This year's project ~40degrees North latitude USA

[Klompen]

Hey everyone! I'm trying to get my garden in order for this year and do a million other projects. I have been buying brick weed from a dude about 90 miles from here but it honestly is extremely overpriced and crappy and the guy doesn't seem to believe the virus is a threat so he does NOTHING to protect himself. So this year we're really hoping to go for proper self-sufficiency and get out some autos for the summer and some photos for the fall. It is time to stop leaving a serious medical need in the hands of others and get growing again.

Our soil around here is HORRIBLE red clay. Its absolutely garbage, and I've been trying to decide what to do with it. There is awful turf in the desert South-West that is better than this crap. Worst soil I have ever dealt with in the Mid-West and its in my yard The previous owners have left quite an eclectic variety of trash in my ground as well unfortunately. So I guess what I need to figure out here is. My current plan is to flatten out some clay beds and then put a few inches of peat/compost mix on top with concrete blocks around the outside to make raised beds. Does this seem like a good approach? Should I mix the clay into the compost and peat mix or layer it? I'm going to be using gypsum aplenty though and that should help a bit with all that clay. I haven't added any perlite, chunk DE, or vermiculite though since its outdoor beds. Should I be doing so?

So if I actually do get some auto seeds here like I'm supposed to, then I'm going to work on a summer crop. I've never grown them before though and I am not sure how much sun they want and what kind of soil conditions tend to favor them. In the past I have always done clones from mom plants for outdoor, but this time around there was just no way to start ahead of time as it will probably be a month or two minimum before we finish our indoor grow space. I just have a million projects right now and COVID has forced me to speed up some of them.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any advice! Stay safe everyone

 

[St. Phatty]

soil like that is hardest on seedlings.

 

[Big Eggy]

Good luck.. Do you have any stables nearby who might have a load of well rotted manuar you could use to work into the soil?

My photoperiod gorilla spot was about 5cm of top soil and then lumps of rock (old industrial site) . Luckily I'd prepped the holes back in Feb and took about 100litres of amendments up there.

 

[romanoweed]

Yes, mix the nutrient poor Earth in your Garden just with Compost or rich earth.


I did the same with clay`y Earth, easily visible it was basically impossible to bare any Live. Mixed with longtherm-Feeding. Worked good, plants were nicely fed.


This Year, i have also a very sandy Growspot, wich is same Thing, only that on this spot it is so sandy, i have to completely exchange Earth. When dug the holes Sand ever fell back into it, so i had Problems to fill in the different Earth SEAMLESS. Means: most Seedlings grow healthy in most holes, but in one Hole i planted the Seedling in a sandy Corner, so: that Plants nearly died out that Reason. So: mix, or replace the Earth very Seamless, if there is a nutrient-Gap like 7cm,( 2 Inch), the Young Seedlings might not make it trough to the rich spot.


So, im convinced it works. Just use your Senses how much to add, not to less, not to much, cause pure compost can also be too hot , to much, right...? You can even do this in pure Sand, but again seamless mixing-in, and Sand is basically nutrientfree, so , Needs 100 percent replacement, but if you feel the Soil is a Step above dry loose Sand, you can use a breeze of that clay`y sandy Soil for shure.

 

[Dankwolf]

Pulling up a chair

 

[Klompen]

Thanks for the replies. I should definitely try and find a good manure source around here. The whole area right around here is packed with cows and probably horses too. I'm not very good at hunting down sources like that but maybe I can find something. I think a good 10-20 tons of manure might make this yard have some adequate soil.

Right now I'm working with store-bought topsoil, sphagnum peat moss, sand, chunk DE, mushroom compost, and "humus and manure".

I'll try to get pics up soon. I haven't exactly figured out getting pictures on to this computer....

 

[romanoweed]

ATTENTION, im not shure if you could bring in fresh Cowthighys directly, shouldnt you let them rot for a while..?
I would rather buy chikken-thingys, and Horn-dust, bouth are well known lontherm-Feedings. Buyable in the most Garden-Stores, atleast here.


I know this cause you have to pay atention no to mix in too much unrotten Green, and unrotten Leafes, they can burn Roots!

 

[Klompen]

ATTENTION, im not shure if you could bring in fresh Cowthighys directly, shouldnt you let them rot for a while..?
I would rather buy chikken-thingys, and Horn-dust, bouth are well known lontherm-Feedings. Buyable in the most Garden-Stores, atleast here.


I know this cause you have to pay atention no to mix in too much unrotten Green, and unrotten Leafes, they can burn Roots!

Most of the farmers around here have piles of dung that have been sitting for a long time. Its just such a tough time to try and make contact with new folks unfortunately....

 

[Klompen]

Its not an amazing picture but I got our first bed done for the gardening in general(not cannabis in this one). This shows the basic approach. I used less than 30 dollars worth of unmortared concrete blocks from the hardware store and made a 4 layer garden with clay/sand chunks at the very bottom, then a mix of clay, sand, and store-bought topsoil. The layer above that is a mix of composted manure & humus, mushroom compost, sphagnum peat moss, store-bought topsoil, and a little clay/sand from the yard. Then on top of all that is a thin layer of wood mulch.

I'm working on another similar bed, but I got lucky and got about 2 tons of compost from my friend(it has a lot of weeds in it though). So the next bed is going to have a fairly different mix in it. Should be fun to see how the differences between them play out.

 

[Klompen]

Got two garden beds finished today and hopefully tomorrow the seeds my buddy is sending will show up. Super busy but things are coming together nicely so far.

While I am waiting for the beans, here's a shot of that schwagg I am stuck with as my only smoking option. This stuff is going for 1600 a pound, and all it is is brick that has been "fluffed"(water used to unbrick it). Last bag we got from them was so humid that I had to dry it out a little just to keep it from molding as it sat around.

Behold: Quality?

 

[Klompen]

Last year I got started way later than planned and had a lot of problems with the soil in the patch that actually survived(I planed about 200 beans and got 7 plants, most of which were tiny)

This is really the only one worthy of note that came of last year's efforts. No idea what strain. Its grown from the seeds that came out of the above schwagg. I just called it "number 2". It and number 1 were the biggest yielders, with each perhaps giving us two ounces or so of weak mid grade with a pleasant high even if its not strong.

 

[romanoweed]

7 out 200, very low.
If you plant them directly into dangerous Soil, you do someting very uncommon, often People start Seedlings in pretty bought Soil!!
You let those Plants into deep Jungle from Ebrial State, its unlikely to survive, if you let grown/slightly grown plants into Jungle, they have much more Resources in Body (and Mind).


A short Leak in Water, Nutrient, they die, wich is actually normal in Nature. 1000 Seeds per Motherplant one/two Survivors. I dig that natural Approach, and i had to experience that i couldnt find a possibility to let Nature Play, without to loose 99 Percent Genetics(Europe)..


I planted by the River into pure Sand, no Chance
I planted in average Natural Spots: Whether Snails, drought, or what i believe Birds eating the Plants heads while Shell still on. They were all gone in days.
I brought 10cm/4 Inch Seedlings out without heavy Snailpreventions, they would probably all be gone wouldnt in the lates Moment reacted with Snailgrain (Europe).



Making no interventions could :
1:Select for wild`ish Phenos, wich might be not the desired in therms of Psychoactivity, cause basically all Strains are said to be manmade, including Landr. . So you select for weak ancestors? Wich is NOT hemp(often mistaken), its a rare species but its said to be weak in psychoactivity
2: Select for a wildish Phenos from your Region. IF you northamerican, you may bring in a northamerican landrace/feral Twist, in your Plants.


The Idea that if you plant per Ex. Mexicans, and you let nature select for one of the named Directions, and it will still resemble strong/sufficient Mexican-expressions, is very nice, and i wish you good Luck. The possibilities, that you automatically end up with the northamerican-like, nonpsychoactive phenos is acordign to theories layed pout given, again probably you find the holy Grail for us northern People : the Mexican-effect /northemerican-Adaption Plant.


You have my Support for freaky Experiments to find out if its actually contraproductive per se. , or not! If thats even what you tried to do.

 

[Klompen]

I just had exceptionally bad luck for a few reasons last year. Several crisis meant I planted late, and most of my spots got eaten by creatures. One spot was even in a place cows normally can't go, but cows broke down the fence and wiped out everything. Just freakishly bad luck all around. I lost approximately 193 seeds to that, but thankfully only a small portion of those were decent genetics. Still, all that time carefully planting patches, securing them against creatures, bringing in water; all for nothing. Just ended up with a couple rogue plants that never manged to make their way out of my yard. Nicotine spray actually works wonders on plant pets in wild patches, but most of my seedlings vanished before I ever had a chance to spray them.

I'm in the Mid-West of the US, and around here there is a lot of wild hemp growing. Its hard to keep the pollen from hitting outdoor grows. It makes reliable reproduction of good genetics really hard anywhere outside in this region. I would like to eventually do a project to really acclimate some good genetics to this area and ideally something that can out-compete the hemp plants(not an easy task, some of the hemp plants around here grow easily more than 5 meters tall and drop upward of 100,000 seeds per plant. They are just hardy monster plants that defy all but the most diligent efforts to remove them from farmland(some strains of wild hemp even survive herbicide spraying)

 

[romanoweed]

I can tell you, if you live in a very flat Area, i would say one mile eradication Radius, atleas into main-winddirection might be the Goal. But i can warn you, i saw it myselve, just a single one Foot high male, can cover the whole Surrounding treaving with Seeds!!! Canabis is very good/advanced in one Thing sheding pollen!


So you Need to do a very good Ovservation.


The other Problem, if you really search the holy Grail i told: and select for it three four Generations, your Plant might look to a Degree like northamerican feral Plants .. What i wanna say: near to the Goal of a adapted Mexian, you will have Problem to spot IF there is feral-influence.
Why i think that: cause: basically all Landraces (wich are said to be basically manmade) look like their wild Counterparts of the Region atleast from what i saw. So: i guess the Surrounding greatly guide Mans Selections.



You will have to really learn, by Eye what is a hemp-influence to kill those contaminated Children of a Mexican x Hemp before before they become ripe, OR erradicate Hemp perfectly. Good luck

 

[Klompen]

I've started some seeds. First in water overnight and now they are in a medium that is the following mix:

4 parts perlite
4 parts vermiculite
6 parts coco coir
1 part sphagnum peat moss

This mix is put in tiny little plastic cups and the seeds are planted in them already. Unfortunately last night a mouse got in there and may have eaten two of the seeds. The good news though is that it seems the seeds they most likely destroyed were not very valuable. The really good ones, and most thankfully the autos, were not touched yet. I have now secured them much better, but I will need to be vigilant.

So I have the following started:

First is seeds from actual breeders:

2 x "Killer Orange" Killer Orange S1 is Aces New Malawi Killer X Orange Glue,( GG4 x Agent Orange)

2 x "Loud N Proud" (I think its Relentless seeds Exodus(aka UK Cheese) x ROG)

2 x HFH Arnes Amnesiated SSSDD (An incredible mix of heady strains, but the seeds are very old so we'll see)

2 x HFH Deep Danish (also quite old)

2 x HFH White Super 07

2 x J1 Hashplant (no clue about this one)

2 x Romulan x Chronic (Old freebie, probably very indica)

2 x Fat Boy Chem (no idea)

2 x OJSDKB (no idea)

2 x Black Death (no idea)

2 x Mountain Temple (no idea)

2 x Black Triangle (no idea)

2 x Gooey 13 (no idea)

2 x Summer Breeze (swamp boyz)

Next is seeds from open pollination done by a friend many years ago and a couple unknowns:

10 x Northern Lights (The third reworking by him) *2 of these may have been eaten by mice

4 x Blue Hash x Northern Skunk

4 x "MH" (no idea what MH means anymore lol)

2 x "Black Clip" (I can't seem to remember where these seeds came from, but the label is blank and it was rolled up tight and put in a black clip. Should be interesting to see what comes of them)

Last, but absolutely not least are the autoflowers:

3 x Double Grape Auto (Mephisto seeds, Sour Stomper (Sour crack - Grape Pheno x Grape Stomper OG) x Grape Crinkle (Canadian Crinkle x Supernatural x Ripley's OG))

1 x Three Bears OG (Mephisto seeds, Bear OG A.K.A Karma's OG(Karma Genetics) Cut x Triangle F3

1 x Three Bears OG x Tooth Decay

So that's that for the moment. I want to thank a kind benefactor who was generous enough to send me a bunch of seeds and even a few autoflowerers! Very exciting to get a package like that. My only decent seeds were quite old, and none of them autoflower.

Barring any more rodent issues; we should have some great strains to work with here if all goes well!

 

[Klompen]

Unfortunately, absolutely none of the Hybrids from Hell beans have popped, and my old seeds from my buddy(Northern Lights and a couple others) have all failed to germ too. While we were homeless, many times the seed were stored in hot places and other conditions that were far from ideal. Its just deeply concerning that all my old seeds seem to be failing to germ

On the plus side though there are about 20 or so that have come up including all 5 of the autoflowers we started. Basically all the ones that have come up are the new seeds that a generous friend gifted me recently. We'll see if absolutely all my old stuff is actually dead or not. I am only attempting to germ a couple at a time here to be safe.

One really neat development.... One of the two Summer Breeze plants is a trifoliate. It has 3 cotyledons and 3 first true leaves. I am really hoping this one is a girl because its seriously intriguing. I will attempt to get a picture ASAP here.

 

[Klompen]

Here's a picture of that Summer Breeze trifoliate

 

[Klompen]

Still not getting results from my old seeds. I am starting to worry all of them are dead, which would be tragic...

Anyway, my seedlings have been struggling a bit but seem to finally be doing a bit better. You can see in the pic of the full grow that more than half of the seeds I planted didn't come up.

On the plus side though, the seeds that did come up are pretty nice. Among them are the following(though my memory is imperfect):

2 x Killer Orange
3 x Double Grape Auto
1 x Three Bears OG x Tooth Decay
1 x Three Bears OG
1 x Loud n Proud
2 x Mountain Temple
1 x J1 Hashplant
1 x Black Death
1 x Black Triangle
1 x Summer Breeze (Trifoliate)

I know I am missing few but that's my current lineup mostly..



Here is the full setup right now. I temporarily have them on a pallet with a couple of sawhorses supporting a board and a light hanging from that board. Its a 90W, 10,000 Lumen LED flood light, but I have no idea about its spectrum unfortunately. I doubt it will be sufficient for long. I have a bunch of COB lights that I need to build still, but hopefully this will work until then.



Here is an another look at the trifoliate. I have no idea what will come of this thing but it sure is neat!

 

[Klompen]

Could a moderator please move this thread to grow diaries? This project is evolving a bit differently than I expected.

 

[romanoweed]

You can try freezing Seeds short, just a day long, or couple Hours, if im not mistaken this helps heighten Germingrate, done short before germing. Im not too shure tho.

Also, cracking Seeds with just you Fingers from Day 2 on (once wet), may increase Germingrate too.
Put the bigger End "the Ass" pointed thowards you Hand between Thumb and Indexfinger and simply Crack them . They will open at the thin End.