Hello, My ideal location would include an area where I could work smart and not hard. I need: -Full sun (no shady trees) -Good, fast draining, native loamy soil. -Easy access to water. I believe I have found my dream location. It is deep in the woods in an area undisturbed for at least 250 years, and there is no canopy covering the sun. The clearing I have found is on the edge of a overgrown cliff with a river down below where I can easily get my water. I have a few concerns though. I brought with me a hand shovel to check out what the soil looks like and I am not sure what to make of it. It is light brown, sandy, smells very *earthy* and has a lot of small snail and seashell fossils. I am guessing (hoping) this is sandy loam. Also, I dug a small hole and poured my water bottle in there, it drained in about 1 minute completely. Also, The clearing I have found is severely overgrown with shrubs and sunflower plants, etc. But there are no bag ass trees that are covering the sun. It should not be too hard to clear out but I also don't want to clear all the land and leave myself easily exposed to overhead eyes (planes, helicopters, etc). I do not want to lug in a shit ton of stuff. This location is extremely hard to get to. I plan on mixing the native soil with: -Coco bricks -Compost/humus I have alfalfa, kelp, greensand, bat guano, agricultural lime on hand and *might* lug it in if I find a way to do so without passing out halfway. I guess what my purpose of this thread is to gauge the advice of my fellow GC outdoor experts. How would you go about preparing this site? How can I make this easier? Is my native soil looking ok? What do I do with all this overgrowth? Et cetera... Thank you in advance. -Alter
Ok. So I guess I am going to have to figure this out alone. After pulling out my old physical geology textbook and further surveying the land, I realized that I am on a Sandy Alluvial right along a delta from a raging river. I am about 60 ft above the water table so I think that's a good thing. There is a lot of organic material in the soil though...oyster shells, snail shells, seashells, dead leaves, oak branches, et cetera I don't know if I should dig holes directly in ground or bury 50 gallon pots underground. How bad is leaching of nutrients in soil? If I mix my compost/humus into the sand, will it last me the whole season or will the nutrients be leached before the plants could use it? Would I fare better with pots-in-ground versus in-ground? Please help!
Hey AG. \\ If i were you, this is what i would do. I would forget all thoughts of placing food products and animal waste in my planting holes as the skunks, opposums, minks, groundhogs and a host of other animals that wander around looking for soil that contains the minerals their diet lacks and WHALA!... they found AG's planting hole. Good bye plant as they will dig it up to get the soil.... ov er and over again all summer long. NO grow. 2. Buy some Sta green or Miracle grow GARDEN SOIL. Garden Soil is formulated so that when added to less than optimal soil, it will ammend the soil to be more acceptable. It mixes 1/2-1/2 natural soil/garden soil. ' If you mix the GARDEN SOIL in this fall, the holes should be quite tasty come may. Very Often AG, i slip off the road into a rugged hillside with my grubbing hoe, pick a 3x3 hole out of the shale,rock,dirt surface and fill it 1/2 with the GS. I pull some dandy's out. PH is a concern for you. Ther are a couple of things i do to assess the ph. 1st, i look at natural vegetation. Is that Kudzu? I think it grows in acidic soil but you can do some research and see what condition the plants growing their requrie and then compare that to your needs. Further, i buy one of those cheap little ph testers with the ligquid and test tube that you mix with dirt and it changes color. By themselvesk,they arent very reliable but it you get some good cannabis soil like Fox farm or any soil that grows cannabis well and test it. Then compare the color of the native soil to the color of the good soil. Match it and yhour fine but remember, it takes 3-4 wks before applied lime begins to react in the soil so it would be best to apply it this winter. MAKE SURe to mix the lime in well if you need lime becuae unlike ferts, lime does not leach into the soil. You have to mix it in or it would just amend the top few inches. MIx well. good luck
You could start a compost pile of what you clear and nearby shrubs/etc perhaps to help. You've got all sorts of plant matter and here in the northern part of the state leaves all fall off of the trees this time of year and we rake them all up into piles. FOr many, that's a wonderful compost pile that'll be ready in 6months or so to start using in soil/dirt. You need to activate it with manure or something like that, but your soil needs that too. I'd start a pile of trimmings from what you clear. If you cut down a branch, take the smaller branches with folliage on them and toss them in a pile. Rake up any grass/small bushes and stick them in there. You can get bottled compost activator and/or add some manure and you should be off and running for spring/summer. It sounds like work but it's less hauling of stuff in there and using what is in the area already. Are you going to do anything automated to get river water up to your site? I bet you could find a solar powered pond pump that might pull the water or push it up for you on a timer so you don't have to water at all.
Finally! Someone with some assistance! Thank you so much for replying! I tried to see what kind of plants were growing in the area and I realized that there was an abundant amount of sunflower plants which has a similar pH to cannabis (right?) and you are 100% correct, they are Kudzu Vines. It is an invasive species introduced here in Texas many years ago. Unfortunately, they are all over this grow site. My soil is sandy with lots of seashells, snail shells, but it seems like there is also an abundance of silt and clay mixed in. The soil drains fairly well. I am suspecting that it is Sandy or Silty Loam. I like the MG GS idea. I wonder if MG makes a Organic version. I have read that sandy soils leach pretty much everything. I have a ton of agriculture lime from last season so I will take your word on it since you are an OG grower. What I wanted to do was to keep it simple as far as my soil mix goes. I have a 6 mile hike into thick jungly woods to even get here and carrying in a lot of stuff is just not practical. Do you think I'd be ok with mixing in some Espoma Organic Tomato Tone with the mix? Or will animals dig that stuff up too? I wanted to make some sort of Organic mix with all food availability within the soil so all I would have to do is water. You guy have to remember that I live in nazi Texas. The last thing I need is to get caught by the authorities with fertilizers on me. If all I have to carry is water, I am sure I can talk myself out of certain situations. I would like to go huge 100% Sativa trees of African, Nepali, Bhutanese genetics. Maybe 4-8 plants spaced out all around this plot. I was wondering how big should my holes be? Should I go with 3x3 or will 2x2 be ok? Since the soil is sandy with some organic material already in it, I was hoping that the native soil around my holes would be easy to penetrate by the roots. Am I wrong? I know I am rambling. But this is my very first time out in the brush guerilla style. This is very different from growing my beloved cannabis in my backyard, ha! I would like to ensure success. Thank you in advance. P.S. "You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Clodhopper again."
Wow, I didn't even think of the compost idea. Hell yeah ima do that! I think Ill let it compost and leave in in the bottom of each hole when it is ready to use. That way, the roots would have to go in search looking for food (right?). As far as watering goes. I plan on doing 2 things. Investing in water storing crystals and setting up a rain collector barrel of some sort (camo style of course). I used rain water to water my backyard plants last year and my girls looooooved it! You cannot tell in the pics but the river is about 50-60 feet directly below my grow site. But I did find an easy path up and down the cliff. So if i need to lug up water, it shouldn't be too big of a deal. These are exactly the kinds of tips I was looking for. I am very grateful to GC!
Oh BTW. I don't want people to think I am lazy. I am willing to work as hard as I have to get this site ready. I just want to work smart and not ass backwards.
For holes I think the bigger you go the better. But it is a weed and will grow in just about anything, it doesn't hurt to help it along. I know MG had an organic variety but I don't know that I trust it as really organic, it's still a blue powder making really blue liquid, not something I see in nature too often I'm not the most seasoned MJ grower but I've done many regular gardens. If I were you I'd guestimate how much soil you're going to use out there. Remember that the Epsoma and other amendments are usually on the 1 cup or less per 2+ CF of soil. YOu could easily mix the amendments you want into a 1 gallon ziplock or maybe 2 of them and mix it into the soil out there. Can't go wrong with whatever you do to help your girls in my opinion, but you could get a little kelp meal, alfalfa meal, epsoma tone of some sort, and some other ammendments, mix em up and just carry the ziplocks in there. IT would be a hell of alot less obvious to someone that stops you if you have a ziplock of something unknown or labeled as something else. Remember to give your soil a solid 4+ weeks to burn in after you add your ammendments! I'd use as much of the soil as you can around there. You'd probably be better to stop somewhere closer that has different types of soils, maybe grab some from near the river that might be a different composition and mix it all up wihle there.
I am 99% positive that the MG Organics Choice Garden Soil does not have any chemical fertilizer balls or any other types of *pre-ferts* in it. From my understanding, it contains peat, compost, and manure. That's it. I would assume that the Organic version would be safe to use outdoors. I still plan on getting the compost pile there ready. I like the simplicity of the plan so far. 40% Garden Soil/40% native soil (which is sandy), lime, compost from surrounding area. Done? What about drainage/aeration? Would my native sandy soil suffice or should I throw in some coco bricks into the mix? I Have some Alfalfa, Kelp, Greensand, and some bat guano left from last season. I am thinking I might throw that into the mix also. Also, what would you guys pick? Mulching, water storing crystals, or a combination of both? I do want to remain practical so let me know if I am getting off course or if I am on the right track. Thank you in advance! Here is a pic of the river I was talking about BTW: And here is my favorite spot to light up after a long hike :
You'll probably need to add soil aeration, rice hulls or perlite work well. They're big to carry but so light it won't bother you. If you had 1 CU FT soil, I'd add between half of that to another CF of aeration.
Cool. No way in hell I am using perlite outdoors though. It sticks out like a sore thumb and too easy to spot by planes/helicopters/other shit. I looked for rice hulls last season and failed miserably. Coco Bricks peaked my curiosity since it would blend in well...don't you think?
I've never used them and just don't know enough about them. I'm not sure, best I can do. I know people usually get rice hulls from farm/feed supply places, might check there. Go where the farmers go
I have not checked farm/feed supply stores, good idea. It shouldn't be too hard to find those kinds of establishments in my neck of the woods though. I will get the ball rollin' here soon and will report back with an update when I get into the nitty gritty. Thanks y'all!
compost is good, but outdoors flys, fungus nats and a host of beetles etc lay their larvea in compost and next season, youll find your sweetest girl wilted, only to find a couple of big fat grubs eating her roots. Caution. Cannabis is an annual plant. They dont send roots into the hard and oxygenless subsoil that generally starts at about 12". there isnt a farmer on earth that plows deeper than 12". Cannabis does have extensive latteral growth and bigger strains can have large root systems. My holes for larger strains are 30"0"X12". This size whole will produce a lb if the strain is capable. Smaller strains such as Vanilla kush dont need huge holes and at maturity, their roots would easily fit into a 5 gall. bucket. It doesnt sound like you need any soil conditioner as the drainage is acceptable andyou stated it was full of particulate matter. No need to add more in my view, just mix that in.
Well the organic garden soil has peat/compost/manure. I really like the simplistic way you broke it down for me and for that, gracias. So: -50% native sandy soil -50% organic garden soil -3x3x1.5 ft holes -lime Done?
Can outdoor people use Neem Cake? I've been adding that to all of my soils, indoor and out and haven't had near the bugs that I used to. I just add a few cups to my soil mix when I burn them in, I'd think you cna do the same thing once you go from compost to soil. People use compost all the time indoors and out, they just have to deal with what might be in it, for that I use a little neem cake, keeps things away. I don't know if you can use that out in the woods, not sure if it would/might attract other animals.
Good call on the Neem Cake. I used Neem extract as a foliar spray last season. Did an ok job. How much would you add in a 3x3x1.5 hole? A cup per cubic feet?
It's that amount or less I believe. I can't look it up right now. 1/2 a cup would probably do it. If you have pests I know you can make a slurry and top dress with it as well.
I have another question if anyone would like to take a shot at it. Let's say I clear a 10 feet by 10 feet area. Till it, add garden soil/native soil, and all the other gravy stuff. Once I am done, would it be a good idea to create a HUGE ASS compost pile derived from the existing material around the forest directly on top of the 10x10 area? The way I see it, I have a good 6 or so months before the season starts. If I place my compost pile directly on top of my prepared area. Some of the nutrients and minerals would/should leach into the soil beneath the pile during the composting process, right? Plus, whatever material that is fully composted with the 6 month time period would be good to mix into the innoculated soil underneath, right? Also, if I were compost directly on top of my prepared site would that not prevent erosion over the winter? I am just throwing some ideas around in my head and wanted to see what people thought. Thank you!