Oregon Organic Guerrilla 2009, with your host BACKCOUNTRY

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Been awhile since a Earth hole update.....

Been awhile since a Earth hole update.....


Earthhole test, Aug 26- Sep 3

Daily totals
Aug 26- High 96F, Low 53F, Avg humidity 36%
Aug 27- High 97F, Low 56F, Avg humidity 32%
Aug 28- High 79F, Low 60F, Avg humidity 46%
Aug 29- High 89F, Low 53F, Avg humidity 51%
Aug 30- High 91F, Low 53F, Avg humidity 50%
Aug 31- High 94F, Low 58F, Avg humidity 44%
Sep 1- High 89F, Low 59F, Avg humidity 40%
Sep 2- High 94F, Low 58F, Avg humidity 48%
Sep 3- High 86F, Low 54F, Avg humidity 40%

Week totals
Average high 91F, Average low 56F, Average mean 73F
Average humidity 43%
Total Precipitation: 0.00 in
Water used in this period= 10 gallons in 9 days(would have been 7.7 gallons for a week
The sun is getting lower in the sky, and the day is getting noticeably shorter, clouds are now becoming common in the sky, but my temps are not really dropping much. Water usage continues as it was through much off the summer. Bud formation is advancing on this plant, and the others.
There has been activity on the land this plant inhabits, I believe the property has changed hands, and evidently this formerly commercial land may have a house built on it. If this is true, I'll be forced to quit growing here, more of my territory gone. I think I'll be able to get this guy harvested this year, but future grows will not happen here anymore.

 

[THC123]

man now that i have done my own proper guerillia i must say respect for all the work you put in , i don't have to water as much as you and i am glad cuz it would take the fun away.

Anywho great job and i wish you a safe sticky and bountyful harvest

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

sup BC.

A smaller system is exactly what i have in mind.

lets say two 5gal containers,one for the plant and the other as a 5gal res - for how long will it be able to support a plant during the hottest days?(in your situation as an example).

maybe its a bit problematic to use same size containers,is it necessary to use a relatively shallow water res to create an even water distribution?

and sometimes i think about gluing a small tc pot directly to an above ground 5-7gal res.

on that subject i hope that your next update will include the tc plants.

It really depends on the size of the plant, I have no way to even start to predict how big a plant I could grow in 5 gallons, because I still have no benchmark to work on, I won't have even my first crude benchmark until this plant is harvested, trimmed, and dried. And even then, all the variables that apply in any grow could affect the outcome of any given grow, all I can do is experiment and collect info. Variables like sunshine, temps, potting soil quality, strain and age/size of plant can all make differences.

Sorry, I haven't made it over to the Pitcher plants(Terracotta pots) lately, I need to soon.

BC, I have a question regarding watering.

When I first started out most everyone of my mentors, and some of the books I read as well, said it was benefical to let the soil dry out a bit before watering. Not let them go limp but let the soil go dry before the next watering. I've forgotten why they reccommended this practice, but they did. Now we were always talking indoor grows, could this be the difference?
I've pretty much always followed this advice. I'm doing afew plants this year in my back yard and if your claims are accurate, and I'm sure they are, I'm going to water more frequently and see what happens....

It is hard to teach proper watering over the internet, because of this advice given to newbies concerning watering is often very simplified.

The biggest difference is temperature, if your first grow occurs in a basement in January, and "day" temps are rarely over 70F in your grow room, its incredibly easy to over water considering your plants don't need much water. Watering may only be needed a couple times a week(maybe less).

Now look at the other end of the indoor experience scale, some growers use vats of water to grow their plants in, air being bubbled through the water via air pumps to keep oxygen available to the roots. These plants grow great in the water because the roots have plenty of Oxygen, if not for the air bubbles the plants would die in a short time.

In my system, oxygen is still available to the roots, allowing them to continue growing healthfully, despite the stable moisture content of the soil(no intentional drying cycle).
Passive wicking of water from the bottom up is not as likely to drown roots as watering from above, since the soil will probably only pull water as the plant consumes it. When watering from above, large quantities of water flows down into the soil, for a time nearly entirely displacing the Oxygen in the soil, this never happens in my system. So keep in mind that this is not the same as overwatering your plants.

When I harvest this plant, and pull the soil bag, I predict that the root-ball will be dense, in effect very large in mass.

 

[ShoeboxSherman]

This is a great thread, I've followed it and will look for places I can use the EB. We get enough rainfall so it's not usually a problem, but I think this could be used some places here for a real no-tend grow. Thank you very much.

I especially appreciate your attention to detail; providing temperature and humidity data. Best wishes for a very happy harvest Backcountry

 

[BrotherGanja]

For sure, this is a great thread I will also keep this in mind it is one of the most ingenious no tend plant schemes. Great thread mad props.


Bless

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

looking great dude. good buds are coming

 

[coxswain]

She's looking great. Just look at the dry soil around her. That tells you a lot about the conditions BC is growing in.

To bad you've lost this plot BC. I'm noticing the same thing around here. I'm growing first time but been mountain biking for years. Spots where I enjoyed total solitude and peace are now "infested". New roads, new clearcut patches of forests are getting urbanized more and more each year. I guess situation is the same all over. We need to go further/deeper each year.

Stay safe!

 

[jwm]

Thanks BC...I get it, and, that's a lovely plant!!!

 

[lunatick]

BC my imagination is working over time,im starting some seeds and ill plant them in a wick system,cant get any tc pots atm.

 

[grasspass]

pirvate land

pirvate land

Backcountry. Awesome grow! Stick to timber company land . Stay away from BLM or National forest . I heard that federal land can get you some mandatory time even with one plant! [I could be wrong] Maps from the BLM show land ownership. Its like a checkerboard of ownership in most of our surrounding mountains.

 

[humboldtlocal]

They are making plenty of busts on timber company property around here. Be careful out there.

 

[pablok]

ta pulento socio

 

[sunwukong]

Sorry about the spot BC, losing a great grow spots like loosing a good friend. Glad to see the earthbox worked out so well. Hope the choppers/police/rippers leave you alone in peace. As another season closes, its time to harvest, reflect and plan for next year. P

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Earthhole test, Sep 4- Sep 20

Daily totals
Sep 4- High 88F, Low 53F, Avg humidity 46%
Sep 5- High 77F, Low 52F, Avg humidity 50%
Sep 6- High 73F, Low 49F, Avg humidity 58%
Sep 7- High 78F, Low 46F, Avg humidity 49%
Sep 8- High 87F, Low 46F, Avg humidity 41%
Sep 9- High 88F, Low 50F, Avg humidity 38%
Sep 10- High 95F, Low 53F, Avg humidity 37%
Sep 11- High 101F, Low 54F, Avg humidity 39%
Sep 12- High 97F, Low 60F, Avg humidity 38%
Sep 13- High 83F, Low 60F, Avg humidity 41%
Sep 14- High 80F, Low 55F, Avg humidity 51%
Sep 15- High 88F, Low 51F, Avg humidity 53%
Sep 16- High 85F, Low 54F, Avg humidity 47%
Sep 17- High 84F, Low 61F, Avg humidity 48%
Sep 18- High 95F, Low 52F, Avg humidity 50%
Sep 19- High 83F, Low 59F, Avg humidity 50%
Sep 20- High 84F, Low 56F, Avg humidity 48%

Week totals
Average high 86F, Average low 54F, Average mean 70F
Average humidity 39%
Total Precipitation: 0.00 in
Water used in this period= 18 gallons in 17 days(would have been 7.4 gallons for a week The last part of summer has been unusually warm, and very dry, usually around early Sep we get a break in the hot/dry summer weather and start getting occasional light showers and clouds. Summer has not wound down really, yesterday(first day of Autumn) and today western Oregon has been hit with a extremely rare late Sep heat wave, highs have been in the 90s from Portland to Eugene and along the coast, and over 100F in Southwest Oregon. The good thing about this is that I will have few/no mold problems this Fall, the bad thing is I continue to haul full loads of water as if it was still August.

There has been activity on the land I am using this year, I plan to harvest as early as finish allows, danger will increase when Deer season opens in a week.

I'll be back with more stuff soon, getting rushed out the door...................

 

[zenoonez]

Backcountry, I just read through this thread and saw that you were thinking of ways to increase the size of your reservoir for next year. Now I am not a guerrilla grower myself and I don't share your climate but I thought maybe you would appreciate a different idea. Now again, this is all just stuff based upon my experiences growing up in the woods so if any of it doesn't work for you I understand. To the proposal...

When I was a younger fella, not that I am old by any means, I had a group of friends that were very outdoorsy and loved hiking and camping. We loved it so much that while in high school we started kayaking or boating over to an island and camping there fairly regularly. Being that we were still in high school the only time we really had to do this was from friday afternoons to sunday nights. You know kids being kids, drinking, smoking, doing generally stupid things we wanted to find a secluded part of this island to use as our regular retreat. So we found a spot in the island that was pretty deep in, certainly nothing a beach-goer would hike through and far enough to the soggy side of the island to prevent the dune hiking enthusiasts from finding us. The only problem was that we would have to hike our stuff in that far. Now carrying one big cooler isn't bad when you have a group of guys but for all of us to have food and beer and water it was a chore not to mention that by the time sunday afternoon came around our ice chests were no longer ice chests. So we devised a way to get the amount of beer we desired to the site and to keep it cool.

Now, as we had spent more and more time out there we had started putting things together so we had a sort of half ass shelter with a strong enough roof and two good solid walls made from brush and trees. So on to the important part, we decided that the best way for us to have it like we wanted it was to have a keg out there. Other than the problem of carrying it in which a full keg is one heck of a problem but we were strapping stupid young bucks so we didn't have a problem doing it. But how to keep that shit cold? Well we decided to build an earth fridge. What we did was to dig a pit and frame it up with cut saplings. Once this was done we used a clay and sand mix to smooth the walls and dropped in some pond liner in a couple of layers. So every weekend we would carry in a keg and a bunch of ice. Layer ice with sprinklings of salt and voila, fresh cold bottom of the keg beer on sunday afternoons. It was a good time no doubt but I think I got the point in there. So what I am proposing is to ditch your rubbermaids, who really carries those around the woods, that doesn't look suspicious at all. Instead you can just carry your camping axe, a nice short handled shovel, a roll of pond liner, and some nails. Although one piece of advice that I have is to take your saplings far away from where you are going to grow, that way you aren't thinning the canopy or leaving a whole pile of brush to be easily seen near your grow. The only difference that I would see from the way you have it set up now is less to pack in and you would probably need to use a square bucket for your wick because cutting a round hole in the top of the reservoir you are going to make out of branches and saplings might not be the easiest thing to do. Anyways, I don't know if this is something you would be interested in or not, it would require that you spend more time at the site though who would care if there aren't already plants growing there? Anyways, best of luck on your harvest and I look forward to seeing it

 

[hamstring]

BC
Everything looks great and the temps and humidity look great in my eyes anyway. Should produce some nice sticky mold free buds. Great thread as always.
PEACE

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

zenoonez- It is tempting to simply dig a hole and line it with some plastic sheeting of one kind or another, I mean its the obvious logical answer! The problem is all it takes is one burrowing rodent to ruin your fun! This is the reason I stay towards hard containers, a rodent could still chew a hole in a plastic tote, but not as fast as in a pond liner(pond liner is kinda expensive too).

I actually built a large(200 gallons) reservoir similar to your "cooler", I started by digging the hole, then I lined the hole with small mesh hardware cloth(to keep the rodents at bay), followed by small logs spiked together to shore up the walls. Then I lined the reservoir with a thick tarp to protect the several layers of sheet plastic that followed, a large piece of sheet metal served as a lid.
I have a old thread on the build here in the outdoor forum.

Edit: Here is a link to the thread- BACKCOUNTRY builds a Guerrilla reservoir

I may consider doing smaller versions of the reservoir described above to serve as next years Earth hole reservoirs, perhaps replacing the small logs with plywood. The problem is I'd like to install my Earth holes and leave them as semi-permanent installations, using them for up to 5 seasons or more, but I'm afraid that the wood would(those words sound the same in American English) rot within 2-3 years. I suppose I could simply do a quick maintenance check each season and repair damaged stuff, or perhaps find other materials to use. But this brings me back to the Rubbermaid totes, by the time you figure in the cost of plywood, and Hardware cloth(a fine mesh fencing wire), the rough totes start looking pretty cheap and easy.

That said, most of the places I grow are usually pretty quiet most of the year, so this is why I don't worry about being seen with a tote out in the bush, but for those that can't be seen, its likely that the (rodent proofed) plastic lined hole idea would be superior.

I think I'll do at least one Earth hole using the plastic lined hole concept next year, as a example for guerrillas in less quiet locations.

hamstring- I'm looking forward to my second ever in my lifetime mold-free season!

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Some one requested some pics of my "pitcher" plants, these are from Sept 10th, the last time I went there with a working camera.

OR95 #1-

She is doing OK, I wish I could get more water on her, but the nearby spring I use for these guys dried up in June this year(went all the way through the season in 2007).

OR95 #2-

This girl has had a bad summer, a Wood rat chewed some of her bark off in late July, ever since she has often looked "sick", and very under-watered.

OR95 #3-

This girl is doing the best of the three, on my last visit(over a week ago) she had some nice buds forming up, she will be my second biggest plant this year.

On my last visit to the area I spotted(and heard) this guy on the ridge across from me.

I heard him snapping twigs in a way no animal but Bears and humans do(in my hills anyways), I was relieved to see it was not a human. It was small, between 150-200 pounds, one of many Black bears inhabiting my area.

 

[slider420]

To me there is no small BEAR......

 

[lunatick]

Hi bc,the earth hole plant looks extremely healthy,pitcher plants not as good,its a shame that they cant be watered more often.

Here's a small article on a passive hydro system that could fit our needs and somewhat related to the earth hole.

credit to delta9nxs for finding it:http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/HG-44.pdf