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No Till Gardening (Indoors) with Team Microbe

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Team Microbe

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those look really nice! what side are the tan smart pots and how many you run per light?

how often/much water you giving that size?

I'm using 25 gallon fabric pots (as well as a few 10 gallon pots), and I usually run about 4 per light.

I water about every 2-3 days at 5% container volume. My goal is to avoid wet/dry cycles as much as possible.
 

Team Microbe

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Day 28 of flower

Day 28 of flower

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Harlequin


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Harlequin


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The One


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The One



So far so good with this run, I had a thrip problem just before the flip but managed to completely eradicate them with Spinosad after numerous attempts with neem oil, essential oils, aloe and agsil16H failed. I highly recommend Spinosad if you have a thrip problem!
 

chilliwilli

Waterboy
No Till Soil Base Mix:

1 part Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss
1 part (high quality) Compost
1 part Aeration (75% Lava rock, 20% Bio char, 5% Rice hulls)


Mixed with:

Acadian Kelp Meal @ 1/2 Cup per cubic foot

Neem Cake and Karanja Cake 50/50 Mix @ 1/2 cup per cubic foot

Crustacean Meal @ 1/2 Cup per cubic foot

Gypsum Dust @ 1 Cup Per Cubic Foot

Brix Blend Basalt @ 1 Cup Per Cubic Foot

Glacial Rock Dust @ 1 Cup Per Cubic Foot

Oyster Flour @ 1 Cup Per Cubic Foot

Malted Barley @ 2 Cup Per Cubic Foot

1 Handful of Red Wigglers (per container)

1 Handful of European Night Crawlers (per container)

Hi nice thread.

I'm planing to try my first no-till mix soon and have some questions about the mix and possible substitutes.

1. Can i change the sphagnum with coco?

2. Can i use bran instead of rice hulls

3. Neem and karanja is for pestcontrol so i can use the oils instead? Or do they also act as nutes?

4. Ground dried shrimp should be the same as crustacean meal?

5. Can i use dolomitic lime instead of the glacial rock dust?

Thx willi
 

Team Microbe

Active member
Veteran
Hi nice thread.

I'm planing to try my first no-till mix soon and have some questions about the mix and possible substitutes.

1. Can i change the sphagnum with coco?

2. Can i use bran instead of rice hulls

3. Neem and karanja is for pestcontrol so i can use the oils instead? Or do they also act as nutes?

4. Ground dried shrimp should be the same as crustacean meal?

5. Can i use dolomitic lime instead of the glacial rock dust?

Thx willi

Hey Willi, :thank you:

1. Yes

2. Does bran break down fast? Rice hulls do, so when I use them I only use up to 5% of my initial soil volume bc they don't stay around for very long. I used them for my first no till cycle and failed upon replanting for this very reason - minimal porosity remained

3. Neem and karanja are great for clean sources of NPK, as they have a broad spectrum (3-1-2 roughly). It's also great for deterring soil pests I've found. The oils are a staple in my IPM routine as well, def an all around great input to have in the garden if you're set on staying as clean and organic as possible

4. Yep pretty much, many use that as a substitute because it's very similar

5. Dol. Lime is mainly for Ca and Mg along with pH balance, whereas rock dusts are used for their mineral content for the most part. Two very different inputs. What's your goal? Minerals or cal/mag?

If it's cal/mag then I would recommend using Oyster Shell Flour instead, it's got a much better cal:mag ratio (1:8) compared to Lime (1:2) which has a TON of magnesium that tends to bind soil up over time. I hate dol lime. Agricultural lime is the stuff you want if anything. HTH
 

chilliwilli

Waterboy
Thx for the answers.

Bran is also quick downbreaking i think.

neemcake i could get in europe but i couldn't find the karanjacake.

The dolomitic should be part of ca/mg with oystershell and this shell limestone


Im not sure about this one but it would be a lokal shellsource that is mined in my country and it is used as ca/mg source for birds.

I can get both shells as birdgrit 1-4mm and the dolomitic as flour

For the minerals i will ad basaltflour.

Do you have experience with snail shells as ca/mg source. I know some places in the woods where i could find many of them in all stages of degragation

Thx willi
 

Team Microbe

Active member
Veteran
Thx for the answers.

Bran is also quick downbreaking i think.

neemcake i could get in europe but i couldn't find the karanjacake.

The dolomitic should be part of ca/mg with oystershell and this shell limestone
[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=57804&pictureid=1636784&thumb=1]View Image[/url]

Im not sure about this one but it would be a lokal shellsource that is mined in my country and it is used as ca/mg source for birds.

I can get both shells as birdgrit 1-4mm and the dolomitic as flour

For the minerals i will ad basaltflour.

Do you have experience with snail shells as ca/mg source. I know some places in the woods where i could find many of them in all stages of degragation

Thx willi

Nice, the powdered form is what you want if you do go with that so that's good. I use basalt as well for minerals.

I do not, but I would imagine they would fit into that crustacean meal category and deliver calcium and chitin to the plants over time. If you can grind the shells into a powder it would take less time to become available too. May be a great composting input if you can't grind them down. I'd double check on the constituents in snail shells before using them though because this is the first time I've looked into it :tiphat:
 

slownickel

Active member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Team,

Dolomite is full of magnesium. Lime is a general term which can refer to dolomite or calcium carbonate (both are carbonates). Calcium carbonate is what one should use. Oyster shell is also carbonate. Depending on the grinds, availability will vary a lot.

I would contemplate adding gypsum over the season, in light quantities to prop up your calcium levels.

Your grow is impressive, can't wait to see a soil analysis to realize what you have actually achieved.
 

slownickel

Active member
ICMag Donor
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Willi

The snail shells should be amazing, as they are very small and will break down even faster.

Be careful on the oyster stuff, it may bring in a lot of sodium depending on how it was handled and gathered. Hopefully the provider will have an analysis. Test the stuff with an EC meter and distilled water. 2 parts water to 1 part shells by weight. (1 liter=1 kg.)

Here in Peru, we grab the oyster shell and then wash it down well prior to grinding. Ours are really scallop shells. Super levels of chitin too....
 

moses wellfleet

Well-known member
Moderator
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Willi

The snail shells should be amazing, as they are very small and will break down even faster.

Be careful on the oyster stuff, it may bring in a lot of sodium depending on how it was handled and gathered. Hopefully the provider will have an analysis. Test the stuff with an EC meter and distilled water. 2 parts water to 1 part shells by weight. (1 liter=1 kg.)

Here in Peru, we grab the oyster shell and then wash it down well prior to grinding. Ours are really scallop shells. Super levels of chitin too....
I could be wrong but if Willi is in the States then it is fossilized oyster shells, a mineral deposit so not fresh from the ocean!
 

chilliwilli

Waterboy
Thx for the great imput.
I'm from europe and the fossilised shells are mined near by the river danube. The homepage says that it is a mix of shell and snails about 13 million years old and was always called the chickenfeedmountain by the people living there.
If u understand german http://www.muschelgrit-mueck.at/der-muschelberg/

I will have an eye on the sodium levels of the shells.

Thx willi
 

Team Microbe

Active member
Veteran
Team,

Dolomite is full of magnesium. Lime is a general term which can refer to dolomite or calcium carbonate (both are carbonates). Calcium carbonate is what one should use. Oyster shell is also carbonate. Depending on the grinds, availability will vary a lot.

I would contemplate adding gypsum over the season, in light quantities to prop up your calcium levels.

Your grow is impressive, can't wait to see a soil analysis to realize what you have actually achieved.

Ya that's what I said, it's terribly high in magnesium (2:1) compared to oyster shell flour. That's what I use in my mix personally :good:

Thank you for those kind words, I'm anxious to see what the results read as well after all this time. Time will tell!
 

Team Microbe

Active member
Veteran
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I've been recently incorporating Shilajit resin into my routine every other week at 1 rice grain size chunk of resin per gallon with great results. It's got 85 minerals in ionic form, and tons of trace elements along with a list of other beneficial constituents to add to this full-spectrum plant supplement sustainably mined from the Himalayan Mountains. There's a thread in my bio all about the application of this in the plant world (it's commonly known as a human fulvic acid supplement)


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The garden 48 hours after a Shilajit drench

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"The One"

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Some Holy Basil seeds ready to be dried and shucked
 

tree dawg

Member
when I mix up my soil going to add every thing by cf do I add oyster shell to just cubic foot of spm or to compost too
 

Toby021

New member
Most excellent Team Microbe. I have done shit load of research on different growing mediums and personally organic is the way to go. You setting a great example of that.

Thanks much appreciated.
 
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