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UK Outdoor Growing 2010
- Thread starter thepureskunk
- Start date
awesome raised garden bed you have there, very healthy looking seedlings.
great shame to read about your high ratios of males, is that a normal auto thing, or just bad luck?
lets hope the ladies get super big to fill up the space a bit.
may you still have a great season.
great shame to read about your high ratios of males, is that a normal auto thing, or just bad luck?
lets hope the ladies get super big to fill up the space a bit.
may you still have a great season.
liquidlight
Member
Hey everyone!
Been reading these hallowed pages the last few days and got all nostalgic so i wanted to share my grow this year. It's been two years since i was here last (or whatever site we were on at the time ... i think it was here was it?) ... and two years since i've grown any greens. It seems i just cant find a stable, long term place to live so i've been moving around ALOT which makes life kinda interesting but it's such a pain in the ass too and makes growing a bit tricky as you'd expect. Still, where there's a will there's a way i guess. I'm already on my fourth residence of the year and my plants have travelled with me.
Sooo, i wasn't originally intending to grow anything this year but as usual even without (concious) intent to grow, come spring and i start checking out the seedbanks and i'm drawn to a strain i first noticed two years ago but hadn't really researched ... Dutch Passions 'Frisian Dew' ... they hype it as the best outdoor plant they've ever produced ... and after checking out a few peoples outdoor grows on different forums, i think it probably is. It's touted as heavy yielding, great mould resistance and a good smoke and from the threads i've researched this does indeed seem to be the case.
It's an F1 superskunk x purple star and so far i really like it ... it's grown really well and my five feminised plants have been through all sorts of adventures.
I took some pics a couple of days ago which i'll post tomorrow, but i just spent the evening planting them out in the wilds at last, working up an easy sweat hacking holes in the ground with a small pickaxe ( a tool i really recommend). Realised how bloody unfit i am too! Gotta give up the evil weed (tobacco). There's a water source just a few minutes away but i couldn't be arsed tonight so i just used the 3 litres of water i had with me to soak the rootball of each plant before burying (a method that's worked well in the past) ... i'll go back and focus on watering over the next few days. They're all about 3 foot tall and branching nicely. A nice site which'll give them sun from about 9am to 9pm with nothing overshadowing them.
Anyway, nice to be here again, at least for a little while. Grow history and pics tomorrow!
Been reading these hallowed pages the last few days and got all nostalgic so i wanted to share my grow this year. It's been two years since i was here last (or whatever site we were on at the time ... i think it was here was it?) ... and two years since i've grown any greens. It seems i just cant find a stable, long term place to live so i've been moving around ALOT which makes life kinda interesting but it's such a pain in the ass too and makes growing a bit tricky as you'd expect. Still, where there's a will there's a way i guess. I'm already on my fourth residence of the year and my plants have travelled with me.
Sooo, i wasn't originally intending to grow anything this year but as usual even without (concious) intent to grow, come spring and i start checking out the seedbanks and i'm drawn to a strain i first noticed two years ago but hadn't really researched ... Dutch Passions 'Frisian Dew' ... they hype it as the best outdoor plant they've ever produced ... and after checking out a few peoples outdoor grows on different forums, i think it probably is. It's touted as heavy yielding, great mould resistance and a good smoke and from the threads i've researched this does indeed seem to be the case.
It's an F1 superskunk x purple star and so far i really like it ... it's grown really well and my five feminised plants have been through all sorts of adventures.
I took some pics a couple of days ago which i'll post tomorrow, but i just spent the evening planting them out in the wilds at last, working up an easy sweat hacking holes in the ground with a small pickaxe ( a tool i really recommend). Realised how bloody unfit i am too! Gotta give up the evil weed (tobacco). There's a water source just a few minutes away but i couldn't be arsed tonight so i just used the 3 litres of water i had with me to soak the rootball of each plant before burying (a method that's worked well in the past) ... i'll go back and focus on watering over the next few days. They're all about 3 foot tall and branching nicely. A nice site which'll give them sun from about 9am to 9pm with nothing overshadowing them.
Anyway, nice to be here again, at least for a little while. Grow history and pics tomorrow!
thepureskunk
Active member
awesome raised garden bed you have there, very healthy looking seedlings.
great shame to read about your high ratios of males, is that a normal auto thing, or just bad luck?
lets hope the ladies get super big to fill up the space a bit.
may you still have a great season.
Thanks man :tup:
TBH I feel the ratio of Males is down to the genetics as I've taken quite a hit! I have already put some more seeds in and i'm hoping they will help fill the space.
It can't be anything I've done i don't think as the plants in the raised bed have over 2ft of soil to go into and the other seeds have been planted 2 max in 10L pots, so plenty of space and no need to re-pot.
Hey liquidlight I'm sure i remember your handle over at PG before it went down. Cool to have you back man!
MJB- We can't have it all ways on our Island...it seems to be either super cold or super hot...gotta love it
I've started on a new lake and the fish have been spawning hard and its a bugger to catch... although they should be hungry when finished. I'll be doing tomorrow night, so i'll have to take a couple of pics. Peace everyone!! TPS
greenclaws
Member
Good to see lots of anglers on here,Spent the last couple of days surface fishing on my local river.Had 2 20's and 3 doubles so far this season.Fight like mad in the river!
Also a good cover for one of my spots is near by so i dont look suspect when i drop by
Also a good cover for one of my spots is near by so i dont look suspect when i drop by
alright guys-
i got bitten last night by a really nasty bug/fly/something when doing some guerilla planting. I was digging in the no mans land between industrial units with a friend, when i got stung on the neck, i started shouting grabbing at my neck-startleing my mate AND the guard dogs on the other side of the fence-trying to get my shirt off-then it stung me again on my arse! Now i'm screaming (arrrggghhh etc) pulling my trousers down. It was like having a hot needle stuck in my flesh-worse than a bee or a wasp.
I didn't find the creature that did it. It must have gone down my shirt-trousers then got my bum ffs. I'm not a pussy-i've been bitten by bees, wasps, horseflies, allsorts-but this was horrible-my ass is still tingling tonight (that sounds wrong somehow doesn't it?
)
managed to get some Early Pearl, Friesian Dew and 10 Danish Rocketchunk Xs in. Planting out tommorrow again-will have some pics in near future
cheers guys
eddieS
i got bitten last night by a really nasty bug/fly/something when doing some guerilla planting. I was digging in the no mans land between industrial units with a friend, when i got stung on the neck, i started shouting grabbing at my neck-startleing my mate AND the guard dogs on the other side of the fence-trying to get my shirt off-then it stung me again on my arse! Now i'm screaming (arrrggghhh etc) pulling my trousers down. It was like having a hot needle stuck in my flesh-worse than a bee or a wasp.
I didn't find the creature that did it. It must have gone down my shirt-trousers then got my bum ffs. I'm not a pussy-i've been bitten by bees, wasps, horseflies, allsorts-but this was horrible-my ass is still tingling tonight (that sounds wrong somehow doesn't it?
)managed to get some Early Pearl, Friesian Dew and 10 Danish Rocketchunk Xs in. Planting out tommorrow again-will have some pics in near future
cheers guys
eddieS
liquidlight
Member
Oh dear i'm a bit crap with photo editing ... could someone tell me how to turn a 700kb photo into a 100kb photo?
TPS ... yeah man i was at overgrow (for a short while just before it died) and planet ganga with you lot.
What i really wanted to do here and my main reason for registering was to share a simple tip which could easily get overlooked but the benefits of which are staggering;
BURYING THE LOWER MAIN STEM TO ENCOURAGE MORE ROOT GROWTH
Simple really but i find this doesn't work hardly at all unless one uses ROOTING HORMONE.
Starting plants under low light conditions can cause a plant to stretch for light resulting in a skinny, sparse, thin stemmed plant with big gaps between the internodes. This happened again this year as i started my plants in a south facing window ... the young seedlings got all tall and skinny. When they started producing proper leaf sets and started growing a bit faster the stems above the dicotelydons started to thicken as normal but the lower stem below the dicotelydons remained thin and i started to get concerned about how the roots were going to feed the plant through this tiny thin stem ... effectively a 'bottleneck' between the roots and the plant proper.
I've buried lower stems before to maintain a plant with nice dimensions and to give them more stability in the ground and also hoped that roots would emerge from that portion of stem, but at the end of the season upon pulling up the roots i've found that no roots did emerge despite being underground for a few months. So this year whilst repotting i scratched the surface of the stem all over up to the dicotelydons and applied a good covering of rooting powder before buring the stem up to that height. I recently bought one of those upright mini greenhouse tent things (£10 from wilkinsons), so i put them in there where it was nice and warm and humid.
Three days later i awoke in the morning out of a mini-dream where i was looking down at the base of one of my plants and i saw nice thick healthy white roots emerging from the stem where i'd applied the rooting hormone. Now i trust dreams like that so i got all excited and at this point my plants really took off and started growing mutch more rapidly and when i came to un-potting them so as to wrap the rootballs in plastic bags for transportation to their outdoor wilderness home i was greeted with a most heartwarming sight ... just loads and loads of new healthy root growth. I'd managed to double and triple in some cases the rootmass of my plants and with some good weather they grew like buggery after that.
So i urge all of you to try this, there's almost no risk to your plants and i doubt you even really need a humid environment (with cuttings yes, but a plant with roots already, no).
More roots = more plant and faster growth = higher yields, plus a more anchored and nicely proportioned plant.
Try it!
TPS ... yeah man i was at overgrow (for a short while just before it died) and planet ganga with you lot.
What i really wanted to do here and my main reason for registering was to share a simple tip which could easily get overlooked but the benefits of which are staggering;
BURYING THE LOWER MAIN STEM TO ENCOURAGE MORE ROOT GROWTH
Simple really but i find this doesn't work hardly at all unless one uses ROOTING HORMONE.
Starting plants under low light conditions can cause a plant to stretch for light resulting in a skinny, sparse, thin stemmed plant with big gaps between the internodes. This happened again this year as i started my plants in a south facing window ... the young seedlings got all tall and skinny. When they started producing proper leaf sets and started growing a bit faster the stems above the dicotelydons started to thicken as normal but the lower stem below the dicotelydons remained thin and i started to get concerned about how the roots were going to feed the plant through this tiny thin stem ... effectively a 'bottleneck' between the roots and the plant proper.
I've buried lower stems before to maintain a plant with nice dimensions and to give them more stability in the ground and also hoped that roots would emerge from that portion of stem, but at the end of the season upon pulling up the roots i've found that no roots did emerge despite being underground for a few months. So this year whilst repotting i scratched the surface of the stem all over up to the dicotelydons and applied a good covering of rooting powder before buring the stem up to that height. I recently bought one of those upright mini greenhouse tent things (£10 from wilkinsons), so i put them in there where it was nice and warm and humid.
Three days later i awoke in the morning out of a mini-dream where i was looking down at the base of one of my plants and i saw nice thick healthy white roots emerging from the stem where i'd applied the rooting hormone. Now i trust dreams like that so i got all excited and at this point my plants really took off and started growing mutch more rapidly and when i came to un-potting them so as to wrap the rootballs in plastic bags for transportation to their outdoor wilderness home i was greeted with a most heartwarming sight ... just loads and loads of new healthy root growth. I'd managed to double and triple in some cases the rootmass of my plants and with some good weather they grew like buggery after that.
So i urge all of you to try this, there's almost no risk to your plants and i doubt you even really need a humid environment (with cuttings yes, but a plant with roots already, no).
More roots = more plant and faster growth = higher yields, plus a more anchored and nicely proportioned plant.
Try it!
liquidlight
Member
Eddie ... that sounds freaky! I was thinking Horsefly ... they love sweaty blokes and i was fending them off the other night but it's the swelling and not the bite that hurts with them.
I have no idea?
I always have a hot soapy shower after i get in from my outdoor shinanigans ... have often found ticks on me. apparently they don't like human blood all that mutch but euch! Hot soapy shower seems to sort them out.
Hey you've got some frisian dew! YAY! feminised or normal? My FD seeds were all small and grey (didn't look viable but germed fine). Apparently all frisian dew seeds look like this.
I have no idea?
I always have a hot soapy shower after i get in from my outdoor shinanigans ... have often found ticks on me. apparently they don't like human blood all that mutch but euch! Hot soapy shower seems to sort them out.
Hey you've got some frisian dew! YAY! feminised or normal? My FD seeds were all small and grey (didn't look viable but germed fine). Apparently all frisian dew seeds look like this.
alright LL
I got two regular F Dew seedlings which I've grown up quite big indoors-was given them so didn't see the seeds. Several good growers have recommended this strain, independantly, so fingers crossed.
tx for the hormone tip. I will try it tommorrow. Have been burying the stems as you described-it's a good way to manage stretchy seedlings-but never thought to scarify the stem or apply hormone powder-but it makes sense
reics. Just upload them and they should be re-sized automatically.
cheers
eddieS
I got two regular F Dew seedlings which I've grown up quite big indoors-was given them so didn't see the seeds. Several good growers have recommended this strain, independantly, so fingers crossed.
tx for the hormone tip. I will try it tommorrow. Have been burying the stems as you described-it's a good way to manage stretchy seedlings-but never thought to scarify the stem or apply hormone powder-but it makes sense
re
ics. Just upload them and they should be re-sized automatically.cheers
eddieS
liquidlight
Member
Oh yeah definitely scarify/scratch up the stem, it wouldn't work otherwise.
Then wet with water, and then apply a good ammount of rooting powder. Don't be shy with it.
Then wet with water, and then apply a good ammount of rooting powder. Don't be shy with it.
greenclaws
Member
Maybe a spider biite? i've had them before worse than any bee sting! If not spider hows bout the old ear-wig,They always leave a tell tale double bite mark
qustion-
when my auto plants that are in the ground are finished-end of july--i have plants growing in 10liter pots---is it worth transplanting them from pots into the ground early august to let them finish for early october finish---or just leave them in there pots---they should be about 3 to4 ft tall by then----add some amendments of course----stay safe
when my auto plants that are in the ground are finished-end of july--i have plants growing in 10liter pots---is it worth transplanting them from pots into the ground early august to let them finish for early october finish---or just leave them in there pots---they should be about 3 to4 ft tall by then----add some amendments of course----stay safe
sorry to hear that eddie i had a wasp sting me 2 times---it got inside my jumper---i did scream like a pussy in front of my friend---he thought it was funny--i dident-----
i got bitten by an adder as well--turning rocks and it done me on the leg--it was comeing out of hybernation as it was late febury i desturbed it an it bit me--just had a wierd numb feeling in my leg and felt a little sick but nothing to bad --i had colds and flues that done me worse---lucky we aint got bears and pumas and shit like that----i read some of the american and canadian threads some of them have had some scary moments----
rino u can still put them out up until end july but not much later as they might start flowering mid aug depending on strain---stay safe
i got bitten by an adder as well--turning rocks and it done me on the leg--it was comeing out of hybernation as it was late febury i desturbed it an it bit me--just had a wierd numb feeling in my leg and felt a little sick but nothing to bad --i had colds and flues that done me worse---lucky we aint got bears and pumas and shit like that----i read some of the american and canadian threads some of them have had some scary moments----
rino u can still put them out up until end july but not much later as they might start flowering mid aug depending on strain---stay safe
harold
Member
found a tic on the back of the leg the other day, felt a itchy bump, could just about turn my head to see it.... a few sprays of givency after-shave and the little blood sucker popped right off, thats after failing to scrape it off with a sharp blade. Aftershave sprays work excellent, the alcohol will help sterilize the wound too and smell nice at the same time lol....... japanese knotweed tea is supposed to be one of the only remedies against lymes disease btw, i know people have been told to be wary of milky sap containing plants but there are exceptions, knotweed is one of them.
raw onion rubbed onto bites, stings works wonders (certain tribes in the jungle use this technique) wont impress the wife though..... biting insects dont like the sulphur found in the garlic family, eating plenty before a hike can act as a natural deterrent.
got bit by horsefly the other day, did sting abit, no where near painful enough to scream like pussey lol, but a hornet wow they can make you feel pain that is quite horrible.
ive been bitten, stung (nettle etc) so much this year my body just shrugs it off... bites go down in hours, not a few days like they used too, but ive learnt not to scratch them.
harold
Member
minime, ive seen people transplant mid-end flowering to help pump up the buds and it worked great for him.... just learn to master the art against causing transplant shock.
scroll down to tomhills post #637
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=3432589&highlight=marry#post3432589
scroll down to tomhills post #637
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=3432589&highlight=marry#post3432589
liquidlight
Member
Ok here's my five feminised frisian dews about 5 days ago just before being relocated
The results of my root treatment ... most are nice thick new roots. The bottom third are the older finer roots.
Plants unpotted and rootballs wrapped in carrier bags and sellotaped up, and the 5 plants just about fit into a bin liner for transportation. Bag of compost and growmore into a bin liner too and we're away.
Some places charge £30 or £40 for these but i found this one in Wilkinsons for £10. Bargain! However the only ventilation is the main zipped front door and there's no real way of tying it to anything for support so to stop the wind blowing it over i've weighed it down with big stones on the bottom shelf. You can remove the shelves but the bars/shelf supports don't move. You could start alot of plants in one of these and grow them to a foot tall at least. Each shelf gives about 16'' height. Great slug protection particularly if sited on gravel like mine.
Took about 15 cuttings last week before putting plants out. Some big, some normal, some micro ones. looks like some are growing. They're just in multi purpose compost which really isn't ideal. Freezer bags stretched over top of pots with corners cut off for ventilation.
I've been criticised about using cardboard boxes for cabs but it's fairly safe in my opinion if they are watched over most of the time. So this is what i use for seedlings on dull days. That's just two bog standard 25w household energy saving CFL's.
www.picresize.com
Bees and wasps and probably flies of all sorts too are attracted to your moist breath. So stop breathing if you're being harrassed. it'll help avoid their interest. I trod on a wasps nest when i was a teenager and got chased for a good 100 yards. Most stings were on my head and boy did my head hurt for a couple of hours. They go for vulnerable points .. eyes ect. I was lucky i guess, i only got about 10 stings in all.
Reminds me of a few weeks ago a saw a young girl get chased by a dog. It was being friendly but she thought it was attacking her so she ran off wailing and screaming down the street with the dog close on her heels. It was quite hilarious.
The results of my root treatment ... most are nice thick new roots. The bottom third are the older finer roots.
Plants unpotted and rootballs wrapped in carrier bags and sellotaped up, and the 5 plants just about fit into a bin liner for transportation. Bag of compost and growmore into a bin liner too and we're away.
Some places charge £30 or £40 for these but i found this one in Wilkinsons for £10. Bargain! However the only ventilation is the main zipped front door and there's no real way of tying it to anything for support so to stop the wind blowing it over i've weighed it down with big stones on the bottom shelf. You can remove the shelves but the bars/shelf supports don't move. You could start alot of plants in one of these and grow them to a foot tall at least. Each shelf gives about 16'' height. Great slug protection particularly if sited on gravel like mine.
Took about 15 cuttings last week before putting plants out. Some big, some normal, some micro ones. looks like some are growing. They're just in multi purpose compost which really isn't ideal. Freezer bags stretched over top of pots with corners cut off for ventilation.
I've been criticised about using cardboard boxes for cabs but it's fairly safe in my opinion if they are watched over most of the time. So this is what i use for seedlings on dull days. That's just two bog standard 25w household energy saving CFL's.
www.picresize.com
Bees and wasps and probably flies of all sorts too are attracted to your moist breath. So stop breathing if you're being harrassed. it'll help avoid their interest. I trod on a wasps nest when i was a teenager and got chased for a good 100 yards. Most stings were on my head and boy did my head hurt for a couple of hours. They go for vulnerable points .. eyes ect. I was lucky i guess, i only got about 10 stings in all.
Reminds me of a few weeks ago a saw a young girl get chased by a dog. It was being friendly but she thought it was attacking her so she ran off wailing and screaming down the street with the dog close on her heels. It was quite hilarious.
liquid , bloody good tip on your rooting method .
Funniest thing i ever saw with insects was on the gravel pits some years ago , out in the distance was this old fella operating a drag line crane & feeding the gravel into a hopper/conveyer belt when all of a sudden the machine started spinning 1 way then the other , the drag bucket was going up & down & in and out . It was like something from a Keystone Cops film , thinking the poor old bugger was having a fit or heart attack we all rushed over to see him jump out of the cab & began beating himself all over the head & neck . He`d disturbed a cloud of Horse Flies & i`m talking a few hundred that decided to pile in his cab , a couple of hours later he looked like the elephant man .
I`ve always suffered with bee/wasp stings & swell up pretty bad , 1 yr i disturbed a wasp nest in a pallet with my fork lift & got hit in the neck , 1min later i`m feeling really ill & got on the radio to security telling them i was on my way & to get the first aid officer pretty quick , 3min later i fell out of the cab at security hut puking like hell . Ambulance called & i went into Anaphlactic Shock(sounds like a russian prositute) while on way to hosp . When i`m in casualty adrenalin straight into the heart , scary time .
About a year later me & my mate are out ferreting & clearing some leaves out of the rabbit holes for the nets when i grab a handful of leaves to clear this bolt hole when all a sudden theres a load of buzzing , i`d only grabbed a whole wasp nest bare handed & threw it on the ground ready for the next handfull , i`m surrounded by a cloud of angry wasps & shot out of there like a bunny with a ferret on it`s arse & got away without a sting .
Some days just turn out lucky .
Stay green .
Funniest thing i ever saw with insects was on the gravel pits some years ago , out in the distance was this old fella operating a drag line crane & feeding the gravel into a hopper/conveyer belt when all of a sudden the machine started spinning 1 way then the other , the drag bucket was going up & down & in and out . It was like something from a Keystone Cops film , thinking the poor old bugger was having a fit or heart attack we all rushed over to see him jump out of the cab & began beating himself all over the head & neck . He`d disturbed a cloud of Horse Flies & i`m talking a few hundred that decided to pile in his cab , a couple of hours later he looked like the elephant man .
I`ve always suffered with bee/wasp stings & swell up pretty bad , 1 yr i disturbed a wasp nest in a pallet with my fork lift & got hit in the neck , 1min later i`m feeling really ill & got on the radio to security telling them i was on my way & to get the first aid officer pretty quick , 3min later i fell out of the cab at security hut puking like hell . Ambulance called & i went into Anaphlactic Shock(sounds like a russian prositute) while on way to hosp . When i`m in casualty adrenalin straight into the heart , scary time .
About a year later me & my mate are out ferreting & clearing some leaves out of the rabbit holes for the nets when i grab a handful of leaves to clear this bolt hole when all a sudden theres a load of buzzing , i`d only grabbed a whole wasp nest bare handed & threw it on the ground ready for the next handfull , i`m surrounded by a cloud of angry wasps & shot out of there like a bunny with a ferret on it`s arse & got away without a sting .
Some days just turn out lucky .
Stay green .
liquidlight
Member
Big needle in the chest!! Eek! You ARE lucky indeed!
It's funny how fast you can run when you need to eh? When i was about 8 years old we got chased by bullocks and i just went straight through this thick hedge in seconds ... looking at it later i'm thinking "How the hell did i do that?"
- Even though there's a water source minutes away from my grow it's on a lane and i don't want to be seen on that lane if i can help it so i'm still gonna have to economise on water ... So i'm gonna take a plastic funnel and sink it into the soil down to the roots and just patiently let the water soak down there where it's needed the most. With not mutch water, watering the topsoil from above is such a waste, it just soaks into the topsoil and evaporates and the roots would be lucky to get any of it.
I germinated my seeds around April 20th and had them in a window to grow. They got fairly lanky. We had three cats in the house and one of them i was told liked to nibble plants sometimes, and one day just as my seedlings were putting out their first proper set of leaves i found the cat had nibbled every single one and one had been uprooted with it's tiny frail single root still atached so i just replanted it and luckily every plant was still ok ... it was mainly the dicotelydons that got nibbled off ... could have been a disaster.
When the plants were about on their 3rd leafset i had to move out (it was a temporary arrangement anyway), so en-route to where i am now i visited london for a few days ... my tender young seedlings were almost bare-rooted and the little rootballs wrapped in plastic and sellotaped up, put in a tupperware jug with a lid where they all fitted snugly and travelled with me on the coach. I foiliar fed them and let them sit in the yard each day, and then on the coach again to travel another couple of hundred miles to my present location. I was happy to get them potted up again. But now they are a nice size and planted out, sadly i have to move on again soon so won't be able to tend to them for a couple of months and i'll just have to return at harvest time and hope for the best. Hopefully they'll be established enough by the time i leave to look after themselves.
Oh, i use the same scratchy/scarifying method for cuttings too, they put out so many more roots than just doing the 'slice below the internode' method alone. Actually my method is a mixture of both.
It's funny how fast you can run when you need to eh? When i was about 8 years old we got chased by bullocks and i just went straight through this thick hedge in seconds ... looking at it later i'm thinking "How the hell did i do that?"
- Even though there's a water source minutes away from my grow it's on a lane and i don't want to be seen on that lane if i can help it so i'm still gonna have to economise on water ... So i'm gonna take a plastic funnel and sink it into the soil down to the roots and just patiently let the water soak down there where it's needed the most. With not mutch water, watering the topsoil from above is such a waste, it just soaks into the topsoil and evaporates and the roots would be lucky to get any of it.
I germinated my seeds around April 20th and had them in a window to grow. They got fairly lanky. We had three cats in the house and one of them i was told liked to nibble plants sometimes, and one day just as my seedlings were putting out their first proper set of leaves i found the cat had nibbled every single one and one had been uprooted with it's tiny frail single root still atached so i just replanted it and luckily every plant was still ok ... it was mainly the dicotelydons that got nibbled off ... could have been a disaster.
When the plants were about on their 3rd leafset i had to move out (it was a temporary arrangement anyway), so en-route to where i am now i visited london for a few days ... my tender young seedlings were almost bare-rooted and the little rootballs wrapped in plastic and sellotaped up, put in a tupperware jug with a lid where they all fitted snugly and travelled with me on the coach. I foiliar fed them and let them sit in the yard each day, and then on the coach again to travel another couple of hundred miles to my present location. I was happy to get them potted up again. But now they are a nice size and planted out, sadly i have to move on again soon so won't be able to tend to them for a couple of months and i'll just have to return at harvest time and hope for the best. Hopefully they'll be established enough by the time i leave to look after themselves.
Oh, i use the same scratchy/scarifying method for cuttings too, they put out so many more roots than just doing the 'slice below the internode' method alone. Actually my method is a mixture of both.
