M4S73R's Lazy Organic No Till Garden

[m4s73r]

I have been growing for 10 years now. Kinda funny to say as I'm still learning new things all the time. As most begginners do, I started in FFOF with 3 bottle line up. I inherited a couple T5s got some FFOF and 1 gallon smart pots 3 pack nutes and away we went. Talk about a first time shit show. I sprouted 8 bag seeds and got 1 damn female. I named her Bridget. She became my first bonsi Mum. So now a I got a female and I had to learn to clone. Nailed in first go. got 3 solid clones, threw then into veg and flipped them. I did several this away to get a perpetual grow going.

Below Pic one we have Bridget on the far right and 5 of her kids. ON the right is the actual grow.


From Here I grew for a couple of years. Sadly I was still not getting the results that I wanted. Then one fateful evening one of the Ballast burnt out of the 8 Bulb T5. So I bought a 600 watt HPS and went VERTICAL!!! The family was running out before the next plant was ready. Honestly I was broke as shit so we had to upgrade on a budget. Hello 600w HPS and 3.5 gallon hempy buckets lucas formula soon after!
This Pic below is the 600 with a ring of Hempys growing a way. All of them spaced out in bloom. I was doing 8 plants. Shit that was a long time ago. It was set so I could pull a blooming plant out a week. But i started to run into issues of getting rid of used up perlite or trying to wash it. It was a messy PITA but fucking hell it was cheap. Seriously for the kids in the back, this that hella tight budget growing shit. This was also the point where I had started ordering femized seeds and growing strains. Up till this point i have just been growing and cloning Bridget. (best bag seed i ever had. Miss that bitch)



But I was onto something. And I liked how the lighting worked. Just not the waste of perlite. We're going to leave dear sweet cheap Lucas Hempy behind for ORGANIC NO TILL 25GALLON POTS AND DUEL 1K LIGHTS!!! Let me blow this bonus check.

So 650 bucks of Soil from buildasoil shipped. 8 25 gallon fabric pots. Custom made rolling flower SIPS planters. 2 Digilux 1k Ballast with duel vert sockets. a 8 inch fan filter combo, worm bin, compost tea brewer, clover, worms and BOOM. The massive Super Silo Z. (where that dragon ball theme song shit when you NEED it!)




I was good guys. 4 pots growing, 4 resting. I was planning on riding that train like forever. Then I met her and her kid. And now the family goes from 3 smokers to 4 and FUCKS THE WHOLE SYSTEM.

Im running out again. Time to split up the system. Jumping to 2 5x5s. I had 4 25 gallons pots per tent and a 1k light in each one. At this point the soil is 6 years old and has had multiple runs through it. But I was running the pots back to back and my yeilds started to suffer. Heat was kicking my ass, electric bill was stupid high.
So I decided it was time to dump all soil, reamend, add some vermiculite, perlite, and homemade leaf mold. Guys most of the pots was humus and perlite lol. So Im ordering some craft blend from BAS and I see these Grassroots beds. Wait a bed. All my aged soil in one spot? Oh lets look into this. Ordered one bed. and dumbed all my old soil into the bed.
I was also wanting to get into LED lighting. So I got a SF4k QB and a couple of RA1000 Parafactworks grow lights to veg with and was going to use the 1kHPS to bloom. We were back on it! But the 1k HPS had to go.



Then Covid hit. Talked to the other smokers and I spent my Stiumulus on 2 DIY ChilLed Growcraft Lights. And a second bed for the other 5x5 tent. Couple of emails back and forth with Austin and I got 2 for $1650 shipped. There were delived with 25 days left to bloom in one of the tents.

 

[m4s73r]

This is where things are at today. 2 5x5 tents, Powered by ChilLed x5s, with 2 4x4 beds. One bed is soil that is now 7 years old, and has had a 23 runs through it. The other bed is a Hugel Kulture Style bed. Home made soil, with half the bed filled with wood. Its about to start its 2nd run. Basic recipie, Baccto Professional Gardeners mix, Mushroom compost, EWC, Back to earth Cotton Burr, Vermiculite, Alfalfa Mulch (went on top of the wood with some of the cotton burr), Craftblend From Buildasoil. Pretty easy mix.






Living soil bed, This is ready to have some clover growing on it. Ran into a sow bug issue. Ate everything. We got them knocked out with some sluggo Plus and the clover is starting to slowly come in.

Hugel Kultrue bed is ready for plants.


In my veg tent we have our next round of seeds.
Got the following seeds going.
Jack Herer
Kali 47
Pineapple Express
White Strawberry
Sage N Sour
C99
Northern Lights Blue
Critical

Far right i got 2 slackers, G13 Blueberry Headband and GSC. In the back I have 2 that never popped, SSH and Painkiller XL



Not sure what direction yet. I need to make a choice. Im considering dropping in 4 in each bed. Im also considering dropping all 9 that are ready into one bed and leave the GSC out.

Veg tent is lit by a ChilLed mono rail with veg board. Still getting used to the power on that thing. I had some leaf damage from the light.

 

[m4s73r]

Decided to just put 4 in each bed. Once they double in size i'll top them for a mum. Once everything has been dried cured well pick our keepers and do a round of each of our favorites.

Living soil bed also got clover planted on it. Some of the old cover crop seed is coming in. What didnt get ate by the sow bugs.






Lights were set at 22 inches. PPFD set to 330.

 

[m4s73r]

I am not satisfied with my watering. The drip line is not getting the surface evenly moist. Tried C Sprayers and they cause too much ''mist'' in my tent jacking up my humidity. Might be time to try a soak hose or shrubblers. Not sure micro sprayers are the answer either. they may cause too much spray as well. Just need to figure out a even watering that doesnt mist bad. May need to relook at the C sprayers but dial the pressure way down...

I think after this run im going to dump some dirt from the living soil bed and get it down to where the HKB is at. Id like to put some mulch down to get my clover going but im starting to mound in that bed when I do.

 

[m4s73r]

Well it looks like i was about 3 days late transplanting as all my plants are showing some slight deficiencies on their first leaves. Knew I should have gotten them in a bit faster. LOL

Here is the living soil bed and Kali 47. New growth is screaming. Couple of days ill need to remeasure ppfd and adjust the lights. The soil surface is getting hit at about 300 right now. LIghts are strong so need to keep up on that. Not going to do much on these in the way of training other then some apical supercropping to even out the canopy. Once were through stretch ill put the trellis up. Not scrogging, just support since im not topping at all.



Here is the Hugel Kulture and Pineapple Express. About to mow this bed again. Soon cannabis will shadow this over and kill most of this off.




I run into a lot of people who struggle with this aspect of the living soil method more than any other. They mistake cover crop for living mulch.

With clover/living mulch mow it. Mow it hard down to 1.5 inches. Remember, leaf litter is what your feeding your soil biology (rather than compost teas, SST, top dressings ect) in order to feed the plants. Some people buy hay, used mushroom substrate/logs, ect. I use clover as it does not rob nitrogen from the soil, its very cheap and its provides a wealth of benefits to the top soil layer including making a giant rhizosphere in the bed.

With cover crop your growing plants that are going to dig down into your soil so Mow it sparingly so the roots dig deep. This helps with a list of things. For indoor no till the big one is "soil compaction". It a natural way to break up your soil. All you do is pull a plant up to check how keep its root goes. If its the depth of your pot, cover the whole thing with plastic. Let set 30 days and your soil be nice and fluffy again.

I do realize that I am over simplifing what all is happening here. If you want more in depth stuff on this, check out the leading soil biologist Dr. Elaine Ingham. She studies soil biology and revitalizing soil with mulching. She does use a instant compost tea on very degraded soil to kick start the soil biology. Shes been doing this for over 40 years and has saved me a SHIT load of money in unnecessary stuff. lol.

 

[m4s73r]

Couple shots for tonight. They're praying pretty good. VPD is at 1.5.

 

[High kev]

Awesome work. I love the no till set up.

 

[m4s73r]

Couple of shots tonight. Things are coming right along. As soon as that little one there grows some more were going to throw that in a 15 gallon pot. Get it big enough to take 3 clones and we'll flip her with them. If I had 9 plants in there, Id be flipping them in like another week to 10 days. I could even grow them to the size they are right now in 1 gallon pots. Put em in the bed, give em 2 weeks and flip em. If I did 12 in the bed, Id have flipped them 3 days ago.

 

[m4s73r]

Typed up a bit about watering this type of bed. Thought I would share here if anyone is curious. From Reddit " Can you put a palette under the bed in case of run off or is it sitting in a drip dray?" You can. I know some people who get a palette. I have been growing this method for a long time so am pretty good with watering and am not worried about run off. Here is some info from my experience.
The grass roots beds have the air pruning around the bottom. This also allows the bottom to not get so moist that you have to worry about anaerobic conditions. Perfectly fine to put it right on the floor. Most tents come with a drip pan for the bottom of the tent. Just make sure that the bed isn't ever standing in water.
So when a 4x4 bed is at the proper moisture it will weight around 1600 lbs. Fully saturated it can jump up to 1800-2100 lbs. I recommend a good moisture meter. I use a REOTEMP from amazon. They're about 35 bucks.
So once you get your soil all mixed up and at that perfect moisture level, calibrate your moisture meter to that soil. Then when you use it to check the bed you will know how far off your preferred level is. This is invaluable when first learning to water a large volume of soil indoors.
Now the 4x4 beds hold 165 gallons of soil. Meaning at most you would never want to water more than 8 gallons if we're following the 5% rule. Personally, I water 5% during the last couple weeks of veg through the first 4 weeks of bloom. After that I drop down to 2.5% or 4 gallons of water. I dont water the bed with seedlings/young plants. I just water their root zone with some coconut water.
Another good indication is your plants. Are the tips looking a little like they have nutrient burn? if so then increase the amount or frequency of watering. Are you plants growing slow and look sad/saggy? Your watering too much and need to decrease amount/frequency.

 

[m4s73r]

Little photo action tonight post Aloe/Saponin Foiler feed. PPFD was adjusted to 400. Next week should be the first supercropping. Not going to do alot to them once they're all got even canopy.

C99 and Pineapple express


Critical and Northern Lights Blue.



Sage N Sour and White Strawberries


Kali 47 and Jack Herer

 

[Old ST1R]

So Healthy and Happy!

 

[m4s73r]

On the topic of Living mulch vs Cover Crop from another page I wrote up on.

Using Clover as a living mulch is for keeping that nice ecosystem on your top and feeding your bed a constant source of leaf litter and nitrogen. This runs while your growing. Mow it often. Should be able to keep in at 2-3 inches tall. I also defoliate my plants just enough to get a little light down to the clover so it stays growing. Onces its mostly shaded it will stay low.
Now cover crop is used differently. Rather than mowing it like the clover, were going to let it grow till it has penetrated roots deep into the soil. Let it grow a nice head of green. Then we want to cover it and kill it all off so it breaks down. Letting those roots dig down deep will help prevent soil compaction over time and adds some plant matter through the thickness of your bed. I only do this once a year during the summer when I'm not growing. After 2 years, beds are nice and fluffy.
Get into a habit of mowing clover once a week and you will find that you have less amending you have to do over time. Anymore I dont do compost teas, sst, top dressing, or buckets of amendments. Twice a year I toss 10 cups of craft blend on top, water in Big6. Mulch all my trimmings, washed bud from bubble hash, stems, dry trim thats been sifted in my tumbler, and any fan leaves from when I defoliate. (free nutrients). Just let it build up on top.

 

[m4s73r]

Looks like next weekend were going to flip these. Sometimes this next week ill get in there and super-crop a couple of them one more time and get 2 cuts of each. haven't done anything since the coconut watering on Monday. Tomorrow morning they'll get their weekly aloe feed and some Mikrobs.

 

[High kev]

This is where things are at today. 2 5x5 tents, Powered by ChilLed x5s, with 2 4x4 beds. One bed is soil that is now 7 years old, and has had a 23 runs through it. The other bed is a Hugel Kulture Style bed. Home made soil, with half the bed filled with wood. Its about to start its 2nd run. Basic recipie, Baccto Professional Gardeners mix, Mushroom compost, EWC, Back to earth Cotton Burr, Vermiculite, Alfalfa Mulch (went on top of the wood with some of the cotton burr), Craftblend From Buildasoil. Pretty easy mix.


View attachment 101833View attachment 101834View attachment 101835

View attachment 101836View attachment 101837

Living soil bed, This is ready to have some clover growing on it. Ran into a sow bug issue. Ate everything. We got them knocked out with some sluggo Plus and the clover is starting to slowly come in.
View attachment 101838
Hugel Kultrue bed is ready for plants.
View attachment 101839

In my veg tent we have our next round of seeds.
Got the following seeds going.
Jack Herer
Kali 47
Pineapple Express
White Strawberry
Sage N Sour
C99
Northern Lights Blue
Critical

Far right i got 2 slackers, G13 Blueberry Headband and GSC. In the back I have 2 that never popped, SSH and Painkiller XL

View attachment 101840

Not sure what direction yet. I need to make a choice. Im considering dropping in 4 in each bed. Im also considering dropping all 9 that are ready into one bed and leave the GSC out.

Veg tent is lit by a ChilLed mono rail with veg board. Still getting used to the power on that thing. I had some leaf damage from the light.

I think I want to try this. Thank you for posting.

 

[m4s73r]

Well I dont think that I am going to make to this weekend. Day after tomorrow I'll be taking clones and flipping to bloom. these are as big as I want for this run.

 

[m4s73r]

Storms all day, Girls got a random 5 hours darkness in the middle of thier day. Turned off the time and put them on 24 hours till i flip them. Were going to get after it tomorrow. Take clones, foiler with some aloe, water in some Q. May even do one more super crop about a week into bloom. Going into week 2 i'll do a light defoliate so light gets all the way through the plant. Its interesting. The Jack Herer and the Northern lights blue just didnt take super cropping very well at all. (Back right plant in both beds) I may top both of those tomorrow when I take clones. What you guys think? Top to get that even canopy, super crop them again, or ride em at hoping theyre not big stretchers?

 

[Zaphod420]

Storms all day, Girls got a random 5 hours darkness in the middle of thier day. Turned off the time and put them on 24 hours till i flip them. Were going to get after it tomorrow. Take clones, foiler with some aloe, water in some Q. May even do one more super crop about a week into bloom. Going into week 2 i'll do a light defoliate so light gets all the way through the plant. Its interesting. The Jack Herer and the Northern lights blue just didnt take super cropping very well at all. (Back right plant in both beds) I may top both of those tomorrow when I take clones. What you guys think? Top to get that even canopy, super crop them again, or ride em at hoping theyre not big stretchers?

View attachment 103253

View attachment 103254

I can't believe the power hasn't went out a couple times the past week her in Smokelahoma. As soon as you open your door to go outside its like somebody left a jet engine on. I think you should be fine with the 5 hour dark period hiccup though as a lot of people(I do in the summer) actually do that on purpose in veg with the Gas Latern Routine aka 12/1 - 12 hrs on, 5hrs off, 1hr on, 5hrs off.
Your plants look great and I would say just clean em up like you were thinking, and top the girl in the back to match then flip em.

 

[Old ST1R]

Storms all day, Girls got a random 5 hours darkness in the middle of thier day. Turned off the time and put them on 24 hours till i flip them. Were going to get after it tomorrow. Take clones, foiler with some aloe, water in some Q. May even do one more super crop about a week into bloom. Going into week 2 i'll do a light defoliate so light gets all the way through the plant. Its interesting. The Jack Herer and the Northern lights blue just didnt take super cropping very well at all. (Back right plant in both beds) I may top both of those tomorrow when I take clones. What you guys think? Top to get that even canopy, super crop them again, or ride em at hoping theyre not big stretchers?

View attachment 103253

View attachment 103254

I think your definition of Super Cropping is different than most. Super Cropping to most of us means you bend a branch sideways, hopefully without breaking it off, to reduce the height of a plant.

 

[m4s73r]

I think your definition of Super Cropping is different than most. Super Cropping to most of us means you bend a branch sideways, hopefully without breaking it off, to reduce the height of a plant.

I dont bend them over, your right. But I do crush the main stem. Thats why I call it "light" supercropping. Some people call it just stem crushing. LIke i do everything you would do when super cropping accept bend them over at a 90° angle. The other 6 plants took it well. As you can see they bushed out a bit more, the tops didnt get much taller allowing the side branches to catch up. I never worried about bending them over because they can break. I'm not looking to do that much damage.

 

[Old ST1R]

I dont bend them over, your right. But I do crush the main stem. Thats why I call it "light" supercropping. Some people call it just stem crushing. LIke i do everything you would do when super cropping accept bend them over at a 90° angle. The other 6 plants took it well. As you can see they bushed out a bit more, the tops didnt get much taller allowing the side branches to catch up. I never worried about bending them over because they can break. I'm not looking to do that much damage.

Interesting. Never heard of anyone doing that before.