Manitoid
Member
Yawn. finally the spring is here!
That's a joke as we've been busy on the farm already but finally there are things occurring.
We created our own topsoil from compost piles with our annual roots in last years outdoor:
The Gardening with free supplys Grow! Check it.
Budget is still a concern, as everyone should know we can grow amazing A+ without feeding the grow store thousands. But we are trying to be twice as productive per hole (on average) as last year with twice as many holes. (growing the farm by a factor of 4). With that in mind we can no longer be the free supplies grow.
So we are now the "Gardening with ALMOST Free Supplies" grow. On to the meat. Being conscious of free supplies all around us locally still remains the backbone of the game here.
On to the pursuits of 2011:
So we dug out the holes from last year and we noticed many things. the holes were no longer compost piles of different materials. They were now comprised of what could be described as the most lush "native" soil (I made it here) that Colorado desert has seen in a long time.
It was heavy, but black and full of life. Red worms and last year 5 species of mushrooms fruited under the plants.
The old holes were 3X3 feet squares 4 feet deep. After dig out it was observed that the most vigorous root growth occurred in the top two feet. The sides of the holes are sand (desert) and there weren't many roots penetrating the sand sides deeper than 2 feet. Less decomposition of pile as well, although still black, woody things remained.
So in the interest in go big or go home, or maybe karmic yoga, or maybe self torture, we collapsed the holes as we made them bigger around. Countless hours of pick axe work and hard pan smashing. One can not describe the suffering endured in early season dig out projects. You should try it!
We are on the other side of that hell and have holes that are 6 ft round and 2 ft deep on average. The "native" soil is too beautiful and alive to discard so we amend it as great soil that needs lightened, innoculated, and nutrition added.
EACH Hole received:
- Black earth from each original hole (2nd year) that was removed to reshape. Holes are way bigger so require some more things.
- 2 wheelbarrows horse shit. From 10 truckloads free last year, now 2 years old. from the farms compost pile so some of this contained chicken refuse straw and poop from the chicken coop. mostly horse dookie compost
- 2 wheelbarrows Peat Moss. Cheapest way to get the properties I wanted. purchased in 1X 55cuft bale (800lbs) expands to 110 cubic feet.
- 2 wheelbarrows Perlite. again the cheapest way to get what I wanted. I will be organic. I didnt want perlite in an in the earth hole, but the holes are contained and are always reused so feel okay with it. purchased as 2 X 55cuft bales
- 1 bag of agricultural limestone (crushed dolomite) smaller bag each for calcium, magnesium and some PH buffer for the peat most put in there.
each 55cuft pallet was a skid so 3 skids of materials. however only one bag to throw away from peat moss. Perlite was purchased bulk in bags with deposit I return and they reuse. (two 55cuft bags!!!! huge!) so I also got to buy 3 pallets of materials and make almost no trash, WHICH IS IMPORTANT... SEE HERE
Each hole is soaked to saturation with water to again start life process. AACT of the vegetative type was brewed and poured on all the holes as kick ass microbe, bacteria, and fungus inoculant.
WHAT WE ARE GROWING (MAYBE...):
Now the holes sit until June 1! We spend our time doing test runs of genetics and popping seeds and such. We have a very limited amount of holes, and we want to and will achieve the full potential of each hole... I mean hell they are over 400g each.
So we flower out every potential cutting March and April and keep enough clones of each one to keep for full season outdoor. We harvest this weed, smoke it, make decisions.
clones for outdoor were cut march 1 and will veg almost 3 months before being placed out June 1. (As a reminder we put out clones June 1 last year and had a couple close to #5)
So in may we see every potential nug before a full season plant even gets set outdoors. if one strain is amazing, then it could get 5 holes in the ground.
IF IT IS NOT AMAZING IT GETS ZERO HOLES IN THE GREENHOUSE!!!
Potential Candidates...
DJ Short Blueberry
DJ Short Grape Krush
DJ Short Flo (2 diff cuts, cross fingers)
Blue Goo
Blue Dream
Green Crack (see pics, first test completed, it passes)
Elephant Bud
Strawberry Cough (We are in colorado right)
SAGE
White Russian
Saw Tooth (Fastest grower, fastest cloner so far...)
5 X naturalization project females from 18 seeds popped from last years grow. have 2 male candidates will breed males with all above for 2012 outdoor. I want colorado high country naturalized weed, and I will have it. the other 11 inferior males and females were culled as this project is important and they were inferior.
The mother of these seeds are either Sour Diesel, Hawaiian, or Grand Daddy Purple (prized) that grew in the greenhouse in 2010.
What i am looking for is several generations of outdoor that are mine, and some true hybrid vigor!
So far the only plants to flower of the potentials above is the Green Crack. It smells so very very sweet. amazingly resinous. There were really almost no leaves for the trash pile, as all had hash potential. I am excited for 3 months of veg on this baby by June 1.
Quality of the photography aside... CHECK OUT THEM ACTIVES!
So i will take some pics of the greenhouse. It is a giant laying in slumber. It is most suitable for full season.
So in the early season this year you can tune in here to see how the test runs of all the above listed cuts turn out BEFORE WE PLACE ANY IN THE GROUND! In a couple weeks we get to see how our white russian and a different green crack cut will be for us. Around the first week of May the test run on all of the other cuts listed above will be ready for inspection.We have some of all of them though just in case, and the full season plants are already alive.
3 months of veg before June 1. Root bound 7 gallon Smart Pot at final transplant? We shall see.
Thanks as always for tuning in. Looking forward to a great year for us all...
trying a different yet soothing text colour...what do you think?
That's a joke as we've been busy on the farm already but finally there are things occurring.
We created our own topsoil from compost piles with our annual roots in last years outdoor:
The Gardening with free supplys Grow! Check it.
Budget is still a concern, as everyone should know we can grow amazing A+ without feeding the grow store thousands. But we are trying to be twice as productive per hole (on average) as last year with twice as many holes. (growing the farm by a factor of 4). With that in mind we can no longer be the free supplies grow.
So we are now the "Gardening with ALMOST Free Supplies" grow. On to the meat. Being conscious of free supplies all around us locally still remains the backbone of the game here.
On to the pursuits of 2011:
So we dug out the holes from last year and we noticed many things. the holes were no longer compost piles of different materials. They were now comprised of what could be described as the most lush "native" soil (I made it here) that Colorado desert has seen in a long time.
It was heavy, but black and full of life. Red worms and last year 5 species of mushrooms fruited under the plants.
The old holes were 3X3 feet squares 4 feet deep. After dig out it was observed that the most vigorous root growth occurred in the top two feet. The sides of the holes are sand (desert) and there weren't many roots penetrating the sand sides deeper than 2 feet. Less decomposition of pile as well, although still black, woody things remained.
So in the interest in go big or go home, or maybe karmic yoga, or maybe self torture, we collapsed the holes as we made them bigger around. Countless hours of pick axe work and hard pan smashing. One can not describe the suffering endured in early season dig out projects. You should try it!
We are on the other side of that hell and have holes that are 6 ft round and 2 ft deep on average. The "native" soil is too beautiful and alive to discard so we amend it as great soil that needs lightened, innoculated, and nutrition added.
EACH Hole received:
- Black earth from each original hole (2nd year) that was removed to reshape. Holes are way bigger so require some more things.
- 2 wheelbarrows horse shit. From 10 truckloads free last year, now 2 years old. from the farms compost pile so some of this contained chicken refuse straw and poop from the chicken coop. mostly horse dookie compost
- 2 wheelbarrows Peat Moss. Cheapest way to get the properties I wanted. purchased in 1X 55cuft bale (800lbs) expands to 110 cubic feet.
- 2 wheelbarrows Perlite. again the cheapest way to get what I wanted. I will be organic. I didnt want perlite in an in the earth hole, but the holes are contained and are always reused so feel okay with it. purchased as 2 X 55cuft bales
- 1 bag of agricultural limestone (crushed dolomite) smaller bag each for calcium, magnesium and some PH buffer for the peat most put in there.
each 55cuft pallet was a skid so 3 skids of materials. however only one bag to throw away from peat moss. Perlite was purchased bulk in bags with deposit I return and they reuse. (two 55cuft bags!!!! huge!) so I also got to buy 3 pallets of materials and make almost no trash, WHICH IS IMPORTANT... SEE HERE
Each hole is soaked to saturation with water to again start life process. AACT of the vegetative type was brewed and poured on all the holes as kick ass microbe, bacteria, and fungus inoculant.
WHAT WE ARE GROWING (MAYBE...):
Now the holes sit until June 1! We spend our time doing test runs of genetics and popping seeds and such. We have a very limited amount of holes, and we want to and will achieve the full potential of each hole... I mean hell they are over 400g each.
So we flower out every potential cutting March and April and keep enough clones of each one to keep for full season outdoor. We harvest this weed, smoke it, make decisions.
clones for outdoor were cut march 1 and will veg almost 3 months before being placed out June 1. (As a reminder we put out clones June 1 last year and had a couple close to #5)
So in may we see every potential nug before a full season plant even gets set outdoors. if one strain is amazing, then it could get 5 holes in the ground.
IF IT IS NOT AMAZING IT GETS ZERO HOLES IN THE GREENHOUSE!!!
Potential Candidates...
DJ Short Blueberry
DJ Short Grape Krush
DJ Short Flo (2 diff cuts, cross fingers)
Blue Goo
Blue Dream
Green Crack (see pics, first test completed, it passes)
Elephant Bud
Strawberry Cough (We are in colorado right)
SAGE
White Russian
Saw Tooth (Fastest grower, fastest cloner so far...)
5 X naturalization project females from 18 seeds popped from last years grow. have 2 male candidates will breed males with all above for 2012 outdoor. I want colorado high country naturalized weed, and I will have it. the other 11 inferior males and females were culled as this project is important and they were inferior.
The mother of these seeds are either Sour Diesel, Hawaiian, or Grand Daddy Purple (prized) that grew in the greenhouse in 2010.
What i am looking for is several generations of outdoor that are mine, and some true hybrid vigor!
So far the only plants to flower of the potentials above is the Green Crack. It smells so very very sweet. amazingly resinous. There were really almost no leaves for the trash pile, as all had hash potential. I am excited for 3 months of veg on this baby by June 1.
Quality of the photography aside... CHECK OUT THEM ACTIVES!
So i will take some pics of the greenhouse. It is a giant laying in slumber. It is most suitable for full season.
So in the early season this year you can tune in here to see how the test runs of all the above listed cuts turn out BEFORE WE PLACE ANY IN THE GROUND! In a couple weeks we get to see how our white russian and a different green crack cut will be for us. Around the first week of May the test run on all of the other cuts listed above will be ready for inspection.We have some of all of them though just in case, and the full season plants are already alive.
3 months of veg before June 1. Root bound 7 gallon Smart Pot at final transplant? We shall see.
Thanks as always for tuning in. Looking forward to a great year for us all...
trying a different yet soothing text colour...what do you think?