Introduction: No Till, Cycle 1

Hey guys,

New to the organic cannabis and ROLS cannabis growing community, but I do have about 3 years experience growing cannabis the salt/chem fertilizer way. I also have been growing vegetables organically for about 4 years, and just recently decided to make the switch with my smoke as of last year. I grew in raised beds that were tilled and amended every year, so have some experience with ROLS but want to perfect my no-till skills. That's where I'm hoping you all come in.

I've been doing a lot of reading up on One Straw Revolution and have just started reading the ROLS sticky thread here too, taking notes as I go along. As of now I have purchased Master Nursery Bumper Crop compost mix (great shit I have used on my veggies with wonderful success, has a lot of the stuff y'all recommend), Azomite Rock dust, EB Organics Vegetable Food (kelp, blood, bone, and feather meal mix), molasses, fish emulsion, and inoculated Dutch Clover as a living mulch/companion plant. Everything I've used before in my veggie beds (except the clover, I USED to till but have made the switch). I brewed basic teas also with an airstone using the compost and fish/molasses but want to perfect that game as well.

Guess I'm just introducing myself. I made the switch to organic food/non gmo food about a year ago and figured it only makes sense to make the switch with my medicine. Problem is it's really hard and expensive to find quality organic flowers and wax, even in metropolitan Los Angeles where I'm at. So I'm going to grow my own! Wanted to share some pics with you guys as well. I'll be keeping you updated as this grow progresses.

So I got three White Diamond OG clones from a local dispensary and have transplanted and hardened them off for outdoors. It's been about two weeks and this Friday they are going into 7-10 gal Smart Pots with a base soil mix I found here (33% compost, 33% lava rock, 33% coco coir). Gonna throw my Azomite and EB Organics dry meals fertilizer in at appropriate rates with some red wigglers from the veggie bed (got tons since making the switch to no till!) and a Dutch clover under sowing and some straw as an initial mulch.

The ingredients for the Master Nursery Bumper Crop compost I use are: Forest Humus, Chicken Manure, Bark Fines, Rice Hulls, Oyster Shell, Worm Castings, Bat Guano, Kelp Meal, and Endo- & Ecto-mycorrhizae.

The ingredients for the EB Stone Organics Tomato & Vegetable Fertilizer are: Blood meal, feather meal, bone meal, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, chicken manure (dry), bat guano, and potassium sulfate.

Stay tuned for transplant! In on my phone so pics may come in separate posts!

Plant 1:


Plant 2:


Plant 3:


My No Till Veggie Bed - 2nd Cycle
Can you see the clover?!

OrganicSmokeOnly77 said:

Hey guys,

New to the organic cannabis and ROLS cannabis growing community, but I do have about 3 years experience growing cannabis the salt/chem fertilizer way. I also have been growing vegetables organically for about 4 years, and just recently decided to make the switch with my smoke as of last year. I grew in raised beds that were tilled and amended every year, so have some experience with ROLS but want to perfect my no-till skills. That's where I'm hoping you all come in.

I've been doing a lot of reading up on One Straw Revolution and have just started reading the ROLS sticky thread here too, taking notes as I go along. As of now I have purchased Master Nursery Bumper Crop compost mix (great shit I have used on my veggies with wonderful success, has a lot of the stuff y'all recommend), Azomite Rock dust, EB Organics Vegetable Food (kelp, blood, bone, and feather meal mix), molasses, fish emulsion, and inoculated Dutch Clover as a living mulch/companion plant. Everything I've used before in my veggie beds (except the clover, I USED to till but have made the switch). I brewed basic teas also with an airstone using the compost and fish/molasses but want to perfect that game as well.

Guess I'm just introducing myself. I made the switch to organic food/non gmo food about a year ago and figured it only makes sense to make the switch with my medicine. Problem is it's really hard and expensive to find quality organic flowers and wax, even in metropolitan Los Angeles where I'm at. So I'm going to grow my own! Wanted to share some pics with you guys as well. I'll be keeping you updated as this grow progresses.

So I got three White Diamond OG clones from a local dispensary and have transplanted and hardened them off for outdoors. It's been about two weeks and this Friday they are going into 7-10 gal Smart Pots with a base soil mix I found here (33% compost, 33% lava rock, 33% coco coir). Gonna throw my Azomite and EB Organics dry meals fertilizer in at appropriate rates with some red wigglers from the veggie bed (got tons since making the switch to no till!) and a Dutch clover under sowing and some straw as an initial mulch.

The ingredients for the Master Nursery Bumper Crop compost I use are: Forest Humus, Chicken Manure, Bark Fines, Rice Hulls, Oyster Shell, Worm Castings, Bat Guano, Kelp Meal, and Endo- & Ecto-mycorrhizae.

The ingredients for the EB Stone Organics Tomato & Vegetable Fertilizer are: Blood meal, feather meal, bone meal, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, chicken manure (dry), bat guano, and potassium sulfate.

Stay tuned for transplant! In on my phone so pics may come in separate posts!

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welcome to the organic section, my friend.
One thing i'd recommend is putting them in bigger pots, especially in socal, this summer is gonna be a dry one...Plust they'll likely be rootbound by august... outside anyways..
put those ladies in a 12 or 15 at least, maybe bigger.

greasemonkeymann said:

welcome to the organic section, my friend.
One thing i'd recommend is putting them in bigger pots, especially in socal, this summer is gonna be a dry one...Plust they'll likely be rootbound by august... outside anyways..
put those ladies in a 12 or 15 at least, maybe bigger.

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Thank you kind sir! I appreciate the welcome, excited to be here!

And ahh, I'd love to have larger pots but I don't know if I can swing it money wise or space wise! Maybe the 12 gal. Appreciate the wisdom, my friend! And yes, they are gonna be outdoors. Does my soil mix sound ok?

Do you have time to throw a cheap plant from home depot or something in your mix before you put your ladies in there? Never a bad idea to gauge a new mix. I agree with Grease. You might run into problems by having too small of pots.

Congrats on making the switch over to organics!

P-

Pattahabi said:

Do you have time to throw a cheap plant from home depot or something in your mix before you put your ladies in there? Never a bad idea to gauge a new mix. I agree with Grease. You might run into problems by having too small of pots.

Congrats on making the switch over to organics!

P-

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I think I should have some time. I got some veggie seedlings I didn't have room for that can go in pots as a test. Thanks for the idea man! and yea I'm gonna do my best to increase the size, but if not I don't mind it being a test run for now. I'm trying to close escrow on a house currently and don't have a lot of extra funds, or a lot of space at my current house. I'm trying to keep them relatively small in case my new neighbors are prudes, too! I appreciate the insight tho! If it was up to me, they'd go in my raised beds and I'd have trees! lol Thanks for the warm welcome!

OrganicSmokeOnly77 said:

I think I should have some time. I got some veggie seedlings I didn't have room for that can go in pots as a test. Thanks for the idea man! and yea I'm gonna do my best to increase the size, but if not I don't mind it being a test run for now. I'm trying to close escrow on a house currently and don't have a lot of extra funds, or a lot of space at my current house. I'm trying to keep them relatively small in case my new neighbors are prudes, too! I appreciate the insight tho! If it was up to me, they'd go in my raised beds and I'd have trees! lol Thanks for the warm welcome!

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i'd top/train those if you don't want them to be seen over the fence.. they get big man, and from the looks of the space between the nodes that strain is gonna be a tall one.
For a no-till the container is a bit small, sorta hard to do it that way.
bigger is better, pretty much allllll the way across the board on no-till and being outside.
you'll do okk, just be prepared to water them every day, maybe more than once a day too...
It's gonna be a HOT one down there this year. And dry too.
Maybe get a drip system for those... to be safe.

Howdy OrganicSmoke! Everything sounds good so far as the soil goes. While the blood/bone meal will work, I think the general consensus is that slaughterhouse bi products are better left out of the equation. Alfalfa meal, neem seed meal, kelp meal, and crab shell meal are the staples of most ROLS mixes. A liming agent, generous amounts of rock dusts, and a kick ass source of compost will cover all of your bases. If you incorporate all of the above in to your soil it can be a water-only grow. Compost teas, SST's, and nutrient teas can be used, but aren't necessary IMO.

Best of luck with the garden and your new house!

I appreciate all the help guys. This is why I love RIU! You guys are awesome.

StowAndGrow, I can get the kelp and alfalfa no problem. Neem seed oil might be a little hard, but I can probably get it. Same with crab shell. My compost mix has oyster shell, and I usually will throw in crushed egg shell once a year instead of lime. Will that be sufficient instead of the crab meal? And thanks for the well wishes brotha! Respect

And Grease, I have plenty of experience with LST so it looks like you got me convinced. A trained lady in a 15 gal might be where it's at for me. Thanks again bro!

OrganicSmokeOnly77 said:

I think I should have some time. I got some veggie seedlings I didn't have room for that can go in pots as a test. Thanks for the idea man! and yea I'm gonna do my best to increase the size, but if not I don't mind it being a test run for now. I'm trying to close escrow on a house currently and don't have a lot of extra funds, or a lot of space at my current house. I'm trying to keep them relatively small in case my new neighbors are prudes, too! I appreciate the insight tho! If it was up to me, they'd go in my raised beds and I'd have trees! lol Thanks for the warm welcome!

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I think the veggie seedlings would be a great idea! I've made enough mistakes to learn testing it out can save a lot of headaches down the road lol. Like Grease said, they are going to get really big in those pots, so try and top/train/lst/etc. I completely understand the funds. Do what you can for now, and yell if I can help.

Peace!

P-

OrganicSmokeOnly77 said:

StowAndGrow, I can get the kelp and alfalfa no problem. Neem seed oil might be a little hard, but I can probably get it. Same with crab shell. My compost mix has oyster shell, and I usually will throw in crushed egg shell once a year instead of lime. Will that be sufficient instead of the crab meal? And thanks for the well wishes brotha! Respect

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Use what you can source locally. IMO it kind of defeats the purpose of growing organically if you have to ship stuff from all over the globe to make it work. As long as you have a solid source of worm castings/compost, then you will get great results. The reason those four meals are used is because they are effective, and they all serve multiple purposes.

-Alfalfa meal: in addition to being a good source of N, it also contains triacontanol with is a growth hormone.

-Kelp meal: A good source of K, and also brings with it an assortment of minerals

-Neem seed meal: A good source of N, and also is an important part of integrated pest management

-Crab shell meal: Along with the nutrients it provides, it also contains chitin. In short, chitin triggers the plants SAR (systemic auto immune response) and heightens the plants defenses against pests.

The only thing I have shipped is the neem seed meal. I order it from here if you're interested..

http://www.neemresource.com/

I credit neem seed meal and crab shell meal for keeping my garden pest free. It's mind blowing to me how I used to battle bugs on the regular, and now they avoid my garden like the plague. Resistance to pests is one of the main reasons switching to organics has been a good move for me personally.

OrganicSmokeOnly77 said:

I appreciate all the help guys. This is why I love RIU! You guys are awesome.

StowAndGrow, I can get the kelp and alfalfa no problem. Neem seed oil might be a little hard, but I can probably get it. Same with crab shell. My compost mix has oyster shell, and I usually will throw in crushed egg shell once a year instead of lime. Will that be sufficient instead of the crab meal? And thanks for the well wishes brotha! Respect

And Grease, I have plenty of experience with LST so it looks like you got me convinced. A trained lady in a 15 gal might be where it's at for me. Thanks again bro!

Click to expand...

I think you'd do well in a trained 15 gal, just try and fill the container as close to the top as you can to actually get near the 15 gallons of soil, somehow no matter how much I fill the smartpots they end up 3/4 full after a month or so anyways.... but I like my aeration.
Also in case of any confusion, you want neem seed meal, not oil. I mean yeah, you want the oil too, if you need to knock down any pests, but it's the meal that you want. Sorta confusing, as it's called neem cake as well. Also if you can find or substitute half of the neem for karanja meal I've heard it works very well in conjunction with each other. Course you'd have to source that as well..
If you can source shrimp meal, that can sorta sub for the crab meal.
Neem, kelp, crab, alfalfa meals, fish bone meals, all those are AWESOME, but you can grow excellent organic herb without them, so don't beat yourself up or lose any sleep over not getting the perfect ingredients. BUT in L.A. you should be able to get all those fairly easily.

Pattahabi said:

I think the veggie seedlings would be a great idea! I've made enough mistakes to learn testing it out can save a lot of headaches down the road lol. Like Grease said, they are going to get really big in those pots, so try and top/train/lst/etc. I completely understand the funds. Do what you can for now, and yell if I can help.

Peace!

P-

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Thanks my dude! That's exactly what imma do! I'll keep you posted on the results and thanks again for all the help! I'd give you +rep if I could on this iPhone 5, still trying to figure out the site! Peace brotha

st0wandgrow said:

Use what you can source locally. IMO it kind of defeats the purpose of growing organically if you have to ship stuff from all over the globe to make it work. As long as you have a solid source of worm castings/compost, then you will get great results. The reason those four meals are used is because they are effective, and they all serve multiple purposes.

-Alfalfa meal: in addition to being a good source of N, it also contains triacontanol with is a growth hormone.

-Kelp meal: A good source of K, and also brings with it an assortment of minerals

-Neem seed meal: A good source of N, and also is an important part of integrated pest management

-Crab shell meal: Along with the nutrients it provides, it also contains chitin. In short, chitin triggers the plants SAR (systemic auto immune response) and heightens the plants defenses against pests.

The only thing I have shipped is the neem seed meal. I order it from here if you're interested..

http://www.neemresource.com/

I credit neem seed meal and crab shell meal for keeping my garden pest free. It's mind blowing to me how I used to battle bugs on the regular, and now they avoid my garden like the plague. Resistance to pests is one of the main reasons switching to organics has been a good move for me personally.

Click to expand...

I agree about the sourcing and definitely appreciate the info on the different meals! Sounds like things I definitely want in my mix! I am all about IPM too and it looks like you found the jackpot! Imma check out that neemsource website and get me some. How much do you think I'll need for 6-7 cuff of soil mix?

greasemonkeymann said:

I think you'd do well in a trained 15 gal, just try and fill the container as close to the top as you can to actually get near the 15 gallons of soil, somehow no matter how much I fill the smartpots they end up 3/4 full after a month or so anyways.... but I like my aeration.
Also in case of any confusion, you want neem seed meal, not oil. I mean yeah, you want the oil too, if you need to knock down any pests, but it's the meal that you want. Sorta confusing, as it's called neem cake as well. Also if you can find or substitute half of the neem for karanja meal I've heard it works very well in conjunction with each other. Course you'd have to source that as well..
If you can source shrimp meal, that can sorta sub for the crab meal.
Neem, kelp, crab, alfalfa meals, fish bone meals, all those are AWESOME, but you can grow excellent organic herb without them, so don't beat yourself up or lose any sleep over not getting the perfect ingredients. BUT in L.A. you should be able to get all those fairly easily.

Click to expand...

Yea I wrote oil by mistake! I've used the oil before though as a spray and may still have some, but 10-4 on getting the neem meal or cake! I'll keep an eye out for the karanja too. Making a trip to the local nurseries this Friday and imma see what I can find! Won't stress too much either about what I can get either, I'm trying to keep this as easy as possible. My veggie bed is set on in-ground irrigation and all I am trying to do is add compost every few months along with some dry meals, some Azomite once a year, and plant. I'm looking for the same type of deal with my smoke! Haha Thanks again man you've been a big help!

What's going on RIU! Been reading around a lot and have to say I am learning a lot. Thanks again to all the pros out there sharing their knowledge.

Every 10 days I'm going to post an update on the girls in this thread. Do here goes entry 1, May 16, 2015. They have since taken off! I mean just really putting on growth. I grabbed a few #1 pots, placed some lava rock and compost on the bottom, then back filled the rest with FF Happy Frog and some EB Stone dry tomato fert. I also brewed a fish emulsion/compost tea and gave that to them as a foliar and a drench to boost the benny populations and give em a quick boost of N. They loved it man and reach for the sky every day! They're also putting on that darker green I'm looking for in my girls. Gotta love organics!



I also mixed the soil for my three grow bags and amended it with two cups of EB Stone Organic fert and the rest of my Azomite, which was also two cups. I mixed up 2 cu ft of my favorite organic compost blend, 1.5 cu ft of peat moss, and 1 cu ft of lava rock on a tarp and below is what I got. Filled the three 10 gal grow bags I bought, with handles, and sowed a layer of clover. I wanted to run 15 gal man, I really did, but when I showed my wife the size of those things, she laughed in my face and just flat out said no. Lol Her parents are super conservative and if they ever saw them they might disown her haha not really but yea so we both agreed to a size I could more easily hide with a sheet or something and am expecting some good results! Going to let that cook for about four weeks and boom, I'm off and running!



You think 2 cups of the EB stone was enough to get me to harvest? Probably not right? My last box ran empty, so I figured I'd just buy more and replenish it every so often. Anyway, any input is welcome! I have a few more pics to post too. Thanks RIU!

More pics of the bags and the clover. It rained the past two days here and water from my roof fell in a straight line across the bag and pushed some of the seeds too far down, hence the hay strip. I layed down some more clover seed and mulched it so they can sprout. I also went out into the rain and found about 10 worms that I just threw right into the bags, figuring they'd enjoy their new home full of organic matter! And finally the last picture is of my test subject, a pepperoncini pepper plant that I transplanted the same day I mixed the soil. Thanks to Pattahabi for the idea! It seems a little beat but it's actually doing better than it was in its solo cup and is getting ready to flower. Expecting good results there too! Haha Happy smokin!

Looking great chief! If you're planning on recycling the soil you might want to add some rock dusts in to the mix. The azomite is fine, but you should use it sparingly and not rely solely on that to supply your minerals.

The minerals take a while to break down so you won't really reap the benefits of it until until the 2'nd or 3'rd generation of your soil.

st0wandgrow said:

Looking great chief! If you're planning on recycling the soil you might want to add some rock dusts in to the mix. The azomite is fine, but you should use it sparingly and not rely solely on that to supply your minerals.

The minerals take a while to break down so you won't really reap the benefits of it until until the 2'nd or 3'rd generation of your soil.

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Got ya man, thank you. I definitely plan on recycling these bad boys! What do you recommend? I think I can get glacial rock dust at Amazon, and my nursery might have some other brand. Azomite is one type of rock dust right? So you suggest mixing a few types, correct? Makes sense, broader spectrum of trace minerals I'm assuming. Thanks again!

OrganicSmokeOnly77 said:

Got ya man, thank you. I definitely plan on recycling these bad boys! What do you recommend? I think I can get glacial rock dust at Amazon, and my nursery might have some other brand. Azomite is one type of rock dust right? So you suggest mixing a few types, correct? Makes sense, broader spectrum of trace minerals I'm assuming. Thanks again!

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A lot of people use basalt and granite, myself included. I also add azomite and gypsum usually. Glacial rock dust is great too. Try to source it locally if you can. Rock quarry's are a good spot, and they will some times hook you up for free as its just a bi product of their business.

If you have to order it online check out www.Rockdustlocal.com. I ordered from them a couple times before stumbling upon a rock quarry near my house.

OrganicSmokeOnly77 said:

Got ya man, thank you. I definitely plan on recycling these bad boys! What do you recommend? I think I can get glacial rock dust at Amazon, and my nursery might have some other brand. Azomite is one type of rock dust right? So you suggest mixing a few types, correct? Makes sense, broader spectrum of trace minerals I'm assuming. Thanks again!

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for re-using, i would use greensand, and langbeinite for a portion of your minerals, as well as oyster flour.
Biochar, fish bone meal, and a good compost are highly recommended for re-using.
Collect tree leaves for this yr, and start a leaf compost pile, you'll be glad you did, a good compost and/or a good wormbin are absolutely something i would never go without.