Had plans to move up North to Maine before the season, looked for MONTHS for a good place, finally found one, and that shit fell through mid-May...
So I gotta rock another season in central Appalachia... Not a problem. Ain't my first rodeo.
Naturally, on such short notice, I'm pretty fucking late to the party. I got my first germinated seeds planted at the very end of May... they didn't make it. There hasn't been much rain here at the right times... the soil has been drying out too quickly and the germinated seeds never take off and sprout.
Still not a huge problem; I got those seeds replaced with 5 Spontanicas from KC Brains and they all sprouted into healthy seedlings. Cool.
So I have more holes dug, put more seeds in them, same fucking shit as the first time. Fucking great. So I'm left with 5 Spontanicas that were started LATE (germinated seeds went out June 4th... three days later than my Spontanicas last year, which went out on the first and each yielded between 1 & a half and 2lbs, so no biggie. I figure I can match that or even do better, since my soil is much better amended this year with insect frass, basalt rock dust, and gypsum.).
I go back to water/feed my Spontanica seedlings, which each have a 20oz clear plastic cup over them as a min-greenhouse and then a chicken wire cage. This is a picture of a plant from last year to show you how the cages are set up:
But my seedlings now are much smaller and still under the cups, like so:
So what the fuck do I find when I go to check on them today?
Some of those cups are not just knocked over, but laying outside of the cages. So the cages were still on the stake, but the cups were on the outside on a few of the plants. The cups that were placed overtop seeds that never sprouted, however, were also knocked over. One of the seedlings, which I had propped up my last visit, was again laying down on the ground (picked its 'head' up and was growing up again, but had obviously been knocked over).
^But this was only the case with some, two of the other plants were untouched. I did notice some sort of animal hole in one of the holes I dug, but it was one of the holes without a sprouted seedling. There may have been animal holes in the others, but I didn't see them, perhaps because of the hay I laid down?
Now already I'm thinking that either someone found my plot and was fucking around with the seedlings, but why knock over cups that have no seedlings under them? Also, my cups don't just blow over; I put sand around the outside of them to stop slugs/snails and also hold the cups in place a bit. Either someone found them, or an animal had a fucking field day and managed to move/lift the cages enough to knock the cups out, but not pull the cages totally off.
Now the nail in the coffin: there is a particularly thick bush at the plot that I sometimes store things under. Right now I have a freezer bag of basalt rock dust I haven't used yet and a gallon jug of water with a bit of insect frass 'tea' for the seedlings. The bush is thick enough that it can't be seen through, but I have a little cubby hole cut out at the bottom, big enough to reach through and grab shit. The jug with the tea was visibly moved outward toward the opening. It was basically in the cubby hole. There was still some tea in it, but it could have maybe seemed to have less than it did whenever I left it. I don't know if that's real or if I'm just paranoid and thinking the worst. Either way, it was less than a third full and definitely not too heavy for an animal to bump and move.
So basically, I think I'm fucked. I don't know if I should even go back... All 5 Spontanicas are growing very healthily, so those will be some big girls. But FUCK! I don't know if I want to risk it... especially if it's work being put in just to be ripped.
I've got seeds left, but this was the only spot I've prepped (due to short notice) and it was, I felt, my safest option. Too late to start photoperiods now... I've got autos, including KC45 and KC48 (which is supposed to be some sort of superauto with yields equal to photoperiods), but nowhere else from there to put them in any immediacy.
So basically, this season's been a fucking disaster. Fuck!
/rant
So I gotta rock another season in central Appalachia... Not a problem. Ain't my first rodeo.
Naturally, on such short notice, I'm pretty fucking late to the party. I got my first germinated seeds planted at the very end of May... they didn't make it. There hasn't been much rain here at the right times... the soil has been drying out too quickly and the germinated seeds never take off and sprout.
Still not a huge problem; I got those seeds replaced with 5 Spontanicas from KC Brains and they all sprouted into healthy seedlings. Cool.
So I have more holes dug, put more seeds in them, same fucking shit as the first time. Fucking great. So I'm left with 5 Spontanicas that were started LATE (germinated seeds went out June 4th... three days later than my Spontanicas last year, which went out on the first and each yielded between 1 & a half and 2lbs, so no biggie. I figure I can match that or even do better, since my soil is much better amended this year with insect frass, basalt rock dust, and gypsum.).
I go back to water/feed my Spontanica seedlings, which each have a 20oz clear plastic cup over them as a min-greenhouse and then a chicken wire cage. This is a picture of a plant from last year to show you how the cages are set up:
But my seedlings now are much smaller and still under the cups, like so:
So what the fuck do I find when I go to check on them today?
Some of those cups are not just knocked over, but laying outside of the cages. So the cages were still on the stake, but the cups were on the outside on a few of the plants. The cups that were placed overtop seeds that never sprouted, however, were also knocked over. One of the seedlings, which I had propped up my last visit, was again laying down on the ground (picked its 'head' up and was growing up again, but had obviously been knocked over).
^But this was only the case with some, two of the other plants were untouched. I did notice some sort of animal hole in one of the holes I dug, but it was one of the holes without a sprouted seedling. There may have been animal holes in the others, but I didn't see them, perhaps because of the hay I laid down?
Now already I'm thinking that either someone found my plot and was fucking around with the seedlings, but why knock over cups that have no seedlings under them? Also, my cups don't just blow over; I put sand around the outside of them to stop slugs/snails and also hold the cups in place a bit. Either someone found them, or an animal had a fucking field day and managed to move/lift the cages enough to knock the cups out, but not pull the cages totally off.
Now the nail in the coffin: there is a particularly thick bush at the plot that I sometimes store things under. Right now I have a freezer bag of basalt rock dust I haven't used yet and a gallon jug of water with a bit of insect frass 'tea' for the seedlings. The bush is thick enough that it can't be seen through, but I have a little cubby hole cut out at the bottom, big enough to reach through and grab shit. The jug with the tea was visibly moved outward toward the opening. It was basically in the cubby hole. There was still some tea in it, but it could have maybe seemed to have less than it did whenever I left it. I don't know if that's real or if I'm just paranoid and thinking the worst. Either way, it was less than a third full and definitely not too heavy for an animal to bump and move.
So basically, I think I'm fucked. I don't know if I should even go back... All 5 Spontanicas are growing very healthily, so those will be some big girls. But FUCK! I don't know if I want to risk it... especially if it's work being put in just to be ripped.
I've got seeds left, but this was the only spot I've prepped (due to short notice) and it was, I felt, my safest option. Too late to start photoperiods now... I've got autos, including KC45 and KC48 (which is supposed to be some sort of superauto with yields equal to photoperiods), but nowhere else from there to put them in any immediacy.
So basically, this season's been a fucking disaster. Fuck!
/rant
