Hole Size given variables?

[ganjalfthegreen]

Hey all...

Trying to decide if i should up hole size from 24x24x14 to 36x36x14 given size of plants at transplant...

Using subcool's supersoil mix to fill bottom half of holes. Weak mix for top half; organic soil, manure, peat, EWC, perlite, lime.

Located at 50N.

Native soil is dry. Tons of Pine in area. Peat on top 3-4", after that its all what i would describe as very sandy/gravelly, with a little bit clay and soil.

x20 Bubba Kush clones, pre-vegged will be about 24" tall at time of transplant to outdoor locations.

Sites are all south facing, wicked sun, expecting these bitches to get big (knock on wood). Wondering if we should be going with the bigger holes given the native soil? Everything I read is all over the place, so I'd like to hear from someone who has experience.

thanks for any input..

g.

 

[TheGardner]

Your 24x24x14s should be good, you could push it to 36x36x14s if you already have the soil made/if you don't mind the extra soil. Maybe compare the two this year? Each spot is different, so the 24x24s could end up doing as well as the 36x36s in a different spot. Make sure you have some sort of PH correcting additive into all the layers because those pine trees in the area. Otherwise you'll end up with a very acidic soil.

 

[ganjalfthegreen]

Soil has been cooking for a few weeks now, but going from 4 square feet to 9 square feet adds a ton of leg work as far as packing in the medium to the spots.

We will definitely try a few of the larger size holes at each location and see how we do this year.

The dolomite is to stabilize the pH. Surprisingly all the soil samples we took from each location are about 6.3-6.5. Thought it would be worse than that. We will be watering with corrected water obviously.

 

[ganjalfthegreen]

Going from 4 square feet to 9 square feet adds an f*ck ton of work as far as carrying in the medium so it will be interesting to see what happens. Unless someone else chimes in we will run the larger test holes, if they are worth it, then we can increase the hole sizes next year and cut down on bringing in that much soil in one season.

 

[Top_shelf_farms]

If your goal is the most cannabis you can get out of the spot then make your holes as big as your water supply.

 

[VonBudí]

make your holes as big as your water supply.

how do you determine this,is there some rule of thumb , X gallons soil need Y gallons water?

 

[plantingplants]

Why are you putting your 'weak' mix on top? I was going to put my good stuff on top of my weak soil, but wasn't sure.

 

[DuskrayTroubador]

how do you determine this,is there some rule of thumb , X gallons soil need Y gallons water?

What he means is bigger holes = bigger plants = more water needed.

So dig as big of a hole as you want to/can supply water to.

 

[ganjalfthegreen]

The issue is going from 2x2 to 3x3 obviously means over double the soil. The locations we are at require a good 600 feet from road to site. This obviously adds a pile of leg work.

Silverback was using 3x3 and pulling 2 lb plants with 1 month from seed to transplanting into holes...

We are also going to attempt to use the "water collars" as found on icmag here. They are suppose to save a shit pile of water.

Yes I know its strain specific, light exposure, etc. but neither are an issue, so given the leg work required we will go with 2x2, and then next season (granted the sites are secure) we will re-dig and expand the current holes.

plantingplants - We are using subcool's organic supersoil recipe, this is our first time with it but apparently its hotter than hell so in his tutorial he suggests putting it on the bottom half of the hole so the plants can get big enough and grow into it. Up here its effin expensive to mix. 1000 Liters (265 Gallons) cost about $650. Don't ask. The top half of the hole will have Peat, Perlite, mushroom compost, and dolomite.

 

[corky1968]

I like using 2 or 5 gallon pails and dig holes that can take the entire pail plus another 2-4 inches passed the rim.
Then I fill up a large tote box with various soil ingredients, mix it all up, fill up my pails and dump a pail full of
soil mixture into each hole. It works very nice and each plant gets the same amount of soil.

The reason to go 2-4 inches deeper than the pail height is
to give you a rim that will keep the water so it won't runoff.

BTW: The pail is not left in the holes. It's only used to gauge the hole sizes, fill the holes and water the plants.

 

[ganjalfthegreen]

Yeah that sounds decent for your pot size. Our holes are 30 gallons though. Minus the displacement for the veg containers.

This is guerilla style, and there is no way to easily pack in the soil.

I guess I should have asked what sort of difference in yield you could expect if you took 2 clones vegged inside to 24" tall, then transplanted one into a 30 gal, and one into a 70 gal.

Again I know there is 100 factors but just rough ballpark...

I guess it boils down to knowing if a guy is better off to have bigger holes and less plants, or vice versa.

I know indoors its all about high plant count and turn-around time, but outdoor...fml...this packing medium and all the supplies into the bush on foot is an effin nightmare lol.

The native soil is far from optimal so allot depends on the soil we are bringing in to use in the holes.

 

[corky1968]

Yeah that sounds decent for your pot size. Our holes are 30 gallons though. Minus the displacement for the veg containers.

This is guerilla style, and there is no way to easily pack in the soil.

I guess I should have asked what sort of difference in yield you could expect if you took 2 clones vegged inside to 24" tall, then transplanted one into a 30 gal, and one into a 70 gal.

Again I know there is 100 factors but just rough ballpark...

I guess it boils down to knowing if a guy is better off to have bigger holes and less plants, or vice versa.

I know indoors its all about high plant count and turn-around time, but outdoor...fml...this packing medium and all the supplies into the bush on foot is an effin nightmare lol.

The native soil is far from optimal so allot depends on the soil we are bringing in to use in the holes.

When I did what I just described it was all guerilla.

I actually rented a pick up truck, went to nursery and bought 25 large bags of pro-mix, bone meal, etc. and covered
everything with large tarp. As I drove to my bush road until I got to the selected spot I prayed the tarp would hold.

Can you imagine people seeing a pick up truck full of soil bags heading into the forest?

Then I unloaded the bags of soil very carefully to not be seen and brought the truck back to the rental place after
washing it. A day later, I biked back in and had lots of fun hauling each bag one at a time to my spot. Talk about a
work out. I would like to take a gym rat and give him a real workout like that. I bet the gym rat would give up and
go sit on an exercise bike.

A week later I brought my plants in. Most of the local soil where I did this was clay and rock.
Hence, why I needed to bring in real soil. At least, once it's done you can reuse the same holes
for a couple of grows if you keeping adding to them.

 

[coldcanna]

You said the native soil was somewhat sand and gravel, which in small amounts would help you out with aeration, you could always dig your whole bigger and use some of the native to cut down on what you have to backpack in