So this year i plan on doing another swamp grow, so im preparing early. Last year was my first year growing and it went very smoothly with the exception of visiting the site too often. The grow spot was located in a swampy marsh area very populated with cattails. I had 3 nepalese grizzly plants on one pallet in 5 gallon buckets that i had to water/fertilize about once a week. This season i want to cut down on visiting the site as often. The plans i had in mind were either 1.) make swamp tubes, or 2.) use 20-30 gallon containers and rig them to wick up water from the swamp. So my questions are: whats a good wicking material to supply the plants with a sufficient amount of water if i dont follow through with swamp tubes, and whats a good organic soil mix that will supply the plants with sufficient amount of nutes without having to fertilize often. Also, if you know any strains that would thrive in a swampy environment and finish by the first of October or earlier, feel free to let me know. And i live on the East side of Washington state
Whatup man?! Not surprised about the lack of replies, I'm from ICmag and came by to see what's good with swamp growers on GS but it's not very popular lol. Good to see at least youre here, and hopefully you'll see this before the season starts in a month to get my 2 cents on your situation. Measure your water depths after a heavy rainfall to determine how high your pots/tubes should be sitting in your swamp, not sure if you've already decided on this but I'd recommend tubes if your levels fluctuate often. I made tubes ranging from 4' to 3' and some 2 footers for my sites this year, all depending on location in my swamps and the depths obv. Here are a few of the 4 footers - https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=44373&pictureid=1040234 These are about 2 ft in diameter, and will be taking a lot of my mix so I only made 10 of them this year (each one will take 60 gallons). The majority of the rest are 3 footers and then about 10 two footers for the shallow areas I have in store. The material I like to use is a meshed tarp that acts like a big ass fabric pot for my plants... https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=44373&pictureid=1040235 ..they need all the o2 they can get in the swamp so I made an effort to get these from my local fencing supply company. I'm not gonna say I went in at night with a headlamp ninja style with bolt cutters, but i didn't pay for any of my tube supplies For the tubes themselves I used chicken fencing (it's wicked light) and then wrapped the fabric tarps inside and out. They're gonna enter beast mode once I put em out this year lol As far as your wicking-mix goes - I'd recommend using coco coir for the bottom portion of your tubes. Has great aeration and wicks just as well as peat moss does but without the heavy factor that comes with that limited o2. For the middle of my containers I'm using peat/perlite/organic ferts/compost then for the top portion I'm using that same mix minus the perlite (since it sticks out from above). I'm adding a layer of lime on the bottom to treat the acidity of the swamp water, then spreading it out in the rest of the tube evenly. That acidity is a bitch sometimes, I'd recommend taking pH readings of your swamps water before deciding how much lime you need to use. If you wanna take an easier/less expensive route you can use Aqua sorb and Osmocote for nutes with your mix as well, they sell these at Home Depot and Lowes for fairly cheap. Two Heads over at icmag has come out of the swamp with jaw-dropping results using this mix along with Pro mix BX. Those guys kill it in the swamp, I'd recommend subscribing to ICmag as well and saying peace to this forum to be honest. Ton of swamp guerrillas over there and a lot more advice to be heard... for ex. I'm the first response on this post and you posted this in 2012! NOT ACCEPTABLE. I have the same name over there, we'll welcome you with open arms homie. Esp because your a Washington guerrilla! Lemme know if this helps, hope it will and I hope your season goes well. Feel free to ask anymore questions and I'll throw a few links down below that touches on more specifics in the swamp that I took from ICmag... one love. Swamp growing in general: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=258400 https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=259041 Hunters vs. Your Crop: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=259701 Drying outdoor harvests: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=258820
Thanks for the advice man, much respect. Ive been following your swamp grow over on icmag, grasscity hasnt been much help. Definately stoked to see how your plants turn out
It's not like you guys at ICMag deserve any credit for swamp growing. Imo, you shouldn't even be posting about it as they're not IcMag's nor yours in the first place.