What does No-Till organic soil contain and how/where to buy the ingredients?
No-Till means you do not disturb the soil. You'll mix your soil and fill your containers/raised beds once. You'll use teas, top dresses, and mulches to feed the soil life. You won't dump out your soil after every grow cycle, instead, you'll transplant the next plant into the same container, top dress and water. Very simple and easy. With a healthy balanced soil and lighting, you'll get the healthy plants.
In one thimbleful of healthy soil, you can find several MILES of fungal filaments, all releasing powerful enzymes that help dissolve tightly bound soil nutrients.
This is one of the major reasons why tilling the soil is deleterious to gardening or farming as it damages these fragile fungal filaments. The last thing any gardener or farmer should be doing is tilling the soil.
Sourcing your soil mix's ingredients can be simple, just make sure to check labels throughly, ask the company any questions you may have via email or phone. I source my Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss (CSPM), Earthworm Castings (EWC), and Lava Rocks all from a local nursery and landscaping yard next door. It's very cheap, high quality, and supports local businesses which is important to me. There are a lot of great websites out there where you can source the organic soil amendments. I'll be mentioning different brands and products that I use at home in this guide, I'm not sponsored by any of these companies.
I'm not going to talk about yields in this book because it's foolish to say if you grow a plant to certain size with this light, you'll get x amount of bud. Every grow room, growers experience and training methods are different. Just focus on doing the best you can in the space you have and you'll be rewarded with healthy lush plants that produce beautiful resin covered buds.
Chapter 2 The Mix
Mixing your own soil is the best way to ensure the highest quality ingredients and even ratios of amendments. You can correct any issues you encounter much easier than using store bought mixes because you'll know exactly what went into it and at what ratios. This is just my recipe, I've added a cubic foot of fresh Dynamic Accumulators (in chapter 6) with great affects before, leftovers from harvested plants, it all goes back in. Feel free to experiment and learn new things. You can use less amendments or ratios and still have a very successful garden.
I use:
1/3 Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss (Premier is best.)
1/3 EWC/Vermicompost (homemade is best.)
1/3 Aeration (small sized Lava Rocks or Growstones)
Bio Char 5-10% of Total soil mix. I usually go with 5-6% to be safe.
Using a 5gal bucket to measure with, 1.5 buckets equals 7.5gals (1 cubic ft).
These measurements don't need to super precise with the bucket. Just try to make it as equal as you can. Your CSPM should be fully hydrated before measuring because it expands and will throw your ratio off.
Amendments Breakdown Per Cubic Foot of Vermicompost.
Nutritional Amendments:
1 cup Alfalfa meal
2 cups Neem Cake
2 cups Kelp Meal
2 cups Crustacean Meal
(I use 1 cup of Chicken manure per cu.ft. and 1 cup Kelp Meal and Neem Cake to charge the bio-char and are added to soil mix with the bio-char. Watch for thermal composting, you’ll need to let the soil cycle for 2 weeks before use.)
Sulfur:
Gypsum Flour 1 cup per cubic ft
Liming:
Oyster Shell Flour 2 cups per cubic ft.
Mineral Amendment: Rock Dust 4 cups per cubic ft
Premium Basalt Rock Dust
Next is your Vermicompost or Earth Worm Castings (EWC). This is THEE MOST IMPORTANT part of your soil mix! Producing your own Vermicompost is easy and fun. You can use just about any thick or dark colored container to block light from entering and disturbing your photosensitive worms. I use red wigglers. There are many worm farm kits you can buy if you don't want to make your own. Worms reproduce by laying 2 eggs every 90 days. The population is self regulating, there won't be to many. I put worms in all my pots, your soil mix wouldn't function properly without them in my opinion.