No-Till Design, Theory & Implementation

[canna woop!]

^ welcome to the section, feel free to post in the megathread or any thread, or start your own!

I also have purchased compost down by Pdx, if you are in the area there are a lot of good compost sources as well as a few Tilth certified brands, for less than EWC if you can do a bulk purchase. Also since you have seen the windrows you know that you can make loads of your own by simply establishing a heap, i have even put heaps of raw food in a trench and covered with leaves, coco husk, and a cover crop, then dig the soil up a few months later to find that black gold, next to free. PS don't hit a gas line if your digging

 

[Blueberry78]

Hey guys, I'm getting materials together for my no till bed & I scored some moss from a creek in the Santa Cruz mountains. Gonna add it to my mix, I'm wondering if I still need sphagnum peat?

It was pretty cool ripping the moss right off of giant rocks and trees. It has sand still attatched to it so that should be a plus! Ran into mini fields of clover by the creek, gonna try to plant some I harvested.

Was in Monterey before I was in the SC mountains (Brookdale). Scored some RED aloe from my uncle. Came home yesterday to horsetail in the mail, hope it grows. I'm login growing my own plant food!

Thanks for the help guys, you rock!

 

[Microbeman]

Moss and even sphagnum moss is not even remotely similar to sphagnum peatmoss. All you guys harvesting stuff from the forest, stop and think. Do you want cannabis growers to represent environment destroyers?

 

[MrSterling]

Out of rep to give today, but +1 to you tomorrow MM!

 

[Blueberry78]

Thanks for the response MM, I've learned a lot from you. I will take what you have said into consideration. Deffinately dont want to give cannabis growers a bad name, but I think it's important to note the difference between using what nature provides (in moderation) & rapeing the Forrest.

Peace guys!

 

[SpicySativa]

What's up guys?

I've got a couple quick questions for you no-tillers... Been recycling my soil for about a year now, and I think it's time to try a no-till run. It'll be next round, as I have already busted up my rootballs from my recent harvest.

I'm running 4 plants this round (Atomic Northern Lights) in 10-gal nursery pots of my recycled mix. Assuming I don't run into any issues, I plant to leave the rootballs in place, cut holes, and plop in some new clones.

On to my questions:

1) When top dressing repeatedly with worm castings, compost, kelp, etc in a no-till pot, how do address the changing soil structure? It seems like you would build up a thicker and thicker top layer that lacks the structure provided by your peat and aeration ammendments? I'll be using a mulch layer of softwood bark chips (small orchid bark), so I imagine it would be a good idea to rake this aside before top dressing?

2) Do you do any top dressing near the end of a cycle to give the ammendments a little time to break down before the next plant is added? Seems like a bad idea to top dress
a plant that is nearly done, but I understand that nutrition is not immediately available.

Thanks for any answers you an give me.

Cheers,

SpicySativa

 

[xmobotx]

the analogy is to how plants die back on the earth and new plants grow up through the dead stuff which gradually piles up & has more of a "compost/EWC" layer between what is essentially mulch and the soil layer underneath

in the artificial environ of container garden people tend to want to control things but; once your containers get going the only control is essentially replicating the fact that if you werent removing your harvest; the plant would be feeding successive generations of itself

IOW; once your mulch layer is built up, vermicompost inputs are minimal and inputs such as comfrey leaf, dandelions, even fan leaves tend to be your main input

 

[SpicySativa]

I gotcha. I've got a way of overthinking things sometimes...

Looking forward to giving it a try next round!

 

[xmobotx]

idk; seems like giving it a lot of thought is a good thing

 

[SpicySativa]

Haha. I give it PLENTY of thought.

 

[LBOrganic]

i had a alot of the same questions... I use Tm7 which is humic acid and micronutrients.. should i drop that and just get the humic product by itself? seems like they could be over kill considering I have kelp azomite rock dust and gypsum in my soil...plus good compost and earht worm castings..any opinions on that?

 

[Pseudo]

does the cover crop have any lighting requirements?

 

[Pseudo]

maybe its a dumb question, i just need to know where i can put my off cycle smart pots, do they have to be outside or can i throw them in a closet with a 23w compact flo.

 

[mouts]

for last years outdoor grow i used a ten litre bucket with approx 50% coco, 25% native soil and 25% compost. I harvested ithe buds off the plant in october and left the stump in the bucket. Would i be able to put another plant in thatt same bucket of soil this year? Would i need to add anything?

 

[lotus710]

hey guys im gathering everything to do a no till finally i got a 100 gallon smart pot and its going under a platinum led p450 wondering how many plants you guys think i should fit in it? i was thinking 6 max of indicas of 4 of sativas? does that sound like a good amount? thanks a ton in advance

 

[heady blunts]

ooo nice dig! (no pun intended)

too bad bjw's pics are lost.

lotus are you in a tent or do you have room around the sides?

 

[lotus710]

the tent is a 4x4 and the 100 gal is 3 feet in diameter so ya have about a foot of space all around

 

[Ru5tyNaiL]

You could use it like a bed and run a SOG type deal. Or mucho training with some bigger girls to maximize footprint.

 

[heady blunts]

lotus a 3' container in a 4' tent only leaves 6inches of space around the sides, and that's before you turn the ventilation system on and the neg pressure draws the walls in slightly.

also your light at be underpowered for the space. if you were going HPS you'd want a 600w at least. I've seen plenty of folks run 1k's in there with enough ventilation and cooling.

I'm wary of the LED's claims of equivalency. I know you can grow great plants with them, but that 250w of actual draw on your p450 lamp is probably gonna end up being a bit of a let down come harvest.

I know them shits ain't cheap but you might wanna consider a bigger lamp for this project.

but don't get discouraged! I'd probably do 4 plants myself in there, although you could use more small plants (works especially well with mono cropping) or just one or two monsters like RN just suggested it'll come down to how much veg time you're willing to give them in there.

 

[lotus710]

Electrical bill is why i chose led over hps. Plus heat problems during the summer. So far my p450 did better then the 600w i had a few harvests backXD personaly. I believe its knowledge cuz i know hps is waaay betterXD im super impressed with the led soo far. I know i need another p450 for my tent. It only covers 2.5 maybe 3 feet in flower without yield loss. Im currently saving for my next led. Probaly going to make my own this time though ima use my 100 gal container for.mixing my soilXD and ill use a 50 gal for the no till ill wait till i get my other lights setup to break out the 100g.

Oh and i musta been real toasted saying theres a foot aroundXD