Rolens' No-Till Performance Tent (Reproductions, Crosses, & More!)
This thread will document my living soil performance testing, keeper hunts, pollen work, reproductions, and future crosses. The goal is to identify plants that thrive under a dialed-in, high-pressure environment and use those standouts for future breeding projects.

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Current Update: 6/17/26
Stage: Pre-Flower / Day 10 of Flower
Main Space: 3'x3'x6' AC Infinity Tent
Secondary Space: DIY 1'x2'x3' Cabinet
Main Goal: Stress-test genetics in a dialed-in living soil environment and identify future breeding stock.

Current Environment (Day/Night)

Compact Growth Chart
Legend: LST: Leaf surface temp, lights on/off. VPD: Lights on/off. DLI: Daily light integral. Dim: Dimmer setting.

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The Genetics
These are the plants currently being evaluated for vigor, structure, stress response, resin, aroma, flower quality, and future breeding potential. I don’t want to just grow plants that survive a dialed-in environment. I want plants that thrive in a living soil system.

3'x3'x6' Tent:

1'x2'x3' Cabinet

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The System
This is a 65-gallon no-till fabric bed with an EarthBox reservoir hidden inside the bottom. The goal is to combine the buffering power of a large living soil bed with the moisture stability of a SIP/wicking system.

I am currently growing in a 65-gallon, 33" x 18" round fabric pot. Inside that fabric pot is a 29" x 13.5" EarthBox Original. The EarthBox is not being used like a normal standalone EarthBox, it is sitting inside the larger fabric pot and acting more like an internal reservoir and wicking base for the whole bed. The bottom of the fabric pot is lined with a wicking mat that connects the EarthBox reservoir area to the rest of the floor of the bed. When the EarthBox reservoir is filled, water can wick outward across the bottom of the pot and then move upward through the soil. Around the wicking zone, I used a slightly wetter soil mix so moisture can move more evenly through the bottom of the bed. The rest of the pot is filled as a no-till living soil bed, giving me the larger soil volume, buffering capacity, biology, worms, mulch layer, and long-term stability that I want from a living soil system.

The EarthBox reservoir will also be oxygenated with small airstones. If roots eventually grow down into the reservoir, the goal is for that lower zone to stay oxygenated instead of becoming stagnant. So in theory, the bottom of the bed becomes almost like a mild DWC-style zone, while the rest of the root system still lives in a no-till soil environment.

I will not be filling the reservoir right away. I only plan to start filling the reservoir once the plants have had enough time to root through the bed and reach that lower zone. After the plants have grown into the bed, I will only refill the reservoir once it is empty. This should help prevent the bottom of the bed from staying too wet while still giving the plants access to extra water once they start drinking heavily.

The easiest way to picture the setup is this: It is a 65-gallon no-till fabric pot with an EarthBox reservoir hidden inside the bottom. So it is part no-till bed, part SIP, part wicking bed, and the Earthbox acts kind of like a giant super-powered olla.

The whole idea is to combine the buffering power and biology of a large no-till living soil bed with the moisture stability and convenience of a SIP system. The larger fabric pot gives me more soil volume, which means more biological activity, more nutrient buffering, more root space, and a more stable environment overall. The EarthBox reservoir gives the plants a bottom-fed water source they can tap into once they are big enough to use it.

The goal is to create a moisture gradient throughout the bed:


That way the plants can choose where they want to root based on what they need.

This setup should also make watering more forgiving. I have a tendency to overwater in SIPs when I’m adding all the extra goodies for the “super-powered plants,” so having a reservoir underneath the bed should be more forgiving and make me less prone to overwatering. Instead of constantly trying to decide if the whole pot needs water, the reservoir can supply moisture from below while the top of the bed stays more breathable.

One thing I may improve later is drilling holes throughout the sides of the EarthBox. That would let roots enter from the sides more easily and may also help water wick sideways into the rest of the bed more evenly. I’m not sure if I’ll do that yet, but it’s something I’m considering. For now, I’m excited to finally have the setup together. The goal is simple: more soil, more biology, better moisture stability, less overwatering, and a reservoir the plants can tap into once they are big enough to really use it.

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The Journey!
If ya made it this far, welcome!

My name is Rolens, and I'm an organic gardener working indoors with living soil in a 3'x3'x6' AC Infinity tent and a DIY 1'x2'x3' cabinet I created. I figured I’d take this time to start a journal to properly document all of my planned, and unplanned breeding projects and to stay true to my preferred style of growing. My previous journal was my first one here, but wasn’t properly updated and the same journal on a different forum honestly became an incoherent mess full of random lists, thoughts, details, and pictures that didn’t tell a story or emphasize how I actually grow, or what I wanted to accomplish. The community there was also not too keen on the science behind Cannabis cultivation, living soil, or KNF/JADAM style growing with ferments and LABS. So, I'm hoping by moving over here, I meet and engage with some more interested individuals. After all, who better to share seeds with?


Let’s get started with what this space is all about!

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The Philosophy
I really enjoy the scientific side of growing. Researching and studying these variables is how I believe we will truly push Cannabis and its genetics forward, using data to optimize and grow our amazing green herb as efficiently and effectively as possible. In this journal, I’ll be sharing scientific studies, research papers, theories, and methodologies, providing sources when I feel like it or when asked. It’s perfectly okay if you don’t agree with everything that happens here. Not everyone believes the Earth is round, right?

Seriously though, we will be operating on the most up-to-date and accurate information available, pushing both the plants and the research to their limits. With that comes some uncertainty, but also a lot of fun!

We'll take what works for us, and leave the rest.

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The Living Soil
While I’m very data-driven with the environment, a huge part of how I grow is also rooted in living soil, microbial processes, and soil biology. A lot of this side of my approach has been influenced by Luna Whitcomb’s work and the way she frames cultivation: not as blindly following recipes, but as understanding what the soil, biology, and plant are asking for. That distinction is important. I’m not trying to grow by dumping random “potions” into the soil and hoping for magic. The goal is to build and maintain a functional soil food web, then use inputs like compost teas, microbial brews, top-dresses, foliar sprays, ferments, amino acids, fulvic acids, castings, frass, minerals, and plant extracts as tools, not as bottled nutrient replacements.

In other words, the soil has to be alive and functional first. If the biology isn’t there, the fancy inputs are mostly eye candy. But when the soil food web is active, balanced, and properly hydrated, those same inputs can help steer nutrient cycling, plant health, vigor, resin expression, and overall quality.

I also don’t view any recipe as universal. What works in one bed, one soil mix, one watering style, or one microbial environment may not be what another setup needs. So when I reference teas, top-dresses, foliar sprays, ferments, or biological inputs in this journal, understand that I’m using them based on my soil, my observations, and the direction I’m trying to push the plants, not because I think every grower should copy the exact same thing.

The main practices I will be implementing are:

TL;DR: The environment is controlled with data, but the soil is managed as a living system.

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The Metrics
To push the plants to their limits and maximize efficiency, we will be dialing in the following:

By strictly monitoring these metrics, I believe we will easily identify the standout plants, as well as the ones that are just genuinely weak performers. My only hardware limitation is DLI, because I run a 300W light, the maximum DLI I can safely reach during flower is around 42. Also, because LED lights do not emit IR radiation like HID lights do, they don’t heat up the leaves or the surface of the buds in the same way. Therefore, leaf temps will usually run cooler than ambient temps due to evaporation and transpiration. We will be leveraging Leaf Surface Temperatures and VPD to drive photosynthesis, plant growth, and overall health.

This is where the science side and the living soil side overlap. I’m not just chasing a number on a controller. I’m trying to create the conditions where the plant can photosynthesize, transpire, feed the soil, cycle nutrients, and express itself at the highest level possible.

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The Methodology
Without getting too bogged down in the basics, here is an example of the parameters I use during the Pre-Flower stage, and why:

Target Parameters: (Day / Night)

The goal of each stage is to maximize specific hormonal and production responses. In Pre-Flower, we want to build the largest and most abundant bud sites possible to prepare for the early flower stretch. For C3-type plants like Cannabis, photosynthesis is maximized around a leaf surface temperature of approximately 83°F, resulting in faster, bigger, and better growth. However, once LST gets too high, especially around 86°F and above, we begin to see negative side effects. All of this, of course, must be locked in with the correct VPD. This is also where we will continue running a more vegetative-leaning light spectrum. The goal here is to keep the plants compact and efficient by helping reduce unnecessary stretch, tightening internodal spacing, and encouraging strong, vigorous growth before the full transition into flower. By holding this spectrum through pre-flower, we can push the plants to build as many healthy, well-positioned bud sites as possible before shifting more heavily into flower production.

As we transition into Early Flower, I lower the LST targets. At this stage, we aren’t looking for maximum photosynthesis at all costs, but rather a balance of bud building and maximum cannabinoid/secondary metabolite production, which thrives closer to an 81°F LST. This is also where we switch over to the flowering light spectrum. At this point, the goal shifts away from holding compact vegetative structure and toward supporting flower development, bud density, resin production, and overall cannabinoid and terpene expression. By moving into the flower spectrum during Early Flower, we’re giving the plants the light quality they need to transition fully into reproductive growth while setting the foundation for higher-quality finished flower.

By Mid-Flower, we shift away from vegetative expansion and bud-site production, and begin leaning heavily into cannabinoid, terpene, and resin development. At this stage, the goal is no longer maximum stretch or rapid structural growth, but controlled flower bulking, density, frost, aroma, and overall quality. This is why leaf surface temperature is brought down to 76F. Instead of pushing the higher LST targets used earlier for aggressive photosynthesis, we start prioritizing a cooler flower environment to help protect volatile aromatic compounds and reduce unnecessary heat stress during resin production. Mid-Flower is also where we hit what is considered the beneficial ceiling for growth-focused VPD at around 1.3 kPa. From here, VPD only moves higher in Late Flower and Ripening, around 1.4 and 1.5 kPa respectively, not because we are trying to force more growth, but because we are trying to keep the flower environment drier and less favorable for botrytis as the buds become denser. This is also when we finally begin widening the day/night temperature differential, or DIF. Earlier in the grow, keeping day and night leaf surface temperatures the same or very similar helps reduce stretch, increase average daily temperature, and maximize growth and bud-site formation. Once stretch is over and the plant has shifted into flower development, we can begin dropping nighttime temperatures more aggressively while maintaining a warmer lights-on period, allowing the plant to finish in a cooler, drier, more quality-focused environment.

This environmental strategy also informs how I approach the soil. If I’m pushing high transpiration, strong photosynthesis, and aggressive growth, then the soil biology needs to be able to keep up. That means I need a living, cycling soil, not an inert medium waiting for bottled inputs.

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The Biology

On the soil side, I’ll be focusing on observation first and inputs second. If the soil is active, evenly hydrated, and cycling well, I’m not going to hammer it just because a schedule says it’s “time” to feed. If the mulch layer, worms, roots, and biology are doing their jobs, sometimes the best move is simply water and patience.

When I do intervene, the goal will usually fall into one of a few categories:

So instead of looking at this like a strict feed chart, think of it more like steering a living system. The environment pushes the plant. The plant feeds the soil. The soil feeds the plant. My job is to keep that loop moving in the right direction.

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The Goal
I say all this to provide a clear picture of what we’re working with. By pushing these parameters, we will undoubtedly see some plants get stunted, yellow, die, or just generally have problems. But on the flip side, we will find the Michael Jordans, LeBron Jameses, and David Gogginses of their gene pools. That is what we are after: plants that can run the sprint their entire life.

I don’t know many growers who would aim for 90°F ambient temps in their tent during pre-flower, but if that’s what the plant needs to hit optimal LST, that’s what we give it. At the same time, I don’t want to just grow plants that survive a dialed-in environment. I want plants that thrive in a living soil system, respond well to biological inputs, push hard through flower, and still finish with strong resin, aroma, structure, and overall quality.

TL;DR: The goal is to manipulate the environment and feeding inputs to push the plants to their genetic maximum, in order to find truly strong genetics to breed with, and then create some, hopefully, amazing crosses to share with the community!

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The Extras

Soil Mix:

Equipment:
Dry Amendments:

Liquids:

Powders:

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Photo Shoot