Containers in the bush?

[MountainBudz]

A couple days ago I was out scouting for some locations when somehow I managed to stumble upon on of the best locations I think i've ever seen. It has been logged about a year or two ago and on a steep hill going off into a bluff. Pretty much the whole mountainside has been logged only the very large trees and they left tops everywhere! For almost a quarter mile I can walk along downed tops, brush and briars and never leave a trail! There are plenty of more open areas also and the small sapplings have already grown up giving good coverage with surrounding vegetation.

The whole ridge had been logged about a good half mile or so in length. I'm telling you out of my 12 years off and on of growing and in various locations and even states i've never seen a place so great and secluded. Its very versatile and I think I can get by with a good 4 dozen girls or more here spread out in different spots. The thing is, its already may 19th and I have seeds going now waiting to be sexed and clones waiting for root. So at least June 1st until i'll be getting these girls in the ground.

The problem is the labor against time. I dont care to dig at all, I love it actually but I wont have time to dig for every plant i'll have. So I thought about using containers as well. I've seen some neat digital camo grow bags from 10 gallon to a hundred and i've also considered totes or something along those lines as well. Whatever I use I shall camouflage it. My plan is in the areas where the tree tops are laying thick and everywhere, I can sit the containers between the limbs on the ground acting as a cover for the container also blocking direct sun from drying the containers as quick allowing the plant to get full sun. I can tie the branches along the limbs or something of that nature.

I'm not very experienced in guerilla growing with containers, although I have done it. I will be able to visit these about 3 times a week. I'd fill them up with promix/compost/ and water retaining crystals. What would you do in this situation? I hope to start work tomorrow!

 

[Old Spice]

Congrats MB!!!
The way you describe your find, I can tell you have spent a lot of time in the woods. You understand the cover and light the spot is providing.
You have left out any mention of a critical feature of any property: water.
Has it got any?

For me, I'd run 50 gallon containers (bags are fine, tubs from ag supply or wherever are fine, it's a freaking container)
Find a spring or other water source at the top of the hill where I would build a simple gravity feed system, then run the brown line down under the fallen trees. Drip emitters T-
Standard procedure for ripoffs (with badges or not) is to follow the water, so hide your system.

If I couldn't pipe in the water, I would really question the whole plan.
That is an assload of dirt (for one guy) to carry on your back single trackin it down balance beam trees. But you only have to carry it in once. Water is even heavier than dirt (I usually figure 7 # per gallon), and without plumbing, you will have to carry it every time.
How much water can you deliver at the top of a hill above your site in one trip?
255 gallon tote on a trailer behind a 4 wheeler?

Lotta manual work ahead.
Respect. Dont get hurt.

Regardless of water, if you are dedidcated to doing it, you don't need to decide on container type yet.
Start moving your materials into position. You'll need lots of soil carried out there regardless of if you dig or not.
I never like to start with assuming something is impossible, so I'll ask if purchase or rental of a big auger might be an option? Just looking for another kind of mechanical advantage, but when you look at the energy/cost of digging vs. a container of some sort (all else being equal, which they aren't), the container's gonna win every time.

If you consider advantages of digging, you find possible native soil that only needs to be amended, increasing your total root zone for the amount of amendments you have to carry out. Greater rootzone will also improve water holding without resorting to something like water crystals (which should only be used in an important op by somebody who has experience with them. Once you mix that crap in, you'll never get it out.)

Congrats again and all the best with your project . . . Hurry up!

 

[Featherfoot]

You say you wont have time to dig, yet I can assure you it will take way longer to carry soil in to fill containers, especially those large one's you are talking about. And it will be way harder work carrying soil in.

And as Old Spice says, WATER.

If you are going to grow in containers you will need water.
You won't be able to carry that in for the 4 dozen plants you are talking about, simply impossible.

You are going to need a close water source.
And for the number of plants you are talking about they had all better be close to the water source, in one or two patches, as you wont be able to water spread out plants from one water source.

I used to sometimes grow 50 plants in one spot, Why in the one spot? Because easier to water and look after.
I used to have a small gas powered water pump in my backpack which I would put next to the small waterhole close to my patch, and then connect it to a buried pipe which led to my patch.
Start it up and then stand in my patch holding a garden hose and water the plants like as if I was in the garden at home.

You can't do this if you have the plants spread out singly all over the place.
Simple fact is if you want to grow large numbers you have to have them all together, unless you have a mild climate with regular rainfall during summer which means you don't have to water at all.
If that's the case then you can spread them out.

But if you are growing in containers then you will have to water, no doubt about that.

I would say grow them in the ground.
If you are short of time then don't dig a big hole, just a foot in diameter and to the depth of the spade, and don't put any amendments in it.
For fertilizer use inorganic fertilizer. Lot easier to carry in a 1 kilo pack of fertilizer than bags and bags of chicken shit and cow manure and stuff and then have to dig them into the soil.

 

[Scrappy-doo]

I'd do swamp tubes, minus the swamp. Roots in the ground and no digging required.

 

[Ourobouros]

If the area is heavily forested and you plant into amended native soil, you very probably won't need to water them at all. Places that are naturally forested usually have enough in season rainfall to adequately support cannabis. Using containers in a guerilla grow situation is a really bad idea, it dramatically increases the amount of water required and therefor the work involved, which incidentally will make your plots easy to find.

Containers and irrigation are crutches people use to compensate for a poor or unsuitable site, not something you should plan on using.