No-till top dress recommendations?

J Bone said:

Hi No-tillers

I was wondering what top dresses people like for when you put your plant into flower for the first cycle?

Also, what top dresses do you guys like for after the first harvest before the 2nd cycle?

Any no-till info will be greatly appreciated!

-JB

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dubekoms said:

Gypsum, fish meal and good compost is a great top dress.

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• Source of calcium and sulfur for plant nutrition
• Improves acid soils and treats aluminum toxicity.
• Improves soil structure.
• Improves water infiltration.
• Helps reduce runoff and erosion.

D port Growth said:

Compost, Worm Castings, Live Worms, and Buffaloam Soil Alive. Also for mulching I use Rice Hulls and Straw or Hay. Cover Crop is essential in my no till look into Crimson Clover and Buckwheat Grass. Mychorrhizal Fungi and Beneficial Baacteria also play a large roll. For Flower get brewing my man! Seed Sprouts, Fish Bone Meal, Kelp, Alfalfa, EWC, Beneficials Coconut Water, Langbienite. just to name a few ingredients. I have made a lot of tea recipes and I'm more than happy to share with you.

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1. Bagged soil - WHY? when we are going to the trouble to mix all of this up anyways, me might as well save some money and increase the quality. The other factor here is having exact control over the inputs. These soils already have unknown quantities of nutrients and the quality control isn't perfect, what if you get a hot batch and then further amend it? I would avoid the potential room for problems and make a soil using many standard recipes but most go with 1 part peat, 1 part compost and 1 part aeration.
   
   
2. Mycorrhizae: Adding this to your soil doesn't make sense and is a waste of resources. Anyone who works with mycorrhizae will tell you to apply to the rootzone at transplant or seedling stage. Obviously this super soil mix is for the bottom of the container and nowhere near the rootzone at the proper time. Basically just a complete waste of Myco.
   
   
3. 25 to 50 lbs of organic worm castings: I agree with using wormcastings but that is a WIDE range to apply. Why 25 - 50? I think that when building your base mix you should be factoring in a certain percentage of castings and compost. Not adding to this all later on in a made up way.
   
   
4. 5 lbs steamed bone meal - This is a by-product from the Cattle industry and is really not a good input for organic soil production. Fish bone meal however is great for this same purpose and is safer to use.
   
   
5. 5 lbs Bloom bat guano - Guano is very expensive and really not neccessary. This is a fast release nutrient and is more in line with the feed the plant regimen instead of soil building. That and harvesting guano is rarely safe and sustainable, there are many reasons to avoid this.... Plus the Fish bone meal that we just mentioned has you covered already along with all the other plant based amendments and worm castings that you should be using.
   
   
6. 5 lbs blood meal - More slaughterhouse waste and sure to be unclean. Why use the blood from McDonalds cows when you can add nitrogen so easily through alfalfa meal, fish meal and or worm castings.
   
   
7. 3 lbs rock phosphate - This is the 3rd phosphate product and it makes sense because in a soil this rich and without the mycorrhizae actually working like it should there isn't going to be a very good way to access P. That's okay, in a properly built soil you don't need a million sources of P, the plants will get it and the biology and fungi will make sure of it. Not only that but soft rock phosphate is high in heavy metals like cadmium that are proven to be harmful. When growing cannabis, the trichomes will store the heavy metals and smoking the plant will not allow the typical body safety system of passing through the liver etc. before going into your blood. For this reason materials high in heavy metals are typically avoided.
   
   
8. ¾ cup Epsom salts - Absolutely no reason to add more magnesium sulfate to a good soil mix. A little known fact about soil is that the Calcium to Magmesium Ratio will control the texture of the soil and adding epsom salts is a good way to tighten the soil and there are better ways to get sulfur, like gypsum.
   
   
9. ½ cup sweet lime (dolomite) - Dolomite lime should be avoided as it is completely out of balance with the proper Calcium to magnesium ratios for proper soil building. Especially when considering long term no-till soil use.
   
   
10. ½ cup azomite (trace elements) - This is good stuff and is just a "brand" name rock dust that has all the elements from A-Z hence Azomite.... thing is, that also includes heavy metals. While I'd use this in the veggie garden, many will avoid this in the medicine garden.
    
    
11. 2 tbsp powdered humic acid - Good advice but humic acid typically purchased at the grow shop is from leanordite and isn't really helpful and is very expensive. Avoid this and get Ful-Power from Bio-ag and use it with waterings.
    

J Bone said:

Hey D Port Growth! I would love to hear some of your tea recipes!

Iv'e been trying to get in the routine of making a veg and flower tea once a week. Do you think thats good or should I do more or less?

I also try to do a seed sprout tea once a week with the organic blue corn from BAS.

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D port Growth said:

here is a great quick veg tea recipe i use every other week. this recipe i use with 55 Gallons 1/4 cup EWC, 1/4 cup of nitrogen laden bat guano,


1/4 cup alfalfa,1/4 c kelp, 5 tablespoons elemental powder from roots (cal-mag from protein hydrolysate) or 2.5 ml per g liquid cal phos from eggshells and 1-2oz of coconut water add your choice of Mycorrhizal fungi and beneficial bacteria or IMO works best. brew for 72 hours in the 60-65 degree range and re-apply the myco and bennies during the last 4 hours of brew right before you use it. presto! a awesome veg booster

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J Bone said:

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

I'm fairly new to notill and I just want to make sure my soil is getting enough food to feed the plant through flower. That craft blend from BAS looks like a nice mix!

greasemonkey mann how thick of a layer of compost do you like to apply and how many times will you top dress through flower? Or is one top dress enough with the assistance of AACT and SST?

Thanks again for the responses!
JB

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greasemonkeymann said:

Sorry, didn't see that you asked me a question.
My compost is a lil different than most, but I keep topdressing over the yr, as soon as the previous topdress (disappears) then I add more, the cool thing with lots of worms in your mix and a healthy plant, as they both tend to "consume" the compost, it literally disappears in about 20 days or so.
It also depends on the surface area of your containers too.
but you can NEVER overdue it, assuming the compost is finished.
no need for any teas either, the compost is absolutely crawling with microbial life

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