The capabilities of a simple soil (Outdoor edition)

I've been working on a project since mid-June that's been keeping me pretty busy. Had a blast with my last journal, and I've been realizing that I was much more organized when I had a journal on here as opposed to the multiple notebooks I've been using.

As always, my goal is to show how simple and affordable it is to cultivate plants in a living soil. There is a lot of poor information out there concerning not just "organic" growing, but plants in general.

Many "organic" websites thrive on ignorance. I feel that living soil is widely misunderstood, mistakenly associated with "organic" and as a result is sometimes viewed as "difficult and obscure". The reality is that this is the way things were designed to be. Building a soil shouldn't cost hundreds of dollars, and neither should maintaining it or anything else.

Here's what I got started on for pennies on the dollar.

6/20



9/12



9/24



















I have been using this product (https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kellogg-3-cu-ft-Organic-Garden-Soil/3026867) for the past 1.5 years now, amazing stuff if your native dirt is sandy like mine.

$9 for 3 cuft of composted forest products, chicken manure, guano, castings, and kelp meal. Literally cheaper than peat moss, its insane. Just dig up some of your native dirt and mix it with this stuff and you have cheap and effective soil.

Soil

5 3 cuft bales of Kellogg (112.5g) = $45
1 4 cuft bag of perlite (30g) = $25
8 cu ft native dirt/sand (60g)

$70 for 1 cubic YARD (27 cuft/202.5g) of soil, about as cheap as it gets. That same $70 will only get you 4-6 bags of soil at your local hydro store.

Nutrients

Veg

I don't buy anything for veg nutes anymore. I drink coffee, so I have a shit ton of coffee grounds readily available at any time. I also haven't pissed in a toilet for over a year now. I either piss into a bottle and dilute it with water for a boost of N for the plants, or I piss on the compost pile to help break things down in very short order.

Literally zero reason to buy Nitrogen when we literally piss it for free.

The only thing I spend money on during veg now is Coconut water, one 16.9oz bottle per gallon of water. No more Neem Meal, no more Fish Emulsion, just coffee grounds and piss. I do use a little of whatever flower blend (4-8-4 or 4-6-3) in combination with the grounds and urine. Veg is handled for damn near free now.

Flower

Just as simple, I run whatever blend of bloom blend products happens to be on sale. I like Down to Earth's 4-8-4 Rose formula, or Dr. Earth's 4-6-3 Tomato and Herb formula. However, my local hardware store has a 4-8-3 bag of G&B fertilizer, 12 lbs for $17 as opposed to $15 for 4 lbs. I tend to use that as often as I can, 3 times the product for a couple bucks extra.

I top dress weekly with this stuff in flower, every 2-4 weeks in veg.




The only things I buy on a consistent basis are the organic bloom blends, TM-7, spinosad, silica, and coconut water. Extremely cheap.

Pest control is rotations of Spinosad and Habanero Pepper spray in combination with companion plants and the predator bugs that have taken residence here.


Each of the holes the plants are in are only 2 cuft (15 gallons). I only need and use 15 gallons of soil to grow plants even larger than this.

My native dirt here is sand, once a plant fills the soil I make and becomes a 15 gallon sized root ball, it can easily penetrate the sand and continue to grow roots through it. I get massive 50+ gallon sized root balls with only 15 gallons of soil, saving me even more money.

I started doing this in 2019, as I had an epiphany when I was staring at the desert across the street littered with various bushes, cacti, and mesquite trees. I was zoning out and staring at the plant life in the desert, wondering how they manage to even survive out there. I got my answer during monsoon season, where the rainfall is capable of making literal rivers and lakes, only for it to completely disappear within 24 hours.

I theorized that all of that water follows the path of least resistance underground in the sand, so there's likely somewhere underground where the water completely pools for the plant's roots to intake water. My property even has a well on it, so clearly there's water pooling underground on a massive scale if wells can be dug in the middle of the desert.

So, I had a theory. "What if I only use enough soil to create a root mass that is strong enough to penetrate the sand and grow outside of the soil and into the sand like the cacti and trees?"

I dug a ~2 cuft hole in the ground and filled it with the soil I made and planted my weed plants in them in April. The plants got to be the size of my roof. Not only did the taproot continue to grow outside of the 15g of soil, but the roots even spread out the sides. I had massive rootballs with only 15g of soil.

No, not only did I prove my theory as correct but I also learned more than just that. A "living soil" isn't restricted to soil that we make, everything happens around the rhizosphere as we already know. The rhizosphere exists wherever roots are, be it soil or sand. Once rootballs get to a certain point, it becomes a waste to keep using soil. We only need enough soil to establish roots that are strong enough to penetrate and grow into our native dirts.

Since then, I've only used 15 gallons of soil. The holes are in fact no-till, simply planting new plants into the holes/beds without messing with the soil.




I now finally have a veg/mother room after so many years without one, I'm finally able to run things consistently. For all plants, not just the weed!

Strains I'm growing now are Bruce Banner #3, BB #5, Zkittlz, and a finicky Banana sativa. Purple Wreck and LA Con will be added to the list once their respective mothers get large enough to clone consistently.

Veggies I've got going right now are tons of different tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, cucumbers, various greens and herbs, and some jelly melons. Peas and green bean seeds will be sown within the week.

I have some banana tree starts and some 2 year old blackberry and raspberry canes that should be here in another week or so. They'll stay indoors in my veg room until around Feb-March, then go outside.

The idea is to attempt to create a mini-oasis microclimate within my backyard. I'm pretty stoked about how well things look in only 3 months time, and can't wait to see how things look back here this same time next year.

I plan on keeping this thread going indefinitely, just like the garden. The last time I did this there was some solid discussion and it was unbelievably simple for me to just look at my thread and look back for information instead of flipping through notebook after notebook.

Thanks for taking a look. Gonna be awesome to look back on these photos in another year or so.

Regards.

Here's how they all look individually.

















These next photos are from the 2019 grow I was talking about earlier, this is exactly why I start outdoors in June now instead of April.

6/18/19



06/25/19



08/11/19





As you can see, they outgrew the greenhouse at such a tremendous pace I pretty much had to tear the damn thing down because it became useless.

Believe it or not, there's only 5 plants in the photos above. Even with all of the topping and training, they still grew to be 8-9 ft tall. The screens and greenhouse got useless pretty damn quick.

As much as I love growing trees, I value discretion much more. Hard to be discreet with trees popping up all obvious as fuck. The growth honestly caught me off guard. Never had plants get so huge when I was in Southern California.

You can see why I start just before the June solstice now. Instead of starting in April and ending in October, I'll just do a light dep from April-June, then a normal outdoor from June-October. So much more manageable this way, and discreet too.

Took a trip to my city's woodchip pile to score some more free mulch.






Highly recommend looking into whether or not your city/town has something like this, I'd be willing to bet they do. Can't beat free. Used them to fully cover the beds/holes with a 4-6 inch layer of mulch. They also make for a very welcome input to my compost pile, while I have 3 mesquite trees, they don't produce nearly this much.









Already looks better. I've been in the process of culling plants, as this is my first time taking anything non-marijuana related seriously. Lots of room for improvement, but the cheap soil sure has performed well.

Everything was started indoors in August, so I'm pretty stoked with what I've got so far. Going to over-winter whatever I don't cull and look forward to an amazing spring.

Only exception to this would be a bell pepper start I planted out here back in June. Damn thing actually survived the summer, and has been produced over a dozen small peppers for me in this past week. I've harvested/pruned off all the peppers on the plant, now that things are consistently below 95F I'm hopeful I'll finally get some properly sized peppers!

Supposed to be getting my trellises tomorrow, so those will be put to use first thing. As you can see, those poor tomato plants have needed them for a while now. I certainly underestimated their growth.

My Purple Tomatillo plants got pollinated too, and I've got lots of blooms on them from the looks of it. Its incredible to see how everything is responding now that it isn't triple digit temps anymore.

I set up a dedicated veg room a few weeks back, and this is really what is going to be game changing for me in terms of consistency and results. This is the same 8x8 tent and Double Ended light that I used last time I had a journal going. Its running at the full 1000w right now, for veg it easily covers a 6x8 sqft area.

When my state was purely medical, I was still hesitant to do outdoors, even with caregiver licenses to grow dozens of plants. The sudden shift to recreational has made me feel much more at ease about having mothers and clones.






Eventually, 6 of those 2g pots will become mothers. They will stay indoors and have their own section. The other 2g pots are what I'll be burying outside once I harvest my current plants in another 2-4 weeks.

Got some other pepper and tomato starts in the cups and cells, some will stay in here over the winter, and others I will attempt to overwinter outdoors.

Got some strawberry plants in solo cups that I'm going to see what happens with. Hoping some of them turn out well enough to put outside in March.

Once I realized I could get a cubic yard of soil for $70, I went all out. Have tons of living soil ready to go, and I'm going to plant what I think sounds good and see what happens.

Busy few days. Not surprisingly, things pile up quickly as one scales up. Finally got my raspberries and blackberry plants. Once they've finished settling from the transplant, they'll be going into the veg room.

At the recommendation of the seller, I'm attempting to clone the raspberries. You can legit cut off an older more established root and plant it into a solo cup, and eventually it's supposed to become its own plant. If even one of them thrives, I'll be stoked. These will stay in the house for a few days. Avoiding full sunlight was heavily emphasized, so I figured that also meant DE lights too. Better safe than sorry. These will be hanging out in the veg room all winter and planted next March.



Got my cages too and been installing them. So much better now. And lots of empty space to work with now.





This bed is pretty empty, had quite a bit of cantaloupe volunteers that sprouted in it when I first made the bed. I just let them be since it was too hot to plant anything else at the time.







Now that I can finally see just how much real estate is free in the beds, I'll be going with broccoli, carrots, radishes, beans, peas and greens to fill up the rest of the space.

I plan on culling out some of the pepper plants and replace them with something mentioned above. Its noticeable what isn't performing like the others. I can always try again with them in the spring with new plants I'll start in the veg room over winter. Do not want any real estate in the garden going to waste, be it empty or a plant not performing.

Having planted the tomato and pepper seedlings outside in mid-August, I'm not expecting too much fruit from them due to their size and youth. However, I'll be heavily rewarded in the spring if I can over winter them.

Maintenance is the same its always been. Watering, fertilizing, pruning/training, and pest control. I'm going through one 4lb bag of Dr Earth every month, 2 bags very soon. So, $30/mo. Pest control is spinosad and habaneros. $12 bottle lasts months, peppers probably $6/mo with how little I buy for the spray. Have peppers of my own soon to eliminate that negligible expense. So, $40-$50/mo is about what I'm spending to maintain all of these beds. Being on a well certainly helps.

That about does it for the non-medical side of the garden.

Now, onto the medical side of the garden.

Pretty standard here, not much really to be done except for wait. Definitely stoked I was able to get clones of these plants, I'll definitely be keeping moms. They didn't just survive out here in the summer, they loved every bit of it. Definitely keepers for sure. The 4 big plants are from a 10 pack of Bruce Banner seeds I got earlier this year. Was doubtful of their authenticity, but the smells, growth, and harvest times do seem to share traits with Bruce Banner #3 and #5. Time will tell. Regardless, it survives out here, so I'll keep them going lol

The tiny weed plant in the largest raised bed of mine is a freebie seed I got called "Maltezers" from G13. Only freebie that popped, but wow. It has this skittles candy smell to it, and not only did it survive in the brutal heat out here also, but it is one of the easiest strains I've ever cloned in my life. Little freebie is looking like it'll prove to be quite the blessing.

Whenever these current plants are done, I've got clones of more of the above strains vegging now ready to take their place in the ground. More smaller plants with tiny spacing this time.

The one on the far right looks like its starting to get itself ready. The rest are looking like they'll go to the end of the month.




















Same routine as the non-medical garden gets. Mulch, proper watering, pruning, fertilizing, and pest control.



The soil and maintenance here is low cost, and simple. Those big plants are only in 2 cuft (15g) of the soil I made, the roots happily grow out of the soil I make and into the sand. I get all the rootmass, but without having to use so much soil.

Never ending. Total blessing, but still busy nonetheless.

Most of the plants have been chopped, I've been swamped dealing with harvesting and processing said plants.

1 is hanging and waiting to be trimmed after I finish this post, the others are long since in jars.










Been spending all day removing fan leaves from the remaining plants in the garden. Those leaves will be turned into an FPJ juice, and I'll wait until they're ready to pull to harvest.




Raspberries and blackberries don't seem to like the new environment, but they don't appear to be dead. The blackberries seem to have new shoots coming out of them, the raspberries haven't done much of anything but don't appear dead. Gonna keep my eyes on them and see what happens, hard to kill raspberries from what I've heard.

Can get a rough idea of the 8-12 plants that are about ready to go outdoors. I have more clones than I know what to do with, in another week, 6-8 of those plants will be in the ground, and the others will be allowed to grow in the veg tent.

Its been well over a decade since I've had a dedicated veg room, so there's certainly a learning curve to be regained in terms of cycling plants, but I'm getting back into the groove.


My DE light actually died last week too, so these plants were actually only under floros for the past week or so because of my ballast dying. Got a new ballast/fixture, and everything is back on track. Though, I did have some casualties. I lost 3 of the plants in 2g pots, and I lost 6 solo cups worth of clones. Sad, but it is what it is. I'd rather find out that plants are finicky/unviable in cloning stage as opposed to discovering that in flower.

As you can see, finally I have plant count on my side, so its no crisis to cull plants as I'm used to.



Banana trees and strawberries seem to be doing okay. Its only October now, they have until late Feb-early March until its time for them to go outdoors, but for the time being, I'm satisfied with what I'm seeing from them.



I'm getting pretty minimal fruits from the vegetable side of the garden, makes sense, because temps are much colder this time of year than they usually are. Daytime temps are 75-85F, but the problem is that night time temps are 55-65F, so that's obviously causing many issues.

I'll be culling some of the tomato and pepper plants in favor of replacing them with various brassicas (brusselsprouts, broccoli, etc.), as well as various greens that prefer these temps.

Sure, I'll be overwintering some of the tomato and pepper plants that look good, but many things will be culled in favor of plants that will actually produce in these next few months. I have a veg room now, I can always get new starts going anytime I want to.



All in all, things are pretty standard from what I can see. I'm not getting much growth outdoors, but this is the first time in a few years that I've taken outdoor gardening seriously. It's going to take months, if not years, to establish a soil web underneath the square footage of my property. All I can do is stick along for the ride, and facilitate the plant's/soil's needs.

Non-medical plant side will likely remain uneventful until spring, with the exception of the winter vegetables of course. Everything else will have its moment in the sun come spring time.

Can't expect miracles in Arizona dirt and Arizona sun/temps, but all in all I'm pretty pleased with the results I'm getting. Once the garden becomes more established throughout the months, I have every reason to believe I'll have a wonderful and busy spring on my hands.

In the grand scheme of things, my results are pretty mediocre. But this is to be expected in a newly established garden in the middle of the desert, it takes time for the life in the soil to establish itself.

Ultimately? Even if these plants outdoors don't succeed this season, they will next season, as nothing has ever "worked" the soil in my yard until this point.

Time and patience. I still don't have a single tomato. Discouraging right? Well, that's my climate. Days are too hot, and nights are perfect. Now that days are perfect, nights are too cold. Rather than fighting my climate/environment, I will be going WITH it and making adjustments where I can. Once I get the hoop houses set up over beds/rows, I should have better results.

Even if nothing happens? No harm, no foul. This entire venture cost me next to nothing at all, so even if everything fails, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Things were certainly easier and simpler in Southern California, that's for sure. The low desert of Arizona has certainly been a learning curve, but it's been just as education as it has been humbling.

Fact is, fuck the weed. Food is a blessing, and how frightening would it be to go to the store and have no access to food? In this day and age, now more than ever is it important to learn how to grow and produce our own food supply. I can't recommend to everyone enough that everyone take their knowledge toward growing their own medicine/weed, and apply that to growing their own food supply. This way, empty shelves do not effect you, because you not only have your own food supply, but will likely have such an abundance that you can share with your community.

As always, sorry for the book, they just kind of happen. I'm still here though, I've just been swamped with trimming pounds of weed and haven't been able to find the time to reply. In fact, being honest, this post is actually the result of procrastination on my part, I still have cannabis plants that need to be processed, as well as edibles that need to be made.

Is anything I'm doing super amazing? Not really. But not only does it work, its cheap too. Again, fuck the weed, create your own source of food.

After all, don't have to spend money on food when you're producing it yourself right? Though, you kind of have to like salads for this to be viable, but still! Fresh greens and produce, mixed with the right vinegar and some olive oil? Only thing I need is some chickens, but I've always told myself I won't get chickens until I can find a way to feed them the same way I feed myself. One step at a time!

Damn. Man after my own heart. Im still indoors but in raised beds. I felt this whole post in my weed soul. My beds cost me at best 200 bucks every 3 years. I pull 3-4 harvests a year out of them. Local nursery had all the materials I ever need. I am lazy and buy the 44 lb bag of Craft blend every 3 years From build a soil. Then its just cover crop seed. Egg shell, coffee grounds. I dont pee on my beds. I do pee on the compost pile outside however.

I do however have to disagree with you on one thing. Your results are not Mediocre. For what your starting material was, budget used, and end product. Mediocre is not accurate. Those are good results. Next year will be great results and the year after that will be outstanding results.
Are you going to plant any cover crops between harvests?

m4s73r said:

Damn. Man after my own heart. Im still indoors but in raised beds. I felt this whole post in my weed soul. My beds cost me at best 200 bucks every 3 years. I pull 3-4 harvests a year out of them. Local nursery had all the materials I ever need. I am lazy and buy the 44 lb bag of Craft blend every 3 years From build a soil. Then its just cover crop seed. Egg shell, coffee grounds. I dont pee on my beds. I do pee on the compost pile outside however.

I do however have to disagree with you on one thing. Your results are not Mediocre. For what your starting material was, budget used, and end product. Mediocre is not accurate. Those are good results. Next year will be great results and the year after that will be outstanding results.
Are you going to plant any cover crops between harvests?

Click to expand...

Hey man, thanks for the kind words, very much appreciated.

$200 every 3 years is incredible dude! Why I encourage others to grow, if only everyone knew it was this simple and affordable! $200 divided by how many pounds you harvest in 3 years? Shit, even just ONE year! Not to mention the personal satisfaction the hobby blesses us with. To say you're doing well would be an understatement for sure.

Funny thing is, don't you think your homegrown is best compared to dispensaries? Is it just me? Many dispensaries have weed that smells and sometimes even tastes good, but it feels like it doesn't get you high. Meanwhile, I can think of shitty harvests I've had that get me more stoned, despite tasting and smelling like shit.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the dispensary industry is no different than the produce industry; the product is harvested under-ripe, sprayed with terpenes, and put in a jar with percentages that are verifiable and accountable to no one. This trend has intensified since recreational. I've had some medical weed (and black market/homegrown) that was down right art, it was that memorable and amazing. I feel like there isn't that much weed in the market that elicits the same reaction.

Thanks for stopping in.



I absolutely adore how cheap and simple this whole process is, and I make sure to distribute the information just as freely as I myself have received it. My hope is that people will realize just how simple growing weed is this way, that it'll inspire them to start producing their own food using the same methods. Imagine if everyone had some sort of food growing in their backyard, be it a single tomato plant or rows of them. If we all collectively started growing our own food, the agriculture industry would have a revolution overnight and that isn't even an exaggeration IMO.

The bulk of the soil in these photos hasn't "developed" very much, as these beds were built and filled in July. Stoked with the results I have now, but as you said, next year the results will be insane due to how much the soil web has developed.

As for the cover crops, my plan is to continuously have things planted so the soil is constantly being filled and worked, but with things I'll actually eat. Ideally, of course. In fact, I'm currently in the process of sprouting green beans, brussels sprouts, radishes, carrots, and broccoli in the majority of the empty space that has been pictured. I'm about half way there. I don't really have much of a preference, whatever pops up and starts flourishing is what will stay there

The empty weed holes will be filled with clones in 2g pots in my veg room in another week or so, so they won't be empty for very long. The plan is to always have something growing in the soil, regardless of what it is. I'm actually in the process of getting "rows" going in the medical area of the garden. The "rows" are just going to be holes in the ground, dug in "rows", and I'll be connecting all of the holes with mulch I get from my local dump. Going to attempt to grow through the winter out here using hoops and smaller plants, be interesting to see what strains make it through the winter.

Much like there are spring, summer, fall, and winter crops, the same is true of weed. Once my mothers are established, I'll be able to grow my strains on a seasonal level. Definitely not like SoCal where you could throw anything outside at any time, that's for sure.

Most of the medical side of the garden is down now, only one plant left to harvest.






Not too bad for outdoor, living soil triumphs again.

I would have liked to have kept the others going for another week or so, but we had insane winds that put a damper on that. 50+ mph winds.



That's what the winds did to them, had to harvest the plant on the left. While the plant itself wasn't too harmed, as you'll notice, the buds bunched together after the winds and wouldn't budge. Had to chop, not about to risk issues.






Very pleased with these results so far, considering this is the first "run" for any of this soil. Next year will be lovely.


I yanked up the stalk of one of the smaller plants I harvested to take a look at the roots and how they'd formed in my holes.





Hard to get photos that did these justice, the roots on some of these made it all the way over to where the bell pepper is growing, not to mention much deeper than the initial hole I dug for them. And for plants started in late June. Remarkable.

Typically, its best to simply leave the plant be, cut it down to a single stump and plant right next to it. Problem is, that becomes difficult in 1+ gallon sized containers. Yanking from the stem yanks out just enough of the roots to fill a ~5g transplant, while leaving the smaller roots detached in the ground below to decompose. Pretty much all there is to the medical side outdoors.


Here's how the veg room is looking as of 2 days ago.




The 2g pots in the middle are finally starting to grow pretty decently now. I've been topping and cloning them like a madman, 1-3 clones from each of those plants. Doesn't look like much growth, but considering I spent a solid 2 weeks topping/cloning any top they produced, they look pretty good.

The 2-3g pots without cups in them are all clones taken from the original plants. 4 of them will be set to the side and turned into mothers; 1 Purple Wreck, 1 Banana Sativa, and 2 Zkittlez. 8-10 of these plants will be going outdoors for an attempt at growing through the winter in hoops out here. They go outside when they're 1-1.5ft tall, around the end of the month I'm hoping.

Pots with the solo cups in them, and all 5g pots were from solo cups. Got those transplanted a few days ago and they seem to have taken quite nicely to it. They're mostly branches from the outdoor plants I just harvested, 2 different phenos of Bruce Banner seeds I got. They got cloned when I did my final prune, and it's been pretty stressful for them for a while.

They did quite well considering the abuse they went through in the summer, definitely keeping that strain around until something else pops up.

The berry plants haven't really done much, but they haven't died at least haha. Blackberries do look like they're growing new shoots, and I saw what I believe might be a cane growing from one of the raspberries. We'll see I suppose, they have until late Feb until they're going outdoors. I figured it'd take months for them to do much of anything, so them not being dead is good for me

Banana trees are looking pretty good as well, I'll take photos tomorrow. Once they fill the solo cups, they'll be off in their own 5g pots until late Feb as well.

As for the non-medical side.

Vegetables are finally starting to show some action! Finally, daytime temps are good enough for them. Night time temps have dipped below 50F some nights, but are above 60F for the most part. Should see some producing for another 4 weeks or so until it starts to stay below 60F consistently.





Some more bell peppers coming in, hoping these fill out more than the last batch.



Some lima beans coming in now too it looks like.



Some new cucumber sprouts I'll be trellising on the fence for privacy purposes, and cucumbers See what happens, if nothing else, I get more seeds to try again.





Purple tomatillo plant on the right exploded over night. Super stoked, gonna make for some cool salsas.




Strawberries are looking meh, but alive. All the berries seem to be struggling specifically, may need to pH some water for them and water them separately from the rest. I still need to learn more about that. They're alive though, and so are the bananas

Plan to plant banana trees for shade in the backyard. That way, even if they don't produce fruits, I'll have extra shade come next summer.




First batch of tomatoes finally popped up, I'm thrilled. A sign of good things to come. These are Atomic Grape tomatoes, thought they looked neat so figured why not give them a try.

Been quite busy indeed with this project going on, its been damn near full-time already, so it'll definitely get busier as the years go by. I'm looking forward to it.

As usual, thanks for stopping in!

Little touch up of this bed in the front of my home. Pretty much just dug holes and filled them with a blend of the soil mix pictured, and some of the EWC I harvested. Covered in woodchips, and ready to fill with broccoli and/or brusell sprouts. Depends on what does best.

The bricks were already arranged like this when we moved in, and digging the dirt confirmed that someone did in fact grow something in this premade bed. Should be promising. Spent $30 on those bags of soil (ouch!), but as I'm sure you're aware, products are scarce and increased in price. Those bags went from $9 to $15, insane. Haven't seen a 3 cuft bale of peat either in months now at my local stores, only 1 cuft. Perlite is pretty much impossible to find.

If I didn't recycle my materials from all of my previous grows, and if my natural dirt didn't have such great drainage on its own, I'd definitely be fucked.



Pulled some tomatillos today, didn't realize just how much had produced until it was time to harvest them. These bad boys got turned into pork chili verde.

The flavor was mild, truth be told. However, that's typical for the first fruits. Fact is, despite the flavor of these being mild, they were comparable with the taste of grocery store tomatillos. Can't wait to see what the larger ones taste like. For the time being, I'm just so thankful and happy that I finally harvested enough of something that I can base a meal off of it.

Much like with weed, its all about genetics. If you're looking into growing vegetables, I urge you to consider this. You pay top dollar from specific websites to buy weed seeds, right? Vegetables are the same.

Baker Creek is where I got my vegetable seeds, and I cannot recommend them enough. Quality heirloom seeds. Trust me, every other plant is like weed. Get good genetics. Don't waste time fucking with store bought plants/seeds, just like one wouldn't for weed, right?


I've made many attempts before growing food, either from seeds from food I buy, or seeds/plants from stores. I never had good results, the genetics were just shit.


Veg room is looking pretty damn good today. Just hit them with another top dress and watered them. Finally they look like they're doing well. Some of these poor things have suffered since late July, combined with topping/cloning to boot.








As I pointed out previously, the plants in the middle without solo cups in them will be going outside before/on November 1st. The 8 that are doing the best will make up the first "row" that I'll be making in the coming weeks.

I will be attempting to grow during my climate's harsh winters. Ideally, my plants/rows would have been established a week ago, so they would be harvested just prior to the coldest conditions.

As usual, thanks for stopping in.

Lots of stuff going on, this is a very small space but this has quickly become a part-time job.

Veg room photos from yesterday.




Looking on schedule for my 11/1 deadline to have some of these 2g pots outdoors. They're a bit small still, price I paid taking as many clones as I did.

I don't really wanting these to get too huge anyway, they'll all be under hoops for 10-12 hours at a time, so I want them to be small enough to fit once they're finished flowering. The plan is to bundle batches of 8 smaller plants in hoop houses over those harsh winter nights. Winters here get to be 30-60F on average. The idea is to cover a good amount of my mulch with many of the larger rocks I have around here, they will retain heat through the day and hopefully keep the hoop above 50F. We'll see.

At the end of the day, shit yields beat zero yields. And I'm up for the challenge of being able to get 4 grows in a year outdoors.

I'm in the process of tying down the 5g pot plants. Those ones will never be topped, so they'll be much larger than I want if left unchecked. These will be tied and LST'd, they'll stay in here for another 2-3 weeks from the looks of it.


While the raspberries have still not done anything, the blackberries appear to be making quite the comeback.




Always a bittersweet sight. The jars are full, and the last plant is drying (except for that small one next to the bell pepper lol), but outdoor summer plants always look so majestic.

The area will be re-used in another month or so once the 5g pots are ready.

Got tons of fruits coming up too, lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatillos, and even a couple peppers.







This is going a lot better than expected for sure. Can't wait to see what spring will look like.



My volunteer tomato that just popped up out of the native dirt. I let it be, such tenacity, why not see how it does right? Looks like a cherry tomato, but the fruits look a little darker. Black cherry tomatoes would be dope. Either way, I'll be stoked with whatever I get.

Pulled pretty much everything out of this bed, the tomato is actually gone now. Tons of radish and carrot sprouts have eagerly taken their place, hoping to get some spinach and lettuce there too but we'll see.



Another bed that gets a little too much shade from the large mesquite tree in my yard. These two beds shown would do great with tomatoes in the summer time, but definitely not so much the fall.

The cucumbers look like shit, but there's actually quite a bit of fruits showing up on them believe it or not. One of the tomato plants looks like its producing too, despite the tree covering a lot of it's light. Everything that isn't producing will be turned into mulch, and replaced with more seeds.


I'm learning more about the individual micro-climates that each individual bed is establishing on a seasonal basis. Now, the tomato and pepper plants in these beds suffer because of insufficient sunlight, but in the summer these beds will be the only place to grow peppers and tomatoes. Live and learn.










These two beds are absolutely perfect for peppers and tomatoes, during the fall at least. They get morning shade and afternoon sun, and absolutely love it.

As you can see, the growth caught me quite off guard.


I was top dressing all of the beds weekly with my 4-6-4 and my N pee in a bottle fertilizer, however these 2 beds haven't needed much top dressing lately aside from a bit of Langbeinite every couple of weeks to help with their flowers and blooms. You can see just how much woodchips and plant waste have decomposed in these beds already.

The beefsteak leaves are so enormous that when I prune, I'm throwing them in other beds in my yard.

With every plant that grows, and everything composted, I become one step closer to the self sustaining closed loop garden I'm envisioning. One step at a time, or season I should say



The first and only pepper to actually bloom, and even has a bud on one of them. Aside from the pepper plants, this bed is filled with various brocolli and broccolini seeds, as well as spinach that I'm hoping will sprout. We'll see what happens.



Cucumber sprouts are looking pretty good. Didn't expect 5/6 to sprout, so looks like I'll be thinning some out soon.

Just a random hole I dug in between the two beds that gets a lot of water overflow from when the two beds in question get watered. I dug a hole, sifted the dirt, and mixed it up with a blend of my compost and EWC. Sprouts seem happy enough. Even if the cucumbers don't produce much, I'm mostly just going for something to cover the fences for privacy.

Nothing but native dirt and compost seems to be working for me so far, and after only a season! This cucumber plot will serve as an experiment for me. As you can see, I've "top dressed" with excess plant waste from pruning plants in other beds. I'm going to put nothing but plant waste as food for these cucumbers, and am excited to see what happens.



If all goes according to plan, my initial investment will literally last me a lifetime. Eventually, I'll have enough plant matter to use as a self sufficient and self sustaining source of nutrition. This will either be in the form of compost, or simply mulching the leaves themselves. Gradually over time, this will be all I need to do in order to maintain nutritional needs for the plants.

Then I just take this source of quality compost and just mix it with my dirt.

I will eventually be spending $0 to grow. No cost to produce soil, or seeds. I have a well, so no water bill. With proper start up, eventually there will be zero need for outside sources. Your garden will have all that it needs within it. That would be a true blessing for sure. All labor is profit they say, just gotta always look forward and keep moving.

As always, thanks to anyone reading along as I document this project of mine. Not only should growing organically in a living soil be a cheap endeavor, eventually it should be managed in a way that makes it self-sufficient and self sustaining. My hopes are to share how that's possible, as well as prevent others from experiencing fuck ups I have in my time.

Why am I posting all of this?

I believe everyone willing to learn should know how to grow. The point I hope to get across is that the process of starting and continuing in living soil is simple, affordable, and rewarding.

Eventually, over time, this living soil will continue to thrive so much that it will create a completely self sustaining system reliant only on water. Having a self sustaining garden, with a well powered on solar, ensures you and your loved ones have plenty of food and water at all times.

I learned about everything I post about freely, but more importantly, I wasted a lot of time and money in my life learning what little I know. Take advantage of that. Make a project of becoming self sufficient with your garden. I've learned and experienced the hard way many times in my day. I can't go back 10 years and tell myself just how simple things with a grow could really be, but I could hopefully save others the 10 years.

I believe a reason I couldn't believe in how simple living soil truly is, is because to an extent consumerism has been conditioned into many of us. I personally couldn't comprehend how it could be done "cheap".

"It has to cost a lot of money, or it isn't quality" is the general idea. We've all thought it. Fact is, it really is this affordable and simple. Just as it was designed to be.


Ideally, we're only purchasing things until we get to the closed loop system. Purchases should be used solely as a means to facilitate this.

If you think about it, inoculants of any sort are only necessary to do just that, inoculate. Inoculating only needs to take place until the population is established. Eventually, there will be no need to procure Mycorhizzae, or EM-1, rice for lacto, or any of the sort. If the soil biology is left undisturbed and provided for consistently, the aforementioned microbe cultures will become redundant and unnecessary.

If one is growing enough plants, they'll soon be overwhelmed with plant waste. Over time, this plant waste will be nutritional enough for the plant on its own.

Eventually, after top dressing/mulching the plant waste, you find yourself needing to top dress with less ingredients. Finally, only plant matter will be needed. Your plant matter, compost, native dirt, and water source should be sufficient enough to provide everything you need after enough time.

I still get hype about harvesting weed, even after over a decade of growing it. But seeing all this produce I'm getting just from the first half-assed season? It's both exciting and rewarding. One day, I hope to have my own produce section in my backyard, all home grown.


As I've documented, I've spent very little money on the vegetable seeds, and supplies for the soil. In fact, all of that combined was only half the cost of the weed seeds I bought.

The other reasons of mine for posting would just be documentation. Having my own posts to look through to see what was done on what date has proven more useful to me than notebooks.

I am thrilled to see that as time goes by, the process becomes simpler.

kratos015 said:

The other reasons of mine for posting would just be documentation. Having my own posts to look through to see what was done on what date has proven more useful to me than notebooks.

I am thrilled to see that as time goes by, the process becomes simpler.

Click to expand...

This. So much this. Being able to go back and look at where I've been, what ive tried, the "evolution" as a grower is invaluable to me.

Nothing too eventful with the medical side, been in the process of prepping the area for the 8 plants going out soon.





Since winter is coming, I need to do the opposite of my summer/fall grow. Instead of large plants, I'll be doing multiple smaller plants. Sunlight isn't as intense, and the nights can get to the low 30s. I'll be keeping the plants under 3ft tall, ideally, since the light isn't as intense it is more efficient to do multiple small plants as opposed to a few large plants. Going to try hoops and see what I'm able to get away with.



Almost done. Extremely half assed, nothing too fancy. Just needs to be able to hold plastic sheeting overhead for the plants. My attempts to deal with the cold nights will be these hoops, a 6-8 inch layer of woodchips to cover the soil, and as many bricks and rocks as I can find to lay on the woodchips to hopefully retain some heat. Be exciting to see what happens. Regardless of the results, I'll eventually know which strains do best in which season, and be able to plan accordingly.






Had to mix up another quick batch of soil. Nothing special. Had around 30g of old soil in pots, mixed that up with some sifted native dirt, and the compost + EWC I harvested.

I'm still learning with my native dirt. I sifted it, and combined everything in equal parts, but the soil was too heavy. Didn't account for the weight of the dirt vs the compost and old peat soils. I've been experimenting with the dirt:compost ratios. Some plants will tolerate 60/40, but in order for it to be "light and fluffy" its closer to 80/20. Depends on what's growing in it, more specifically the size of the roots and what they can push through.




Scraping up the woodchips because I need to do some work on these holes, as well as make new ones for the plants in the veg room.

Pretty decent layer of compost from all those woodchips though, nuts. So glad I found those, absolute game changer for my outdoor gardens.






Finally got my mothers picked and sorted out, was able to take some clones a few days ago from one even.




I'm finding myself with so much leaf matter when I prune, that I have to put it on other beds because the bed the stuff came from is already loaded. I can't remember the last time I top dressed any of the beds, between a week or two ago maybe. I'm going to continue to do this, now that I am finally flush with plant matter. One step closer to self-sustaining!

I'll be using nothing but plant matter from pruning and culling to fertilize my bed, and seeing how long until I have to use any amendments. Decomposed pretty quick on top of those woodchips. Going to be fun trying that with the new medical grow.

Actually started this post yesterday morning, got quite caught up.

From 10/30

Finally transplanted the bananas. Poor things. Crazy looking roots though.





Not really expecting many bananas, if even any at all. We'll see what happens. I'm just hoping to get some extra shade for next summer. Banana trees don't make fruits for like 18 months or something like that, if I recall.



Looks like I had a cocoon from the EWC I used for these. It wasn't in the castings when I planted the banana. Sweet deal. Hopefully he learns to enjoy his new home.

This is why I don't go too far out of my way to introduce worms into soil. If you're making and sifting your own castings, you're bound to have cocoons in your EWC. Let the cocoons decide what happens.




2 look happy, 2 look sad. But new growth on sad ones looks okay. Something they probably just didn't like about the transplant. I'm sure they'll be fine in a few days.



Cucumbers are getting bigger. These ones are called "Dragon Egg", they look pretty nifty when they're done.



Purple Basil showing off some lovely purple hues. This and the sunflowers attract a shit ton of pollinators.





Noticed this beauty on one of my peppers yesterday, never seen a purple pepper flower before. Lovely. I checked for it again today and it has since become pure white. Was hoping they'd stay purple lol.

Had to cheat on my "no amendments" already with all the fruiting plants.

Mulching the waste is working great for the plants that aren't blooming, but the tomatoes and peppers are showing signs of needing extra food. Flowers aren't turning into fruits as often as they should, and some are just straight falling off. Usually a sign that they need more P and K.



My cucumbers, on the other hand, are doing pretty well. Looks like the leaves already decomposed, so I added more today after taking the photo. My leaf waste is sufficient nutrition for seed and veg growth, but not quite enough for blooming plants just yet. In another season or two I imagine, especially when I go grab some more wood chips. Eventually I'll get there. Plenty of Langbeinite and 4-6-4 in the mean time for my fruiting plants.

Been talking Calcium/CaCO3 residue on old pots lately. Here's one of the 25g pots I've had since 2016. Could scrape that shit off and lime soil with it, 440ppm well water for you.



Incredible though, finding ways to work with things instead of against them. The theme of what I've been doing with this backyard experiment. Take the hard water, rather than go RO, I stopped using lime and used the well water in it's place. Or my native dirt. I've been buying peat and perlite for years, when my native dirt is wonderful stuff. Pretty much just needs compost and done deal.

The cucumbers pictured above are in nothing but native dirt mixed with compost. Has yet to be amended with anything, and I'm eager to see how long it takes until they need nutrition.






I've culled some of the tomatoes that weren't producing, and the bell pepper plant. Mad aphid infestation from ants building a nest solely in the root zone of the bell pepper. Interesting thing is, that bell pepper plant is literally the only plant that had this issue. Even more interesting is that bell pepper is from a big box hardware store, none of the heirloom pepper seeds have ant nor aphid issues. Had to come down anyway, that entire space has been repurposed for these plants as you can see.

Don't have the heart to take down the sunflower, and since its falling over onto soil I can't use (pipe underneath) I'm going to leave it. Not only are the flowers beautiful, but the pollinators love them.



Last bell pepper harvest of the plant I culled. Peppers never got big. Always blamed it on the ants/aphids, but in hindsight, like the pests, the small fruits is likely also poor genetics.



From a small 2x2 bed that had jalapenos in it. They haven't done a thing since August when I put them outside, so I culled them to repurpose the soil. Peppers just hate the shade this spot has. Lesson learned. Very sad though, these 3 plants never got more than 1ft tall, but you can see the amount of roots they still managed to produce. Pretty metaphorical now that I think about it. Though these plants were in poor conditions for their type, they kept spreading their roots despite that, not just hopeful to receive a bless, but ready for one.

That 2x2 bed was pretty much just a 7g hole that was covered with native dirt and a 4in layer of wood chips. That was 2 months ago. The picture above is what it became. 7 gallons of soil, the native dirt surrounding it, and the decomposing woodchips all combined. I can't believe how much soil I was digging out.

Lettuce and spinach will do much better in this area, I imagine.




What I'm trying to do is "tap in" to what I already have available. Everywhere that you see wood chips has a lot of soil I've planted in the ground prior to starting this journal. Undearneath the woodchips are individual holes similar to the one shown below, the holes hold between 5-15g of soil (plant dependent). Woodchips cover the rows, even the native dirt that is "unused". However, the chips will eventually become compost, and soon can have plants grown in it.

Point is, everywhere you see woodchips, there is a massive web of roots underground. Massive web of roots = massive soil web. Now, all I have to do is dig new holes to "add" to the rows. By making new holes close to already thriving soil webs, you can "tap into" the already existing web and ensure the plant's success. What was once a single row has provided me with enough organic matter to make another row next to the original one.

Doing this with large trees nearby is next level. If soil webs are only around the roots, then just imagine how large of a soil web there is already existing on a tree? Find sources of soil microbiology that are unique to your own property, and tap into them. Even if it's that ugly tree you don't like. The 3 trees I have are a huge blessing, and a major reason for my success here in such a short time. I can't think of anything else.



Something else I'm not culling from the new medical bed, called a Toothache plant and I've got like 5 of them scattered across the yard.

Just found out about this flower recently when I ordered the heirloom seeds. Biting into literally any part of the plant producing an Ora-Gel like effect on the mouth. The description really didn't lie, its the truth. The flowers have the most concentration, but even the leaves produce the effect. I'm in the process of experimenting with extractions on this plant, both with Everclear and with Coconut Oil.




Damn beefstreak grew to be 7ft tall in 2.5 months, growing to be a monster. I actually supercropped that bell pepper so it would lean out of the bed the way it is, had a feeling the tomatoes would get out of control. It still gets light because of that, though the supercropping definitely lost me veg growth this season. More toothache and some beans enjoying the shade of the tomatoes.

Coffee pot is full of "suckers" I pick off when I prune. Replace the water daily and wait for them to root. Free plants

Pretty much is for today. Looking like November will be exciting, and things possibly calm down come December. Going to just keep moving forward and see what I get.

Almost forgot to mention another experiment of mine. I made some LAB in the hopes of inoculating as much of my native dirt as possible with it. Everything I read said to toss the curds, but I couldn't help but think cheese. I mean, curds are curds.


I pretty much just pressed the curds together and left them under a press to slowly release the residual moisture. Then I put it on heat for an hour or so, pressed and strained one more time, and this is what I got.





Pretty nifty. Gonna let this sit in the fridge for a week or two and see what happens with it, and try not to eat it in the meantime lol. It's kind of cottage cheese like now, hoping it develops more flavor over time.