Me and an associate are looking into having a good season this coming year. Were blessed with 145 acres of private land. With the amount of land, unlimited areas to grow with little concern to outsiders we feel this is a great opportunity for a decent outdoors grow. There are natural springs and plenty of cover. The land is rich, even applying fertilizers would not be an issue. My question, how do we prepare our grow spots? How many in a group should be planted? How deep and wide should the holes be? Reccomended fertilizers and soil? Id imagine a grower with some experience can see where this is going and any reccomendations or step by step info is appreciated. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J120A using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I can't comment on how many plants to grow in how much space since I only have a personal-sized outdoor, balcony and indoor grow, but in regards to fertilizing, my 2¢ is to grow organic with top dressings and compost. You won't have to worry about mixing up a bunch of nutrients or even pH very much, and if you're already starting with a decent soil, it'll be easy. If you're starting from seed, grow your pot plants in 1 gallon or smaller containers in an area that you can access regularly (for watering and care, etc.), and then transplant the plants to your permanent grow space when they get one to two feet tall. Either build a tall wire fence around the whole area or around each plant individually. Consider getting some wolf urine to keep most animals away from the space, and look into beneficial insects to help with the insects that cause problems. Predatory mites, nemasys, ladybugs, and praying mantises will help with those. If you want to mix your own soil, you'd be looking at a pretty large quantity, but the Organics forum has some good basic recipes -essentially just a 1:1:1 ratio of compost (basic bagged compost, maybe with some composted chicken manure [filled with nutrients!]), peat moss (get 100% sphagnum peat moss), and an aeration amendment (I prefer pumice, but some prefer to crunch up lava rock into small pieces). You'll want to add some minerals (soft rock phosphate, gypsum and azomite) and some nutrient amendments (oyster shell, neem seed meal, alfalfa meal, kelp meal, fish bone meal, etc.) and then throw in some mycorrhizae for giggles. For the top dressings, use the same list of nutrient amendments, add in some earth worm castings, and throw a gallon or so of the mixture around the base of each plant. Be certain that your top dressing or any compost/mulch that you use does not touch the stalks of your plants -leave a one to two inch gap around the stalk. If they do touch, it can trap in moisture and start to rot the stalks of your plants. Consider using a couple inch thick layer of compost as a mulch around each plant (compost is a phenomenal source of nutrients and beneficial bacteria), and consider using white clover as a cover crop to protect the soil and to add nitrogen into the soil -clover is a legume, and legumes extract nitrogen from the air and place it in the soil. If you use clover or some other plant as a cover crop, plant it a few weeks before you transplant your pot plants, and consider hacking it down to half a foot or so when you transplant. This will provide food for the worms in your soil (this is a good thing), and you don't want the cover crop to shade your pot plant. Have fun! PS you'll want some help with trimming around harvest time...