The growing large plants, outdoors, thread...

[Shcrews]

some of our cherry pies started to preflower last month as babies, and now are re-vegging on a 15/9 light cycle.. would it be safe to put them outside now or is it likely that they could revert again so soon after the switch. I feel like since they already pre-flowered and now started growing normal leaves again they might adapt to the sun's natural schedule without needing supp lighting

i hope that question makes sense, i'm high as shit right now

thanks!

PS: What's the most anybody has yielded off a cherry pie?

 

[Bulldog420]

I would think any clone shouldn't go outdoors until around June 1st without supplemental lighting. Seeds are a different story. Anybody else chime in?

 

[Bo Hasset]

Hi Jenn,
25 bags black gold potting soil (1.5cf ea)

4 bags stutzman farms chicken manure (1 cf ea)

1 bag perlite (4 cf ea)

1 bag (50 lbs) bonemeal (steamed, not precipitated)

1/2 bag gypsum (aprox 1/2 cf) - Edit -> 1/2 of a 40 lb bag (20lbs).

Mix well, water thoroughly, let rest for 2-3 weeks minimum, transplant, and stand back

Best Regards,

Tom

View Image

Well, decided to bite the bullet and half-way go for it... I say half-way, b/c after re-reading about 1/3 of the thread I found mention where Tom talked about a garden where he didn't have time to let the soil marinate and so instead went with 1/2 the prescribed amount of amendments, mixed and almost instantly transferred. I also found mention where he says he's subbed out Black Gold for any number of things, so that makes me not feel so rigid. Also, b/c this is a get er' done kind of situation I'll be using a few things I have on hand, but aren't EXACTLY what the good Doctor ordered. Picked up 24 new 300 gallon geoPots, they come in at 5 feet wide and 28" deep... another "difference". I had two pallets of Dr. Earth I scooped up from Orchard Hardware (they give 70 bag pallets , plus gave me 15% off the purchase...), they were a little taken aback when I asked about purchasing a whole pallet, but when you have the cash, the man-power and the right vehicle to haul shit away in, then it makes them listen. Got one pallet of their Planting Mix and another of their All-Purpose "Pot of Gold" soil. Most of the Pot of Gold got eaten up with Light Dep pots, but we still have a few. Did a quick check and dumped 25 bags into a 300 gallon and was surprised to find that I was left with a mere 4 inches at the top for amendments... guess it's a good thing I'll be halving.

So, my mix will basically look like this (x24):

1 cu yd tote of Garden Blend from Earth Worm Soil Factory (just EWC and their compost) plus 1.25 bales of Pro-Mix HP

2 bags of Stutzman Chicken Poop

2 cf of Perlite and 2 cf of Pumice (instead of 4 cf of perlite... have a 1 cu yd of pumice at another spot that is all sewn up in a tote and ready for transport.... USE WHAT YOU HAVE!)

1 "25 lb bag" of 50/50 steamed bone meal and fish bone meal (again, using what I have... had 7 50 lb bags of 4-20-0 Fish Bone Meal in the shed, so I went and grabbed 6 bags of regular bone meal this evening and will hash it out accordingly so each pot has a 50/50 blend)

1/4 of a 40 lb bag of gypsum (Never really got an answer on here, though I did get a helpful PM from Backyard regarding the oyster shell that makes good sense, but I just don't have the time right now to research what doing a 1:1 of oyster shell flour and gypsum, or 5 1bs of each basically, would really do... so unless I see some flow charts and graphs or oyster shell flour for dummies link on here before I head out in a few hours I'm going gypsum, baby!)

And that's it... I'm really tempted to add some kelp or alfalfa meal, but I'm just going to go with the flow, do my brix-mix foliar as usual and light ferts in the form of Pure Blend (haters gonna hate, but the shit works when I need it to) since there happens to be a 55-gallon barrel in my possession and as Tom says, "Step back!".

So, while I'm a little upset I can't run his numbers exactly, there is always next year and when you're in the middle of may and have 40 yrds of soil missing that needs to be filled back up we do what we have to, right?

If someone smarter than I sees any glaring retardation on my part, please let me know, b/c come tomorrow it's Full-Metal Jacket and balls to the wall in terms of getting it done.

 

[Bo Hasset]

here's some actual information on Liming Agents. I hope you find this helpful.

Ahhhhhhhhhh.... thank you for the info, b00bz! To be honest, until I can digest it all it'll probably just compound my confusion on my original quandary about wether or not OSP could be subbed for gypsum in Tom's mix, or at the least splitting the difference and using half gypsum/half OSP... I can understand that they are two totally different things within a similar realm, but my hold-up has always been that I understand gypsum to be a substance that isn't really effective until a good 6-12 months after introducing it to the soil, whereas I know that OSP has an "instant" effect. That has been my quandary, but as I don't have enough time to fact check and digest everything I'd need to in order to make a more informed decision regarding a substitution I am just going to blindly follow Uncle Tom's advice and drink the gypsum kook-aid. Much thanks though for dredging that useful tidbit up.

 

[Bo Hasset]

And I realize that I typed kook-aid... a mistake initially, but perhaps one of those Freudian slips.

3 consecutive after midnight rambling posts.... I'm fucking melting, ya'll.

 

[jackpot7]

Is anyone else having gopher problems? I'm about to build my first mounds... been using smartpots...What are you guys using under your mounds against these gophers? Thanks

 

[Backyard Farmer]

I use propane and oxygen to blow them up. It works pretty good.

 

[nomaad]

something about seeing a couple of smoking gophers somersault thru the air amidst the debris cloud... its like the smell of napalm in the morning...

 

[milkyjoe]

Go all fucking Bill Murray on them.

 

[grow nerd]

I use propane and oxygen to blow them up. It works pretty good.

Nice to see you, again.

Did you build your own rig or do you use a premade system? Trying to find the gas ratio, this article talks about a 2:1 oxygenropane ratio, oxygen regulator at full blast and propane at half. Does that sound about right?

Wondering if propane / air would be effective at all, so it wouldn't require an oxygen tank, expensive regulators, etc. Think DIY flame thrower modification vs welding torch. Seen other systems using a car exhaust for 15-30m in the holes to kill them with carbon monoxide.

Would imagine the explosive oxygen mixture would have the additional benefit of likely destroying the tunnels to discourage them from coming back? How long does this last? Are these rodents "smart enough" to figure out certain areas are dangerous to come back to?

 

[boobs]

Bo I don't really worry about how long things take to become available, in my mind the soil food web determines availability. just make your soil come alive and it'll take care of itself, if you build it they'll come

i don't feel safe from gophers w/o hardware cloth, used 1/4" in the raised beds. either raised beds w/ hardware cloth or smart pots and even in the pots i'd want to put some gopher wire underneath cos I've seen 'em chew holes through the pots. explosives are not going to keep them out they reproduce too fast imo

here's some pictures from the dep, going to flip in a couple days. pretty happy with where they're at. glad to see these results are attainable just by mixing stuff up around the house and sourced from the forest

this is the soil mix i posted a couple pages back, did the ACT i mentioned when I transplanted, a corn, mung bean, and alfalfa SST somewhere in there (i don't make hardly any, sprout a cup or two of seeds then dilute to several gallons of water and just spray around the trunk of the plant). and have made some diy foliar sprays with plants gathered around the area as well as the a karanja oil spray.

i'll keep showing pictures of healthy plants and telling what i do to help them be that way, other people can talk about buying this or that and the next miracle solution to problems from overthinking natural processes

 

[Luther Burbank]

I'm still putting particle size of amendments as a leading influence on availability. Calcium added at 100 microns will break down faster than large chunks of oyster grit. Larger surface area means more room for microbes to get to work.

 

[Bo Hasset]

I find the best defense for most of the smaller critters is to have a few dogs down on the farm. Though I have seen some brazen gophers that were in a neighbor's backyard and effectively made two of his very nice LSD from BOG essentially dud out and produce a 1/10th of what his LSD's that weren't gopher magnets. I've seen him get after them Caddy Shack style more than once... only a fence and property lines separate our grow areas, but I've yet to see a gopher in going on 3 years at this particular garden. Curiously, I have a few dogs that actually know how to behave in a pot garden and the gopher tunnels don't pop up anywhere the dogs are free to roam... neighbor's property who keeps inside dogs has gopher bonanza and the barb wire fence erected at the back of my property to keep dogs in, deer out marks more gopher territory. Hmmmmmm....

 

[Bo Hasset]

Bo I don't really worry about how long things
i'll keep showing pictures of healthy plants and telling what i do to help them be that way, other people can talk about buying this or that and the next miracle solution to problems from overthinking natural processes

Success and failure are the same thing, and I like the warts and all approach.

I don't mean any disrespect. I find your posts to be thought provoking and they normally have me using the ol' google machine or some reference texts I have around to further explore topics... That being said, let's see some pictures of those infrequent, yet inevitable "unhealthy" plants. It happens, and it's ok.

I bet you could be more content in your smugness by venturing into capitalism and taking some of those "locally sourced" and wild growing herbs that make your plants so very healthy and bottling them into the next magical elixir to sell to those that have trouble overthinking natural processes and need it fixed fast, quick and in a hurry.

Just like the commercial corn grower isn't likely to go full metal hippie on his cash crop with a shot of wheat grass and a slew of teas.... he's going to buy products that get the job done efficiently and quickly. So is the tale of the commercial ganja farmer, though some do it on a small enough scale to do those things they are few and far between.

I've found that most of the competent growers on here use different words to say basically the same thing. This is all subjective and open to interpretation.

End of rant and nothing but rainbows and unicorns for you, b00bz.

 

[grow nerd]

Better start than most have their first time around. Good luck and looking forward to some updates.

Thanks!

Got some more work done. Almost there:

 

[Bulldog420]

So as everybody knows wire mesh for gofers work well. But how about 4" of cheap base rock at the bottom of smartpots and bed
s?

233

 

[Bo Hasset]

So as everybody knows wire mesh for gofers work well. But how about 4" of cheap base rock at the bottom of smartpots and bed
s?

233

I'll get some cheap rock to let the gopher's base if that'll stop them.

 

[Luther Burbank]

Bom Shiva! Bom Shiva! One love to the big plants thread. May your soil be perfectly amended and your plants perfectly watered!

Debating trying to make a small rebar "dome" of sorts to set over the plant initially as a support for it to grow through before putting up posts/netting later in the season. This cross I'm testing seems extra floppy and I'm worried about support. Anyone using a smaller "interior" support like that?

 

[Bulldog420]

Tomato cages work great for an first layer of support. Then the rolls of concrete mesh after that. Just my two cents, good luck

 

[Hash Man]

Ocean grown looks different

Ocean grown looks different

Anyone else get some ocean grown this year? Its almost white instead of grey like last year. Also it says to use 1 tbsp/g instead of 1-4 tbsp/g. I know its cod and/or salmon so i guess the colors can change per batch. I am just wondering if this stuff is stronger. Anyone try it yet?