Thanks man!
Haha yeah, it's a very profitable industry that's for sure. Money is a son of a bitch, it'll make people defy their own morals on the flip of a dime sometimes. My favorite part is the "inert ingredients". Last time I checked, tap water was free and it comes out of everyone's faucets lol
Why 9 tops exactly? I would top once and flip to flower if I were you, you may run into space issues if you let them veg for too long. My plants that were left untrained ended up being wider and more filled out than I thought, about 2'x2' a piece so use your judgement while in veg my man.
Cytokinins are from coconut powder sourced from www.buildasoil.com check out their blog section too, has a great post about cytokinins and their importance in not only lowers bushing out but plant senescence (fading in flower) as well. I actually just ordered more earlier tonight because I forgot to keep my powder in a jar, I just left it in the bag and it hardened up because it was getting too much air or something. Next batch is going in the mason jar to prevent that from happening again.
The N is mainly food for the microbes to consume in order to multiply. That amount is the precise amount needed to carry a bloom brew to that 20 hr mark without exhausting the amount of food. Microbe Man has been dialing in these ratios for some time now, and he's the one with the microscope so I listen to what he has to say. He has a site www.microbeorganics.com that has a LOT of valuable info... those recipes are just the tip of the ice burg. I'll feed bloom tea at week 2 and 4 of flower. I'll feed sativas at week 6 if they look like they're gonna go more than 10 weeks.
I'm in the same situation as you, so I can understand your worries concerning neighbors. I started to garden heavily outside my house as a cover, so hauling soil and what not just looks normal around here. I think 2 or 3 or my neighbors are avid gardeners as well, compost piles on the driveway and all lol. No-till would be ideal, I wish I mixed this soil for no-till but I didn't. Soon though. They key is big pots (20 gal and up) and knowledge, knowledge, knowledge. When going permanent like that make sure you have no doubts in your mind on your mix, methods, and plan.
Go to http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/1299862-no-till-gardening.html for a kick ass no-till grow with a bunch of valuable info. Coots is on that forum and chimes in a lot in that thread, I use it as a go-to and mimic Mountain Organics' watering regimen to a tee. Very smart guy, very humble and all in all a guru of no-tilling. He's working on pots that are in their 13th cycle! No degrade in quality, it just keeps getting better. That thread alone has converted so many growers over to no-till because his results are simply amazing.
This method produces the tastiest and cleanest smoke you can get, you just need to make sure your microbes are comfortable and keep that media moist to keep the life thriving. I had a run with black ash and very bad tasting bud a while back... but I figured out why and it was due to not straining my tea before applying it to my soil. All the excess N in the amendments poured on top started to burn the plants and they never went through senescence like they should have. N resided in the smoke and it was bad news. Same thing when you don't manually flush synthetics, NPK resides in the smoke and it's not healthy for consumption. My last run and this one have been smooth though, and smooth smoke as well. Flushing with a synthetic program is mimicking plant senescence pretty much, so when the plant carries out that process naturally in soil there is no need to flush. Flushing in soil is actually detrimental to roots because they drown in all that water, as do your microbes for the most part.
I actually found an email from a while back talking to Jeremy of BAS about my fading problem:
In a no-till living soil that is full of life the plant can operate off of very little nutrient input, this is getting the plant to be strong and grow according to the soil.... where on the other hand, when using super soil full of fast release nutrients like Blood meal etc..... The plant doens't have as much of a choice, the nutrients are there and the plant is lazier and doesn't isn't required to work as hard to feed itself. As flowering wraps up and there is still Nitrogen in the soil.... the plant will still go through senescence and stop feeding on nitrogen, that being said, if the soil is still full of fast release nutrients it won't be able to do that... That is why many feel that a living soil recipe is a better way to go, using whole plant inputs like kelp and neem instead of single ingredient, fast release nutes.
And dude, Coots is the guru of gurus. I follow the trail of experienced growers in the community and they all lead back to that guy it seems like. He knows the answer to every question, just like Microbe Man. Those two are the fathers of soil IMO and I listen to everything they have to say.
Congrats on getting rid of the aphids btw, those are a pain in the ass I've heard. I think I've had everything but aphids thus far, so most likely that boat will come along soon knowing my luck
TM. Enjoyed your last thread, definitely subbing in for this one 
