Recycled Organic Living Soil (ROLS) and No Till Thread

Haha funny u ask,
no im not, i had a total of 7 plants ready but bcuz of my busy schedule and no help, ive been cutting a plant every other day for the last week ir two, finish one plant by myself in a day or so, doesnt help that my pruners are all clumped and sticky as fuck.

As u can see thats one plant about quarters way trimmed, been hanging about 4 days, still havent finished, still have a couple more plants to go.

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On a brighter note, heres a sneak peak on my new upcoming grow with the sg190
yup thats 30 gallons of living soil!

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sorry bad quality pics
 
Here are my 4 Blue Cheese Ladies 21 days in, the 1 gallon ROLS pots they are in each I did not have the time to replenish N with a cover crop. However I did add myco fungi during transplant that has some organic fertilizer in it as well. Initially I ran into issues vegging where I had to add some alfalfa tea which I followed up with some cal/mag and top dressed with Oly Fish Compost. Now these 4 ladies are in flower in their ROLS and I have only added my own EWC as top dress.


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DankSwag'n it!
 
while looking up the differences in peat vs coco coir for soil mixes i came across something interesting for a scholarly article about using almond shells instead of rockwool and etc. thought i would share with you guys see what you thought.

this is the abstract..

This industrial residue is the woody endocarp of the almond fruits. This material is normally incinerated or dumped without control. Almond shell used (100% pure) as growing media can be more ecologically-friendly and less expensive than traditional rockwool since it can be locally produced. Three commercially produced random samples of two different textures and two volumes (19 and 25 L) were evaluated as growing media for soilless production. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of volume and texture and to compare this substrate with rockwool in terms of yield and quality characteristics of fruits in melon and tomato culture. The physical, physico-chemical and chemical properties studied did not differ significantly between both textures. Tomato plants grown in almond shell residue used 21% less water compared to rockwool over the course of production. We found non-limiting in comparison to rockwool for melon and tomato crops in relation to fertigation parameters, water uptake and yield. Significant differences of yield were found when we used the big size, specially in melon crop where commercial yield and soluble solids of plants growing on 25 L bags was higher than that on small one. The results suggested that almond shells seem to be an acceptable growing media as rockwool substitute for soilless vegetable production.
 
mrwood said:
plus, there appears to be a consensus that you need a > 15 gal pot for no till
I run smaller pots, but recycle my soil for future grows. A majority of the guidance on this thread still works for us little guys !
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I have done no-till in 7 gallon containers and it worked out well. The current consensus seems to be 5 gallon and larger per Coot et al
 
hyroot said:
chlorine promotes root growth. It kills microbes. Its a catch 22.
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You sure about that? Chlorine interferes with phosphorus uptake .... and I was always under the impression that phosphorus was essential for new root growth. I'm gonna research this because that would be great if I could just use untreated tap water to root new cuttings.
 
Stow, usually I disagree with Arlo...I mean hyroot :P BUT my straight tap cuttings are beating my aerated sisters every time. I'll take a tally on all 20 (10 of each when I'm done) Oh I forgot to mention the rice hulls do breakdown well in bins. That's some great Silica and my castings are so black n fluffy. I didn't feed them for over a month before harvesting...they won't even look at me anymore.

Hy, you ain't kidding about the kief and finger rub!!! I put some off to the side for a dry and press experiment. Wonder if trichs will bind and press like with the ice wash.
 
Are you ever concerned about ph of your runoff? I just checked my runoff ph and it was 8.7 my soil is composed of:
1 cup Alfalfa Meal
1cup green sand
1 cup crab shells
1 cup Espoma tomato tone
1bag organic chicken crap and veg compost 15lbs
2 5 gal bucket promix
1cup pelleted lime
1 cup kelp 2 tblsp epsom
4 cups azomite
1 5 gal bucket perlite
I added 1 tsp mycorrhizae with molasses in 1 gal containers with RO water (ph 6.8) until all was moist. Let it cook for 3 weeks.

Now my concern is I have plants in 1 gal smart pots and the runoff ph is 8.7, but soil ph is 5.2:-? I am making a tea with runoff with alfalfa meal, mycorrhizae and molasses. should i be concerned about ph levels? Many people have told me to throw my ph testers out the window.
 
Interesting find snow! Coco and peat both have their pros/cons. Why not combine them like stow's trying and get the best of both worlds! I wanted less drainage material, so I went with coco and no peat. It worked well with good humus. Peat is much cheaper for me tho, and it works well when prehydrated. It seems like my coco will take on a similar texture to peat after breaking down. I've heard of people mentioning it before, but my coco castings are very fluffy!
 
forever young said:
Are you ever concerned about ph of your runoff? I just checked my runoff ph and it was 8.7 my soil is composed of:
1 cup Alfalfa Meal
1cup green sand
1 cup crab shells
1 cup Espoma tomato tone
1bag organic chicken crap and veg compost 15lbs
2 5 gal bucket promix
1cup pelleted lime
1 cup kelp 2 tblsp epsom
4 cups azomite
1 5 gal bucket perlite
I added 1 tsp mycorrhizae with molasses in 1 gal containers with RO water (ph 6.8) until all was moist. Let it cook for 3 weeks.

Now my concern is I have plants in 1 gal smart pots and the runoff ph is 8.7, but soil ph is 5.2:-? I am making a tea with runoff with alfalfa meal, mycorrhizae and molasses. should i be concerned about ph levels? Many people have told me to throw my ph testers out the window.
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He another forever.

So first thing that comes in mind is, how or with what are you reading your soil ph?

Your run off ph isnt stable, so this is not a way of testing your soil ph.

If your plants seem happy then dont stress it. Keep the soil alive, enzymes fungi microbes thats what your really growing, the plant grows itself
 
RedCarpetMatches said:
Stow, usually I disagree with Arlo...I mean hyroot :P BUT my straight tap cuttings are beating my aerated sisters every time. I'll take a tally on all 20 (10 of each when I'm done) Oh I forgot to mention the rice hulls do breakdown well in bins. That's some great Silica and my castings are so black n fluffy. I didn't feed them for over a month before harvesting...they won't even look at me anymore.

Hy, you ain't kidding about the kief and finger rub!!! I put some off to the side for a dry and press experiment. Wonder if trichs will bind and press like with the ice wash.
Click to expand...

Gonna look in to the chlorine thingy more. Please update us on your cuttings. I love using coco coir for bedding in my worm bins. The worms seem to dig it too. Currently I am using mostly coco coir, a handful of used soil, a handful of rice hulls, and a handful of shredded cardboard.

forever young said:
Are you ever concerned about ph of your runoff? I just checked my runoff ph and it was 8.7 my soil is composed of:
1 cup Alfalfa Meal
1cup green sand
1 cup crab shells
1 cup Espoma tomato tone
1bag organic chicken crap and veg compost 15lbs
2 5 gal bucket promix
1cup pelleted lime
1 cup kelp 2 tblsp epsom
4 cups azomite
1 5 gal bucket perlite
I added 1 tsp mycorrhizae with molasses in 1 gal containers with RO water (ph 6.8) until all was moist. Let it cook for 3 weeks.

Now my concern is I have plants in 1 gal smart pots and the runoff ph is 8.7, but soil ph is 5.2:-? I am making a tea with runoff with alfalfa meal, mycorrhizae and molasses. should i be concerned about ph levels? Many people have told me to throw my ph testers out the window.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry too much about PH. If you're using a quality source of compost at about 25%-33% of your base then that should buffer your PH just fine. Make sure you are inoculating the soil well and allowing it to sit for 4+ weeks before using. You really don't want to be having runoff when you water. You are essentially flushing your medium of organic amendments and/or microbes by doing this. Saturate the soil, then walk away. Add more water 5-10 minutes later trying to avoid run off. If you're concerned that the PH is too high, you can add more peat to your mix as it is quite acidic.

RedCarpetMatches said:
Interesting find snow! Coco and peat both have their pros/cons. Why not combine them like stow's trying and get the best of both worlds! I wanted less drainage material, so I went with coco and no peat. It worked well with good humus. Peat is much cheaper for me tho, and it works well when prehydrated. It seems like my coco will take on a similar texture to peat after breaking down. I've heard of people mentioning it before, but my coco castings are very fluffy!
Click to expand...

I'm loving the peat/coco combo. VERY happy ladies in this mix.
 
st0wandgrow said:
I used bio char on my last batch of soil, but not the current one I made. PITA to make. Trying to simplify things a bit
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I just put a bunch of sticks in my chimney starter on the Weber. Had the vents mostly closed for about an hour. Wasn't too bad...made a scene tho lol. I seen KIS sells a pound for just $2.50. Guy told me it's not inoculated and very fine n fluffy. I did a little digging, and their source is legit.
 
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