FAILURE: The Dreaded "Path"

[Guest]

Its all positive discussion joe. Thats amazing about the deer eating your ww.. I believe thc in its natural state is poisonous. It only becomes phsycoactive when heated in access of 200+ degrees and thats why we get high when burning it or cooking it in the oven. The deer must be starving. My area is terribly overpopulated with deer. Last years census revealed 45-50 deer per square mile. A number of growers in my area poison the deer that inhabit their areas. That sounds terrible but there are just so many. Usually, eliminating 3 or 4 deer can greatly elliviate the problem. ( god I hope PETA doesnt read this.) They will bait for the deer in early spring and see how many are in the general area and are regularly visiting their site. They then start supplying poison apples on a stick to erradicate the problem. When the apples remain uneaten, the problem is gone. Believe me, it hasn't damaged the population here.

Ulysses, in my book, poison is more humane than the chiken wire approach. I spent my youth trapping hides and i now fish florida regularly where i see egrets and herons trapped in fishing line just waiting for the gators. Its a terrible death to have ones leg hung. Some animals chew it off and die and others just slowly die. If you're going to kill an animal, then kill it. Dont torture it to death. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Cabinet boy]

This is my first outdoor grow ever,and was thinking about removing the path with the rest of the vegetatoin.I drop nute sticks everywhere near the plant and to the path so the other vegetation will grow big.This may be stupid,the results will tell in the end.

 

[tokinjoe]

Cabinet, actually that very idea has been discussed here and is solid. It is difficult to prevent a path right at your plant. It's easier to fert the undergrowth to encourage quick regrowth. I do it as well and it really works.

SB, I used to run a trapline as a kid. I mainly used the conibear "killer" traps after an incident with a foot hold trap. Not really humane at all if there is such a thing. I still use them on groundhogs. Put them in the hole, groundhogs comes out and he's done.

As for the deer eating my plants, we have a shitload of them but believe me they are far from starving. We have a healthy population to be sure. I still scratch my head over the deer eating the buds. I've not seen that before '06. In the picture posted above, notice the bottom branches. The deer ate the buds and the branch 3-4 of the way down. Really suprised me but moreso pissed me off. I'm not a big fan of poison apples or poison in general as many other animals eat apples but I also understand the frustration with the deer population. The property I grow on is hunted regularly in the fall. We take a lot of deer but it doesn't seem to dent them. Hence all the deer cages. My camera cord should be here in a few days and I'm going to start camo-ing my cages and will do a thread on it. Spraying is the easiest way but for all the spray I waste a shitload of paint so I roll it on. Takes time but is efficient.

 

[tokinjoe]

Cabinet, you may want to buy a bag of 34-0-0. Pure eurea nitrogen and the foliage explodes when you apply it, especially after a good rain. I carry mine in a fishermans bag that goes over my shoulder and spread it where needed. If you are using any type of container it helps to fert around that as well to hide the pots.

 

[nite]

find old fencing along rivers and creeks-always plenty around from flooding- nice and weathered-helps clean up
I've painted rolls of new chicken wire, alot of the paint fell off when I unrolled it
use slug bait-slugs are biggest killer around
tunnel into multiflora rose hedges if available, incorporate a couple ninety degree turns into your tunnel

 

[Nept]

I swing on vines, like tarzan. Simple

 

[Hovz]

On my last trip out to my plot i was walking on my path and i saw the trees move all of a sudden and an adult blackbear and a cub crossed the path about 50 feet ahead of me, they took of running as soon as they saw me though.

I use cigarette buts all around my plot to scareoff animals i also try to pee by the plants everytime i go out there, i dun know if it works but no problems so far.

 

[randy codger]

Go barefoot, Honey

 

[tokinjoe]

Hovz, be careful where you throw your cig stubs bro. LEO finds your grow there's bound to be dna on the filter. Just a thought, bro. I always throw mine in a thick bush when I'm ready to toss it. Best of luck to ya.

 

[tokinjoe]

I found this picture last night. It is very indicative of what I look for when finding the right spot to grow. To the right of the picture and over my shoulder is a blackberry patch that is damn near impenetrable. It borders a field. The left of the picture is all woods and is thick on the edge. What I have is a hole between the thick edge of the forest on the left and the thick blackberry patch on the right. Being that it's on the edge of a field, this area gets sun from approx 10 am to 7pm. The field means no trees to shade my spot and the sun tracks over the field all day. It's one of my fav's to plant in. I slip to this spot through the woods. It's all leaves on the heavily shaded forest floor and there is no greenery to flatten to form a path. I step through the thicket on one big step and I'm in my growing "hole". This is my kind of textbook spot to plant. There is also a shitload of poison oak here.

 

[tokinjoe]

This is the plant that I'm tending in the above picture. A beautiful Grapefruit. Halfway through flowering here. She was an absolute beast and very representative of her species:

 

[Trancerdancer]

I'm with ya TokinJoe! That looks one of my plots this year... the poison oak one I mentioned earlier in the thread. Excellent sun and cover in those kind of spots.


Anyone have ideas for avoiding a path up a hill? I'm tearing up a soft hillside that leads up to one of my plots... but I have to go up that way with water and other heavy items. By the end of the year its going to look like a 4 wheeler went through that way. Any suggestions?

 

[tokinjoe]

Any way you can take alternate routes Trancer? It's gonna be hard as hell to not make a cowpath uphill, especially if it's steep bro. The only other thing I can tell you is to try and lead the path off in a different direction at the top of the hill and double back. That's a tough one, man, no doubt about that.

 

[Ulysses]

I question the value of poison ivy or poison oak on the grow site being of any value whatsoever...

tokinjoe, yours is an excellent site, very similar to mine except mine is rosa multiflora instead of blackberry- sun most of the day and an impenetrable wall of thorns... I've had several successful harvests there despite deer trails all around...

However, deer ignore poison oak and people are usually too stupid to recognize it. Unfortunately, they may recognize a beautiful full blown grapefruit tree like the one you got there. Tie that baby down! Yowza!

Do you think if someone spots that thing they are going to stop and say 'Oh, look! Poison oak growing nearby! Nevermind.'

I remove/kill all poison oak. Chances are you are going to be on the site more than the rippers... Caught a wicked batch of oak last summer- pure misery.

Also, I believe leaving cigarette butts around is a form of trail.

 

[tokinjoe]

Ulysses, I'd never argue with anyone over the stupidity of the general population, however, most that have been introduced to poison oak's displeasure will quickly learn what it is and avoid it. I didn't select this spot because of the ivy, but do consider it a bonus of sorts. As for the deer, if you click on the photo of the GF plant with me standing next to it you'll see chickenwire. I removed it once my Lady started budding. Luckily the deer didn't touch it and I harvested all of it's treasure. Gotta love that grapefruit.

 

[breezy]

My patch is up a hill, too. What I have been doing is walking a "hairpin" path.
I don't go straight up the hill but make a kind of z path up. The last stretch is a bamboo stand. If I enter it from the side anyone looking up the hill from the bottom won't se any direct path to the top of the hill.

Does that make any sense?

Breezy

 

[Deaner]

This is a wonderful thread. Thanks for the information!

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

i don't know how anyone can leave tracks. i find numerous ways to get to my plots and only go out when absolutely necessary. this way you rarely have a trail. you also won't be trampling plants all the time and most will come back. anyone know what happened to silverback?

 

[microgram]

Im hoping that this will work, I walk down existing paths caused by nature and by man. My plot is 'relatively close' to an old farmers house that he still occasionally visits because he has a bunch of bee hives. I walk down this slightly over grown gravel road that's covered by a bunch of bush, up to his hives, then down a very steep and under grown ravine to the valley of death, then backup the gulleys of life, back around, and magically, im at my plot. It's about 3 quarters a mile hike, but it's fucking worth it. There are a bunch of deer in my never ending story of bullshitty hill story, but im planting on an old deer nest, more or less that hasn't been in use for at least a year if not longer. and I have it all fenced off with a mesh of fishing line. Best thing about it is the entrance, you have to hop some prickly fucking weeds, then crawl under a fallen over tree. and right there is my plot. . And a way down the creek is a fishing spot which I tend on using as a lie in case I run into the farmer one day.

 

[s13sr20det]

RIP bump