Good-day GC! This journal will be documentation of my journey into the No-Till world! A little background on me. My Name is FlexedDabs and I reside in beautiful Colorado! I have completed a total of 3 of 4 grow attempts over the last 10 years. Unfortunately, I have never lived in one spot long enough to complete more than 1 cycle before having to move. This has led me to start from scratch each time I have grown. Meaning new equipment, new space, new room design, etc. for each grow. This has been a pain because I have not had a chance to run multiple harvests in the same room. Nor have I have grown the same strain twice. That being said, I recently purchased by first home and will be here for at least the next 3-5 years. My new place has a 4.5' x 4.5' x 7.5' area in the corner of the basement that I have been given the green-light to use. This will be my first No-Till and first Auto-flower grow. I have never grown autos,but the size/speed appeals to me. The main goal with this grow is product the best cannabis I can and not have to purchase from the dispensaries. Focusing mainly on flavor rather than yield. Although I have had no issues with the bottle nutrient lines I have used (FF, AN, and GH), I really love the idea of organics and specifically No-Till. I am still in the planning stage at the moment, but looking to start construction by July. While planning I keep coming up with questions and I think having a place to voice them will really help me. Any and all constructive criticism and advice will be greatly appreciated as I would still consider myself a new grower. Another important note, this HAS to be a completely stealth operation in sight, sound, and smell. My wife is allergic to Cannabis and can't stand the smell. Not to mention, the family does not approve as well. So, stealth it is! I have quite a few questions about this and look forward to your tips! Lastly, before we get into the details, budget. I am trying as hard as I can to keep to total budget under $1000 USD. I have a spreadsheet with my projected costs if anyone is interested. Below is my current plan broken into 3 stages. Stage 1 - The Room: *Basement - 4.5' x 4.5' x 7.5' custom built box (2x4s and Panda Paper) Stage 2 - The Soil (Makes 40 Gallons): *Base Mix* -3 cu ft Peat Moss -3 cu ft Compost -1.5 cu ft Worm Castings -2 cu ft Lava Rocks -2 cu ft Rice Hulls *Amendments (per cu. Ft.)* -1 cup Kelp Meal -1 cup Crab Meal -1 cup Alfalfa Meal -1 cup Oyster Shell -1 cup Neem Meal -1 cup Azomite -2 cups Dolomite Lime -1 cup MBP -1/2 cup Tomato Tone Stage 3 - Equipment: *Lights - 4x QB 288pcs Samsung LM561c s6 LED Board (130w each) *Fan - Vivosun Fan+Filter 203 CFM *Oscillating fans *20 Gal Smart Pots As with everything in my life, I got a little gung-ho the other day and ordered a bunch of seeds. Here is a list of what I will have to pick from when planning time rolls around. Autos: 5x Black Cream (SweetSeeds) 5x Gorilla Glue (FastBudz) 5x Bubblelicious (Nirvana) 3x Ripley's OG (Mephisto) 3x Beary White (Mephisto) 3x GSC (FastBudz) 1x Gelato Cookie Dae-oh (Dr.Krippling) Free: 1x Deisel (Royal Queen Seeds) 1x Sour Hound (Mephisto) 1x Kush (Seedsman) + a handful of free Photo seeds (I'm not sure if I will every grow these out. Time will tell) I look forward to hearing from all of the great minds gathered here. If you see any glaring issues, please shout them out. Otherwise, I will have questions and pictures coming in the next couple days.
Howzit This is funny, you trying to hide this from your wife lol....I see exciting times ahead! Thank you in advance! Kidding aside, I noticed your soil mix is a bit heavy on fertilizer. Personally I'd split the alfalfa to 1/2 cup to allow for the tomato tone....bringing the total down to 3 Cups per Cu ft. IMO, your drainage will be better it you keep the Compost/EWC potion to 3 Cu ft total. With that much EWC and compost I feel it will be too dense. Irie vibes! Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk
Thanks @PoiBoy79, your input is greatly appreciated! I'll get to work on making the adjustment to the recipe and re-post the new mix. Curiosity compels me to ask, why drop the alfalfa to 1/2 cup vs dropping the tone down?
Hey - no probs! "Curiosity compels me to ask, why drop the alfalfa to 1/2 cup vs dropping the tone down?" I suggested that primarily because it is your only 'complete' fertilizer and it contains some things you don't have going on in the mix - a slower release form of nitrogen/sulfur/ greensand/added microbiology....chalk it up to diversity. You could skip it no prob. What I do is mix all the meals I want together and then use 3 Cups of that mix per Cu ft. Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk
After to trip back to the drawing board, I have decided to go with the soil mixed from Sc00byD00bie's All Organic Recipes and Notes Compilation thread. The new mix looks like this: 3 cu ft Peat Moss 2 cu ft Compost 2 cu ft Rice Hulls 2 cu ft Lava Rocks 1 cu ft worm castings 1 Cup Kelp Meal 1 Cup Crab Meal 1 cup Neem Meal 1 Cup MPB 5 Cup Basalt 1 Cup Oyster Shells 1/2 cup Gypsum 7 cups Bio Char Once I am able to find all the ingredients I will mix this and let it 'cook' for 3-4 weeks. I'm wondering if I can 'cook' this right in the kiddie pool I'm going to mix it in and cover with some cardboard or should I spring for 40+ gallons in totes or trash cans? Maybe just cook them in the 20 gallon fabric pots they are going to end up in? Thanks!
That's a tried and true recipe, solid. I should add that many of us using this recipe have since started to add ag lime @1Cup per Cu Ft. You may or may not find the high amount of rock dust makes the mixture on the dense side. I think the kiddie pool idea with a cover on top is the best idea. Larger body of soil will not fluctuate the same as a smaller volume, and will get cooking for you quicker. Happy gardening Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk
I created a new thread in Grow Room Design to help finalize my build plans. Please take a look and help out if you can. Trying to build a room... need help! Thanks!!! Flexed
Soil all mixed up and cooking. However, I ran into another problem. I only had enough amendments to make about 40 gallons. I was hoping to fill four 20 gallon fabic pots with this mix, but clearly I am short. Should I fill each fabic pot with about 10 gallons (1/2 full)? Or Should I fill 2 pots all the way and mix up a second batch of soil of the remaining 2 pots?
im still a newbie myself..... but when I made mine I only filled the bottom 1/3-1/2 of the pot with the "hot" mix.....
The mix should not be hot after I have "cooked' it for 4-6 weeks. What do you fill the rest of your pot with? How full are your pots when you put a seed in them?
Make up enough soil to put on top of your amended soil for all four pots. This soil will not burn your seed. If your planting directly in. Btw fill it up full enough so you still have space for amending and worm castings and watershed else your using for a mulch layer
I only amended half my soil which im calling "hot"..... other soil sat and "cooked" same time as "hot" soil just wasn't amended.... the hot soil was filled in the bottom 1/2 of the pot....top was filled with same soil just not amended or "hot"....(MY INTERPITATION) even though soil is cooked..... its still hot.... a baby plant can still be burned by hot soil..... plant roots will be strong enough by the time it reaches down to the last 1/2 of the pot and start to use the hot soil.... but once again im a newb and could have done it all wrong myself! lol
Well shit... Yesterday I went downstairs to check on the status of my soil and found the entire mound soaking wet and stinking! I mixed in a little more peat, compost (which is pretty dry) and some extra scoria. Then I put the soil in thier respective fabic pots. Today it is smelling a bit better, but still has a little stink. More so if I dig down where it is more damp. I'm hoping giving it a couple days to dry out will get rid of the smell... If you have any additional tips to getting rid of the anaerobic soil, let me know. Thanks!
Just adding my 2 cents here I wouldn't plant seeds directly into pots that big just my opinion, i would start them in maybe a 1gal fabric pot and let them almost get root bount in that pot then move them to the big ones. Planting into that big a pot that plants gonna spend 30 days or better building a root system and very little vegatative growth assuming your growing indoors. And i see you filled the pots all the way up was gonna say i would have done them half full and then added top dressings through out there life. Also when you amend and cook a soil i will always cook mine in rubber made totes and i allow it to cook for a solid 30 days before using it.
Thanks for dropping by Mikey! The soil is cooking in those smartpots as we speak. We are almost a week into cooking. The way my summer is looking they may cook longer than 30 days. The plan is to remove 1/4 of the soil from the pots and then add a 2 inch thick layer of starter mix to start seeds in. I'm going to grow auto flowers only and from my research it is better not to transplant them. I Might end up growing a couple photos once I run out of auto seeds because I got a few free with my order.
Light came in yesterday! Description: 288 FOLUX2.0-240H-2-326 in 3000k it include 2pcs 288 (301B led) pcb, 1pcs MW HLG-240H-48B driver, 1pcs dimmer switch, 2pcs 326*195*10mm Heat sink, 2pcs plug wires, 2sets hanging rope, fast connectors and wires. Quantity: 2 Unit price $175.07 Sub total: $350.14 Freight cost: $89.52 Service charge: $13.19 Total: 452.85 Still working on getting them put together, but I turned one on and almost blinded myself... Peace!
Feels good to be hung! From outside the room Just inside the room Lights on! I'm going to have to play around with my camera setting stop get the lights on pictures to turn out better. These suckers are bright! Going to need to invest in some better sunglasses. Any recommendations? Now all I have is a little more HVAC work the get my temps on point. Then, waiting... Peace!