do-nothing garden

Hello everyone! I'm donothinggardening or dng or w/e you want to call me.

The name was inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka and his book The One-Straw Revolution. His do-nothing philosophy inspired me to take a more minimalist approach to the way I garden. I focus on making good homemade compost and I let the organisms in the compost do most of the work for me. I'm just responsible for carrying water and making sure that the soil biota are well-fed.

Feel free to ask questions, give constructive criticism, make suggestions, post pictures, videos etc. I want everyone to feel welcome here!

 

Awesome! Welcome friends!

Stevebomb, I will do my best to give an unbiased representation of the new light so that this can be a successful learning experience for us all!

 

Hey girl, howya doin'?

I'm 'bout to post up your fav part: the environment and alla that stuff

 

I have made quite a few changes since I started my first grow journal.

Lighting

Perhaps the most obvious change is the switch from HID lighting over to white LED's.



Here are the spec's on it...

Model: SolarECLIPSE 350+UVB by Amare Technologies

Actual power draw: 350w

6x Cree CXA 2520 COB's

60x Cree XTE/XPE 5w mono's

1x T8 UVB strip

Footprint: 3'x3'

Suggested distance from canopy (veg): 24"-30"

(bloom): 20-22"

 

If you want to learn a bit about led's I suggest reading these articles:

How To Compare Grow Lights | BML Horticulture

Photosynthesis Guide and Information | BML Horticulture

Photomorphogenesis Guide and Information | BML Horticulture

 

Hey fellers!! still writing more posts lol. Pictures of ganja will start on page 10 or so :lol:

 

Soil, Watering, Containers etc

Soil mixing is a bit of an art and a science. As long you base your potting soil on healthy, living compost, there is a lot of flexibility. The ultimate goal would be to produce homemade compost that has a nice enough texture and structure that it doesn't require anything to be added to alter those properties for productive plant growth. Many bagged and commercial composts are too heavy and dense to be used as a standalone potting medium, so folks will add sphagnum peat, coconut coir, small rocks or sand to change the texture and structure.

Compost

High quality compost is the backbone of a healthy living soil. It's pretty easy to make your own compost at home. I recommend checking out the Backyard Composting sticky in the organic gardening subforum for more information on that. Bagged and commercial composts will vary widely in terms of quality and their viability for container gardening, so it is important to take some time and make sure to source the best compost(s) available.

With compost in hand, we can add some things to improve its texture and structure for container gardening. For beginners, it is typically recommended to mix your compost in equal parts with a bulk soilless medium like sphagnum peat moss or coconut coir, and a coarse drainage material like pumice, perlite, or scoria. A good "base mix" might be 1 part sphagnum peat, 1 part pumice, and 1 part compost.

I should note that if you are using sphagnum peat, it is very important to moisten and expand the sphagnum peat moss before mixing with the other ingredients. To do this, I just break off pieces of the compressed bale and toss them into a plastic tote (a trashcan or something would work well too), then dump some water into the tote and allow it to soak in overnight. The next day, the bale is very easy to break apart and shred to a fluffy consistency. Once it is nice and fluffy then I can use it for soil mixing

To make a "cootz mix", you would add this to every cubic foot of potting soil:

1/2 cup kelp meal
1/2 cup crustacean meal
1/2 cup neem/karanja cake
2-4 cups rock dust

Dynamic bionutrient accumulators like comfrey can be used in place of things like kelp if that is desired. Incorporating dynamic accumulators and rock dusts in your homemade compost from the beginning is a really efficient way to produce quality potting soil with a low cost and low environmental footprint.

Vermicompost is another great addition to any soil and it can be used just like compost. My homemade compost usually has plenty of worms in it, so I don't concern myself with adding anything on top of that. Inoculating your potting soil with worms is also a great way to incorporate their manure into your soil. Worms also play myriad other roles that are beneficial in organic soil gardening.

Watering

This is surprisingly one of the most important parts of a successful living soil garden--getting the watering right. After I mix the soil, I get it to the consistency of a well wrung-out sponge, then I use the "squeeze test" to make sure it is the consistency that I like it. I'll grab a handful of soil and squeeze pretty tightly until a drop or two of water seeps through the cracks of my fingers. That's how I know that it is the perfect moisture level. It shouldn't be dripping wet, and it shouldn't be dry either. When I open my hand, the soil clump should hold its shape, but then break apart with the light touch of a finger.

After this I will fill my containers and then lift them to get a feel for the weight. This will be an indicator for when I need to add more water as the plants are growing.

With bigger pots that are difficult to move, I have used sub-irrigation (bottom watering) and a blumat moisture meter to maintain proper moisture levels in the soil.

Containers

Bigger is always better when it comes to containers. For no-till gardening, 15 gallons is the minimum volume of soil that I like to use. 15-25 gallons is perfect for a 4-5 sq ft area.

 

Trying to make these first posts as detailed and user-friendly as possible so that this journal can be helpful for beginners. These are just the methods that I have had success with in my grow and I certainly don't claim that they are "the best" or anything like that. This is just how I like to do things in my garden.

 

Cannabis Cultivars

Finally some ganja pictures lol.

I'm currently running a variety of different flavors. Still working on finding some good "keepers".

I have been slowly working through some beans from Mandala Seeds, and I have really liked everything I have had from them so far. My favorite Mandala plant at the moment is definitely this Krystalica:



Besides her, I currently have these ones in flower: 8 Miles High from Mandala Seeds, Grapefruit Badass from Ice River Genetics, Golden Goat which is a local clone-only, and a mysterious Colorado Cough cross.

They are in various stages of flower and this is what they are looking like right now:



In veg, I also have an Original Indiana Bubblegum, an MX Pineapple Express and a new addition called Cornbread (lol).

 

Hey WWW! Have seen you around Pharmer's thread. Glad to have you!!