I sure do wish BackCountry was still around for this discussion. He's been our watering expert here on Ic for years and before that at OG. His absence is a gapping hole in our knowlege base and i miss his wisdom and kindness and insight.
I wanted to post this up for the guerillas living and growing in the midwest, east or southern US where the soil is limestone based and food and feed crops are regularly grown, and for those that spend all of August and September carrying gallons of water. Very often the soil in these areas will grow large cannabis plants without doing anything at all to it,. Hemp was grown in these areas in the past and if hybrids go to seed , volunteers come up next spring and grow. Cannabis will self- sow here if left unatended.
But like many, for years ive modified my planting holes with lots of compost and orgnic material. But 3 years ago i observed something that made me believe that this practice has been a huge mistake and has resulted in much more work for me with reduced outcomes at harvest time.
Let me explain.
I had some extra plants so i planted them in a spot that was remote but had decent soil. Not much care given. They were healthy and grew well, but when August came and the rain left, another story was revealed.
My main crop, (plants in the organic holes), started showing water stress so i began to carry 3 gallons per plant every 4 days. After a few weeks, i went to the remote sight to water those plants and suprisingly, they didnt seem to need water yet. Over the next 60 days, i had to water the plants planted in modified organic soil every few days, but i only had to water the plants planted in native soil once every 7-8 days. The plants in native soil NEVER wilted, but the plants planted in loose organic soil would wilt the next day if they missed their watering and temps were in the 90's..
Bottom line: The loose, rich black soil looses moisture through evaporation at almost twice the rate as the heavier, clay bearing native soil. While my deep rich soil drains very well, that looseness also alows the heat to evaporate the moisture back up through the hole quickly and that is a big deal for those that have to carry all of their water.
So for the past 2 years ive watched closely the 2 groups: 1/2 of my plants in organic holes and 1/2 in unmodified,(just ferts and lime), natural soil and recorded the results. Without exception, the organically modified holes have required almost 2X the water and the hotter it got, the more they needed while the plants planted in native soil needed less and suffered less. Yeild between the 2 grows has consistently been 15% less in the modified holes than the weed i recieve from the plants planted in native soil. I believe the reduced yeild is caused by moisture stress.
TEST IT YOURSELF. Buy 2 litlle moisture meters. Stick one in your deep rich organic hole and one in the native soil. The organic hole will disply a "dry" reading much faster than the clay based native soil .
Ive spent the last month digging the rich soil out of my guerilla holes and replacing it with native soil. Ive spent years working my ass off without realizing that i was creating a great deal of work for myself without really seeing any benefit at all from it..
Just one other note. For both years of the test, i have taken a few large buds, (same strain) from the plants grown in the rich organic soil and the buds grown in native soil that were fed with chemicals. I havent encountered a single person that can tell me which buds are which unless told, nor have i found a person that can smoke the weed and tell me which was grown orgainically and that grown with no organics.
I think i probably should have paid more attention to the fact that the farms around here raise hundreds of acres of corn, sunflowers , tobacco and soybeans without ever modifying their soil or irragating
Food for thought.
I wanted to post this up for the guerillas living and growing in the midwest, east or southern US where the soil is limestone based and food and feed crops are regularly grown, and for those that spend all of August and September carrying gallons of water. Very often the soil in these areas will grow large cannabis plants without doing anything at all to it,. Hemp was grown in these areas in the past and if hybrids go to seed , volunteers come up next spring and grow. Cannabis will self- sow here if left unatended.
But like many, for years ive modified my planting holes with lots of compost and orgnic material. But 3 years ago i observed something that made me believe that this practice has been a huge mistake and has resulted in much more work for me with reduced outcomes at harvest time.
Let me explain.
I had some extra plants so i planted them in a spot that was remote but had decent soil. Not much care given. They were healthy and grew well, but when August came and the rain left, another story was revealed.
My main crop, (plants in the organic holes), started showing water stress so i began to carry 3 gallons per plant every 4 days. After a few weeks, i went to the remote sight to water those plants and suprisingly, they didnt seem to need water yet. Over the next 60 days, i had to water the plants planted in modified organic soil every few days, but i only had to water the plants planted in native soil once every 7-8 days. The plants in native soil NEVER wilted, but the plants planted in loose organic soil would wilt the next day if they missed their watering and temps were in the 90's..
Bottom line: The loose, rich black soil looses moisture through evaporation at almost twice the rate as the heavier, clay bearing native soil. While my deep rich soil drains very well, that looseness also alows the heat to evaporate the moisture back up through the hole quickly and that is a big deal for those that have to carry all of their water.
So for the past 2 years ive watched closely the 2 groups: 1/2 of my plants in organic holes and 1/2 in unmodified,(just ferts and lime), natural soil and recorded the results. Without exception, the organically modified holes have required almost 2X the water and the hotter it got, the more they needed while the plants planted in native soil needed less and suffered less. Yeild between the 2 grows has consistently been 15% less in the modified holes than the weed i recieve from the plants planted in native soil. I believe the reduced yeild is caused by moisture stress.
TEST IT YOURSELF. Buy 2 litlle moisture meters. Stick one in your deep rich organic hole and one in the native soil. The organic hole will disply a "dry" reading much faster than the clay based native soil .
Ive spent the last month digging the rich soil out of my guerilla holes and replacing it with native soil. Ive spent years working my ass off without realizing that i was creating a great deal of work for myself without really seeing any benefit at all from it..
Just one other note. For both years of the test, i have taken a few large buds, (same strain) from the plants grown in the rich organic soil and the buds grown in native soil that were fed with chemicals. I havent encountered a single person that can tell me which buds are which unless told, nor have i found a person that can smoke the weed and tell me which was grown orgainically and that grown with no organics.
I think i probably should have paid more attention to the fact that the farms around here raise hundreds of acres of corn, sunflowers , tobacco and soybeans without ever modifying their soil or irragating
Food for thought.
