Equitorial Swamp Jungle Float-Garden

[Swamp Thang]

Went to visit the garden today and was pleasantly surprised at how robust the new seedlings are looking. The grass mulch has kept the soil moist despite some ferocious sunshine this time of year, and there are no weeds poking out at all, thanks to the mulch.

Mulch : Don't leave home without it.

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The Don Lemon Glue trees are still filling out bud sites more chunky than any I have ever personally grown, and boy am I glad I visited the site today, because I got there in time to spot one top bud that was starting to rot. Cut it off, but then also decided to uproot and harvest the entire plant with extreme prejudice, since more rain is forecast, and I did not want to risk more bud dot showing up.

Here is a family picture showing that classic Xmas tree shape loading up nicely with kolas. I decided that growing when the weather is dry, is the best way to keep bud rot to a minimum, even if that means planting when daylight hours are low enough to trigger flowering at a foot tall.

Better to have short and stubby mini-trees loaded with fat colas, than much larger bushes whose buds get lashed with seasonal rains, making their buds far more likely to rot before maturity.

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Finally a couple of the shorter pygmy phenotypes of Don Lemon Glue that I have going here.

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Having spotted my first glimpse of mold, I will now be sure and visit the garden more often, and remain ready to pull down any and all plants that show any sign of bud rot.

 

[Swamp Thang]

Waded out through the murk to the grow site at midday today, after adding a top-dressing of decade-old fermented chicken manure the other day, and I must say the plants are lookin' good, with a deep green color to the foliage.

This is what is left of the Don Lemon Glue mini Xmas trees, and they are fox-tailing a bit, so I am going to leave these until all the fan leaves are a distinct yellow, before completing this part of the harvest.

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The thirteen lemon trees are really taking off now, with all but a couple already sporting multiple bud sites, even at their average height less than three feet. The smell of the newly forming buds is definitely lemony, at this point, exactly like Windex cleaning spray, and I can't wait ti see how the aroma matures during the cure.

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About a week before planting these trees out, I cut up and buried two mackerel per hole, at about a foot deep, and man these plants are thriving unlike anything I've ever planted in the past, all thanks in large part to pointers I learned right here at IC Mag, in the Outdoor Grow forum.

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[gorilla ganja]

Very healthy. Everything looks on point.

Peace GG

 

[Hookahhead]

Hey there Swamp Thang, sorry that I missed your thread up until now. I’m a tropical grower too, nothing produces bud like that burning ball up there. it looks like you have a nice patch going. It’s our dry season here now, and definitely then best time to grow if you can provide adequate water. I’m sure you’ve already figured out how quickly plants can scorch when you’re not paying attention. Careful of those caterpillars too! I’ve recently found some biological controls sold at most hardware/agro vet stores here.

 

[Swamp Thang]

Hey thanks for stopping by Hookah. I couldn't agree more about the importance of direct sunlight, now that I have seen the difference between these plants that are really out in the open getting direct sunlight all day, as compared to all that I planted in the past, using swamp tubes hidden away in tiny jungle-covered islands where the sun only reached the ground for a few hours a day.

It truly is a night-and-day contrast. Those swamp-tube plants of the past could be likened to a mild mannered Bruce Banner, while these stubby but very robust plants grown out in the open, are the Incredible Hulk, in comparison, with thicker stems, greener foliage, and fatter buds unlike any I have grown in my entire life, I kid you not.

I also agree with you that for us tropical growers, it is much wiser to time one's planting so that the harvest occurs during the dry season, whereby mold ceases to be an issue. With this grow, I have only spotted one single bud that had turned brown due to mold, and that too is in stark contrast to my past grows during the rains, when mold was a constant worry that took a heavy toll on the harvest, despite my best efforts removing moldy buds, as soon as I saw it developing.

Regarding the importance of watering, I have taken no chances, by making sure I get to the plot every other day to water the plants liberally using buckets, even though the water level of the swamp is only about five feet below the roots of the plants. Finally, the adding of some cut pieces of mackerel inside each planting hole, has made a dramatic difference in the health of these plants, and this too will now become standard practice for me in future grows.

All told, I have applied more of the growing knowledge that I learnt in the ICMag website this year, than at any time previous, with results that are, for me, nothing short of astounding. If all goes well, the harvest from this grove of mini-Xmas trees, will keep me in stock for a year or more, before I need to plant again.

Once I discovered the use of a hydraulic press to compact buds, before vacuum-sealing the resultant pucks for long term storage, I was able to eliminate the worry of mold on stored buds, entirely.

@Gorilla Ganja, your reminder to top-dress the plants, was worth its weight in gold, because the plants really bulked up when I top-dressed the plants using some very old fermented chicken manure, so a vote of thanks is certainly in order there, sir.

 

[Swamp Thang]

When the grow season is so short due to an October planting out date for these mini-lemon trees right close to the Equator, it ends with a whimper and not a bang.

The good news is that I have another batch of identical lemon seedlings that can take the place of these trees as they all get the chop over the next couple of weeks.

The trees are filling out nicely, but with a few tiny spots of mold and spider webbing on some buds that I originally hoped to leave longer before harvest, it was another day of long knives at the grow site, as I put the proverbial chainsaw to my miniature buds-on-a-stick.

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This is about the average height of these plant, and stood only a hair taller than the pruning shears ha ha. Tiiiimmmberrrrrr !

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Hopefully with the top colas sacrificed for scientific analysis, the lower branches of the surviving trees will yield fatter colas.

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It'll be interesting to see how my new seedlings will do with a December plant date, so close to the Northern Hemisphere's shortest day of the year.

 

[Hookahhead]

Do you get any veg time where you’re at? If I start seeds indoor under 18/6, and move them out 2 weeks later they don’t put on a lot more growth and hit flower less than 1.5 ft high. Kinda the same thing If I only give them 4 weeks... at 6-8 weeks of veg we get a nice 3ft-5ft shrub. Sadly the tiny plants don’t do well with mold because they are closer to the ground. If I start them outside they only get to 2-3ft, but fill out much more.

Genetics is definitely a factor, and wispy sativa buds do better with the mold. Sadly airy buds can still get mold, and they are not as fun to show off. Is there any local/traditional cultivation where you are?

That 12/12 tropical sun is both a blessing and a curse. When’s your rainy season start?

 

[Swamp Thang]

There is no indoor veg time here, with artificial lighting out of the question, and also because of the risk in setting up a long-term weed nursery at home, so I basically germ the seeds, and keep them for a bare minimum couple of weeks in plastic cups sitting under mosquito netting in the sun, until they are about two nodes tall, and then it is off to the grow site with them.

This mention you made, that shorter plants are more prone to mold, is something I have never encountered before, but it does make sense, given that air circulation will be poorer down where the foliage is thicker. Fortunately there are no rains at all this time of year, so the incidence of mold has been much lower than when I had plants go to flower during the tropical rainy season in past grows.

Still and all I carefully look over each flowering plant whenever I go to water them, and when I spot even a trace of mold, I start taking colas off that tree, starting with the moldy one that I slice off and discard far from the site.

Despite their less than impressive size, these midget plants have been surprisingly productive in comparison to my past grows where mold was so much more of an issue. I've got a few ounces of lemon bud already, dried then compacted with a car jack into pucks that get vacuum sealed, for storage and long-term cure in water tight containers stashed down at the swamp, to keep my residence forensically clean at all times he he.

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A puck this size runs about 67 grams which is over two ounces, in that small package, and once vacuum sealed, the weed remains potent over months. I found that chunks of these pucks take a very long time to burn in a joint, due to that extreme density.

 

[gorilla ganja]

Very cool. Can you show us what you use to make those pucks?

 

[Hookahhead]

Wow man, sorry to hear about your apparently severe cannabis laws. Props to you for having the nerve to do it, and sorry that you have to go to those lengths to acquire good medicine. Fortunately for me, I live somewhere a decent bribe will get me out of trouble, and there wouldn’t be any trouble at all if this was my birthplace. I’ve had nothing but very positive interactions with the local police. Under our law, personal grows are allowed, but there is no definition as what constitutes a personal grow. Yet somehow all the local weed is shitty import.

Keep up the good work brother and stay safe!

 

[Swamp Thang]

Very cool. Can you show us what you use to make those pucks?

I actually borrowed the idea of the weed compressor from the maker of this contraption called the Jack Puck Press, that sells for the insane amount of $700.

I simply handed a few pictures of this device to a buddy who operates a machine shop, and he, ahem, copied it, at a cost of about $50 to me, including the cost of a new 3-tonne car jack.

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The above picture shows the device closed and ready to compress.

Below is the open compression cylinder

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There sits a coin-shaped "piston", sized perfectly to the cylinder diameter, and sitting on top of the jack's "connecting rod", such that the content of the cylinder is compressed by the full 3 tonnes as the jack is operated, resulting in a puck that feels like a piece of wood, and once vacuum sealed, will store with zero mold concerns for as long as one desires.

Having tried to store weed long term loose in an air-tight container, with no success, I arrived at this idea after reading up on Tanwena's thread about the Malawian cob making method, which I then decided to "mechanize", for better air expulsion, and mold prevention during long term storage.

The icing on the cake is that weed stored in this way does ferment a little, due to residual moisture in the bud before it was compressed, and that fermentation yields tastes and highs that improve with time, all the while with no mold worries at all.

@Hookahead I hear ya about the importance of oiling the wheels of progress with the local constabulary, where this is permissible, and if I did one day run into local cops while "in possession", that option is one that I would immediately explore. For good public relations, in the meantime, I do keep a couple of the town's finest on a modest retainer, just in case I need their help down the road, as it were ha ha.

 

[gorilla ganja]

I like that press. Thanks for sharing, maybe I can find a friend to make one up for me.

What is the longest you have stored a puck for?

 

[Swamp Thang]

Thus far my longest storage was about 6 months, but I am sure that a properly vacuum sealed puck that was reasonably dry when sealed, could last a year or two with negligible loss of THC payload.

Varying the amount of moisture left in the harvested buds prior to compaction, will in turn vary the degree of fermentation that occurs, and I can thank the IC Mag Oracle of Malawian cob making, Tangwena, our man on the scene down under, for this storage technique which I haven't encountered anywhere online besides the IC Mag forum, till date.

 

[Swamp Thang]

Well I just cut down the last two of my lemon flavored mini-Xmas trees, and all told, my small grow netted one pound weight ( half a kilogram) of fragrant herb buddage, that is now curing, in highly compressed and vacuum sealed pucks, kept in waterproof containers, and buried just below the dry-season water line deep in the swamp, where they shalt remain, until such time as the stash on hand runs out and a routine top-up is in order.

Along the way this year, I learnt one very important lesson among several, which is that anyone living in the tropical belt of this planet, in a location even one degree NORTH of the Equator, should NEVER plant any beans AFTER the Winter Solstice of December 21st, when the Northern Hemisphere's daylight hours are at their shortest.

After seeing how well my grow did when planted in October 2019, I bought more beans, popped them in late December 2019, but then, to my dismay, observed a very slow rate of growth of the seedlings, and very short inter-node distance, in comparison to the SAME seed strains that I planted just a couple of months earlier, in October 2019.

Today, I looked closer at my seedling nursery, as I prepared to transplant them to the grow site, and that was when I noticed that the tiny, 3-inch seedlings were all going to flower VERY prematurely, contradicting the conventional wisdom that suggests weed growers living on or close to the Equator, can plant out any time of the year they please.

So the upshot of this test result is that the best time to plant for EVERYONE who plants weed even one degree NORTH of the Equator, remains that time tested date of April 20th, or 4.20, in official parlance.

Well the fat lady just sang, so it is over and out on my modest 2019 lemon scented grow, with many thanks to the grow meisters who offered timely advice along the way.

I'm a happy camper for sure, with a hair over one pound of top shelf weed stashed away safely in the swamp, at a location known ONLY to the monkeys, the crocs and the 'skeeters ha ha.

 

[gorilla ganja]

Well done. Always new lessons to learn, but I think you did a splendid job this season.

Peace GG

 

[Swamp Thang]

Well done. Always new lessons to learn, but I think you did a splendid job this season.

Peace GG

Gorilla Ganja, that wise recommendation from you, that regular top-dressing continue till early flowering, added some noticeable bulk to the final harvest I reaped here, and for this I owe you a beer sir.

This year's harvest from my swamp grow, sited out in the open with no nearby trees, has been the largest, most potent, and most free of mold ever, in comparison to all my previous grows that were planted in swamp tubes located in small island forest clearings where the sun only reached the ground for a few hours daily.

Those extra hours of sunlight really boosted the harvest well beyond my modest expectations. Since 100% of my grow is for my selfish personal consumption, this one-pound strategic reserve of high quality lemon flavored cannabis ought to last for a year or more, while curing in those vacuum bags ever so slowly over time.

That'll be enough idle rambling from me for now, ha ha.

Long live ICMAG and the seasoned grow gurus that generously share their wealth of knowledge, enabling novices like me to bumble along with far less trial-and error, thus making possible a decent harvest, that is in my case, 100% organic.

 

[CrushnYuba]

Did i miss it? What are the swamp tubes made of? Do they totally float?

 

[Swamp Thang]

Apologies for the misleading title, Yuba. When I started this thread a few years ago, I was using swamp tubes in standing water, and there are several pictures showing that setup at the start of this thread, but yes, those tubes do date back several years.

The only reason I revived that old thread, is that I found myself unable to start a new thread, probably due to some glitch in my computer, and that in turn forced me to revive this old thread with a slightly misleading title, that was actually used in reference to my grows from past years.

 

[Maria Sanchez]

Great work! Enjoyed your adventures.
Can't wait to see what you'll be growing next.

 

[Frogger]

Ahoy there fellow mariners. Once again it is time to weigh anchor and set sail for new lands. This year's voyage takes us deep into the heart of a tropical rain forest swamp labyrinth, where narrow meandering creeks link hidden lagoons, while monkey calls echo between the trees that fringe a garden that floats, levitating above the brown swirling waters soon to rise another foot, before the last of this season's thunderstorms has rumbled past.

My last grow show was over 5 years ago, so I figured I might as well share this year's small effort with y'all.

These plants are only just starting out in the tropical rainy season here, so that I can be sure of dry weather by the time they go to bud right about Christmas time.

This first lot of pictures are to more to show off my swamp tube construction skills, and my swamp survival planter camoflague techniques, but there'll be more shots as the plants start to take on some character. Construction details of my patented "invisible" swamp tubes are of course a closely guarded trade secret heh heh.

Over the coming weeks, long after most growers living north of the Equator have pulled down this year's harvest, I hope to update this thread with some bud shots, and maybe a few pictures of the monkey's that gather to observe my water-gardening exploits.

My line up this year is an all Sativa showdown, featuring some heavyweights like Malawi Gold, South African Kwazulu, Kenyan Kilimanjaro, along with some pure landrace Thai weed, and Hawaiian Maui Waui.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you'll visit this thread now and then as I post more updates, hopefully with less blurred pictures next time ha ha.

The ancient Mayans used to have floating gardens in the swamps might be something you wanna look into