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Slownickel lounge, pull up a chair. CEC interpretation
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paradoxlost
Member
interesting ive never heard about no till in rangeland management despite being pretty heavily involved in it. no all these principles are the principles that helped states like Maryland and Pennsylvania sustain long term yields as well as strengthening the regional ecosystem as a whole. and idk wht you think no till organic leads to less quality. quality started to go down across the board when artificial fertilizer and products started going into the fields.
caterpillar710
Member
No kidding but you can't think I'm saying to put down smurf juice ?
Any way cannabis really shouldn't be grown in a field unless you're growing CBD hemp.
Drug cannabis belongs in a greenhouse in container media
Any way cannabis really shouldn't be grown in a field unless you're growing CBD hemp.
Drug cannabis belongs in a greenhouse in container media
paradoxlost
Member
idk I worked for six months in a 10000 plant facility doing rockwool and general hydro nutes. the weed came out good, for the most part. but all the soil weed I find is so much better.
I used to be a Rodale victim years ago. I think you'll find common ground here in that most of us can agree with the overuse of salts. I'm seeing more overuse of compost recently, especially in cannabis. You just can't fix a field that is low on calcium with a topdressing of compost and microbial inoculants. If the soil you're planning to use needs 3000+lbs of Ca per acre or two more pounds in a 50 gallon pot, compost is not the answer, neither is lime top dressed. You can use gypsum, but I wouldn't in low pH. Tilling liming material into the soil is the most practical and I would put money on the benefit of the better distributed lime being grater than the detriment of whatever microbe colony you broke up. Few people can speculate which microbes cannabis is really benefiting from anyway. They will always come back in the future and may be healthier colonies if there are more minerals.
I think drug canna would do really well in the field. Seeds late July or clones in August with dense planting. Many varieties wouldn't even need support. Plants would finish at 2-3' and harvest would be easy.
HillMizer
Member
Paradoxlost, thanks for coming in and having the conversation, I figured you were going to drop the no-till comment and we wouldn't hear from you. If it works for you, more power to ya. Welcome!
I've got to shoot a lot of deer to get my daikons to grow. One way or another either my vegan friends or no till friends will frown! 5' bobcat tiller here we come.
I've got to shoot a lot of deer to get my daikons to grow. One way or another either my vegan friends or no till friends will frown! 5' bobcat tiller here we come.
caterpillar710
Member
caterpillar710
Member
One harvest a year is bad for a brand. Consumer want fresh flower all the time
paradoxlost
Member
I will give you that compost isnt the solution. I believe earth worm castings to be a better top dress solution for nutrients. I usually just go into the forest find a fallen, rotting tree and grab whats underneath plus some of the not completely digested tree.
but yea I mean weed definitely wants a field. hence why all the main breeding strains are originally outdoor strains that had thousands of years to strengthen
plantingplants
Active member
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=337450
^^^ check this fungus. my first year was all Grow More chem ferts and i noticed mushrooms pop thru at end of year. I roughed that soil alllll up completely displacing it with a bobcat and it basically just spread all of the mycelium and this year it was full of the same mycelium. So they lived thru heavy tilling and chemical ferts. Microbes, i can not attest.
^^^ check this fungus. my first year was all Grow More chem ferts and i noticed mushrooms pop thru at end of year. I roughed that soil alllll up completely displacing it with a bobcat and it basically just spread all of the mycelium and this year it was full of the same mycelium. So they lived thru heavy tilling and chemical ferts. Microbes, i can not attest.
paradoxlost
Member
I will admit mycelium can survive and if you spread the soil right it can innoculate more area. im thinking that you got to let it age though to get different types of fungi and chemical reactions going.
actinomycetes, nice 
I came up to conclusion that compost can be different from compost and the humus can be a solution if well made. I work in a compost yard where we make agaricus bisporus compost. People around use the spent compost or just leftovers in their gardens, they grow BIG veggies, but they are deficient as they always tell me they are being attacked by mold, bugs etc. Big isnt always good. Good when you sell kg for amount of money. Myself, I am just starting out on a land. Im in a land which needs regeneration after decades of chemical farming, so thats why I am actually here. Mj is illegal so ive been micro growing for 10yrs or so. This plant actually was a cause I made into biology/agri/science in general...and it still leads me in my everyday exploration of wonders nature can provide. Elements that work together...I am also a big fan of permaculture as well.
I came up to conclusion that compost can be different from compost and the humus can be a solution if well made. I work in a compost yard where we make agaricus bisporus compost. People around use the spent compost or just leftovers in their gardens, they grow BIG veggies, but they are deficient as they always tell me they are being attacked by mold, bugs etc. Big isnt always good. Good when you sell kg for amount of money. Myself, I am just starting out on a land. Im in a land which needs regeneration after decades of chemical farming, so thats why I am actually here. Mj is illegal so ive been micro growing for 10yrs or so. This plant actually was a cause I made into biology/agri/science in general...and it still leads me in my everyday exploration of wonders nature can provide. Elements that work together...I am also a big fan of permaculture as well.
HappyTreeFarm
Member
have any suggestions on how to till in large smart pots? example 200 gal. when i ran beds i would use a mantis root tiller. you guys think it is beneficial to turn pots and add amendments after each round? verses top dressing with the amendments my soil test requires. using multi types of worms to aerate the soil and pull the notes down. I totally agree on initial amending being THE WAY
If tilling is required each round there has got to be an easy way. turning thousands of gallons of soil every 4-5 months with a shovel doesn't seem realistic to me. The man reason i like mounds better, but my situation mounds just won't work
plantingplants
Active member
Mendo420 uses a gas-powered auger for huge pots.. I don't have the experience but that seems like the best way I have seen so far..
Certainly it's true that a constant supply of fresh flowers is ideal, but have you seen what most of the outdoor looks like in OR? If most of the local market is producing poor quality flowers and losing half their crop to mold because they don't understand basic soil concepts, then I wouldn't go as far as saying it's bad for a brand. The product will still get sold, especially if you can still produce quality in a shit climate.
I think it was you that first posted here about the lime availability research and how tilling sped up the availability dramatically.
I think fungi are discussed in too broad of terms on this forum. When people are worried about disturbing mycelium, they are worried about mycorrhizal species that have established themselves in native soil. I've seen only anecdotal evidence that cannabis is benefitting from VAM fungi in the soil conditions that we are typically all using (High P). I've personally seen improved cloning in low P medias with the addition of endo inoculants, which leads me to believe the symbiosis is possible. However, I believe people are wasting their money buying those inoculants if they are planting into compost based mixes. If you disagree, dig up some roots from a plant that is growing in a 500ppm+ P media and scope them for arbuscules. Maybe you can prove me wrong.
Moreover, if you're worried about disturbing saprobes, don't. If you've ever grown fungi from grain spawn you'll know you can break up and beat the shit out of it and it will bounce back and colonize whatever you mixed it into. What is all that white growth in your soil after mulching or using a big dose of protein or fat? Saprobes... Eventually you'll get increased humus in your mix but I'll warn against doing it during a crop. I don't think that the fungi will physically harm your plants, but that matted growth running through your media will limit oxygen to the roots.
plantingplants
Active member
Is there a source you could cite? Just from observation, my colonized media gets less water-logged and seems to be more spongy/airy. Not that that means it's not limiting air or nutrients to the roots. I need to learn more about this relationship because I expect my soil to be at least 75% colonized by next year.
SkyHighWormGuy
Member
can someone explain to me why I keep reading people saying that a 1/3 vermicompost in a soil mix is too high?
here is where I come from, ive been growing in a coots mix 1:1:1 spm: wormshit: aeration for years with excellent result in the flavor dept, not great in the vigorous growth or yield department. im looking to make a new mix. I keep reading that a 1/3 humic material is too high or even way too high, but no one explains the reasoning. I understand worm casting can be "heavy" and maybe lead to compaction, but I use enuf aeration (scoria) that water freely drains from my pots and the soil is loose and fluffy.
please help!
I have a soil recipe draft I can post.... once I mix it I can send it to be tested no problem...
edit: here is draft soil mix
SHWG Organic Cannabis Loving Soil Mix version 1.2
base mix
30% scoria
35% SPM (pre-hydrated with aloe water)
25% premium fresh screened vermicompost
5% bio char, charged with compost tea
5% malted barley seed, whole
1). mix well and hydrate with some aloe water if needed
amendments per cubic foot of total soil volume
2 cup fresh chopped comfrey
2 cup glacial rock dust
1 cup oyster shell flour
1 cup gypsum
1 cup kelp meal
1 cup fish meal
2) mix well and hydrate with aloe water
3) put soil into pots
4) plant dutch white clover seed immediately
5) pots ready for cannabis in about a week or two, use the clovers response to the mix to gauge the readiness of the soil mix.
here is where I come from, ive been growing in a coots mix 1:1:1 spm: wormshit: aeration for years with excellent result in the flavor dept, not great in the vigorous growth or yield department. im looking to make a new mix. I keep reading that a 1/3 humic material is too high or even way too high, but no one explains the reasoning. I understand worm casting can be "heavy" and maybe lead to compaction, but I use enuf aeration (scoria) that water freely drains from my pots and the soil is loose and fluffy.
please help!
I have a soil recipe draft I can post.... once I mix it I can send it to be tested no problem...
edit: here is draft soil mix
SHWG Organic Cannabis Loving Soil Mix version 1.2
base mix
30% scoria
35% SPM (pre-hydrated with aloe water)
25% premium fresh screened vermicompost
5% bio char, charged with compost tea
5% malted barley seed, whole
1). mix well and hydrate with some aloe water if needed
amendments per cubic foot of total soil volume
2 cup fresh chopped comfrey
2 cup glacial rock dust
1 cup oyster shell flour
1 cup gypsum
1 cup kelp meal
1 cup fish meal
2) mix well and hydrate with aloe water
3) put soil into pots
4) plant dutch white clover seed immediately
5) pots ready for cannabis in about a week or two, use the clovers response to the mix to gauge the readiness of the soil mix.
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It's just a theory. I've used heavy doses of pacificgro on plants and watched their leaves wilt for a few days afterward. Not severe, but significantly less perky. No indication on the leaf that there was tissue death occurring in the roots though.
Density. If you're using lava it's possible that the pockets of castings in between aren't breathing well enough. Your peat will also get turned into castings after a few grows if your mix came with some eggs, which castings commonly have. In a year or two you'll have a 2/3 vermicompost, 1/3 lava mix that will be much more difficult to grow in. It's doable but you'll have to extend the veg period. In thick medias like that there will be a big difference in growth when the roots fill the pot.
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