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500 Gallon Raised Bed Grow 2014

L

livefororganics

New member
Love your grow bud keep up all the hard work! I have a very similar set up. We have 6x6x4 boxes filled with vermifire along with ammendments. Constructing everything took us a long time but got it done!

I have a few questions...Did you water in the boxes at all before you transplanted and if so how much water did you use? How many gallons of water would you say you gave each plant in the beginning and how often? Are you noticing that the boxes hold a lot of the moisture and you don't need to water often?

The reason I ask is because we overwatered and I would like to know for next year a better approach than what we did. The person in charged told us how to do it even after the fact I told him numerous times about overwatering issues and the amount of water we were putting down was way to much for such a small plant in a big box. But his theory was to soak the whole box in with the plant. I said, "Ok lets do it that way since your the boss." I should have stepped up and stopped it but didn't. So I blame myself and everyone. Live and you learn!

So now its a waiting game to let these things dry out and battle root rot. We will see what happens.
:ying:
 
C

Calidude

Member
stankdank, thanks for answering my other question. how often do you feed the tea and how much? are you feeding anything else?
 
S

StanKDanK

livefororganics said:
Love your grow bud keep up all the hard work! I have a very similar set up. We have 6x6x4 boxes filled with vermifire along with ammendments. Constructing everything took us a long time but got it done!

I have a few questions...Did you water in the boxes at all before you transplanted and if so how much water did you use? How many gallons of water would you say you gave each plant in the beginning and how often? Are you noticing that the boxes hold a lot of the moisture and you don't need to water often?

The reason I ask is because we overwatered and I would like to know for next year a better approach than what we did. The person in charged told us how to do it even after the fact I told him numerous times about overwatering issues and the amount of water we were putting down was way to much for such a small plant in a big box. But his theory was to soak the whole box in with the plant. I said, "Ok lets do it that way since your the boss." I should have stepped up and stopped it but didn't. So I blame myself and everyone. Live and you learn!

So now its a waiting game to let these things dry out and battle root rot. We will see what happens.
:ying:
Click to expand...


sorry to hear about the watering and rot issues. I would get some Rootshield to help with the root rot.

I have been watering approx 40-50 gallons every 4 days and never super soaked the box and have had no runoff from the bottom. I dont think they drink more than 10 gallons a day imo. I use the finger method in the soil to see if it is moist 2 inches down then no water.
 
S

StanKDanK

keep it organic

keep it organic

Calidude said:
stankdank, thanks for answering my other question. how often do you feed the tea and how much? are you feeding anything else?
Click to expand...


I have done 2 teas this season. I added Rootshield and Actinovate for the bio/fungi. :ying: Treat your roots well !
 
C

cheezhead

Member
I have been watering approx 40-50 gallons every 4 days and never super soaked the box and have had no runoff from the bottom. I dont think they drink more than 10 gallons a day imo. I use the finger method in the soil to see if it is moist 2 inches down then no water.[/quote]

SD, I am blown away at how much you're watering at one time, but hey they look happy and solid! I suppose that the amount of light you get would be a determining factor also. I water about 10 gallons a day thus far, and if I don't water everyday, the boxes are dry two inches down. (I too use the "finger" method) I think that I may be way under watering though, but am scared of the root rot.
Wondering if you use extra perlite or pumice in those for drainage... Do you care to share your soil recipe?
 
S

StanKDanK

^cheezhead
I would be cautious of under watering your garden cheezhead. When I give compost teas to my plants I measure 10 gallons for each site and it barely wets over 50% of the entire surface and only goes and inch or 2 deep. My top layer can soak in 10 gallons really quick. I think root rot issues are caused by daily watering and not letting soil dry out. Plants dont need water daily. A good test would be if your plants are droopy from not watering for one day then you are under watering. I like to do wet/dry cycles to make the roots grow and search for water. My plants have never been droopy from under/over watering and track the sun everyday
 
C

cheezhead

Member
StanKDanK said:
^cheezhead
I would be cautious of under watering your garden cheezhead. When I give compost teas to my plants I measure 10 gallons for each site and it barely wets over 50% of the entire surface and only goes and inch or 2 deep. My top layer can soak in 10 gallons really quick. I think root rot issues are caused by daily watering and not letting soil dry out. Plants dont need water daily. A good test would be if your plants are droopy from not watering for one day then you are under watering. I like to do wet/dry cycles to make the roots grow and search for water. My plants have never been droopy from under/over watering and track the sun everyday
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. It seems that there's opinions about how much and how often. The biggest garden I've ever seen was last year. The plants were easily 14' tall and 12' wide. Said he pulled 10 a piece out of em. He watered everyday. Yes4Prop215 was saying that he waters 20-30 gallons a day per plant. I find that hard to believe though...

I added extra pearlite to my mix this year, so there's killer drainage. It's actually hard to keep them moist in this heat wave we've been getting. I'm surprised that your boxes stay moist enough for 4 days, but your mix may have higher water retention with what you used. I get 12+ hours of direct sunlight on the garden with no shading, as I laid it out so that they all would get sun at the same time and not shade one another. Everyday, the top two inches or so is really dry...there's so many factors that determine when and how much (i.e. in ground vs. above, type of soil or mix, how much sun, etc.) you got me thinking now..hhhmmm?
 
L

livefororganics

New member
StanKDanK said:
^cheezhead
I would be cautious of under watering your garden cheezhead. When I give compost teas to my plants I measure 10 gallons for each site and it barely wets over 50% of the entire surface and only goes and inch or 2 deep. My top layer can soak in 10 gallons really quick. I think root rot issues are caused by daily watering and not letting soil dry out. Plants dont need water daily. A good test would be if your plants are droopy from not watering for one day then you are under watering. I like to do wet/dry cycles to make the roots grow and search for water. My plants have never been droopy from under/over watering and track the sun everyday
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info man. Did you work up to 40-50 gallons a plant when you first transplanted into the boxes? If so how much do you think you gave them?
 
S

StanKDanK

livefororganics said:
Thanks for the info man. Did you work up to 40-50 gallons a plant when you first transplanted into the boxes? If so how much do you think you gave them?
Click to expand...


yeah I worked my way up from about 15 gallon waterings and increased as plant and roots grow. I see roots touching the edge of these pots already. I wish I could have made bigger beds but I barely have space ro get around em as is lol

I decided it was time to start lollypopping these plants today I got them cleaned up on the bottoms and added about 2 shovels of chicken shit and 2 cups of veg bat guano top dressed per site.
There was some weird rainy weather in the hills today
 
HillBilly1

HillBilly1

Active member
Veteran
But it sucks ass to go water a 3pm because you didn't
Do it at 6am. But I do like to see them begging for
Water once a week, I water daily feed every 3-5 days
But some days it's just the very outer edge for the roots
To chase water..
 
S

StanKDanK

took some pics this morning around 9am. Half the garden is in shade until 1030am,
Everything is going well on the mountain. Some of them are twice as big as others so its all about GENETICS!

It always sucks to waste a spot on poor genetics so next year I plan on using only proven winners from this crop. Live and learn.. lol

picture.php


picture.php
 
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