10 Gal Pots too small for No Till?

ShLUbY

ShLUbY

Well-Known Member
yes, most everyone on here that i've seen or has done no till says 20 gal or bigger is the way to go. If you think about it.... there just isn't enough room. when you harvest one plant and get ready to put in another.... nearly the whole 10 gal will be a mass of roots. where is the new plant going to grow? I have been using 20 gal fabrics outdoors no till for some of my veggies and herbs and they worked really well. I highly recommend having them on a frame/dolly with castors (wheels) for moving them around if you can. Works wonders at getting air under the pot, no heavy lifting, and prevents compaction of soil from moving. I'll be making the switch to no till later this year, and looking forward to it.
 
Rasta Roy

Rasta Roy

Well-Known Member
I'll put it out there and say I think it's difficult to do water only mixes in anything smaller than a 20 gallon container even. A lot of the stuff we know about no til gardening comes from gardeners working in large beds or the ground itself. The rules are a touch different for container gardening. But by using larger containers we can more accurately emulate what's goes on in a larger garden bed.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
What would u suggest for someone looking to do smaller organic growing? I have seen a lot of people say you can't go smaller then 7 gallons. I want to try a sog with 1 gallon smart pots, rooted clones, very little if any veg time. should I just say F it and go with nutes or can I use teas and worm juice? (Next grow is going to be in 7 gallon smart pots scrogged)
 
GreenSanta

GreenSanta

Well-Known Member
meangreengrowinmachine said:
What would u suggest for someone looking to do smaller organic growing? I have seen a lot of people say you can't go smaller then 7 gallons. I want to try a sog with 1 gallon smart pots, rooted clones, very little if any veg time. should I just say F it and go with nutes or can I use teas and worm juice? (Next grow is going to be in 7 gallon smart pots scrogged)
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I have a few no till SIPs, I like them, I get great yield from them, one is on it's 4th or 5th round and every harvest was as good as it gets for me. But I think I still prefer growing in 7s and 10s. Easier to move the plants around when you do perpetual and also you can get great results in 7s. If I had to chose only one way to grow Id be thorn between no till SIPs versus 7s or 10s. I was going to convert all to SIPs but now that I have 3 of them built I think I m gonna wait to see how many rounds I can do without having to take it apart, inspect the reservoir and stuff.

to answer the OP, 10 gallons will give you great quality comparable to no-till, it all depends on the quality of ingredients/compost that goes into your mix, but can't do no till
 
GreenSanta

GreenSanta

Well-Known Member
meangreengrowinmachine said:
What would u suggest for someone looking to do smaller organic growing? I have seen a lot of people say you can't go smaller then 7 gallons. I want to try a sog with 1 gallon smart pots, rooted clones, very little if any veg time. should I just say F it and go with nutes or can I use teas and worm juice? (Next grow is going to be in 7 gallon smart pots scrogged)
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I would not use less than 3 gallons. Though I dont have a lot of experience with freshly rooted clones. I have personally never used less than 4 gallons (of soil in a 7 gallons pot)

My best yields in 7 gals are with good veg time, a bit of luck, I can get 8 oz with like 5 gallons of soil and 2 gallons of mulch.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
Any links to diy sips that you recommend? I think I'm going to try this last sog run just to get some buds fast. Just popped some c99, iced grapefruit and money maker for the next run so while those are vegging I'll flower these clones and see what I can get.
 
Jp.the.pope

Jp.the.pope

Well-Known Member
GreenSanta said:
I would not use less than 3 gallons. Though I dont have a lot of experience with freshly rooted clones. I have personally never used less than 4 gallons (of soil in a 7 gallons pot)

My best yields in 7 gals are with good veg time, a bit of luck, I can get 8 oz with like 5 gallons of soil and 2 gallons of mulch.
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What kind of mulch?
 
GreenSanta

GreenSanta

Well-Known Member
Jp.the.pope said:
What kind of mulch?
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whatever, just gives somewhere for critters to live in, prevents the upper layer of drying too quick though it really mostly is for the benefits of creating a home for the bugs.

sometimes I use dried comfrey leaves, sometimes fresh, sometimes hay, sometimes woodchips (believe it or not I am getting good results with ramial woodchips as mulch) , sometimes fall leaves .... I really like using the comfrey whenever I can find it because it also feeds my flowering plants beautifully every watering ...

right now there is snow everywhere it sucks so lots of my containers have no mulch... the ones with no mulch get all the fan leaves from deleafing and cleaning the under growth. whether there are bugs on them or not. Nothing ever comes out of the grow room until a plant is ready to harvest.
 
Jp.the.pope

Jp.the.pope

Well-Known Member
GreenSanta said:
whatever, just gives somewhere for critters to live in, prevents the upper layer of drying too quick though it really mostly is for the benefits of creating a home for the bugs.

sometimes I use dried comfrey leaves, sometimes fresh, sometimes hay, sometimes woodchips (believe it or not I am getting good results with ramial woodchips as mulch) , sometimes fall leaves .... I really like using the comfrey whenever I can find it because it also feeds my flowering plants beautifully every watering ...

right now there is snow everywhere it sucks so lots of my containers have no mulch... the ones with no mulch get all the fan leaves from deleafing and cleaning the under growth.
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I was wondering about wood chips myself. Very cool. Comfrey sounds like a winner.
 
GreenSanta

GreenSanta

Well-Known Member
Jp.the.pope said:
I was wondering about wood chips myself. Very cool. Comfrey sounds like a winner.
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you can get really creative with it, sometimes if I can find pure horse manure (not mixed with bedding, fresh is ok, but you won't find many worms the fresher it is there is like a sweet spot around 2 months maybe where it's THICK with worms) I will fill my pot, transplant, a couple cups or more or less of manure, then especially if it's fresh I will then cover that with woodchips or whatever. If the manure is fresh, it gives an awesome supply of food for the worms that -should already be there right? . Anyway, once you realize that all you have to do is keep the bugs happy the plants will be.

Disclaimer *** I do frequently introduce beneficial insects to the grow room, keep that in mind.... because some pests will also love that layer of mulch... so figure out your timing if you do cycles and do preventative sprays it should work fine too but I personally really enjoy growing perpetually and introducing beneficial insects for pest control.
 
Rasta Roy

Rasta Roy

Well-Known Member
meangreengrowinmachine said:
What would u suggest for someone looking to do smaller organic growing? I have seen a lot of people say you can't go smaller then 7 gallons. I want to try a sog with 1 gallon smart pots, rooted clones, very little if any veg time. should I just say F it and go with nutes or can I use teas and worm juice? (Next grow is going to be in 7 gallon smart pots scrogged)
Click to expand...
Three gallons would work better but anything smaller than a 7 gallon pot I would recommend the same. Guano teas are your best friend. Or alfalfa and kelp teas. I would just make your soil even parts aeration/compost/peat moss. 15%worm castings in your mix. Throw in some oyster shell flour or lime for pH buffer. But I wouldn't worry about crazy amendments in containers that small. A simple base organic mix and readily available nutrient teas made with guano or alfalfa would serve you best.
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
Cool the soil I'm using is basically what you have described and cooked up for a few months now... it does have a lot of other amendmentstuff neem seed, crab meal,azomite, kelp, glacial rock dust all that good stuff... I recycle it so maybe I will just not re amend as much next time and then move to large container scrogs.... looking into this SIP stuff as well...
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
I have been lurking on here a lot reading up on recycled living soil and loving the simplicity of it over nutes which I started on long ago.. I still have a shit ton of Fox farms sht I have no idea what to do with lol... recently really reading up on no till and such.. even on a non cannabis side of things as well.
 
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