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Cep's Outdoor Odyssey

C

Cep

Hey outdoor plant people. This is my third go at this property with every year seeing improvement. I owe a lot to icmag and the knowledgable growers who share information freely. Hopefully I can share as well.

Last year I had such nasty weather and struggled to finish plants that went into October. I did, however, find an early finisher called Odyssey. All I know is that I was told that it came from Oaksterdam originally. A sweet smelling catpiss/afghan cross that finishes quick (Sep 24ish). Since I can't do a light dep due to all the traveling I have to do in the summer I hope to pull off an early season with this girl.

Pics from last year:
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This was done in native soil that was amended to Albrecht ratios (70% Calcium, 15% Magnesium, 5% Potassium, 10% Hydrogen) with a bunch of inputs including bone meal, feather meal, soybean meal, gypsum, 2 tons of free spent coffee from starbucks o_0, rock phosphate, kelp meal, etc.

The plants were healthy most of the season until they started mining the subsoil. In order to avoid that I'm bringing in more soil and using more evenly spaced drip irrigation.

Soil samples were taken today to see how things have changed after the three feet of rain I've seen since I chopped the last round.

Top 8-12 inches:
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Next 8 inches of subsoil just to see whats down there (notice it's basically clay):
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All the cores get pooled for a representative sample of the whole row:
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Test results come in about 4 business days, hopefully they aren't too off balance. I'll post them of course and how I plan to amend it.
 
theJointedOne

theJointedOne

Well-known member
Veteran
subd,

beautiful plants and a wonderful setup.

Thanks for sharing/teaching us too. Pics AND words make the best threads.

Ive sampled the Odyssey, and have heard it does well outside. Thats awesome that you found something that works for you. Have you tried any other early finishing clones? Ive grown a few out and each has there goods and bads to em.

Thanks again for sharing.

Im curios how you adjust your soil ratios? That may seem like a dumb question but im curious how, once you know what your soil is lacking, you remedy the problem? How do you know how much of each amendment to input in order to achieve your desired ratios? I came up with dudes that taught me to ammend, but they never got the soil tested ect, it was more of goin on a prayer and a wish and luck ect. Id like to get away from that mind set and move towards something more reliable/accurate/proven. If you dont mind sharing its much appreciated.

thanks
 
S

soil margin

Active member
Veteran
Beautiful looking plants man. You'l have to explain to me how you worked out the free spent coffee from starbucks. I love composting coffee grounds and using it as a soil amendment. Free nitrogen is too good to pass up.
 
B

Buddah Watcha

Well-known member
Veteran
Hey CEP, seems like you got a solid grow planned out! What is the name of that instrument that you use to collect soil?

Would be very helpful to see the soil analysis and your methodology to improve on it! Plese share!

Best of luck this season!
Peace!
 
C

Cep

@TJO
The Odyssey is pretty good smoke. A very hardy plant too: I put her in late (July 10ish), got half her stem chewed off by a gopher mid flower, weathered the shit September I had and still put out 1.7 lbs. The colas are long, dense stacks.

The amendments are calculated based on lbs/acre for the top 6" of soil if I remember right based on numbers the lab provides. An acre is 34,560 sq ft and you might need a ton of lime/acre for example. You would find the sq footage of your grow (mine are in 7' x 100' rows, 8-12" deep) and adjust accordingly:

1 row = 700 sq ft/ 34,560 sq ft = .02 (2%)
.02 x 2 (12" instead of 6") = .04 x 2000 = 80 lbs of lime into one row

I don't think I'm going to get lab results with suggestions this time. I'm was really close to where I wanted to be with numbers that I think if I'm able to see what the base cation saturation is I'll just throw another ten lbs or so of whatever in there. If its way off with this current test I'll be doing the math though.

@Soil Margin
Starbucks has a "grounds for gardens" program where they back up the spent stuff and give it to gardeners that come in. I had a route through the city planned and would get around 300 lbs a day sometimes. It was becoming a hobby and the employees were recognizing my vehicle and prepping the bags ahead of time haha. Spent grounds are a 2-1-1 amendment and up the o matter in your soil as well. They also only cost you gas money.

@Buddah
It's a corer from Forestry Suppliers Inc. It's not absolutely necessary for sampling but I just wanted to try it. It works really well for more solid soils and was good for the field initially (hard soil/grassland).
 
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N

northstate

Member
ICMag Donor
Cep, Good luck this season in a challenging grow environment and your work is impressive and motivating me to bust out just a little bit harder to keep up! Raising the bar for sure and thanks for sharing your soil knowledge so freely.
 
V

vostok

Active member
Veteran
Are you putting in chicken / gopher wire under the rootballs to prevent gopher attacks...?
what other pest prevention methods you use ...?
 
C

Cep

vostok said:
Are you putting in chicken / gopher wire under the rootballs to prevent gopher attacks...?
what other pest prevention methods you use ...?
Click to expand...

Yep, I'll make some basic baskets this year because of the problems I had last season. When I was actively fighting them I ended up spreading chili paste onto the stems. They came back the next night, took a few visible bites and opted not to keep chewing! The dogs also got a few, but cages will give me more peace of mind this year.

FWIW gas bombs, flooding, sonic emitters don't work that well. Trapping is effective but you have to be good at it and my time is better spent with the plants.
 
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V

vostok

Active member
Veteran
Progressive Photos of the grow would be great Cep...!
..is the wooden frame work totally necessary ..?
 
C

Cep

@D.B.
Diesels usually have longer flowering times. I ran NYCD a few years back and was only able to finish her because of a perfect season (dry until Oct 15). If I ever get to deppin I'll play with those again.

@Vostok
Pic frequency will pick up as the season does. So far just vegging stuff out. Also, the wooden frames aren't necessary. I had a bunch of 12' 2x4's to use in stead of t-posts and fixing hortinova trellising to the frames will be my added plant support. I thought I might use the top of the frame for plastic cover at some point.

This was the Odyssey mom before she got chopped up:
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I did till in the straw from last year. I did this mainly as an attempt to drop the N count in my soil. It was around 200-250ppm, one bed I think tested above 300ppm. I want it between 50-100. To help breakdown the straw I used Biodigester (Tainio Technology).

I've also been experimenting with other Tainio products. Used some spectrum for a custom indoor mix the other day:
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Off to the tropics for a week!
 
C

Cep

Current soil results are in:
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Samples labelled "Veg" and "Rows" are where the business will be happening. I'll need a little more Magnesium and Boron. I have some leftover blood and feather meal to bring the Nitrogen up. I'm happy overall with the numbers as last year many things were too high. Too much N and way too much Sulfur (800+ ppm) from using a bunch of gypsum.

Cover crops were put in and I'll prob work the soil again late May. The main goal this season is to keep the roots out of that subsoil.
 
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C

CaliGabe

Good luck this year. I'm expecting your grow to be pretty awesome :biggrin:
 
C

Cep

Update

Update

Even though my soil analysis numbers are close to where I wanted them, a few things could be improved: Organic matter, CEC, and micronutrients. I've decided to adjust this with compost and rock dust. Last week I had three local compost samples analyzed, here is what I found:

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Sample 1 and 2 are straight composts from different companies in the area and are similar enough in composition that I would guess they are coming from the same place. Sample 3 is a mix offered by the same company that makes 2 but they charge $15 more per yard for it. It looks like added lime and aggregate, not worth the added $15/yard imo. I guess the lesson here is that the $50 spent on analysis is saving me money if I buy mix #2 and till in some lime.
 
C

Cep

The starts are vegging away. I'll move them into a small cold frame with supplemental light soon for a week, then into the rows.
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It looks like this year I'll be using products from Biological Advantage, a subsidiary of Advancing Eco Agriculture. The products focus on establishing healthy microbial populations in the root zone and also on foliage. My goal this year is to separate my rows into test treatments. One with my old methods, one with the new products, and one as a control. All rows are same dimensions, irrigation set up, soil mix, etc. Should be interesting.
 
C

Cep

@Caregiver
I have to know what's in my soil. I want to get as close to ideal as possible and it also saves money in the long run. I think there are many growers who are adding unnecessary amendments if they don't know whats already in their mix. On the flip side there are many pre bagged soils or bulk mixes that are overloaded. I think you might have seen in the GG4 thread but TGA Supersoil is a prime example of an overloaded mix:
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So many growers are paying a premium for bad soil.
 
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