GG 2015

[The_Core]

Seeds are starting to come up. Finally. 1 out of the 2. The second plot was raped by the weather and slugs. I will most likely have to replant that entire bed.

Moved 6 buckets and some soil. I have to move around 15 more and soil.

I started 40 seeds from reg strains so I am thinking 20 will be female. So we will see how it works out.

 

[Bradley_Danks]

Top cover like weeds is good for the microbes. Barren soil or uncovered soil is not. All my outdoor spots have their soil covered with either bark mulch, bark nuggets, fallen leafs, straw, hay, or a native top cover of weeds. I keep the weeds trimmed down that's all. All natural like an old growth forest . If you lasagna compost year round on your spot the microbial activity will begin to transform your clay into soil. In my opinion years 3-5 after lasagna composting is when the plot starts to be super charged.

 

[Kygiacomo!!!]

Top cover like weeds is good for the microbes. Barren soil or uncovered soil is not. All my outdoor spots have their soil covered with either bark mulch, bark nuggets, fallen leafs, straw, hay, or a native top cover of weeds. I keep the weeds trimmed down that's all. All natural like an old growth forest . If you lasagna compost year round on your spot the microbial activity will begin to transform your clay into soil. In my opinion years 3-5 after lasagna composting is when the plot starts to be super charged.

i was always wondering why at my old spots i been using for years that each spring when i would go back to the spot to put more potting mix in the soil that it would be full with worms and night crawlers. i also mulch the hell out my spots during the grow and after i pull the last plant out and that soil is so soft that i dont even need a mattock to dig in it..i can litterly open the hole back up with my bare hands,now i know why

 

[Xorc420]

Nice man, how much litres capacity have the buckets got? Good luck with your season.

 

[The_Core]

Nice man, how much litres capacity have the buckets got? Good luck with your season.

10 Liter buckets. I know its not alot of soil but its going to have to work. I have to save some more money before I can buy the larger tubs. They are much more expensive. These buckets were only like 1.20 USD a piece.

The tubs are 15 dollars a piece. Not so bad but when you need 40 it adds up. That is what, 600 dollars?

 

[Featherfoot]

I did 50 litre pots last outdoor season, and I had to water once a week in summer.
And they were late planted seedlings so they didn't grow to full size.

With 10 litre pots you are going to need to water everyday.
And if you miss a couple of days in summer due to illness or some other drama then your plants may die on you.
You don't have much leeway there.

I would say use fewer but larger pots. Don't go anything less than 50 litres.

What I did with my 50 litre pots was in the bottom 1/4 or a bit more of the pot I mixed a fair bit of vermiculite in with the potting soil and perlite.
Then the rest of the pot was filled up with a mix of potting soil and perlite with just a little bit of vermiculite.
Vermiculite holds a lot of water so I put a fair bit of that in the bottom part of the pot to be like a water reserve.
I also mixed a couple of handfuls of lime in the potting mix, as when potting soil breaks down, which it does fairly quickly, it turns acidic, so the lime is to raise the ph, make it more alkaline.

Another tip with pots is to scrape out a shallow depression in the ground about 6 inches larger than the circumferance of the pot and then line this with black builders plastic and sit the pot in this depression.

Then when you water you can fill this depression the pot sits in with about 2 inches of water; this will be drawn up into the pot through the holes in the bottom of the pot as needed; a water reservoir.
This can cut down on watering a lot.
Also when it rains this depression will fill with water saving giving you longer before you have to water again.

Another thing is when pots get too dry they get hydroscopic; the soil repels water rather than absorbs it, so when you water the water just runs through the soil and out the bottom of the pot, and none is retained by the soil.
If you have made these depressions for the pots to sit in then if the pot gets too dry and gets hydroscopic then you can fill this depression/reservoir with water and leave the pot to sit in it and after a few hours it will have re moistened the soil in the pot and made it no longer hydroscopic.

Don't make these depressions too deep though, you don't want the pot sitting in water that is too deep or it will get waterlogged.
The size of the depressions depends upon the size of the pot, the bigger the pot the bigger the depression, and also the size of the plant, a big plant will empty the reservoir before waterlogging can become an issue.

The bigger the pot the less maintenance.
You can grow in plastic trash cans, the 75 litre ones are a good size.
Fill the bottom 1/3 with vermiculite to hold water and then fill the rest with potting soil.
What I haven't tried but I think it would be more effective than filling the bottom 1/3 with vermiculite would be to say half way down the trash can make holes in the sides and then insert wooden dowling though them and out the other side.
You would basically want to make a frame inside the bin that you could sit a piece of bird wire on and then cover that with hessian.
Then fill the top of the bin with potting soil.
So the bottom half of the bin would be full of water; a water reservoir, which for a 75 litre bin would be 37.5 litres of water.
And this would be replenished when it rained or when you go to check on your plants put say 10 litres of water in there each time to keep it topped up.
And I think the plants roots would grow down through the soil in the top half of the pot and through the hessian barrier half way down and down into the water reservoir in the bottom half of the pot.
I would like to try this with a 240 litre barrel though; do it on a bigger scale.

 

[The_Core]

Featherfoot thank you for taking the time to write all of that info for me.

It makes sense and I can understand what you are saying.

I wanted to go with bigger tubs but they are kind of expensive and the buckets were much cheaper, more affordable.

The vermiculite is a good material when dealing with low water conditions.

My update.

I have converted the second auto bed that was destroyed by slugs, into my new reg strain bed. I started 45 reg plants and Hoping that 20-25 will be female. I hope.

When I harvest the auto bed in July I plan to replant it and harvest again in september before the weather becomes total shit.

Plans, Plans and more plans. Let home some of it works out.

 

[Featherfoot]

How big do you think the regular plants will get?

 

[The_Core]

I started late this year. Initially, I was not going to grow reg photoperiod plants. But plans changed. So now my early plants are just seedlings. Realistically, 5 foot or so is what I expect at harvest.

Last year I pre grew my early plants for a month before taking out around the middle of may. Before they were ripped in July they had grown to 5-7 foot and not started to flower yet. The long sunny days here in Sweden were perfect. And the spot I was growing had 15 hours of direct sunlight each day. They were growing like monsters

This year they are going to be 1 month behind, and going to a spot that gets less sun. So I think 5 foot is a realistic expectation.

 

[The_Core]

So small update. Visited the spot today to inspect after it rained (yet again) last night. I wanted to find the slugs and snails and smash them before they spent the day fucking up my seedlings.

To my surprise only found 1 and hit him in half. No noticeable slug damage last night or this morning. Which is nice.

More seeds came up. And I just planted another 200-300 that will come up in the next few days.

It will be a big pain in the ass when it comes time to pull males, going through a SOG of Autos. But thats what has to be done.

I will plant the regular early plants in the other 800 liter bed next week. And I will also put the Royal Nepals I started in the buckets.

So one 800 liter auto raised bed Sea of green style.
One 800 liter raised bed for +/- 34 reg plants, when males are pulled probably 15 plants.
And 12 buckets and maybe 6 of those will be female regs. After I see which ones are male I will pull those males out of the buckets and replace with Autos.

 

[gorilla ganja]

ya looks like it will be hard to pull males without hurting the females. I'm sure you will come up with something when the time comes.

 

[The_Core]

ya looks like it will be hard to pull males without hurting the females. I'm sure you will come up with something when the time comes.

I will just chop the male at soil level. I wont be pulling any males.

 

[Featherfoot]

One 800 liter raised bed for +/- 34 reg plants, when males are pulled probably 15 plants.

So that will be 53 litres of soil per plant.

I think you will still have to water each week if you don't get any rain.
And I think those beds will take a lot of water if they get dry.

It's a good idea, a sea of green of Auto's.
I am going to have to try that. I will plant in the ground though, I don't want to have to cart that much soil.
Maybe I will plant out the Auto's and then when they are harvested plant some regulars in their place, get two harvest a year.

 

[The_Core]

So that will be 53 litres of soil per plant.

I think you will still have to water each week if you don't get any rain.
And I think those beds will take a lot of water if they get dry.

It's a good idea, a sea of green of Auto's.
I am going to have to try that. I will plant in the ground though, I don't want to have to cart that much soil.
Maybe I will plant out the Auto's and then when they are harvested plant some regulars in their place, get two harvest a year.

I think you are right. I will still be watering each week. And alot of water. But its worth it. The autos will be finished between 7 July and 25 july. And the Regular plants will start finishing around 15 Aug to 15 Sep.

Doing a grow in the ground is much better then raised beds. Especially when it comes to watering. But the spot I grow at is nothing but clay.

Do you think your autos will finish fast enough to fit in a regular grow after it? Are you starting the reg plants indoors and pre growing them? Or maybe you have a longer growing season?

I finish my Autos in July, lets say the 15th. If I started regular plants here from seed at 15 July, they would not finish or would be extremely short with no bud.

 

[Featherfoot]

Do you think your autos will finish fast enough to fit in a regular grow after it? Are you starting the reg plants indoors and pre growing them? Or maybe you have a longer growing season?

I finish my Autos in July, lets say the 15th. If I started regular plants here from seed at 15 July, they would not finish or would be extremely short with no bud.

The growing season is quite long here, no frost, so there is heaps of time to do two crops in a season.
So what is the advantage of doing two crops a year, instead of just planting the regulars out early as possible and getting a bigger yield from the regulars?

Firstly you don't have to wait so long for a harvest, whether for your own supply or if you need to sell it to raise some cash.

Secondly the main crop might end up getting ripped or found by leo, so It would be good to know you have already gotten a crop from your spot that season.

 

[The_Core]

I can understand that. I am doing hopefully 2 auto harvests and 1 harvest from the regular plants. We will see.

The weather is not starting out so great here this year. Rain and wind, Clouds. Its a 50/50 mix of shit weather and nice weather. I need the rain but not until next month or July. Right now the seeds are trying to grow and I am losing alot of seedlings to the wet and cold conditions. And the slugs and snails are everywhere because of the rainy and cool weather. I am headed back out this week to put down the slug killer and plant out the regular plants. Lets hope the rain does not rot them away.

 

[ceausescu]

I like your style

 

[The_Core]

I like your style

Thanks ceausescu!

You like how I did the auto bed?

 

[The_Core]

58N Sweden is getting completely hammered with bad weather all of may and now into June. Breaking records for rain, cold weather, and lack of sunshine. Its terrible. My plants were 3 times as large this time last year. Super shitty start to the growing season. I am not sure how it will go from here on out. I suppose I will see. I am expecting shit yields and I expect to lose all the seeds in my second auto bed due to the rain. I think most seeds will rot away just like the last ones. I will not waste a single more auto seed. If the second auto bed does not make it because of the rain I am going to just plant all of my regular photoperiod strain plants in that bed after the rains have completely stopped. Mid June I think.

 

[ceausescu]

Man i always wanted to do one of these bed things.Now seeing it makes me want to do it even more.