No-Till & Organics Q&A's

A place for newbies, and veterans alike to enjoy a doobie and ask away.

My first question for the thread:

No-Tillers What is your preferred method plant a new plant in your fabric pots after running a full cycle?

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I was curious about this too. I saw @MomOnTheRun say that you leave the roots from the first plant in her write up for Oniā€™s grow with her. Was wondering how you get another in there lol. Figured I would learn in time since I wont be using it for awhile, but since this is already here I wouldnā€™t mind finding out. I remember a little about organics from 15 years ago, but Iā€™m completely new to no-till

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Whelp, in no til the peat and amendments are basically breaking down composting in placeā€¦the higher the ā€œsoilā€ ERGS the more (and sometimes faster) ā€œsoilā€ digests everything in it.

To balance it out, we continually ā€œfeedā€ the soil plant matter, amendments and more peat which helps keep the ERGS up. As time goes on aeration often gets missed with the top dresses so instead of remixing to add this back in its easiest to let the dying roots take over this jobā€¦new roots have no problems piggy backing the older ones and pushing them out of their way to take over which aids the dead root ball breakdownā€¦all this break down gets you your humus and fulvic/humic acids which makes the best (and laziest lol) substrate for cannabis though some miss this point and give up when its at its best due to aeration issues

With Oni, I was trying to prep him for no til in 40 gal soil by establishing some of these habits while still in a small pot so in the long run he could put a new plant right next to the old root ball and continue on

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I have been re-using my soil in this way forever and i never realised this was ā€˜no-tillā€™ lol.
I reckoned that the dying roots would help the roots of the next ( as in nature.) plant & aerate etc ā€¦ iv had excellent results .! Gonna have to toss all of my soil (gnats.) - time to replenish it anyway .!
I learned something new again today lol. ( tho probably more to the no-till method ??! ) thanks for the breakdown above ā€˜mom ā€¦
Happy growing/smoking ,
Gaz

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If ya make your EWC and compost youā€™ll end up with a lot of those soil mites that keep gnats in check

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Iā€™m about 50/50 when it comes to no-till to me itā€™s more about volume of soil to pull it off effectivelyā€¦ my raised beds that have a 1/3 to 1/2 of cubic yard of material its all notill I left all stumps in their to rot away for the next season my 5 gallons and < are more ROLS (recycle organic living soil) where I dump and re amendmend but I end up leaving the roots still in there as an aeration aide

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Yes, next plant goes straight in. I leave my roots, and occasionally the stumps in to break down, worms keep my soil loose and airy under the surface. The top soil can sometimes get a bit hard, with top dressing, and if my cover crops get smothered by the cannabis, and die back. Then I just break it up, and sow more cover crops at the start of the next veg session.

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Hey @Tinytuttle @Shadey , :+1:
That sounds more like what i doā€‹:arrow_up:, recycle the organic living soil,next plant straight into the pot , sometimes with the stump of the plant before it still in pot etc. Very simple n ( lazy lol.) easy to keep using your soil for a good while ā€¦ :ok_hand:t2:
Hopefully this helps someone else ā€¦
Gaz

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I have learned a few lessons on this front recently.

First, plant next to the stump, not on top of it. I did this and it stunted the WWxBB autos as a result.

Next, dont let the clover overgrow the clone. I put a barely rooted clone in my no-till with a well established clover cover crop and it choked the clone out.

Finally, when I do recycle my soil, I have been adding aeration (perlite).

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I know youā€™re running a bed but for my pot setup, Iā€™ve got more pots going than I need. So after the chop I just leave a pot for 3 weeks and then you can just pull the stump out. Most of the roots stay behind.

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Would it had been better had you chopped in dropped the clover right on top looking back on it?

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Looking back on it, I would have transplanted to a 16 oz. cup first, then transplanted that into the bed. That way I can cut away the clover, roots and all.

For reference, here is the clone I planted.

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I recently saw someone who put a party cup in the pot where they planned to transplant before sowing the cover crop that way it didnā€™t overgrow the transplant.

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Brilliant! I may do that next time! :+1::seedling:

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Yeah I agree bigger the pots / beds the better for no till growing ā€¦ also top dressing, mulching and cover cropping is keyā€¦
Cool topic

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I cycle my ā€œbedsā€. They are only 15 gallon because of my grow space. I made two sets of pots and I let one set ā€œrestā€ in the basement. I have a company I purchase a chicken manure base fertilizer, it is made by a local large organic commercial grower supplier. This product is extremely high quality with kelp and humic acid added (these are very quality additives).

Leave the stump at about 2 inches. I scratch the organic fertilizer into the top 4 - 6 inches then add a few inches of homemade EWC. I top everything with a few inches of rice hulls to seal in the moisture. I water it up and move it into the basement where I store firewood. I water these unused pots every week. Once a grow is completed I swap the used pots with the basement pots. By then the stump is gone along with a lot of the rice hulls.

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Hey guysā€¦Old Farmer, New No-Tiller hereā€¦:fist:

I found this, and figured all of us in here, may be interestedā€¦

Jeff knows his shit, and knows how to explain it to Stonerā€™s like myself. It is very informativeā€¦

Regards,

K.

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Whatā€™s the chicken manure brand? Is it something like the re-vita from Ohio Earth Food.

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Cant wait to watch thank you for sharing that!

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My hats off to you. 15 gal pots are by no means light. That is a sound method.

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