yeah ive been here for a year and i love it soo much! i havnt ran into any assholes its nice
Allow me to introduce myself.
Weird can handle his own introduction.
yeah ive been here for a year and i love it soo much! i havnt ran into any assholes its nice
I would speculate that no-till is a step backwards in cultivation actually. You are limiting your ability to work the soil and creating a closed loop system actually requires a closed loop. It's not a closed loop though because you're pulling out nutrients and organic matter every time you harvest.
I've stated my reasons why I believe it better to work the soil and lightly till in new ingredients. We don't have to see eye to eye on this. I wouldn't call what I do "primitive" like Weird did, but to each their own.
Regardless, both are better options than the traditional hydro store/bottled nutrient route.
My suggestion would be to at least test the soil every couple runs so you can see what excesses and deficiencies may be accumulating over time because you are potentially compounding the problem if you're not bringing in new sources of minerals (see the chapter on compost in The Intelligent Gardener for a lengthier explanation).
Allow me to introduce myself.
Weird can handle his own introduction.
So far I'm loving my no till set up way better then my rxgreen solutions bottles! How do I find this chapter on compost?
It's a book by Steve Solomon. He wrote Gardening West of the Cascades and founded Territorial Seed. His premise is that if you are composting your plant material and eating off your land and then re-applying the composted material, you're compounding any mineral deficiencies or excesses you may have. Hence the importance of a soil test. $25 with Logan Labs. Easy enough to do.
And then it's a matter of managing the soil to increase what he's calling "nutrient density" in your plants.
Again, this is just my opinion based on the research and experience I've done. No-till does work.
subbed
Looking good, qball. Have you check out Adam Dunn's podcast? He had Coot on a couple weeks ago and they were talking about soil. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should.
I have 20s myself and I'll be running them outdoors again with the same untilled soil from last year. Got some cover crop seeds from build-a-soil in the containers now and I'll be adding compost in another few weeks. I think I found a local source for Malibu compost, just gotta drive south a bit to get it.
Good luck with your grow, man.
HB.