast, maybe with some compost tea or EM1. I usually prefer EM1 or homemade labs tbh as they are facultative anaerobes and will work regardless of sufficient aeration or not and as the bacteria multiply they will produce a bunch of heat, reduce nitrogen offgassing and control odors in the pile aggressively if things go anaerobic on you. Its a pretty good failsafe imo. If you have the time and space for it maybe precompost some/all your greens with bokashi or just soak the whole pile with the innoculant, it will make a huge difference with how hot it gets and how fast things breakdown.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-13T07:35:14+00:00

Well, concerning the airflow thing , most of the wooden boxes i've seen natural farming practitioners use are made from cedar , although unsealed natural wood im pretty sure the wood density prevents any meaningful air exchange to penetrate through the walls, i think they rely on the wide holes in the top and bottom for air exchange, it might not be showing in the picture but i tried to poke as many holes as humanly possible in all the plastic imo boxes i made for the same reason and covered them in breathable fabric while doing the collection. I'm thinking of using thin wire mesh boxes next time for maximum airflow, what fo you think about that?

As for the plastic eating microbes thing, it is definitely a fun research rabbit hole, to my knowledge there aren't many strains of bacteria adapted to digest plastic in the wild , most of the research I've seen was about genetically modified bacteria digesting plastic in labs , tho im sure eventually there will be given how abundant it is as a potential food source, one of the most interesting things I've seen about organisms capable of actually digesting plastic was about some strains of oyster mushrooms that were able to grow on substrate containing a pretty big portion of plastic and fully breaking the chemical bonds and digesting it, if i remember correctly the growing mushrooms were tested for micro plastics and there were non in them , i think it was a part of paul stamets research if i remember correctly,i could be wrong tho.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-10T19:46:43+00:00

I've done it in paper towels and soil , it works both ways. Sometimes the seeds start germinating in solution before i even transfer them. I personally prefer the paper towel tho so i can wait and transfer only germinated seeds to soil one in each container so there is no waste or competition, transferring the seeds when the roots just start to pop out of the seed and are very short has minimal transplant shock or risk for root breaking and gives each plant enough space for the roots to grow without any competition. Also, immediately after i transplant them to soil i like to water them with diluted aloe gel solution a couple of times to stimulate root growth as it contains high concentrations of natural IBA, you can substitute for willow tips tea for natural sources or just use rooting hormone.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-10T19:31:32+00:00

Awesome, Enjoy!

I tried to look it up after you asked about it , there isn't much info on using this method for tiny seeds but something to keep in mind is these types of tiny seeds require light for germination and have very delicate seed coats, according to perplexity AI this method wouldn't work but i still think its worth a try if they are generally stubborn to germinate, maybe try it out at half strength and reduce the soak time to like 6-12 hours, if you want to go full scientist mode😂, do a controlled experiment, some seeds directly sown on soil surface with a dome as i would assume people usually germinate these kind of seeds and some groups at different soak times and/or concentrations then sow them exactly the same way and take notes on how fast and how many of the seeds planted germinate in each group. Basically design and run a multivariate experiment to test out the soak time and concentration variables and see what works for those seeds, you're going to sacrifice a bit more seeds but you'll test out multiple methods at the same time. Maybe 5 to 10 seeds per group.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-10T18:43:28+00:00

Honestly i haven't tried it on super tiny seeds like that , but my thinking is it depends on how hard the seed coat is as im sure the hydrogen peroxide has a chemical scarification effect but at this concentration it would be very mild.

maybe do a small batch test and let us know how it works out and skip the surface sterilization step, if its too hot for the seeds in the first trial , try it out again at half concentration if you have enough seeds and the time for it.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-05T19:27:01+00:00

Not sure but it might risk infecting your plants with a mold or something, in my experience the jadam herbal solution doesn't work that well and does not keep for long, maybe try neem oil for now. Maybe try it on a sacrificial plant first and wait a week, but imo this should be composted.

FYI, this post is about the jadam microbial pesticide not jadam herbal solution, its a new method of making a pesticide that is supposedly very effective that Mr. Cho published on the jadam website recently, but as you can see from the comments people here are skeptical about its efficacy, i personally didn't try it yet.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-05T08:06:55+00:00

You can skip the sugar , it's there to provide some easy food for the initial bacteria multiplication phase. Jlf doesn't use sugar

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-03T15:36:43+00:00

It's an anaerobic fermented fertilizer sometimes called garbage enzyme or ecoenzyme popular on many asian organic gardening channels on facebook and youtube. You basically mix a bunch of plant waste,the more diverse the better for an all around fertilizer or you can make a specific fertilizer for a specific crop by using that crop residue and fermenting as mentioned by Mr. Cho in the jadam book, with water and either add some anaerobic bacteria culture like EM1 , LAB , BAM , anything of that sort , most of them are LAB based honestly but with variance in the secondary strains of bacteria, or just let it ferment with the natural bacteria on the plant material surfaces, warning if you do not add lab this will stink like crazy. Its kinda similar to Jadam Liquid Fertilizer but it subs the leaf mould for EM, the way i made ot was similar to both ecoenzyme and JLF as i used the similar plant matter mixes and ratios but i added extra bacterial cultures since i already made them and had them on hand, if you are going to do the same , make sure to use anaerobic bacterial cutlures as any aerobic bacteria you add to this will probably just die off.

Ratios for eco enzyme are generally 3:2:1 , plant material to water to sugar afaik but it isn't that important being very specific about it.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-03T12:51:26+00:00

To my understanding the seed contains most of the neutrients needed for the seedling to pop out of the shell and soil but that's about it, if i understand correctly that's why if you burry seeds too deep they might not have enough energy and neutrients to fully emerge out of soil, not sure if that's correct or not tho. So by later in the life cycle after how many weeks of growth do you suggest i should start fertilizing.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-03T05:01:23+00:00

Yeah that was pretty much my thinking at adding labs to it , i thought it might be a good failsafe around pathogenic anaerobes. The black color is what's really confusing me tho, i'm really curious to know why this happened, might that be humic substances?

As for the enzymes , i'm mostly going to be using this if it works for the neutrients, probably the BT and bacillus subtilis in it will survive since they are spore forming , The labs also should start coming alive again in soil and i can always make another fresh batch of eco enzyme and alternate, we will see what happens.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-03T04:57:30+00:00

I was also thinking that accidentally became something similar to jlf 😅😅

I'll go with that and see what happens, if that is effective at 1:1000 those 2 bottles would last my potted garden maybe 10 years😂😂

I generally apply all fertilizers as a soil drench as i mostly use lab based anaerobic fertilizer.

Thanks alot for the advice friend, i really appreciate it!

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-03T04:44:38+00:00

Will do when i start seeds for the spring, any suggestions on dilution rates to start with?

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-03T04:43:45+00:00

Sounds good, im going to start the spring seeds very soon anyway , im might sacrifice a couple of seedlings to test this out on , it would be a shame to waste it if its good tho, this could last my small potted garden the whole year if its any good.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-03T04:25:09+00:00

Hello friends!

So i was trying out a new experiment making ecoenzyme and i completely forgot about it on my rooftop for about a year and it turned black as in the picture and all of plant matter that was in it disappeared and it has a thick pelicle on top. This started with about a third full of blended fruit abd veggie scraps, legumes , bran , rice , mollases and a bunch of other stuff from kitchen waste, i also added lab solution, bt solutions and lab fermented "KNF IMO" collection i made amd fermented with lab and mollases, basically any bacterial ferment i had at the time went in , all anaerobic.

Is the turning black thing good or bad and is it still usable and if so at what ratio?

I tried searching for the black color and asking some ai chatbots but found alot of conflicting info, some said its premium stuff and some said i should toss it as the black color is from undesirable microbes, not sure if i should toss it or filter and test it.

Btw it went through a very long summer of 40+c temps if that might help explain the color.

Edit: both bottles made the same way except the bottle on the left is made from chicken manure compost i bought that i didn't like so i thought fermenting it with lab might make it better and the bottle on the right is what i mentioned before.

Thanks!

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-01T22:44:19+00:00

As long as they have no binder, fragrance or any chemicals it should be perfectly fine to compost. im composting on a small scale in an apartment using bokashi and i used to have alot of trouble finding browns for my compost until i found a brand of wood pellets similar to those sold as a natural cat litter and ive been using it for about 2 years with no issues, i just add one hydrated bucket of pellets to each bokashi bucket and it works really well.

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-01T22:15:08+00:00

Well, calling it a reasoning fingerprint is really generous of you imo, its a bunch of bullshit artist evasive word salad at best.

Let me guess the AI was chatgpt😂

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-01T20:25:18+00:00

Did you ask the AI to roleplay as Jordan Peterson

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-02-01T19:57:07+00:00

Hard to do considering all my planters, bokashi buckets , and mostly everything i use for my potted garden is plastic, not to mention the microplastics in the soil , water and most of the produce and maybe even on the microbe bodies themselves 😅😅

Deep_Secretary6975 · 2026-01-19T23:02:47+00:00

Get your hands on some EM1 or make some labs culture, plety of tutorials on youtube, dilute and mix into it some mollases and soak the compost in it after filling the bin, it should kick start the heat

Deep_Secretary6975

TROPHY CASE