First attempt with no till beds

[The St.]

Here it is, I used to grow in a 150w HPS cabinet I made from an armoire that I bought from a retired cop that said he had kept his uniforms in it while he was on the force, irony. I grew quite a few great strains in that thing. Then I just got out of growing, was working too many hours and didn't have the time to tend to the girls. Well, here I am today, with a little more time on my hands.
I took Soma's indoor bed idea, straight up stole it, and adjusted it to my needs. My bed is 3'x3'x16"deep, lined with plastic to keep it water tight. The base is on casters so I can roll it around and move it with ease. About 2" of clay pebbles are spread in the plastic lining, topped with plastic hardware cloth, topped with landscape fabric, the 3" PVC pipes in the corners go down into the clay pebbles about 1"(this is for air to get down below the bed and clay pebbles to the roots).
I intend to do a no till bed with this, I plan on picking up some Blumats to make it even easier on me.
I made my soil with worm castings, a few different bags of potting soil (FF ocean forest, biobizz light mix, coast of Maine potting soil enriched with compost and seaweed. Whatever I had laying around) I amended this with extra perlite, lots of worm castings, BioTone+myco, bat guanos, and organicare pure grow. I mixed all this up in a 55 gallon tote, dumped in about 1.5 gallons of water mixed with molasses and covered it up. I'll let it sit for a few weeks to get all the beneficials going. Then toss it in the bed and top it with another bag of light mix to plant directly into.
I will be growing under a magnum xxxl 8" reflector with a lumatek 400w superlumen digital ballast cooled with a fantech 6xl.
I have just two girls going right now of unknown lineage, I think I will grow these out until I can get some cuts off of them and plant rooted cuts right in the bed.
Thanks for stopping by!

 

[The St.]

Not completely, if there is any runoff it will go below the root zone to the clay pebbles and evaporate from the pvc pipes.

 

[east coast]

:thumright:

 

[The St.]

Haven't read anywhere that it is an issue with this bed, but you raise a good point. I guess time will tell

 

[Budluver]

Its organic isn't it? Water only right? I remember reading @ and wanting to duplicate these beds too. I loved Somas book..peace

 

[ClearBarbedFunk]

So after you grow a crop in the bed, you amend and reuse the same soil indoors?

I grow in soil in pots in a 3x6 tray, the trays just to keep the room a bit cleaner, and after one round I have salts all over the tray. I water through the plants.

CBF

 

[Nspecta]

So after you grow a crop in the bed, you amend and reuse the same soil indoors?

I grow in soil in pots in a 3x6 tray, the trays just to keep the room a bit cleaner, and after one round I have salts all over the tray. I water through the plants.

CBF

I've reused my same soil in my beds for over 3 years now...with minimal troubles. Mostly using plain water and no liquid ferts...just dry amendments between harvests.

 

[The St.]

BL, that's exactly right, water only, and occasional fungal or bacterial teas. Then amended between harvests. I plan to plant a cover crop of nitrogen fixing plants, probably white clover.

Nspecta, thanks for the info, I may tap you for some knowledge soon!

 

[The St.]

Roll a few joints and check out Joshua steensland on youtube, he gets pretty deep into everything he does in his garden. I have no affiliation just a ton of interesting stuff on there. Bottles nutes are scams!

 

[The St.]

I opened up my soil bin today, it looked beautiful, there's already some fungus forming on top. I added some crab meal, green sand, coco, ancient forest humics, and clay pebbles to the mix and filled my beds to 4" below the top of my bed, I will add a mix of biobizz light mix and sunshine #4 to plant cuttings in. I have to get some red wigglers somewhere, I moved all my worms outdoors last year and my outdoor bins are buried in snow right now. I'll try to get some photos up soon

 

[BreezeEazy]

Ill be following. Interested in no till myself just to save mixing so much soil. Ill check out yllthat youtube you suggested tonight.

 

[The St.]

I'm having trouble uploading pics here

 

[The St.]

 

[BreezeEazy]

Are you going to be using any mulch? I know most no till gardeners are using mulch of leaves, stems, etc., to recycle it back into the soil. When I go down this path, I was planing on using Coots (lumperdawgz) mix. I feel like this is the future of growing on a large scale.

 

[The St.]

Thanks Bigsur, I guess it's just taking more time than I thought it would.

Breeze, I will be mulching with a locally sourced straw, and when I can get at it, I'll use my own garden/yard waste. I grow comfrey outdoors that I always chop up and throw on my soil as the season goes on. It's a great dynamic accumulator that when broken back down, it releases everything it has pulled from deep beneath the surface

 

[Budluver]

Cool beans ST. I'm heading up in a week or so.

 

[The St.]

If ya need a rest stop don't hesitate to swing through!

 

[nannymouse]

Old neighbor gal mulched her garden and had a field of oats in the spring. Watch it with the straw!

 

[The St.]

Picked up this Hefty tote today, perfect humidity dome, built to last. And the lid makes a perfect catch for watering. Cut some clones, watered soil bed and covered it back up with plastic, the fungus is among us, and lookin good! Moms are much happier after their haircuts, they were getting pretty dense with leaves.
Peace, thanks for coming by!

 

[The St.]

After cutting these back for the clones and a leaf trim. I snapped the top off of the noticeably naked one, I reached in past it and it caught my shirt on recoil, snapped right at a recent healing bend. They don't call it really smart stuff for a reason.
I also topped my soil with a blend of light mix and sunshine #4 that I have left over. I put my cuts under the MH in a husky tote flipped upside down. I took 17 cuts(one accidental) and they will be flowered in the bed they're sitting on.

Anyone have any experience with flowering under MH? I have an HPS but have read here and there MH does well for flowering MJ, sometimes better trich production(?)

I will someday understand this picture uploading as well. I have about 4 other photos that won't upload....