Canagen's no-till

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Greetings everyone. I hope everyone is enjoying their new year. I know I am. I’ve read about no-till gardening and have become really interested in the simplicity of it all.

What I currently have are 2 15Gs with soil and amendments sourced locally. I have 2 Punch Pie clones that were transplanted from 1L pots at 6 weeks. I have also got my white clover which I think I should have started way before the transplant and should have innoculated as well. Oh well…lesson learned.

By the way, I am a very new grower with only 2 grows done. The first was not successful as I had all brand new equipment which I had to dial in. Couple that with your typical beginner errors and it was a guaranteed failure.

All was not lost though as I made a point of studying what each new issue was, doing the research and attempting the correct them. It showed how little I knew of the herb I’ve been smoking for the longest while as well as plants in general.
Second grow was a bit better, got some nice nugs and decent potency. So now, I am on my third with this.

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This was taken Jan. 17 and so far seems to be going good. It’s coming up to 8 weeks since rooted and I am thinking of letting her veg to fill it out some more. So far, all I have done is daily waterings of 1L each and kelp/molasses tea every week. I may have to start increasing her watering to 1-1/2 to 2 L.
Cheers all.

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They look good and happy in the soil. Bet they will blow up and produce some great :fire:

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Yes ! Love the resilience brother! Welcome and I’m excited to see these beauties explode for you ! I came here in search of help and direction as well,and found so many amazing people here! I truly hope you stick around !
A great fella is @cannabissequoia ! Always nice to have him going over my grows ,has helped countless times ! (Thought I would get his attention over here !)
Peace and love brother !
Overgrow !

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Thanks for the welcome and heads-up! I know I like to go it alone just to say I can but I also know the help I will need as I move along.

My ultimate plan is to have a perpetual grow between these two planters. I’d like to finish one and start flowering the second halfway through the first. Living in a highrise, I have minimal worries about security so I can window-veg my clone or seedling.

What I would like to know is should I introduce some worms now or wait until these have cycled through? I am using Promix HP with castings for my humus. I did add perlite to the castings to get the the same loose consistency of the Promix.

I wanted to keep it as simple as possible by adding (per cu.ft.):

2 c oyster shell flour
2 c kelp meal
1 c alfalfa meal
1 c blood meal
1 c bone meal
1/2 c dolomitic lime
1/2 c mineralized phosphate (<–bought in error, another lesson learned). It’s a good thing I am having so much fun.

The soil was moistened with LAB, cooked and just prior to transplant, very lightly watered with molasses. So now that is where I am at…wait and wait. Seems to be growing well but I can’t leave well enough alone and have to re-arrange and lower the main stems. I just realized this was my first attempt at topping. Hah!

Anyway, I’m all in with this now.

Cheers.

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Beautiful ! I usually ask someone like @MomOnTheRun , @cannabissequoia who I haven’t heard from, hope all is well brother,and possibly @Tinytuttle ,my memory sucks,I know that there are a few others who have a serious understanding of no till I’m personally dependant on bagged soil,I’ve tried a few times to line up buying worms,but I lack mobility and finances to pick any up, although I am very optimistic that I will have the best year yet ! Plan to wildcraft everything that I can this year, health permitting !Yeah !
Peace and love all !
Overgrow !

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Looks great man. Next time I’d recommend considering a layer of landscape fabric lining the inside drainage holes of your containers; will allow for adequate drainage while significantly (or entirely) reducing incidence of fungus gnat activity. They simply can’t get in. That tip is from Grand Master Level.

The other tip is to line the bottom of a living soil container with 2-4" of crushed oyster or sea shells, for benefits such as: long-term calcium availability, complexity of soil life habitat, improved drainage and aeration, emulation of natural soil horizons. I’ve used a mix as simple as ProMix, 10% worm castings, and a lot of crushed seashells myself, and love how the plants do. I use unwashed seashells; the salts from sea water have an abundance of trace minerals which are either plant available, or which microbes can utilize for creating other soluble compounds.

And for outdoor large containers intended for long-term living soil, about 15gallons or more, it’s worth considering old rotten logs from around the neighbourhood. If you live somewhere more rural, or near a forested area of course. Old spongey rotten wood; these moss-covered, insect-filled, mycellium-ridden airy chunks of decomposing carbon, provide excellent habitat, often come chalked full of fungal-dominant castings from earwigs or woodlouse or centipede or other decomposer activity, have plenty of air and water holding capacity due to structure and cellulose content, and also offer a host of inoculation potential for your future plantings. Up to the bottom 30% of the pot can be layered with these in-tact spongey wood chunks. This is emulating hugelkulture ideas, but being selective in our bottom wood layer by choosing something already significantly pre-digested and less volatilizing of nitrogen, with complexity of structure to achieve our aims: inoculation, porosity, percolation, habitat, and often a light-weight pot-filler which improves economy of media usage. (be it coco, peat, compost, etc.)

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You would need something for them to eat like composted manure, sheep is good if you can get it. How big are your pots? I started with 4 worms in each of my 10 gal pots and had 20 plus in each before 6 months was up.

You would also need to add some minerals to that, like Basalt rock dust or glacial rock dust. I feel Gypsum is is better than dolomitic lime, as it also contains sulphur and wont change your soil PH no matter how much you use. Get yourself some Epsom salts as well for Magnesium. Kelp meal, if you can get it is very good minerals as well as K.

I have been doing no till for just over a year now. If you want to check out my thread its here.

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ReikoX is someone else with a wealth of knowledge with the No-Till…He has helped me as well as TinyTuttle helping me.

K.

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Thanks, I’ll be happy to copy/paste my recipe and notes if you like.

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Your help to me, was great. You definitely know your shit Buddy…

Thanks again,

K.

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The above ingredients look great I have a tendency to leave out blood meal but you can give it a whirl I like casting at about 10% and I’d suggest crab meal for the chitin it provides to help with immune booster for your plants

I also like the idea of using cover crops in the pots chop and drop and give your little worm homies something to munch on!

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Thanks for all your encouragement. I was trying to wade through tinytuttle’s thread. Some very interesting techniques I’ve read about and some I’ve made like the Lactobacillus Serum, CalPhos and Fermented Banana Extract. I have been using Gil Carandang’s methods. I can’t really say with certainty their effectiveness since I don’t have a benchmark to gauge any difference.

This is from my second grow, White Widow in a 5G fabric pot. Aside from top dressing with kelp and castings the only other additive was the banana extract from start of flower to finish. I must say I liked the end result and would have loved it had I cured it properly. But when you need a smoke well…

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That will have to be my benchmark for now.

@seven_trees, you have given some great ideas. We have a ravine with a pathway which I’m sure will have most of what you listed. I did try doing the BIM thing but could only get the black and gray mold. But yeah, rotten logs and leaf litter.

@Shadey, I’m using 15 gallon hard pots. Would have preferred fabric but I find I un-settle the contents it disturbs the roots. I can’t leave things alone at this point as I am still trying to optimize my setup. It’s just the way I grow I guess.

@tinytuttle, crab meal and neem meal are 2 priorities in my next soil mix or when I have to re-amend.

Thanks all for your encouragement.

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I always like to tell people who go the organic way to listen to some podcast from clackmas coot dude is full of knowledge Elaine Ingham is very knowledgeable as well

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The base soil mix is compose of:

1/3 Sphagnum Peat Moss
1/3 Compost or Vermicompost
1/3 Aeration

For each cubic foot (7.5 US gallons) of soil add:

1/2 Cup Kelp Meal
1/2 Cup Neem Meal
1/2 Cup Crustacean Meal
1 Cup Malted Barley Powder
4 Cups Mineral Mix
6 Cups Biochar

Once mixed and added to the container, sow a clover cover crop and add a straw mulch layer.

At the beginning of each cycle and right before flowering top dress with 1/4" of vermicompost.

Watering Schedule:
Watering is done every two-three days. Every other watering is one of the following teas:

Sul-po-mag - Once a month
1 Gallon Water
1 Teaspoon Sul-po-mag
Add an airstone with the water and sul-po-mag and let set for a couple of days until soluble.

Neem/Kelp tea - Once a month
5 gallons Water
1 cup Neem Meal
1/2 cup Kelp Meal
1/4 teaspoon Aloe Powder
5 ml Silica
Place neem and kelp in a tea bag (I use a bag my worms came in) and steep overnight. Add aloe and silica before drenching the soil.

Malted Barley Tea - Once a week
1 gallon Water
1 oz. (28 grams) Malted Barley Powder
15 ml Fulvic Acid
1/4 teaspoon Aloe Powder
5 ml Silica
Grind malted barley powder in an old coffee grinder and place in a tea bag. Steep for no longer than four hours. Add fulvic acid, aloe, and silica before drenching the soil.

Coconut Water Tea - Once a week
1 gallon Water
1 teaspoon Coconut Water Powder
15 ml Fulvic Acid
1/4 teaspoon Aloe Powder
5 ml Silica
Mix all ingredients and drench soil.

Foliar Spray (IPM) - Once a week
1 gallon Water
15 ml Neem Oil
1/4 teaspoon Aloe Powder
10 ml Silica
In a small shot glass add silica to the neem oil and stir until completely homogenous. Add to warm (at least 75F) and mix thoroughly. Add aloe and spray immediately before lights out.

List of amendments and their benefits -

Aloe Powder - Adds saponins, rooting hormones, and salicylic acids.

Aeration - Can be perlite, pumice, lava rock, rice hulls, etc. I use a mix of 60% lava rock and 40% rice hulls. Adds oxygen to the root system, gives surface area for microbes to live on, and prevents compaction.

Biochar - Adds a lot of surface area for microbes and I creases CEC.

Clover Cover Crop - Adds nitrogen fixation, reduces erosion, and loosens the soil.

Coconut Water Powder - Adds enzymes, auxins, and micronutrients,

Compost - Adds microbiology, water retention, humic acids, and pest and pathogen prevention.

Crustacean Meal - Can be shrimp, crab, krill, etc. Adds macro nutrients, calcium carbonate, and chitan.

Fulvic Acid - Fulvic acid (Ful-power) enhances nutrient uptake, cell division and elongation, and enzyme activity.

Kelp - Adds macro and micro nutrients, chelating substances, and plant growth hormones.

Malted Barley Powder - Adds enzymes such as phosphatase, chitinase, urease, and amylase.

Mineral Mix - Equal parts of oyster shell flour, gypsum, basalt rock dust, and glacial rock dust. The gypsum provides calcium and sulphur. The oyster shell flower provides calcium carbonate and helps balance pH. And the glacial and basalt provide an array of micro nutrients and minerals.

Neem - Adds macro nutrients as well as pest suppression.

Silica - Adds pest and disease control, strengthens stems, and can be used as an emulsifier (i.e. use with neem oil). Pro-TeKt and agsil 16h are good brands.

Sphagnum Peat Moss - Adds microbiology, water retention, and high CEC.

Straw Mulch - Adds water retention, reduces erosion, home for soil life, and adds carbon for decomposition.

Sul-po-mag - A mined mineral that adds sulfur, potassium, and magnesium

Vermicompost - brings everything in compost with even more beneficial microbes as well as calcium carbonate.

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My reading about Clackamas Coot was what piqued my interest. Don’t know who Elaine is but she is now on my extended read list. So much reading and learning to do. Fun stuff.

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Elaine is founder and CEO of the SOILFOODWEB scientist who has business all over the world helps people to rebuild soil with use of compost and their little helpers the microbes good read you may find it in the library “ teaming with microbes “ Jeff Lowenfels

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Sounds like your heading down the right road brotha! Look forward to seeing some happy plants in your future!

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Looks like @ReikoX has included everything plus the kitchen sink! Lol

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Wow thanks for that info. I like to scavenge around and see what I can gather and use in lieu of commercially available products. This list gives a nice overview.

Re: watering
I currently am watering them everyday at 1 liter each with a kelp/casting tea every week. I may have to increase it 50% now that they have settled in. I can stick a finger through the drainhole and feel the moisture level. Is this not reliable? What is the best way to gauge moisture content other than weight?

You may not be able to see it but I have white clover in there, sown after the fact (duh!) and not innoculated (double duh!). But they are growing on the surface which means I have to spray them down every day. I’m using a 600w HID and in a 3x3 tent it can get mighty hot and dry.

Which is an issue I am battling right now. I live in Edmonton which is known for its dry air. I have 2 humidifiers in there working 24/7 and I still can’t get humidity above 20%, 30% on a good day. It’s a dry building. I’ve pretty much tried all possible configurations with my setup and I am still left with a nominal 12% or so at 80 F. These dry winters are killing me and my plants. I’ll have to figure something out.

Cheers.

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Sticking finger through bottom hole isn’t really a reliable way to determine moisture level I’d say weight by just tipping the pot is ok I like to check to about the second knuckle on a finger, their are moisture probes for like 10$ that are fairly reliable IMO. Iv been playing around with wicking systems lately they seem to be doing fairly well for me .

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