Letters to Rev – Organic Cannabis Growing Styles

Welcome to today’s Letters to Rev regarding organic cannabis growing styles. The takeaway from today’s first question essentially, is to not instantly think deficiency when an issue shows itself (expresses). Think genetics; or deficiency due to “feeding” your plants with bottled nutrient elements.

Trying to fix/goose-up/dose your soil with single elements—even all naturally—is almost always a bad course to take. Having a good soil that is made from diverse organic matter is the key. Then, don’t fuck it all up with bottles or teas, or anything not in its natural form like elixirs, blasters, nectars, honeys, or sweeteners etc. Just add good water and use top dressings wisely. This will keep you leveraging Mother Nature’s strengths and avoiding the synthetic mindset’s weaknesses.

The second question today is regarding no-till in containers and TLO. No-till, like organic growing styles differ vastly in their implementation styles. TLO is organic for sure, but even more importantly TLO is a true all-natural organic growing style. No bottles, no high PPM teas. Just add water baybee, and recycle everything but the resin. Keep it that simple and you will rock.

Alright then earthlings, let’s rock and/or roll with today’s “Letters” to Rev…

Organic Cannabis Growing Styles Question #1: Hollow Stems?

FROM: Dankstar, Encinitas, CA

“Rev, can you clear me up about hollow cannabis stems, like are they a genetic thing or a deficiency of some kind? Someone told me it was a boron deficiency, another told me it was a carbon deficiency. Please bring some order to my confusion. Thanks in advance.”

Rev’s Answer to Q1

Howdy. I do not know myself what is deficiency-related to the hollow stem expression in cannabis, and the reason why I don’t know is because I really don’t have to care, heh heh. Lemme ‘splain… Now, I’m a cannabis breeder so I get to see a lot of expressions. I have seen plenty of expressions that are related to certain deficiencies for sure, however, here’s why you don’t have to really care either…

As long as you are growing all naturally in living soil, and you are basically just using good water, you won’t have any deficiencies. If your plants (various individuals) are all expressing a problem that is similar, just get a soil test to find out what you may be in need of adding. If I see a hollow stemmed plant—which are often very potent plants—I don’t think deficient, I think “individual.” What I mean by that is plants are all different like peeps are all different. Plants have very different abilities when it comes to: ACQUIRING, STORING, and METABOLIZING various nutrients.

Potassium, calcium, and phosphorous, are three examples of nutrient elements I see big differences in, regarding plants’ abilities to get, make use of, and store. The bottom line here is, if you are growing some plants and one or a few have hollow stems, don’t think deficient, think genetics, and you will have a much easier go of it, while having your eyes opened to “plant personalities” LoL.

Organic Cannabis Growing Styles Question #2: No Till?

FROM: Bill, La Mesa, CA

“Good day Rev. I understand no-till growing in the ground fairly well. My question is about no-till growing in containers. Is it compatible with TLO style growing? Could you also just explain to me what the rules are for no-till growing in containers? Thank you. Can’t wait for the next book.”

Rev’s Answer to Q2

Quite a heavily complex question Bill, heh heh. Let me start by saying that if you look at ‘ORGANIC’ growing, and/or ‘NO-TILL’ growing, you will see a lot of different styles/methods within those labels. Some organic or no-till growers use liquid organic (bottled) nutrients to feed their plants, relying very little on the living soil. Indeed, they are just fucking up the whole equilibrium of the living soil. With no-till growing, in containers, you have one big fat physical law to deal with. The law of return…

That law is easy to understand. You need to replace the nutrients to the container that the plant has used up growing and flowering; because in no-till you keep your old used soil and rootballs in place for the next round in their containers. Many no-till growers use the same root ball/soil for several runs before using new soil. It seems counterintuitive in containers to me as well Bill; however, I think it is the only way to grow outdoors in the ground, or in raised beds.

TLO is organic growing for reals, but it is also a true all-natural organic cannabis growing style. You rely almost totally on the living soil to feed the plant. No unnatural concentrations of things not found in nature, like concentrated organic acids. These acids, in these insanely concentrated forms, actually obliterate the power of your living soil. High PPM levels in organic teas are also damaging to the living soil’s equilibrium.

TLO & No-Till Combo

My short answer to TLO and No-Till is, sure. I can see pulling it off all-naturally by using top-down (top dressing and mulching), and Micropond (see link below); both are TLO styles. I would use harvested cannabis plants’ stems all chopped up for my mulch, and I would lightly top-dress often with primo compost or worm castings. Alfalfa, bird/bat guano, and shellfish (crab) meal for top dressing and Micropond applications. I would also use TLO spikes in the old containers, before placing in the new plant. The old roots will actually supply a decent amount of nutrition just to start out with. And the spikes will be there before any new roots will, so that’s all good.

Afterword

Here’s a link to my Micropond article here at SKUNK: TLO Micropond Growing Style 2021 – Skunk Magazine. This style along with top dressing and spikes I think would work fine if combining no-till with TLO. Just don’t “feed your plants” with anything in a bottle, and you should be fine. I haven’t done this myself, but I am highly confident it would work as long as you understand what an all-natural organic growing style is. Grab a copy of my book Rev’s TLO 2nd Edition on Amazon and get a broader look at this wicked cool style that recycles everything, including your soil and roots, and all you have to do is just add water—boom!

Looking for some uber healthy and hearty potent cannabis plants? Check out Kingdom Organic Seeds to start your adventure with some killer seeds, yeah? That’s a wrap for today amigos. Catch ya all on the flip-flop next week for another article here at SKUNK by yours truly. L8r G8rs…

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