Hamstrings Alpha to Omega- Guerilla 2023/2010

[hamstring]

For the last few years I have been experimenting with growing techniques so as to be able to grow Guerrilla outdoors start to finish (Alpha to Omega). That means from producing your own seeds to planting them, harvesting and drying all outdoors. This thread will not be a “wam bam thank you mam” I will discuss my findings and thoughts on many aspects of guerilla growing via my experience. This thread will cover some of these techniques and how my understanding of them has progressed over the years and quite frankly will be boring to many. I hope some find it useful as I wish I had this outdoor primer when I started my guerrilla adventures.

Alpha
Lets start with producing and starting your own seeds. This year as most I will be starting my seeds in cold frames and they will be a combination of F1s that I produced last season, gifts from fellow guerrillas(thanks brother North) and store bought seeds including some Fems(feminized seeds). That should cover the Alpha to Omega of types of seeds.

I use seeds because it’s the most secure way I have found to transport to your guerrilla site. Others may debate this fact but unless you “bare root transport” clones (Never tried it) there is no better way to get your grow started.

There is no debate that if you are a commercial grower there are many cons to seeds because of the fact no two are alike. You can grow 20 plants and have two outstanding plants and the rest although good are nowhere near the quality it’s just the truth. Inherently that leads to problems with commercial growing. Consistency of product is crucial with any product. Ask any chain franchise such as McDonalds they spend millions of dollars making sure a hamburger in Texas tastes and looks exactly the same as a hamburger in Main.

I have thought long and hard on how to produce clone like results with seeds and it’s just not possible (in my experience). I have considered cloning outdoors and will try it this year but keep in mind cloning for a certain pheno means you already know what characteristics your are looking for in the plant before it even starts to flower including potency, taste and yield. This cannot be done if you haven’t grown this strain a few years in a row. It’s not easy to pick the perfect pheno just by looking. Indoor growers clone all plants and bring some of them to harvest and then select the best pheno that way. Guerillas don’t have that opportunity on their side they must pick one by sight and experience and all in one season, that’s a tough nut to crack.

 

[hamstring]

Well here we are out at the germination site and what I like to do soak my seeds for 2 days before planting. I still plant the seeds even if they have not popped (root tip showing) but it’s a nice start to soak them. Why, well because many reasons. When soaked they are all in a consistent state. Each seed has the exact same conditions and will germinate very close to the same time. This is important in agriculture farming as well as guerrilla farming. The last thing you want is seedlings 12inches tall and some 2 inches tall. You would like to see them all germinate very close together so soaking them is important to me because I can not ensure my soil conditions will be exactly the same in each cup.

Also I want to be able to germinate my seeds when weather conditions are optimal. If I plant directly in the soil with out soaking it could be 10 days before they come up and I never met a weather man who could predict an accurate 10 day forecast. I want it to be sunny and warm so my soil inside the cold frame is applicable to germination and if I soak them I am bringing my weather prediction down to around 4 days.

 

[hamstring]

I keep my seeds in a ziplock bag inside of a wet paper towel. The paper towel is very important to the guerrilla in my opinion. If you just soak in plain water its way to easy to loose a seed at the site in long grass trying to pull them from the bag. Seeds tend to stick together and to your fingers with out you noticing. If they are inside a wet paper towel they will not roll around. You can remove the whole paper towel and open it up over the cups in the cold frame and carefully put the seeds in 1, 2 and 3 per cup.

1/cup if they are fem seeds, 2/cup for standard seeds and then 3/cup in just a few cups that way any cup that doesn’t germinate 100% you can transplant one from the 3/cup.

You are looking to maximize your work and the last thing I want to have is any hole that I busted my ass digging with nothing but a male so 2 seedlings per hole, although not completely eliminating a completely male hole, maximizes your chances of a female in each hole.

 

[hamstring]

As you can see my cold frames are just large containers with home made covers. I make the covers tall enough so I can have 12 inches or better of seedling growth before transplanting. They have a hard top with plastic and basic window screen for protection from critters.

 

[hamstring]

The last couple of years I have used these black containers that hold 2 cu/ft of soil and I use water retentive soil because I don’t want to have to be at this site everyday. That’s way to big of a security risk. Once every two weeks is optimal but not always possible. You may like to check on your seed germination in 3 days or so to make sure all is well. Sometimes they need a little help pushing through the soil. I try to eliminate this process by planting them only ¼ inch under the soil. Because of this you now have a secondary problem. The top ½ inch of soil dries out much quicker than 1 inch down. To combat this I fill my cups with damp soil all but a 1 inch from the top then mix a soaking wet batch of soil for the last 1 inch ensuring the seeds have a nice moist bed to germinate but not soaking wet rot prone all the way down.

Every cup has large holes so the roots can grow out of the cup into the soil below. As you see there is over 4 inches of soil below the cups. This allows for root expansion and again less visits to the cold frame (security is job 1). I can also add a couple of gallons of water in the container to keep the bottom four inches moist.

 

[hamstring]

Staying on that topic I take the time to pack soil into every space between the cups. This makes sure I have no hot spots in the container and it is one large heat sink so no cup looses moisture more quickly than another. Consistency is the key so you have seedlings all the same size and health.

I think proof of that is seen here the top 1/4-inch of the soil is very dry but if you dig down just a small amount you can see the difference. These seedlings were left without any watering for 11 days in these 18 oz cups and could have went another 5-7 days easy. Also the second pic of a cup removed shows how nice and moist the soil in the bottom stays so the seedling can send roots down if the cup does become too dry.

 

[hamstring]

As stated I have used the black containers that hold 2cuft of soil, which is a back breaking load to hall through the bush. In attempt to reduce this load I am trying a smaller container which hold under 0.5 cubic ft of soil but only 6 cups less that’s 25% the weight of soil to 75% as many cups as the large container. Anyway you do the math if this works out well I will not be using the large containers anymore and my back will be very happy. Also I used cups that were 2 oz smaller another test to see if it works well.

 

[hamstring]

Also the smaller containers can be hidden more easily. In fact you can bury the container partially and remove the legs off the top(first pic) and just put the hard cover over the container for the first week or two until the seedling get larger. This allows much better security, as the visible container footprint can remain small until the native vegetation gets taller as you can tell from last years pics

 

[hamstring]

My germination rate is 95% or better using these techniques. As you can se in this GHS WW fem (1 per cup) and UDG Boreal Freeze Mix (2per cup)

That should be it until two weeks from now if all goes right. Next time hope to have some good seedling porn as well I will show some homemade transport systems as well as discuss some other options.

 

[Guyute54]

Nice work buddy!! Love the portable greenhouse. May the sunshine on your gardens all summer long.

 

[zielonylasss]

Hell yeah... That is the way! real guerilla!
I'm surprised about germ ratio outdoors...
Wish you all the best with your growing season!

 

[North]

Damn , I missed this yeasterday... count me IN!

Good luck Ham..stay SAFE and take CARE..keep you head on a swivel.

TAGGED!(been waiting for this one)

see you on the small stage Bro!

 

[D.S. Toker. MD]

Great hamstring. Some of my behavior mimics yours. I do start my seeds indoor for 1 week before moving them out but after that, our methods are similar.

I use a clear, storage box with a clear lid for my seedling box and i bury it to within a foot of the top. If the weather is warm i keep the lid off but if late frost or a heavy storm is comming, ill go out and put the lid on them.

The seedling look good. I missed the strains?

I also clone outdoors all the time. Its easy if you follow a few simple steps. Ill describe how i do it later on. Maybe you can benefit from some of it.

 

[wisco61]

Here we go! Looking forward to this one.

I think I am gonna put my first seeds out next weekend. Looking at the 15 day forecast, we are gonna have a little window the weekend of the 15th and into the early week, but then rain, rain, rain. I'm afraid if I don't get any out next weekend, I might not get any out till June. While that would be fine, I'd like to get some out early. Have you had experience striking seeds in the field when its rainy? I'm worrying about dampening.

 

[hamstring]

Guyute
Hey brother thanks for the props

Zielonylasss
95% germ rate is very achievable with good seeds of course. The method is solid but it’s never better than your seeds they have to be good. I have some good genetics going this year and some f1s from last season.

North
What can I say I wouldn’t be here if you didn’t help a brother out. I totally agree with "Head on a swivel" if I wrote down every time I had some doubts in my security we would be here all day. After all the do diligence is done it’s still a fair amount of luck involved and I am happy and surprised to see my seedlings there on every visit.

D.S. Toker
Much respect to you brother and I really really really hope you do a thread on outdoor cloning. Please include how you chose your phenos I need some education on this.

I did forget the strains, which is crazy because good genetics is half the battle. All but one of these is from UDG, which is a great place for any guerrilla to shop and learn on early finishing strains.

Boreal Freeze Mix--Jay Sprout (UDG)
Boreal Freeze Mix F1
MAF--Jay Sprout(UDG)
BlueBonic X GG3--- Krk (UDG)
Skunk X GG3----Krk (UDG)
AK99XFL F1----Jay Sprout (UDG)
White Widow fem (GHS)

Wisco61
Hey brother I will post a pic of some very wet weather seedlings with no problem with damp off. Keep in mind temps were warm not the cold we will be seeing next few days.

 

[hamstring]

Wisco
You need to be careful when burying your container you want to keep it 4 or 5 inches above ground level or it can fill with water in heavy rains. You can see in these pics from last year( I had container burried to 2 inches above ground.) my cups are covered in green algae growth and the container was filled with water I had to dump it out. The soil was saturated but I didn’t have any problems with damp off.

Not sure if it was because the temps were high or not maybe someone else can chime in on what conditions promote damp off besides wet of course????

 

[Team Microbe]

How did this grow turn out?! Impressive and informative thread brother, I love it. Would you mind touching further on the home made transporting system? I'd like to open this thread up again now that it's nearing spring... I feel like a lot more people could benefit from your experience as well...


The algae could be solely from the swamp, and young seedlings don't have developed immune systems as opposed to adult plants so theyre more prone to infections... not sure if this was the cause tho.

 

[J.V]

Bare root transplant...

Bare root transplant...

I happen to know of a person who does the bare root transplanting technique....From what I was told, he would
raise up his seedlings till they were around eight inches tall or so.
Than pull out of pot/cup,...pull soil away from roots gently.
Than put the plants into a makeshift vase of water......
Just a soft drink bottle cut down will do the job...This way you
can carry a lot of plants at once, without busting your arse.
Once he was set to go,....he would venture out into the sugarcane
at night, than transplant into a drill...He just used a large knife,
pushed it down into the drill and than pulled the blade to the side to part the soil....drop in plant...push down around it than move on..I don't think he carried any water....so I gather he judged when the soil was moist but not wet....Don't want to be leaving
muddy footprints for farmer Joe to see...I don't think he progressed on to using mothers and cuttings, mind you I'm
just heading that way myself...Hope he gets out of jail soon...

 

[hamstring]

How did this grow turn out?! Impressive and informative thread brother, I love it. Would you mind touching further on the home made transporting system? I'd like to open this thread up again now that it's nearing spring... I feel like a lot more people could benefit from your experience as well...


The algae could be solely from the swamp, and young seedlings don't have developed immune systems as opposed to adult plants so they're they're they're they're they're they're they're infections... not sure if this was the cause tho.

Dude you dug up an old one. First off all credit to starting seeds in the bush goes to WallY Duck of Ducks foot. He had a sticky and I stole everything I could.

The grow went fine once the seedlings went into the ground they straightened out. I will say I never buried a container again too much rain in the spring not worth the chance of the cold frame getting flooded. I also like the larger containers much better. They are more robust. Once when the water level in the swamp went up, my containers have no holes in them, and the smaller one was top heavy and flipped on its side filling with water. The larger ones floated and moved but were fine.

I dont recommend building your own cold frame pack. For around $130 - $150 you can buy a backpack with a frame. I will have to look up the manufacture for you. The backpack is removable and your left with just the frame which has shelf that folds down. I can carry the whole cold frame including the soil.

If your interested in hardening off clones I would use some of your own experience might be some changes that need to made to fit the application.

 

[hamstring]

I happen to know of a person who does the bare root transplanting technique....From what I was told, he would
raise up his seedlings till they were around eight inches tall or so.
Than pull out of pot/cup,...pull soil away from roots gently.
Than put the plants into a makeshift vase of water......
Just a soft drink bottle cut down will do the job...This way you
can carry a lot of plants at once, without busting your arse.
Once he was set to go,....he would venture out into the sugarcane
at night, than transplant into a drill...He just used a large knife,
pushed it down into the drill and than pulled the blade to the side to part the soil....drop in plant...push down around it than move on..I don't think he carried any water....so I gather he judged when the soil was moist but not wet....Don't want to be leaving
muddy footprints for farmer Joe to see...I don't think he progressed on to using mothers and cuttings, mind you I'm
just heading that way myself...Hope he gets out of jail soon...

I have bare rooted plants but only once. I have to say it worked fine and i think more work needs to be done in this technique.

I dont grow indoors but it still has merits for all guerillas. The nice thing about swamps and marshes is they always have native veg even in early spring to hide a cold frame. So its nice to be able to start your seeds in the swamp and then possibly bare root them for transport to the finial destination.

They way I heard it was done was to take a pail of water with some transplant ferts in it. Slowly move your plants root ball back and forth in the bucket until all the soil is gone. Then pack a few bare root plants in wet newspaper and repeat. Supposedly you can carry 50 seedlings easy in a small pack.