Recycled Organic Living Soils or ROLS in short, it’s all about the natural cultivation of cannabis. It focuses on adopting the growing without the use of any artificial fertilizers or additives. Therefore, the soil gets the nutrition it needs from organic materials, thus allowing for a more cyclic flow of nutrients.
Your plants will be as good as the soil they are growing in; that means you need healthy and vibrant soil for that will nourish your cannabis plants so that they can produce potent flowers. The intensive use of petrochemicals in agriculture over the past century has caused some severe damages. It has seen many areas have insufficiently fertilized grounds and the topsoil becoming nothing more than tiny granules of rocks. Furthermore, the increased volume of pollutants we have released in the atmosphere exasperating the problems.
Fortunately, concerned organizations and individuals practice and advocate for organic farming while promoting the significance of having healthy living soils. It is a move that many cannabis growers have embraced, as evidenced by how many of them are building healthy soil for the cultivation of some of the best and high-quality cannabis. One of the methods they are using for this is reclaiming the earth by recycling organic living soil (ROLS).
Why Soil Microbes Are Vital Within Your Cannabis Garden
Some of the organic farmers may view ROLS as a genius solution, but it is the same thing that happens in nature. For instance, the forests on this earth flourish because of nature’s ROLS approach. We may think of the forests as intricate and detailed recycling systems. They have branches and leaves that fall to the ground and recycled to build healthy soil as they are broken down by saprophytic fungi. These microbial life forms are thus an integral part of the cycle. They turn the branches and leaves into small biomolecules that plants will consume for their growth and health. As such, the nutrients the trees provide to the soil in the form of branches and leaves are the same that they absorb. So, the nutrients merely change structure within the cycle.
We should adopt farming practices that will see us cultivate crops and also return organic matter to the soil so that we do not deplete it of is vitality. However, our answer to the depletion of nutrients in the earth is the use of chemical fertilizers. But this coupled with the herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides become a dangerous cocktail that kills the biodiversity of the soil.
The presence of fungal life and even some life forms in the soil is essential for having healthy and vibrant plants. Such elements help to not only increase the vitality of the land but also prevent soil erosion. As such, this fungal life has a symbiotic relationship with the crops. Life forms such as nematodes, which are tiny worm-like creatures in the soil are beneficial for cultivation of healthy plants. The predatory kind of nematodes is always patrolling the soil to find and get rid of parasitic microorganisms. Bacteria in the soil is another type of life form that has a significant role in breaking down organic matter to turn it into the nutrients that plants need.
What Is ROLS?
ROLS refers to a soil system maintained via organic and sustainable practices that promote the maintenance of soil nutrients and vitality. They borrow from nature and involve the use of nutrient replenishment cycles that make use the topsoil is healthy and not eroded so that it can support the production of high-yielding crops.
ROLS is thus a farming practice that many that are into organic agriculture are or should embrace. Today’s biodynamic farming and agriculture give significant emphasis on the need to prepare nutrient-rich soil. For instance, permaculture teaches about soil health that involved closed-loop systems and implementation of polyculture concepts. Moreover, it is possible to lower the rate nutrients are released from the soil by adopting no-till farming methods that also preserve essential life forms in the rhizosphere.
Implementing ROLS In Your Cannabis Garden
You can practice ROLS in your cannabis farming without too much of a hassle. You can start small with what you have. For instance, you can opt for a garden that already embraces these methods. If you do not have the money for such a thing, you can choose to get quality soil that you can enhance with organic compounds that you have at your disposal.
You can achieve this naturally via the most basic of methods – composting. You can take your garden and kitchen scraps that you can throw in your compost pile for the microbial life to break down. Give the pile several weeks to be broken down into a nutrient-rich product that you can add to your soil and nourish your cannabis crop.
Homemade Compost For Your Cannabis Garden
The use of natural fertilizer can have a significant impact on the adoption of ROLS in farming. Compost manure is the best option of natural fertilizer there is, and making compost at home is not that hard. You can use anything organic, from straws, nettles, eggshells, and coffee beans to rice hulls and kitchen scraps. You can opt for a plant-enhancing goo or a nutrient-rich mulch that you can add to the soil to improve its nutrient content and vitality.
You can enhance the breakdown of the different organic matter in the compost pit by ensuring that there is adequate aeration. Similarly, you also need to maintain proper aeration in the soil so that you can maintain and support a healthy microbial system. You can use lava rocks or rice hulls to create small gaps that will allow the flow of air through the soil.
