For mushrooms I use champignouf.com, which works quite well too. It only works for macroscopic ones and their fruiting bodies of course.

Yeah, right. Soil decomposes, a polyester wick or expanded clay won’t. Fill the baskets with it, and it will draw moisture from below, without any risk of rot.
If the reservoir is filled completely, the soil still should be way above the water level.

Still, keep an eye out for the moisture grade. Soil and any other organic media aren’t allowed to be soaked constantly and usually need some drying in between. Damp is fine, but not wet.

Soil being constantly wet is exactly the conditions anaerobic bacteria need to rot everything thats submerged.

The solution is pretty obvious: don’t put soil direct under water.

There are many possible ways to achieve that:

• Add a drainage layer made out of LECA, pumice, or whatever inert material you can get. Then, add a polyester cloth or whatever synthetic fabric you can get, and sandwitch it between, and then add your soil. This prevents it from washing out. LECA and similar substrates can also wick water, but don’t get soaked and can’t rot.
• Or, you can use a polyester cloth or a proper self watering wick and put them in the holes, or fill them completely with it. They can wick way stronger, but shouldn’t be submerged completely, because then the soil gets too wet again. Or,
• Ignore the self watering capabilities and just water regularly, but use it sparingly, e.g. when you go out of town for a week, and then let it dry again
• Or, don’t use soil, and visit !hydroponics@slrpnk.net, where we use different substrates and techniques and also make use of those self watering pots. I use something very similar, but with mineralic substrates (I personally love LECA), where self watering works exactly like that, and the media can be reused indefinitely, without soil borne pests and much more!

Thanks!

That would probably have not much effect. Citric acid is super rapidly decomposed by microorganisms, and the sugar in it would make my ants go crazy

Out of curiosity. I want to see how decomposed and compacted the soil is in particular, because I don’t know if it can be considered “spent” someday.

I’m already collecting rainwater, but that doesn’t even suffice for my hydro stuff, which has way lower water demands.
Also, I have a reverse osmosis filter, which creates almost 10 parts tap water for 1 part pure water, and I use the “waste” water for watering my soil plants

I’m currently joining my local gardening club.

It’s a nice community of mainly elderly women, who practice organic gardening, have orchards and more, even a small community cabin!

I will teach them about hydroponics and mushroom cultivation soon, and I’m exited what they can teach me!

I don’t wanna have that stuff in my soil tbh. Aren’t there any organic ways to acidify it in the long term without adding inorganic stuff?

+1

I have a Tolino Shine, which is basically a german rebranded version of the Kobo.
I believe the OS/ software is different tho.

I’m relatively happy with it. The battery lasts very very long, I can offline drag and drop transfer .epub and other document files, and even customize my lock screen!

Southwest

Do you know where I can find Borax locally for reasonable prices?

Thanks mein Freund, then I’ll think about buying an Ameisenblaukorngiftköderfallendose if needed 👍

Any tips on how to get rid of them?

Oh crap… Thanks for letting me know!
The good news is, I have a very big diversity of insects on my balcony, ants included, which will happily hunt pests like them.

I just found it to be nice looking and thought you guys might appreciate it :)

Oh shit, thanks for letting me know. I will take a look at it from now on.
I’m sure there are enough predators around to kill the larvae 😇

I think you can just go into your local garden center and buy fertilizer for tomatoes or other fruiting plants.

Weed isn’t special in its needs and many companies just slap a “It’s for weed!” on it and triple the price.

I’d recommend you to get granular stuff, not the liquid ones. They’re mostly the same, but without shipped water, cheaper and more shelf stable.

Wouldn’t the heat and radiation destroy all flavor compounds and colour?

You can check out !balconygardening@slrpnk.net.

I’m doing !hydroponics@slrpnk.net, but I also have quite a few pots of soil (dirt) there.

They are mainly there for co-plants that attract beneficial insects and help to improve the biodiversity of this concrete hell I live in.

This “intact” ecosystem with healthy organic living soil, beneficial plants and other stuff also has the benefit that it attracts predatory insects like ladybugs, which naturally kill any lice and other harmful pests without any pesticides.

Oh, and it looks nice, and I always can gift other people I like some flowers if the need arises, for example as a last-minute birthday present ;)

I will also create an insect protection community here on SLRPNK if you’re interested :)

“Napalm” is usually considered as a weapon. What you meant is probably just “emergency firestarter”, or as I would call it, turbo-tinder :D

I personally prefer using cotton pads, that are soaked in liquid candle wax. When it’s cold, it hardens and the whole pad gets stiff and hydrophobic.

Instead of having to lift a glass jar, you can just slip a few of those discs into your pocket or a small bag.

And because the wax is hard, you don’t have to worry about storage, and they will stay that way forever. With your polystyrene goo, you have to remember that the jar will never be 100% gas tight and it will evalorate over time.

The pads even work when wet (because they won’t get wet) and can be used with a ferrocerium rod.

Also, styrofoam releases toxic gases when ignited, wax won’t.