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My perpetual no-till adventure

Nice looking buds Tommy. Lemme know when I can buy a bag, would love to try a joint of that right now.

If you’re in Michigan I’d love to take on another patient! Thanks for the props, it means a lot. I’ve been off the internet scene for about 5 years and this is my first adventure into the public domain since the private forum I was on seems to have disbanded. Knowing others appreciate the countless hours of effort that happens behinds the scenes and isn’t documented means a lot.

I don’t often get to discuss the finer points of growing since I’m the only one doing it in my small circle of friends and patients. Most other growers around here I meet more or less laugh at organics until they twist one with me, then the conversation immediately switches to how bad my yield must be. I had this mind set too combined with the increased risk of pests it kept me from organic for so long. To the counter point I’ve run ops at 2 houses over the years prior to switching to organics the only pest I ever had was the two spotted spider mite which is a cake walk to take care of. In terms of yield the I had major issues with the super soil even still I pulled over 3lbs from a partially full room half of which were plants less than 2 feet tall.

Detailing a bit further my super soil type mix was HEAVY on the worm castings (I just went with the recipe given) combined with plastic pots they just never really dried out at all. I might have better luck with smart pots as my buddy seems to have no real issue. Wet soil = uncontrollable gnats which led to enough rotting material for bulb mites to thrive. Set my large plants back BIG time. The 9 smaller ones did alright as they were a few weeks behind and I could recover easily. Either way this moment taught me that soil volume in organics is very important. I used to grow 3/4-1lb plants in a 4-5 gallon pot using salts nutes. Not practical (or possible?) with organics. That’s why I went with the most soil volume I could stuff in my room. The 6 rolling beds are a shade over 1 yard of soil. I never want that to be my limiting factor again.

The fun part was I ran 1 pot (5gal) as a test in 100% super soil (the stuff that’s so hot it should only be the bottom layer of soil). The plant struggled with soil compaction and gnats but never burned from the hot soil. I mean the soil was so fucking heavy I watered the plant 3-4 times during a 9 week flower cycle, I probably could have gotten away with 2 waterings. Ridiculous. Ironically this plant was only about 16” tall and yielded 5oz of better quality bud than the rest of the room. If I were to do it again i would use the same mix and cut it with 50% aeration.

All that being said if you’re ever on the best coast (yeah you read that right, the BEST coast) I share generously with those who sit in the circle. I’m not the roll it and pass it guy, I’m the roll everyone a joint and you can smoke your own kinda guy.

I deal with anxiety and depression and it’s the main reason I smoke but ironically I search for weed that gives me that adrenaline rush of anxiety. I’ve grown Sativas for years but I still haven’t found that triptastic teeth clenching stone yet. I’ve always mixed in indicas in hopes of having both sides of the coin covered and I’ve yet to find one Feel is a keeper. Herijuana was fantastically potent but I can’t put 9 weeks into a plant that yields Dick and falls all over itself due to poor structure. Same thing with the multiple cuts of OG I’ve grown. Good smoke, crap yield and even worse to grow. If someone could point me to the one that will make me grind my teeth and beg for it to stop, that will be my keeper. jack Herer did that for me (first smoke I was up all night couldn’t sleep) but you had to cut it 2 weeks early and the terps and yield didn’t make it worth it for such a long time to have invested into a single plant. Espcially when the tangerine yielded 3x as much, actually finished, tasted great and had all the same effects just much less intense. Most people don’t like the kinda smoke I prefer because 1. Everyone is used to kush, 2. It’s way more intense emotional feelings than kush and 3. You can’t just lay in the couch or take a nap to get through it.



Shit....I’m rambling again...sorry guys. I haven’t got high in 8 days (looking for a new job) obviously the ADHD is back in full force.
 
Personally I enjoy the threads where people really explain what they are up to. It helps paint the whole picture and see what differences and similarities we all have. Keep up the good work man. Your end product looks delicious



Feel free to chime in with what ya see and what has/hasn’t worked for you! This might be detailing my adventures but I’m here to learn and try new things. If you’ve got something you think is the cats ass let me know and I’ll see if I can duplicate your results in a future grow!
 
Here’s a question for open discussion:

Compost teas indoors. Beneficial as a soil drench (beyond an initial inoculation of the medium) or unnecessary once microbe populations are established? I’m in the latter camp. Once your microbes are there doing their thing I see no need to flood the medium with additional microbes that 1. Surely aren’t balanced the same as your medium is, 2. Most of them are probably going to die being there is already (in theory) an existing self regulating population. 3. Why upset the balance that already been established? I have no microscope so this is just gut feel on this one. Using a medium high in organic matter should keep a healthy population established.4. Indigenous microbes should eventually overcome anything you brewed in a bucket using material that most of us source out of a bag. I think a lot of people compost tea often and see results but maybe misunderstand the reason behind them. Pouring in a bunch of microbes to their deaths will surely provide a boost in available nutrients temporarily due to billions of little corpses but is it upsetting the balance, are the gains worth the effort? Maybe someone smarter that has a microscope can chime in.

As a foliar spray I see benefit to use as part of an IPM strategy. Forcing the good to over populate the bad organisms. I have not done yet this but will be making attempts in the near future.

Here’s the recipe I’ve been using. I brew in a cheap setup powered by a big aquarium air pump and an air stone.
4 gal water
1 Handful of castings
1 Handful of compost
3 finger pinch of kelp meal
3 table spoons blackstrap molasses
All of that goes into a paint strainer bag for easy cleanup and allows the material to break into small particles for maximum surface area during brewing. The idea hear is we dislodge existing microbes from the solid material, get them into solution and allow them to breed using the kelp and sugar as food.
I usually brew for 36-48 hours depending on my time availability.
This can be diluted 3:1 or used straight, I’ve never burned a plant with compost tea.


On a side note I’ve had sticky traps out for a few days and all I’ve caught is a house fly, no gnats...yet.

Thoughts? Your recipes? Open discussion here folks.
 
Sorry again for the HPS lighting, hard to catch lights off when they’re on 18 hours a day.

The point of this pic is to show the structure of the tangerine. Nodes nearly on top of one another.

One of the reasons she yields so well and hardly has any stretch. Beautiful plant all around. I’d love to spread this cut through the Michigan scene but I feel like I’d be giving away family. Plus my wife would kill me. Plus I don’t think I even know another grower (personally) that would grow a 12 weeker that doesn’t couch lock you. Everything around here is kush kush kush. Kinda disappointing to the whole Michigan scene that long flowering plants are so neglected here. The sativas on the dispensary shelves are lack luster and mostly indica dominate poly hybrids anyway. I’ve ran the numbers multiple times, under multiple grow methods, the extra 4 weeks yields enough to make 8 week strains less economical to grow when calculated out as square footage, wattage or time. Worth it in every category. Sure I could get another couple harvests per year and have additional variety but I’d be missing the love of my life. Let’s hope the numbers stack up now that I’m running no till.
 

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handyandy

Active member
Here’s a question for open discussion:

Compost teas indoors. Beneficial as a soil drench (beyond an initial inoculation of the medium) or unnecessary once microbe populations are established? I’m in the latter camp. Once your microbes are there doing their thing I see no need to flood the medium with additional microbes that 1. Surely aren’t balanced the same as your medium is, 2. Most of them are probably going to die being there is already (in theory) an existing self regulating population. 3. Why upset the balance that already been established? I have no microscope so this is just gut feel on this one. Using a medium high in organic matter should keep a healthy population established.4. Indigenous microbes should eventually overcome anything you brewed in a bucket using material that most of us source out of a bag. I think a lot of people compost tea often and see results but maybe misunderstand the reason behind them. Pouring in a bunch of microbes to their deaths will surely provide a boost in available nutrients temporarily due to billions of little corpses but is it upsetting the balance, are the gains worth the effort? Maybe someone smarter that has a microscope can chime in.

As a foliar spray I see benefit to use as part of an IPM strategy. Forcing the good to over populate the bad organisms. I have not done yet this but will be making attempts in the near future.

Here’s the recipe I’ve been using. I brew in a cheap setup powered by a big aquarium air pump and an air stone.
4 gal water
1 Handful of castings
1 Handful of compost
3 finger pinch of kelp meal
3 table spoons blackstrap molasses
All of that goes into a paint strainer bag for easy cleanup and allows the material to break into small particles for maximum surface area during brewing. The idea hear is we dislodge existing microbes from the solid material, get them into solution and allow them to breed using the kelp and sugar as food.
I usually brew for 36-48 hours depending on my time availability.
This can be diluted 3:1 or used straight, I’ve never burned a plant with compost tea.


On a side note I’ve had sticky traps out for a few days and all I’ve caught is a house fly, no gnats...yet.

Thoughts? Your recipes? Open discussion here folks.



Yaaaaaaaaa
Another person growing organic with teas!


I have been running with teas and my own super soil hybrid for about ten years now after using bottled crap for years AN and the like.


My teas :
2 hand full worm castings
2 hand full compost
2 hand full Alaskan Rare earth
about 1/4 cup organic black strap molasses
about 4-5 gallons of water
brewed in a headyblunt style airlift brewer. I brew for about 24 hrs so I try to get a balance of fungi and other critters. Hard to tell without a microscope but I consulted with microbeman and ct and cootz and headyblunts for years over all kinds of organic tea recipes and soil recipes . Microbe man told me to use kelp with caution in teas because it will slow fungi growth in your teas.


Adding Aloe to teas and to a soil drench has been a big booster to everything I do.


I got some clones and mom plants from a friend that had some pest and the aloe added to my sprays saved the whole veg room.


Gonna try adding organic aloe juice to my cloner to see if I can get roots to show and grow faster.


currently getting 18-24" roots in 14-16 days in homemade cloner
 
I’m also using a home built cloner! Big submersible pump stuck in a 5 gal bucket connected directly to a spray bar. I gotta clean it tomorrow so I’ll grab some pics. I’ve been cloning with this setup for about 6 years. Only lost one clone (whole batch actually) because the pump finally quit.

I’ve always used a mix of dynagro KLN and protekt with 100% success rate. Usually roots are 10” long in 7-10 days. Trying to go all organic but couldnt risk the clones this round so I’ll also be running aloe experiments in the hydro cloner in The near future when I have more biomass to play with. Hopefully things don’t get to slimey. I’ve done straight water before. It it took damn near a month to get decent roots.

I don’t know if ill go as far as “teas” (as drenches) on a regular basis. I use the CT to inoculate and will probably be integrated as a foliar into my IPM schedule which I don’t have nailed down yet. I also add a touch of fulvic acid prior to drenching.

Last grow my IPM consisted of a neem/kelp tea (or fish hydroslate/kelp extract) with essential oils and aloe added. I’m switching between lavender, basil, rosemary and pepper mint for the time being tho I haven’t started yet with this round given the shape of some of the plants. Fulvic always seems to add a boost to foliar but don’t use too much or you’ll end up with some legit mutants. Fulvic at higher doses can effect the DNA of the plant. As DR. Faust says, enzymes are the catalyst for organic reaction and fulvic is the catalyst of catalysts. Once these kids get topped illl start hitting them heavy and you’ll see a room full of praying plants.
 

handyandy

Active member
Cloner loaded with Girl scout cookies (forum cut)


Roots at 16 days with only RO water
 

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handyandy

Active member
Been learning a lot by trying new stuff.


I used to take all my cuts from the middle areas of the donor plants. the cuts would root fine but lately I have been topping my plants then waiting for 8- 10 nice large tops to form about then take about a 10" to 12" cut.


The large top cuts root just as fast if not faster and hit the cups running at full speed!


Topping and training in veg for top cuttings for all my keeper for now on
 
Damn those look nice! I’ve found the same thing over the years, ideal cuts are large yet still have no wood in the stems. Sure is a lot easier to plant an 8” thick stemmed clone, the difference in transparent transition speed is phenomenal.
 
Here’s my update for the day. Everyone is taking off like crazy, the healthiest will need some topping before the weekend is out I suspect. The rest towards the end of next week hopefully. Better growth rates then I’ve ever had running hydro stuff.

2000 red worms came in today so I put some of them in the 4 beds that were ready and covered then with straw. Hopefully the white Dutch clover won’t get smothered? We shall see, never done this before. 3 hours later and the worms are already looking happier. The rest of the worms went into a bucket with moist soil to keep them happy until the other 2 beds have a chance to cycle a few days.

Also got nematodes in the mail so that will start tomorrow as well.

Mixed the other 9-10 cuft of soil today, loaded the beds and soaked them down. Should take about 3 days to reach proper moisture levels for the worms and plants. Actually mixed a bit too much but I need mix for mother’s as well so I’ll have to snag some 10 gallon smarties tomorrow so this pile of dirt isn’t just sitting on my basement floor.

Still no gnats!!! Wahoo!

No pics of the cloner today since I got sick of working in the room. Maybe tomorrow. Watched the twins for 12 hours today then mixed 1/3 yard of soil, that was plenty work for today.

As you can see my 2 (the others aren’t gonna make it) killing fields seedlings are kicking ass and can probably get transplanted next week as well. The bed is all ready for them.

Since my germination failures keep kicking my ass I’m going to start a bunch of blue orca haze tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have a fairly full room after all?
 

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Well, I pulled the trigger. 15 blue orca haze germinating as we speak. After a 24 hour soak in water and fulvic EVERY seed was cracked open. If these ones don’t come up, it’s definitely my fault.

Also sounds like I’ll be getting some clones of black dog and chocolate mint OG early next week. They’re pretty big so let’s hope I don’t jungle my room out waiting for these weaker ones to catch up. I pulled 6 finished ones down today with a friend, looked pretty promising. If anything at least the. beds won’t be empty.
 

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Gave the beds a dose a nematodes today. Still no gnats in the traps but better safe than sorry.

Noticed roots blowing out the bottom of the killing fields seedlings in solo cups while I was working. I figured I had at least a week until I needed to transplant. Got that squared away tonight too.

Now I’ve got 4 beds planted. Perfect. I’ll have a fairly full flower room. Just need the smaller ones to catch up a bit before I top them, clone them and throw up the scrog netting. In the past I’ve always staked plants so this scrog gig will be new for me as well. I felt it was necessary to maintain an even canopy since the plants are more or less in a fixed pattern under the lights. Before I could jockey pots and stake to maintain a fairly even canopy. I feel the scrog will work better for these beds but time will tell. Not sure I’ll wait long enough for them to be “full” this round since I need to get these kids flipped in the next 2 weeks. Either way it will give me a little more leeway to learn the method.

It’s been 2 days on the blue orca haze. So far 10 of 15 have breached the soil surface. Pretty good compared to my last few seed germ rounds. I’ve just been lightly misting the tops of the cups once a day to keep them moist. Not sure what the fuck I’m gonna do with 15 more plants yet but I’ve got a couple weeks to figure that out yet. Probably clone them all and flower them in 1 gallons or maybe even solo cups. At least I’ll be able to yank the males before wasting too much effort on them. Either way I’ll flower them very small, hopefully I can narrow it down to 4 promising mothers then do a full run in the beds with them to make the final selection. Once a selection is made I may ditch the MK ultra depending how I feel about this round of flower. New plants will be worked into the perpetual cycle, ideally I’ll be harvesting 2 beds every 5-6 weeks.

Here’s a few pics to wrap it up. The tangerines are growing like weeds. Some say plants lose vigor after years of cloning and re-mothering. I’m just not seeing it. It’s the same plant I remember growing when I first got it by mistake. I asked for sour diesel but got the tangerine from a friend on accident. I’m glad he was unorganized at the time!
 

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Is anyone still reading this? Here’s so shots of the room without the HPS glow.

You can see the tangerine is growing like a damn bush. I’ve never vegged under more than a 400 and I’ve never vegged under hps before. Gotta say the results are working. I’ve got the 1000’s about 16” from the tops of the plants.

The c99#1 is looking real promising. Waxy feel to it, strong fruity smell to it as well.

Blue orcas are all up except 3.

Here’s a couple shots of my home built aero cloner. I think I’ve got like $20 into building it. This is the second one I’ve built, I threw the last one out along with literally everything else in the room after having the bulb mite issue. Take no chances. Full disclosure yes I still use hydro style cloning. Life has taught me not to change too many things at once if you want to maintain success. Plus I’m still using the last of my dynagro nutrients. I use water, protekt and KLN to clone. Great roots in 2 weeks or less and they transplant into the living soil without any hesitation. So for now I’ll keep at it. Will probably switch to organic cloning once I can afford to make some mistakes and have used the rest of my KLN. The front yard and outdoor flower beds have been getting the other dynagro nutrients I have. I paid for em, might as well use em and I’m not really trying to grow my lawn organically (yet) so who cares?

Also this blumat moisture sensor is the shit. I keep it between 80-120 but have gone from 50-160 (the higher the # the drier the soil) without any ill effects other than the worms move deeper. It keeps me watering about 1/2 gallon per bed every 2 days or so. I’m sure I’ll be watering more volume when the plants are bigger. I might end up with one of these guys in each bed. Quite the investment at $60 each but without jamming my fingers into the dirt every day I don’t really have another good way to check moisture levels of the soil.
 

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Been a couple of week, not sure anyone is watching? Here it goes anyway.

Growth rate has been fantastic. Room filled out well. I declined clones from a friend due to his bug issues.

Girls had their first 12 hour night today. So it begins. Crazy to think that 3 weeks ago these were freshly transplanted clones barely sticking above the straw. I figured I’d need 6-8 weeks to get here. Never saw thins kind of growth rate using salts.

Last pic is the 10 strongest blue orca haze I ended up with. Hopefully I’ll have 4-5 females to pick from.
 

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Stretch filled up the screens nicely, we’re about 10 days into flower now. I thought I was a little early on the flip but I think I’ll do all right. I’m gonna build 2 more slightly smaller beds so I can fill the space under the lights a bit better. Slightly smaller because the veg room is about full. I’ll have to buy a small tent for mother’s and clones in the future. Second pic is the 10 blue orca haze I’ll be selecting from in the future.
 

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