The Benefits of Letting Your Soil Rest

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Geneiac

Well-Known Member
Just an interesting observation I thought I would share...

I'm currently in veg of my second grow using the soil in these bins (its been recycled and my last run was the first with this soil). All bins contain the same mix of local high quality potting mix with some additional perlite. During my last grow I supplemented the soil a few times with organic dry amendments.

My last run consisted of one bin of autos and 4 bins of photos. I flipped the switch on the photos when the autos were harvested and dragged the auto bin out of the tent and let it sit in my mudroom for 3 months when the photos flowered and dried. As soon as the photos were dry and the tent was empty, I amended the soil with some organic 4-4-4 and planted the population pictured below.

Clearly, one of these bins is not like the others...and it happens to be the case that the bin that is RIPPING is the bin that was left to rest for 3 months. Seems to me that during this "resting" phase, the microbes were not resting at all, but hard at work breaking down the dry amendments that I added throughout the previous run.

The way I'm looking at this is: while amending the soil throughout the auto run, I was essentially mixing up a super soil and yeah, the plants may have benefited a little at the time, but the resting phase is equivalent to the "cooking" phase that one would include during the creation of a super soil.

Any thoughts or different points of view out there?

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green_machine_two9er

green_machine_two9er

Well-Known Member
Wattzzup said:
1 plant per pot. You need dividers in there or something. Your roots are going to be a mess in there.
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I like multiple plants per pot.

That being said the op has waaay to many. Those 20 gallon Rubbermaid’s should only house 2-3 plants.


10g or so)soil per plant in large containers.


I’m currently planning 4x8 x1.5 ft raised beds. Will house 8 plants each. But that’s almost 350 gallons of soil.
 
m4s73r

m4s73r

Well-Known Member
green_machine_two9er said:
I like multiple plants per pot.

That being said the op has waaay to many. Those 20 gallon Rubbermaid’s should only house 2-3 plants.


10g or so)soil per plant in large containers.


I’m currently planning 4x8 x1.5 ft raised beds. Will house 8 plants each. But that’s almost 350 gallons of soil.
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This. 2 in those is cool. Wouldnt do 3.
Op you got the right idea though. When i was doing 25 gallon no tills in fabric bots i had 8 of them. 4 in 4 out. that way i always had 4 pots resting, breaking down the root mass and the mulch from the harvested plant. After 5 years of doing that my pots were so full that i couldnt grow in them anymore. Dumped them all into a 4x4 bed and now I'm about 20 days from my first harvest out the bed. Tell us about how your watering.
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green_machine_two9er

green_machine_two9er

Well-Known Member
m4s73r said:
This. 2 in those is cool. Wouldnt do 3.
Op you got the right idea though. When i was doing 25 gallon no tills in fabric bots i had 8 of them. 4 in 4 out. that way i always had 4 pots resting, breaking down the root mass and the mulch from the harvested plant. After 5 years of doing that my pots were so full that i couldnt grow in them anymore. Dumped them all into a 4x4 bed and now I'm about 20 days from my first harvest out the bed. Tell us about how your watering.
View attachment 4846762
Click to expand...
Grassroots bed?
 
m4s73r

m4s73r

Well-Known Member
Did you see my Hugelkulture write up in my grow journal? Go have a peep at that, if nothing else will save you some money on filling those beds.

M4S73R's Perpetual Organic LED Grow.

Somewhere I heard that its hard to see where to go if you cant remember where you've been. This may read a little different then other post due to me being long winded, percise, comical, stoned, that list can go on. So its 2012. I join rollitup and Start my first thread. My T5 FFOF grow I...
www.rollitup.org
 
G

Geneiac

Well-Known Member
Hahaha a bit of context could be useful. 8 plants per tote is obviously a bit ridiculous. I'm pretty sure they're 30 gallon totes not that it really makes a difference. But essentially I'm performing a phenohunt and wanted to crack as many seeds as possible and I'm looking to breed plants that are apically dominant and amenable to SOG grows so I figured I'd through em into the deep end. I was planning to flip to flower after week 3 (wrapping up week 4 now and first day of 12/12 is tomorrow) but with the exception of the plants in the "rested" soil, they weren't quite ready. About half the plants are males and will be culled with the exception of 2 or 3.
 
G

Geneiac

Well-Known Member
m4s73r said:
This. 2 in those is cool. Wouldnt do 3.
Op you got the right idea though. When i was doing 25 gallon no tills in fabric bots i had 8 of them. 4 in 4 out. that way i always had 4 pots resting, breaking down the root mass and the mulch from the harvested plant. After 5 years of doing that my pots were so full that i couldnt grow in them anymore. Dumped them all into a 4x4 bed and now I'm about 20 days from my first harvest out the bed. Tell us about how your watering.
View attachment 4846762
Click to expand...
Those grass roots beds are nifty. I'm planning to switch to a no till system soon but will probably be working out of the bins for the foreseeable future. I give each bin about 1-1.5 gallons at a time when needed. Maybe every 3-4 days.

I notice that you've got a ChilledTech logo in your signature...I'm running two x3s! Got them halfway through my last run and I'm still getting to know them...This is a 2.5' x 8' tent and I've been dancing a fine line of almost burning the seedlings by trying to turn the light up before they're ready for it...currently have the lights hanging as high as possible (about 45 inches above the canopy) and at about 75% power (hard to be exact with the dimmer switch). Which lights do you have? If you've got x3s or x6s, I'd love to hear how you run them!
 
m4s73r

m4s73r

Well-Known Member
Geneiac said:
Hahaha a bit of context could be useful. 8 plants per tote is obviously a bit ridiculous. I'm pretty sure they're 30 gallon totes not that it really makes a difference. But essentially I'm performing a phenohunt and wanted to crack as many seeds as possible and I'm looking to breed plants that are apically dominant and amenable to SOG grows so I figured I'd through em into the deep end. I was planning to flip to flower after week 3 (wrapping up week 4 now and first day of 12/12 is tomorrow) but with the exception of the plants in the "rested" soil, they weren't quite ready. About half the plants are males and will be culled with the exception of 2 or 3.
Click to expand...
Ok that definatly helps for sure. LOL Got a watch out of me, id like to see how they progress for sure.
Geneiac said:
Those grass roots beds are nifty. I'm planning to switch to a no till system soon but will probably be working out of the bins for the foreseeable future. I give each bin about 1-1.5 gallons at a time when needed. Maybe every 3-4 days.

I notice that you've got a ChilledTech logo in your signature...I'm running two x3s! Got them halfway through my last run and I'm still getting to know them...This is a 2.5' x 8' tent and I've been dancing a fine line of almost burning the seedlings by trying to turn the light up before they're ready for it...currently have the lights hanging as high as possible (about 45 inches above the canopy) and at about 75% power (hard to be exact with the dimmer switch). Which lights do you have? If you've got x3s or x6s, I'd love to hear how you run them!
Click to expand...
I just ordered 2 x5 600s and they will be delivered tomorrow. I'll be doing a big update in my grow journal on them and getting them up and running. I even took off a half day from work with PTO for this delivery. I plan on ordering a single bar with their veg spectrum to throw in my veg tent. I've already sold my spiderfarmer to my bro in law so he can bail on the 600 hps hes got to pay for it so why not.
Then i just got 3 of the Parafactworks 1k lights. Actually Let me just say about those. I bloomed a lot of my current grow with 2 of them over 2 plants. I know they only 115 watts each, but seriously for 65 bucks they one hell of a budget growers light. Like 2 in a 2x4 tent would be a cute set up for a new grower. And they move over well to a veg situation if needed.
 
m4s73r

m4s73r

Well-Known Member
I was so excited to talk about the lights I skipped the important part. Water looks like you got your watering down. 5% water to soil is really good.
 
vostok

vostok

Well-Known Member
Geneiac said:
Just an interesting observation I thought I would share...

I'm currently in veg of my second grow using the soil in these bins (its been recycled and my last run was the first with this soil). All bins contain the same mix of local high quality potting mix with some additional perlite. During my last grow I supplemented the soil a few times with organic dry amendments.

My last run consisted of one bin of autos and 4 bins of photos. I flipped the switch on the photos when the autos were harvested and dragged the auto bin out of the tent and let it sit in my mudroom for 3 months when the photos flowered and dried. As soon as the photos were dry and the tent was empty, I amended the soil with some organic 4-4-4 and planted the population pictured below.

Clearly, one of these bins is not like the others...and it happens to be the case that the bin that is RIPPING is the bin that was left to rest for 3 months. Seems to me that during this "resting" phase, the microbes were not resting at all, but hard at work breaking down the dry amendments that I added throughout the previous run.

The way I'm looking at this is: while amending the soil throughout the auto run, I was essentially mixing up a super soil and yeah, the plants may have benefited a little at the time, but the resting phase is equivalent to the "cooking" phase that one would include during the creation of a super soil.

Any thoughts or different points of view out there?

View attachment 4846630View attachment 4846631View attachment 4846633View attachment 4846634View attachment 4846635View attachment 4846636
Click to expand...
the current way you have these plants as in many to a pot, implies that as they grow you will remove them to their own pot later?
the truth is tho that they are in fierce competion with each other for them nutes ...so plants are gonna miss out as others will grow
way too fast for you to control later ...I'd sorth this out no

but that said you have great soil the best way to keep it so would be to take weekly recordings of air and soil temp and ph so come
the end of the month you can make a great plan worrking of that gathered info

good luck
 
m4s73r

m4s73r

Well-Known Member
vostok said:
the current way you have these plants as in many to a pot, implies that as they grow you will remove them to their own pot later?
the truth is tho that they are in fierce competion with each other for them nutes ...so plants are gonna miss out as others will grow
way too fast for you to control later ...I'd sorth this out no

but that said you have great soil the best way to keep it so would be to take weekly recordings of air and soil temp and ph so come
the end of the month you can make a great plan worrking of that gathered info

good luck
Click to expand...
Lol see post #12
 
G

Geneiac

Well-Known Member
m4s73r said:
Ok that definatly helps for sure. LOL Got a watch out of me, id like to see how they progress for sure.

I just ordered 2 x5 600s and they will be delivered tomorrow. I'll be doing a big update in my grow journal on them and getting them up and running. I even took off a half day from work with PTO for this delivery. I plan on ordering a single bar with their veg spectrum to throw in my veg tent. I've already sold my spiderfarmer to my bro in law so he can bail on the 600 hps hes got to pay for it so why not.
Then i just got 3 of the Parafactworks 1k lights. Actually Let me just say about those. I bloomed a lot of my current grow with 2 of them over 2 plants. I know they only 115 watts each, but seriously for 65 bucks they one hell of a budget growers light. Like 2 in a 2x4 tent would be a cute set up for a new grower. And they move over well to a veg situation if needed.
Click to expand...
THE FINAL COUNT DOWN

Definitely a good call going with the x5 not the x6s...from what I can tell, I think I've got more light than I need for my tent, but I'd rather that than the alternative. Shits gonna get bonkers as I try to prevent my whole crop from getting pollinated but leave a few males and selectively pollinate my favorite females. If you want to follow that project, this is the thread to follow: https://rollitup.org/t/geneiacs-breeding-thread.1045422/
 
G

Geneiac

Well-Known Member
vostok said:
the current way you have these plants as in many to a pot, implies that as they grow you will remove them to their own pot later?
the truth is tho that they are in fierce competion with each other for them nutes ...so plants are gonna miss out as others will grow
way too fast for you to control later ...I'd sorth this out no

but that said you have great soil the best way to keep it so would be to take weekly recordings of air and soil temp and ph so come
the end of the month you can make a great plan worrking of that gathered info

good luck
Click to expand...
Thanks dogg. Gonna cull about half cause they're males but who knows, could still end up with 6+ females in a bin...a bit crazy I know, but I've gotta live up to the user name
 
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