High Desert Outdoor Growers Thread

Hey, folks.

I thought I'd throw this out there just in case there were some bites. I'm in a high desert region in the Southwest U.S. About 6,000' elevation. Growing season May 1 - Halloween. Nice monsoon season July 15 - August 15 most years. Pines and tons of scrub oak and low, prickly brush. Ground is mainly decomposed granite with solid granite 1-3' below the surface.

Anyway, I'm planning a nice outdoor grow here for this year and have been brainstorming with a friend concerning methods specific to this area. We're really started to get it dialed in and I wondered if others in high desert areas might be able to knock ideas around here.

I've done a lot of traveling and places like Norther New Mexico or Bend, Oregon are very similar to here in terms of climate and landscape.

If you're familiar with high desert, chime in here and as I come up with questions, we can bounce them off of one another.

.canine.

Hey canine
I don’t grow in your desert environment. But I would think if you prepare some kind of holes for decent soil and they got enough water you should produce some very fine buds and provided the local critters don’t eat em up. At that altitude and being in the desert you should have many cloudless days of intense sunshine and I know the plants love that.
Sounds like a very interesting place to grow and I think it will give you some good results. Best of luck.
Peace

Thanks, redone. Love the avatar, too.

One idea I believe is a pretty good one is this: There are many large scrub oaks and mesquite and other dense, prickly trees that are 4-5' tall and 4-5' in diameter and I'd like to try placing 10 gallon buckets into a hollowed out hole in the center. The shrub will keep any deer, rabbits, etc. out and then chicken wire around the tops of the buckets to keep itty bitty critters out. Appropriate shading to keep the buckets from cooking when the Sun's directly overhead. Uphill buried water source.

My other idea where that won't work is digging down as far as I can and then using rocks and segments of logs to create 6-8" tall raised beds. Tons of mulch over the top to keep it from scorching. Line the bottom of the beds with plastic from the bags of soil to keep water from draining so too quickly.

Carting in good quality soil is gonna be key, because the ground here is no bueno for growing anything that isn't native. And water is the big obstacle, of course. If those two things are covered, the intense, high altitude sun and darn near 100% cloudless days between May 1 and July 15 should take care of the rest beautifully.

.canine.

Con mucho gusto canine, sounds like you have all the bases coverd and should be a great grow in that killer climate. What strain or strains are you going to try? I think it would be intersting to see some super Sativa right along with a stanky Indica, you know both ends of the scale.
Peace

We did our time in a high desert environment.
The main med crop was hydro, but we put a half dozen clones outside to see how they grew.
The high altitude means it is dry. Keeping proper moisture levels was a challenge.
Direct sunlight and good composted earth you bring in will create a nice environment - and the tip about putting res in the middle of the brush is a great idea. Keep the critters out! Protect your seedlings for birds.
In theory, the high altitude should make the herb taste better and become more potent. Mountain fruits! Good luck.

Wow that's an awesome landscape. When driving across the southwest I thought it would be great for growing. I thought coir would be a great ammendment to add to the dry soil, holding lots of water and acidifying it slightly, that coupled with a good compost would work wonders methinks. Is granite pretty alkaline? You would definately need some kind of groundcover.

redone- I'll be putting out clones of Oregon 90, Cherry Bomb x MTF, Cherry Bomb x Hemingway #3 and maybe, just maybe some AK99 x M39.

A big ol' sativa would be great. The Cherry Hemingways are HUGE plants too, and a HUGE yielder... in fact the breeder warned me, "Do NOT grow the Cherry Hemingways outside" cuz they get so huge.

Case in point:



Yowsa!

IBC ST- Would love to hear more if you think of anything. June 1-July 15th here is HOT and DRY and then monsoon season runs July 15-Aug 15 or later, and during that time we consistently have sunny days interrupted in the afternoon by an hour or two of 1/2" of rain.

So, I've started to consider preparing the sites in early spring but not putting the clones out until July 1st. Otherwise, I'm going to hump so much water in June that my legs will fall off.

aeric- I haven't tested the pH of the decomposed granite, but primarily because I'm not even going to try growing in it. I've already resigned myself to the idea that I'll be humping in 100% of my grow medium and the plants will be growing in either 5-10 gallon buckets OR raised beds. I'll definitely be covering with tons of mulch to TRY to keep the soil moist as long as possible, probably cedar mulch because I've been told that the only pest problem we'll have around here are moths/caterpillars boring into the buds and that cedar mulch will help keep them away.

Thanks, everybody for chiming in... keeps me thinking creatively and hopefully will contribute to the success of my first guerilla grow. I've previously had a few outdoors at home and have seen what magic Mother Nature can work if conditions are even marginally good!

.canine.

canine,
i'm somewhat familar with a dry climate. One thing I would suggest is putting your water containers out now, so that it may be possible to collect any winter rain/snow melt. Cover this container as soon as the nasty weather stops, and as long as no light is reaching the water, it should last...Carting in water sucks! Also, check out the water crystals...they expand and hold water...can't for the life of me remember the name of them...
cg

Cascading_Green said:

canine,
i'm somewhat familar with a dry climate. One thing I would suggest is putting your water containers out now, so that it may be possible to collect any winter rain/snow melt. Cover this container as soon as the nasty weather stops, and as long as no light is reaching the water, it should last...Carting in water sucks! Also, check out the water crystals...they expand and hold water...can't for the life of me remember the name of them...
cg

Click to expand...

Thanks, C_G. You must be referring to Osmocote? I've never used it but have it on the "to look into" list. Any idea whether Osmocote would interfere with the happiness of soil microbes in a 100% organic soil mix?

We get hardly any precip here, even in the Winter/Spring. Maybe a couple inches in early Spring. But probably not enough to justify putting out water reservoirs for the winter and risking someone finding them in the meantime. Anywhere else, it would be worth doing, but it is DRY here.

I appreciate all the feedback and welcome any more, even criticisms. I'm all about aquiring some guerilla knowledge!

.canine.

Osmocote is something different, I found out. You all probably already knew that. But I know which little water-absorbing balls you're talking about.

Hey canine I have a tip my friend uses in the Santa Cruz Mtns. I know they are diff . enviros, but it should help.

Take a rope and coil it around the bottom of the holes you dig then fill the hole in leaving the rope sticking a few feet. Then when you have your plants in there put the rope that is sticking out in some jugs full of water. Wick system. He has done it for years and it makes it so he doesn't have to go to his grow more than once or twice a month.

My 2 cents
GCG

gcg- I missed this post somehow. Very interesting idea.

Do you know if he used a specific type of rope?

I'm thinking offhand of those big, square plastic 8-gallon water tanks that people use for camping and treks. Lay it on its side, wouldn't be hard to cover up. And they usually come in earth tones.

Thanks for the idea!

.canine.

Canine do not use a plastic rope it will not wick the water. I am not sure if a cotton rope would hold up or if it would deteriorate? Use a natrural fiber rope that will absorb water. He used to dig a hole and put a rubbermaid container in it. He would cover the container with brush to hide it and keep it out of the sun. I have never tried it , but my friend swears by it . He says that he only needs to go to his site once or twice a month depending on how wot it is .

As far as a link I don't know of any. My some of the old pros around here can help out with that.

The wick system is an old self watering system. It might be under hydro I don't know.

Like ried it , but a few of my friends that have been growing in the Santa Cruz Mtns. for years swear by it.

Good luck . Hope I helped
GCG

sorry for the spelling I 2 finger it now because of an accident last year . And my f@#king computer keeps starting and stopping.
GCG

No... thanks a lot, man. And if you're 2-finger typing, I'm impressed you even try at all. That would drive me nuts.

Just as an aside cuz it's a bitchin photo, here's an OD Cherry Hemingway grown by a fella named Doc Smitty last year. This will be the main staple of my OD grow this year, supplemented by a few Cherry Thunderfuck clones (both bred by rolanterroy).

Indoor the Cherry Hemingway is reported to yield 5-6 ounces off a 42" plant. Outdoors it gets so huge that rolanterroy advises against it (mold and caterpillars), though he feels that in the high desert I can pull it off.

I'm gonna try.

yo canine. Great thread.

Always been an indoor guy...but I wanna give the outdoor thing a go this year. I'm a bit farther north and a bit higher than you...so my season is very short. To be safe..July 1-Sept1...but it could go weeks on either side of that...or frost mid-summer and possibly end it all. It all depends on the year. So far this year, lots of moisture..and I'm hopin that will translate into making it a bit easier to find a place to do this. And...even though there is always a chance of frost...there are many sources of water in the area, from ground water to springs....and there are areras where the wind blows and the frost will be held off. you just have to find that perfect combination...

I have some autoflowering seeds that I'm gonna try...some Female seeds...and I'll for sure do some clones of the fastest flowering strains I have. I'd love to avoid having to sex em out there...and chop males..etc.

The dirt here varies widely in composition and pH...but we do have some good soils here and there. My approach is gonna be to go hiking a few times in the area I'm targeting (about 7,500 ft) with my Hanna digital pen...and perform some soils and water tests to determine Ph etc. When I find an area with decent soil/close proximity to water, I'll then pick a few sites. (the Ph of the water in the creek should fluctuate over the season..so the initial reading probably won't be a constant, IMO)

My first idea is to use a post hole digger and dig as deep as I possibly can....and mix a bit of organic ferts, pre-hydrated 'polymers" (those water absorbing crystals) perlite (if needed) and dolomitic lime into the soil I dig out....then put it back into the hole with the plant. My hope is that this will force/make/allow the root to go VERY deep...allowing the plant to go long periods of time between waterings.

Second approach...do all of the above...but go lighter on the polymers (bottom of the hole only..for emergencies) and install some sort of irrigation system....possibly a soaker hose....that is tapped ito the creek or a "clear well" that could be dug creekside. Another approach is some sort of overflow where you dam up the creek and try to take advantage of the afternoon storms/quick runoff by making it so a higher than normal weater level in the creek waters the plants....or an over-the-top (my dream!) solar powered/timed valve system that auto waters at preset times.

The downside to all of this...folks sometime hike along creeks...and animals tend to stay in these areas. Gonna have to be steep/nasty stuff folks go around most likely...

Got a lot of thinking to do on this myself. Lots of variables...but the 2X UV factor (vs. sea level) here has me thinking that a short flowering strain would finish..and get large and very potent if it could do so. I've also been in the are I'm thinking of quite a bit..and while I know others go there..it is fairly rare..and mostly near/during the end of the season when hunting enters the picture.

Anyway...thanks for the thoughts/thread...

d

Hey, durga. Haven't had much time lately to do the forums thang.

Your weather situation sounds harsh and tricky, man. I'd be thinking "cold frames" if I were you.

I know what you mean about the micro-micro-climates. haha. Around here, one side of a hill will be Minneapolis and the other side is El Paso, weather-wise. Gotta find that sweet spot.

I've been doing tons of hiking myself... a little late but I just got the outdoor bug this year and decided to do one up. I went out to dig up a 1-gallon soil sample this weekend, in fact. But no dice- I couldn't dig down farther than a few inches because of rock. It's going to have to be buckets for me. Maybe, maybe raised beds.

Your plan sounds pretty good. I've been liking the idea of using downed trees (about 6" diameter, 10-15' long) as "water bars" to direct rain runoff to the plants. Any kind of pump won't do for me. I'd be too worried about the noise.

Gotta run for now but still looking for ideas and inspiration!

.canine.

Wow great thread!

Lets talk Deer- They will be very aggressive toward anything soft and green in that enviroment. Second area: stealth. Spread your grow out over the area nothing else will be that color out there. I love my GPS for keeping track of locations. Water- The most time important is in the early part of the grow- transplants need consistant watering.

Maddlights said:

Wow great thread! .

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Thanks for stopping in!

Maddlights said:

Lets talk Deer- They will be very aggressive toward anything soft and green in that enviroment. .

Click to expand...

Around here we have tons of scrub oak, mistletoe, etc. These are dense and thorny bushes that come in all sizes. I have my eye on bushes that are about 6-8' in diameter and about 5-6' tall. My plan is to hollow out the middles enough to set a 5-gallon bucket inside. The shrub will keep larger animals from getting near enough to nibble AND will provide shade to the bucket. I will also drape green shade cloth across the tops of the buckets and add chicken wire cages to keep the little fellers out.

Maddlights said:

Second area: stealth. Spread your grow out over the area nothing else will be that color out there. .

Click to expand...

I'll def. be spreading my plants out with a hundred yards between them. Luckily, I have tons of space. My biggest step towards stealth has been to find a plot that is a total bitch to get to. Very mountainous and lose approach with lots of thorny brush to hack through.

Maddlights said:

Water- The most time important is in the early part of the grow- transplants need consistant watering.

Click to expand...

My clones are going out July 1st. The beauty of that for me is that monsoon season is July 15th-Sept 15th or later, and during that time we get rain every day in the afternoon. The morning is sunny and the evening is sunny, with a nice rainshower in between. So all I really need to be on top of, water-wise, is the first two weeks of July and then the homestretch before harvest.

That's how it works in my head, at least. Only one way to find out how it will work in reality. As always, I'm open to suggestions.

.canine.