Use what you have. If your native soil is very fertile, you won't need any special soil mixes. Your family garden is a perfect example. Here in the MidWest the soil is rich in many areas, and most times I do not have to incorporate a "special soil" mixture . Composting coffee grounds, other food waste/scraps, grass, yard trimmings into humus, a valuable amendment that improves the fertility and health of your soil. After transplanting my plants outside, I cover the soil with a nice layer of leaves, sod clumps, twigs (whatever is around). By doing this I'm improving the soil, keeping weeds down, and holding the moisture in the soil.
That is EXACTLY what I wanted to hear..er..read. My garden soil is enriched by food scraps, coffee grinds, etc. So that's fantastic! One less thing to worry about I guess!
The only thing I use 5 gal. buckets for is slow drip watering. The ground is the best way to go and raised beds are a great option for poor drainage areas. I wish I had some clay in my spots. All sandy silt under 3 inches of nice dark top soil. Drains and dries up fast. A good idea is to dig a little deeper than needed and back fill that first few inches with stone to improve the drainage of the bed. Water can pool there and drain out slowly while keeping the bed soil from over watering. LawSchools tip about the chicken wire sounds great for moles. Here is a tip for slugs and rabbits. I use steel wool around the base of the stem. It cuts the slugs to pieces and they never get on the plant. It will also deter small animals from biting down young plants at the base as they seem to like to do. Since I started using steel wool around the base I have not seen slug trails or lost a plant to early season munchies. Grow On! JPS
Some great advice here. A main key im trying to incorporate into my next project is spreading plants out in a large area. That way if a plant is found and destroyed by whoever they will never find all of them. And 1 plant out of 10 is better then 0 plants.
Never heard of someone using steel wool, but if it will keep something from destroying my plant, then I'll be sure to use it, thanks.
Hey blades, something pretty crazy happened. About a month ago, I put two seeds in a plastic container. The container is about one inch tall and the size of a quarter around. The jar was a little wet, because I held roaches in there before I put the seeds in and had washed it out. About three or four days ago, I looked in there about four or five days ago, and the seeds looked the same. This is where it gets weird. Yesterday, I looked in the jar, and one of the seeds had a little fragile sprout. It was about an inch long, maybe a little shorter. I put a drop of water in the jar, and put it back. Today, the root is white, strong and healthy, with about twice the thickness., and more length. The area that I hold it in is basically a closet, directly behind my bathroom and the shower, in a bedroom. It is about eight feet tall, three feet wide, and one foot deep. It stays about 65 to 75 degrees fahrenheit. What should I do? I live near Lake Erie, and outdoor growing isn't an option yet, as it's still snowing. Tell me how this sounds. I plan on putting it in soil in a solo cup in a day or two, once the sprout is longer. After this, I will put it back in the closet, and take it out for like two hours a day so that it can grow a little bit.I've read that when they're young they should not get too much sunlight. Once the plant grows a few inches, I will put it outside, it WILL still be pretty cold. The last frost will not have come yet. I figure I can put a cut open two liter over it, to act as a type of mini greenhouse. I CANNOT grow inside, any comments are great, thanks.
All u need is 1 CFL bulb to keep it alive and growing until you can keep it outside. I know u said u can't grow inside but 1 regular bulb in a lamp is nothing cost wise and can easily be turned off if someone is around that u don't want to know or see.
Does anyone here have any experience or knowledge about dealing with plantable pots? I started a new thread a while ago but no one is replying
It's more that I'm worried it will get too big to keep in the house, so I'm keepi it in the closet in a cup for now, and I'm going to put it on my windowsill for light for a few hour daily and water it daily, it's currently in soil that was enriched with a bunch of organic material, orange peels, etc. I plan on keeping it in the house until after the last frost, or until it's too big, whichever comes first.
It died. I'm not surprised. It didn't germinate properly. Come springtime I will properly germinate some seeds.
I'll take note of that. Not only did it not germinate correctly, but I now realize I mistook the root for the tip of the plant and planted upside down like a jackass. Oh well, lesson learned. I was reading on a thread that putting a seed right into a cup of soil is more beneficial than the paper towel method, any thoughts on the pros and cons?
Another question for guerilla growers. What would you say is a good approximate time for a plant to take? I know there are tons of variables, but say I started outdoor in Late April, can I expect to be able to harvest in September? Where I live it gets pretty cold in October, so I'd like to be able to harvest and not lose a bunch of bud because of frost. In October, it can get to the 30's at night.