What is shaken dude man brothers!
Missed you at the regenerative conference on the Friday in Vancouver Dude.
Ok im building a 1000 gallon no till bed. I’m thinking about replacing crab meal with insect frass in my recipe because crab meal is only available on the east coast at We Acres Crab Meal but it’s insane to get it shipped to Vancouver and their not really stoked on shipping anything under a container full. Which I understand. So! I am curious what your guys thoughts are on replacing it with the frass as it has some of the same properties, but I am not totally sure it will do the same job.
Anyway will send some pics once this new grow is up and running.
Cheers!
I know insect frass costs a lot more than crab meal. Im not sure about Canada though. I mix Crab meal and Fish Bone to feed my worms and then use their castings. I get my meals from Down To Earth. Im not sure if thats available in the North. Growers Love!
Yeah. I have an insect frass producer 30 mins from my house but have to ship crab meal from 6000 km away.
We don’t have down to earth on the west coast of Canada for some crazy reason.
Cheers!
You dont have any fish mongers near you ? your super market doesnt sell crab in shell? your local restaurants dont have waste lobster, crab or shrimp shells ? Think outside the box im sure you can find something local.
Insect frass has more nutes rapidly available so you should use alot less. Personaly i think you should try and find some shells for your soil then top dress with frass occasionally.
When I’m building 1000 gallons of soil it’s not practical to drive around too collect shells nor would I have the time.
I made some calls already but no one wants to go out of their way to help.
All good. Just want to know if frass would be a good replacement.
👍🏻
does build a soil ship to canada? or KIS organics?
Ive been looking into ammendments a lot lately and i dont see any reason to avoid the frass if you cant get crab meal. Go for it.
Use the Frass man. If its close and local rock it! I dont think you’ll need to worry about it being “hot” though. I would imagine the IPM benefits from using frass will be legit too. Crap meal in a large amount might make things smell for awhile too. If you get a good deal hook the crew up with that frass… Growers Love!
Crab and Frass are very different things. You can probably make a mix using frass instead, but I wouldn’t expect it to behave the same as the coots/buildasoil recipe. Not saying it won’t work, but I would probably try to make additional adjustments to make up for what you are losing.
The “big issue” here is phosphorus. (it often is with organic soil)
Crab/shrimp/crustacean meal is the main source of phosphorus in the coot recipe, and its already kinda light on phosphorus to begin with. I would be careful swapping crab out for something like insect frass that contains a lot less P.
I’d keep looking for crab or shrimp meal. I’m sure theres people catching crustaceans of some sort somewhere up there in Canada. Substitute frass if you have to, but I’d be prepared to be low on phosphorus if you do.
I’d also consider using dragonfly earth medicine’s product “fat flowers” during flowering. Its an all natural flowering additive derived from phosphorus rich plants like wild yams and burdock root. its 3-6-6 NPK and full of good microbes too. DEM is based up in Canada so I’m sure theres a way for you to get it.
I see what you sayin Soup. DEM is up here and I have access to them. I am basically doing the recipe Mountain Organics is working with but adding a few things. Ordered 300 lbs of rock dust yesterday.
I will just have to pay the piper and get crab shipped from back east.
Thanks good sir.
This was on Grow Talk EP 785 FYI. Thanks for da post!
Essentially they both provide great sources of Chitin. The chitin in insect frass is plant based and thus a higher portion on the chitin is immediately available to your plants where as the chitin in the crab is more slowly released from my understanding. So you may still want to use both depending on how fast you want your plants to utilize the chitin.
However, insect frass has the added benefits of seeding your soil also with beneficial microorganisms. These microorganisms act as plant growth promoters (PGP’s). PGPs are hugely beneficial to your plants growth, health and protection. PGPs improve nutrient assimilation, stimulate seed germination, root development and plant growth. They act as BioControl Agents protecting your plants against plant pathogen fungi, bacteria and nematodes.
Is all insect frass the same!! No it’s content is very dependent on the insect species being used and particularly what the insects are being feed. Mealworms in our opinion have a much more unique gut flora than say crickets as they can digest polystyrene at a molecular level for example.
At Mini Monster Farms we feed our mealworms high quality ingredients. Our Monster Ca Ca (mealworm frass) is also available in Canada.
In summary tho in our opinion insect frass has more benefits overall when compared to crab meal. However, the cost of insect frass and the fact that a crab chitin is slowly released maybe a better choice for some. Using both in combination is likely the best way to go.