How much for outdoor plot?

[kush07]

Hi I'm looking for a some guidances on how much soil to use in a 8 x 5 plot. which is 40 sq feet.

This is what I'm thinking, 2 40lb bags of Miracle Grow Organic Garden Soil
2 40lb bags of Mushroom Compost
1 3.5 cubic feet of peat moss
2 40lb bags of Mr. Naturals CLR
2 40lb bags of Black Kow
if I can get it 2 bags of Worm Castings.

3 cups of Dried Blood Meal 12-0-0
3 cups of Bone Meal 4-12-0
2 cups of Potash 0-0-60
2 1/2 cups of Rare Earth
2 cups of Flower Tone
2 cups of Plant Tone
2 cups of Epsom Salts
3 cups of Garden Lime
5 cups of PSG 10-10-2

My two main questions are do I have enough soil?
and are these additives enough or two I need to add another cup because of the size of the plot?

Also how many plants to yall suggest I grow in this plot?

Thanks guys

Happy Toking

 

[kush07]

damn 20 views and not 1 damn reply!

 

[odin_]

Well just for comparison, for plants that I put out in early spring (pre vegged indoors - so they are pretty big already), I give them a full bale of ProMix. (Each). For plants that get put out half way through the season, I give them 5 or 10 gallons. For the latest plants I only give 2-3 gallons. I use raised beds and loosen the dirt underneath. If you start your plants indoors, and plant them in early spring, each plant will need at least 20 gallons of soil I would say. I dont normally plant such a large spot like that, I would split them up instead. It may be easier to maintain, but if thieves/cops get them, you lose the whole crop. Where if they are spread even 300 ft apart, you will probably not lose them all. But if I was to plant a plot like that, I would say that you could do 15 full sized outdoor plants. Even then at the end, they will be touching each other. Plants get absolutely huge outside, if you take care of them. This means hauling water during dry spells. (Better to plant somewhere by an outside water source, stream/brook/river, and leave a 5 gallon bucket hidden by it. Then you only have to haul the water to the plants, instead of carrying tons of water out in the woods from home. This is assuming that you mean in the woods, and not in the back corner of your lawn. LOL

 

[3BM]

Hey Kush:

I think you have a great plan there. You could do many different things in your space, choose a plan that makes things easy on you. Mix 50% quality potting soil with 50% compost/manure/castings and add enough perlite to loosen the mix. Balance NPK values and use Alfalfa meal, kelp meal, and dolomite lime. These are great nutes since they contain many useful hormones, enzymes, trace minerals, and secondary nutrients (not to mention satisfying NPK needs).

What about volume? 8x5x1.5 assumes an 18" in depth and is 60 cu.ft. or about 385gal. A 40lb bag is around 1.5 cu ft or 9.6 gal. That means something like 40 bags are needed to fill in this space. I suggest you remove 12" of soil (assuming very poor soil quality) and then dig down another foot but do not remove the soil. This gives you 40 cu ft or about 257 gal, reducing the number of bags needed by 10. The bags you listed will amount to less than half of what you will need. If you like that mix of amendments just double the numbers. Typically, the best outdoor locations contain good soil already, but if thats not an option you can amend in this way. I buy locally produced municipal compost for dollars a bag and use it in bulk to improve clay or sandy soil.

Read the products you buy for application rates, it should have a square foot suggestion. Generally, use 2-4cups/50gal of most fertilizers. Again, aim for a balanced NPK + trace. Apply crushed dolomite lime at 1c/50gal. If you go 12" deep use between 10-20cups of total fertilizer. Avoid amendments like blood meal and epsom salt since they are highly soluble and will not last through the long growing season, or if you have access to the plot easily supplement via top dress or watering as the season progresses. I prefer using slow release ferts like meals to feed over time without added effort. Still, I find top dressing half way through veg with N helps and then halfway through flower with PK. Well, I hope that helps some. Good luck, and get started early!

3BM

 

[kush07]

Thats what I needed thanks guys. It's 8 x 5 x 2 = 80 cubic feet. I'm going to mix all the soil together as soon as I can, planning on planting on April 20th. The Plant & Flower Tone's contain all those meals, alfalfa, cottonseed, kelp, fish, soybean, and many more. Thanks a lot for the replies. Oh, one last question how many seeds per square foot should I plant?

odin, this is a spot under the power lines, you know those huge clearings of land usually inbetween woods for those huge power lines to run? Thats were it is, I'm planning on digging a 3 x 3 foot hole lined with plastic for the rain to collect in, also planning on making a watering basin 1 x 1 foot around the hole plot. I think this should be a pretty good way to keep them watered during drought season.

Happy Toking

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

I'd drop the Bone/Blood meal for outdoors, scavengers might dig up the plot looking for dead animals.

You'd have many more responses if you posted this in the outdoor forum, I found this because you mentioned it there.

Are you worried about guys on foot or in heliocopters checking the lines and finding your plots on accident?

Good luck in '07!!

 

[odin_]

Whoa brother I dont know where you live, but in NY they fly the choppers over the power lines, as you are surely not the first to have this idea. (I live next to a set - and I live on a dirt road). If you do use them, plant only one on the edges, every so often. Tie them down, so that they cannot be easily spotted from the air. And if no 4 wheelers are riding through there, walk the tree line from the outside, so that you are not making trails through the lines to them. At least I heard that is the best way to do it on power lines. =p

 

[Guest]

yea, im gonna agree on the power lines. around me they check all the lines in the fall, kinda serves the dual purpose of maintenance check and plant check. It really sucks if you lose your crop this way cause you work it all the way through the season and lose it at the last minute. your hole (that i saw on your other thread) is massive. i don't want to tell ya not to plant here after all that work....... hopefully it works out for ya.

 

[odin_]

Bad times because exactly as he said: the choppers fly all the time. When I first moved here I was like wtf. I thought for sure that they were after me. There were choppers overhead everyday! Turns out the police fly them and the electric company has to fly them so often to check for poles down/safety issues. And believe me when I tell you that they will surely report any patches that they see. If you do it away from your house and it cannot be tracked to you, they will just send them in to take it, but that they will do. And the power line trails make it easy as hell for them to get to them. If you want to do a large plot, plant it as far away from any roads, or access as possible, so that they wont even want to go get it if they see it. Believe me, if it is big enough, they will go through hell to get it. Every plant/plot they get, is more money for them next year. You can grow on the lines, but I say the way to do it is off on one side, mixed with the vegatation in raised beds. Walk the woods, and just have them a few feet from the woods, so that you wont make a trail to them. Trails are VERY noticable from the air. Tie them down/top them, so that they wont look like the typical xmas tree shape, they look for that too. As I said, certain plants on the lines get flew over every year, constantly and never get bothered. But I can almost guaruntee that if you dont do it right, and make a giant plot, they surely will get it. And like the man said, imagine working all year, then at the last second they go and grab that shit. Cops are the worst thieves there are!

 

[kush07]

It's cool where I live. I planted about 100 yards away from the power tower thingy (not sure what its called). Also, I did check for tracks and yes there were some but the stopped at the power tower thingy. The only choppers that fly over my area are traffic ones cause this spot is also very close to a highway.

Happy Toking

 

[odin_]

I hope that you are right for your sake. I know that you already dug the hole, but since the soil isnt in yet, you could either spread them out more, or change your spot. If nothing else, grow in a couple different spots - dont put all your eggs in one basket.

 

[kush07]

I do plan to spread some out among the area but there ain't no turning back now that I've dug the hole. Keep your fingers crossed.

 

[odin_]

I mean this with the absolute respect for the time it took to dig the hole, because I do the same thing... BUT think about all the time that you will have in the plants, if the cops/thieves get them. I would put 4 real good sized girls in there, and spread the rest out over the next 500 or 1000 yards. I would recommend that you put the rest closer to the edges of the lines too. That is going to stand out like crazy. There is not tall, bushy vegatation right there, so even if you tie them down, they will still be just sitting there all alone. I dont know about where you are, but here they would spot those during their first flyover. If you get them a good size, and put them out in early spring, 4 will pretty much take up that whole growing area anyways. I would just hate to see you lose a bunch of plants. When mine go out next year, they will all be single plots, although there will be 20 - 30 within a set area. Say within 500 yards of a water source. I love the idea, as it is one that I have used, but it is riskier than just throwing them in the woods or something. The electric companies have to fly those lines every so often to check that everything is ok, no matter if the cops do or not. Maybe at first they wont recognize that there is a big raised bed down there, but towards the end of the year, when they see these big bushes, they will stand out, because everything else is cut. Another thing to think about, and they dont do it on mine (yet), is that instead of coming and cutting the "roads" out that the lines run on, they actually drop some kind of plant/weed killer to make the clear cuts in some places. Either way the company makes sure that there is a road/clear cut that runs with the poles/lines, because if a line breaks or something they have to be able to get back there to them. I have seen a guy I know put up an expensive fence all around his property. The company came and without saying anything to him, and even though there was a metal gate that he left for them to get through, they still tore his fence down, exactly the width of the "right away" which is the width of the power line clear cut. They have the rights to take anything and everything out of their way. And when they see trees/vegatation getting too big, they come in and cut it all out. That is why the lines never have big trees or anything growing in the line road/clear cut. Up here they let the vegatation get maybe 3 feet, then they take it down all over again. They also trim back the trees and stuff to keep the woods from taking any width of the line road. I have been lucky so far, and even though they have been working near them/and also cut by them, I have yet to lose any. But I dont plant right in the middle, near the poles either. I sacrafice alittle bit of early morning or late afternoon sun, to get them close to the edges. I would rather have them shaded a bit, and getting intense midday sun, than to have them in the sun all day, then have them turn up missing at the end. There are meadows/fields that I use for the plants I need to have all day sun for. =p Not trying to knock on your plans in any way, I am just trying to give advice, because I have been there before.

 

[Guest]

I recommend that you don't put all your eggs in one basket. I typically place about 3 together in a triangle pattern and move on. I save the spots on a handheld GPS unit. I check on them 2 times before harvest and typically at dusk. I hate walking the woods at night; scares the crap out of me.

 

[kush07]

I didn't show you the surroundings but there is a tall bush plant right in front of them to the North and to the South there is one as well. There is some bushes in that area so I know they don't or at least haven't done any mowing in quite some time.

I hear you about the company coming and tearing down property. At one time I had a nice vegetable garden in my front yard. Had it there for a couple years and one day the DOT came by and said they needed to expand the road. My beautiful vegetables were dead to say the least. Haven't started another garden since, hard loss.

Happy Toking

 

[odin_]

Just trying to save you a big headache. If you are sure that you can get away with it, you may be able to. I just know from trial and error, that a big plot on a power line is about the worst garden possible where I live. Much better would be raised beds, and place one hugging the woods, every 100 ft or so. Good luck brother.

 

[kush07]

Again thanks for your heads up and your concern. Hopefully things will be different in my area. In what state did you grow under powerlines?

 

[odin_]

NY and VT

 

[WAMEN]

you posted in the wrong forum kush07 , and you seem to ignore the advices.. you shouldnt man.. you shouldnt take it that easy believe me

 

[kush07]

you posted in the wrong forum kush07 , and you seem to ignore the advices.. you shouldnt man.. you shouldnt take it that easy believe me

I'm not ignoring the advice I am being given. I am taking all of it into account it's just that I am determined to see if this plot will go well. I do know that I have a chance of losing the plot but that is true of any plot. I have the advantage of living in this area for close to 13 years and know the police forces actions fairly well. The police are mostly concentrated at the other side of town where crime and vice is common on a nightly basis. That part of town is where the choppers are concentrated. The only time I hear choppers is at rush hour and when the emergency e-vac helicopter flies to the hospital. We do have one neighborhood cop that rolls through but he is mostly for show to reassure the neighborhood which is mostly elderly.

Also, I will more than likely have a couple of plants closer to my house in pots outside so I won't have a completely wasted outdoor season.

Thanks for you advice everyone.

Happy Toking