Hey, so my plans for this year exceed last years plot, so i'm on a search for a new one. There is a swamp near me that i am thinking about planting near. It's out in the middle of nowehre, but i'm sure the surrounding earth must be very wet. Is this do-able with an airy soil, lots of perlite? Or should i just focus on planting in pots? I would like to use the swamp water to feed the girly's. This should be okay right? Maybe run some Ph tests first. One more thought i've been having is growing near some local powerlines. Benefit= open sky, lots of sun. Becomes thickly overgrown with shrubs/grass/bushes in the summer, would hide plants well. Negatives= Corporate/state property.. Open sky.. How often does the power company trim these areas/work on equipment? Anybody familiar with grows like this? Any advice? Suggestions?
I'd definently run some ph tests on that swamp water before using it, as far as planting in the ground there I'd start digging there as well and see where the water level is cause you can easily drown your plants there. Test the soil pH as well. Once you dig in, if it's dry down a couple of feet I'd fill it with some water and check the drainage. You could go with pots there and if it does get wet then you can wick some water up from the swamp so that could help to limit the amount of times you gotta water the plants there or bury the pots a little bit down in the ground to help hide them. As for power lines, it really depends on the area, if it's far out in the wilderness then you should be fine because they normally only trim around the area if there is a problem with the line at that specific point or if the undergrowth and trees etc could affect the lines. Being in a semi-open space you have the problem if helicopters fly around your area because they typically travel along power lines and rivers. I'd make sure your plants blend in well with that environment or bring in some brush so that it blends better and isn't as open looking from the sky.
How to grow in a swamp by a pro (Guerilla Greens): (he uses pots in swamps -safer-, although he says a few die). ""I just cut the bottoms out of 20 gallon rubbermaid totes and jam them down a couple inches in the mucky swamp. I just break up the swampy ground first with a shovel and there should be just a little standing water in the spot you break up. Then I just put one coco coir block in each tote. I mix in a few gallons of top soil, a pound of worm castings, a pound of tropical bat guano, and a half cup of dolomite lime. I just mix it all up and plant." Use powdered dolomite lime to work faster. (Guerilla Greens) Try to find a new spot if the power lines are pretty close and you are worried about that. There are many spots out there: you need to scout more and find "the" spot (if this isn't the one). What are the advantages of this one? Access to water directly by the plants? You should weigh the pros and cons of the spot. Your exposition seems too good. So it means it may be in the open once they grow tall (use indica hybrids). You don't need 12 hours of sun to grow big buds. 6 is good enough and means the plants are more secluded. Plus, they won't need to be watered as much. You said the veg. would fill up by Summer, are you sure of this? You need cover from 360 + a secluded location. You don't want someone just stumbling on your plants. I used Google Earth. Good luck.
Thanks for the replies, i think i'm going with the swamp grow. Went on a little hike yesterday, and found a good secluded spot. Thanks for the info Corto. I've also been reading through dankohzee's preparations for his wet grow location, and its given me some good pointers. I am thinking about even doing sweet tooth, as well. It's listed as a mold resistant strain, which i had some problems with last year (used bagseed). Going to be ordering a 5 pck of fem. I would like to focus on smaller # of plants, with bigger individual production. Going to be going with a nice organic soil mixture, and FoxFarms liquid fert line. Grow Big, Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom. 15-20 gal. pots. My main question as of now is, if i'm going to be feeding w/ foxfarms throughout the season, should i go easy on the organic blend? I.E, less organic nutrients? Or should i go ahead w/ my original plans? Worm castings, guano, blood meal, greensand, dolomite lime. Also, what drainage/retention additives should i focus on? I'm in Northern U.S., moderate amounts of rain. The whole thing kind of confuses me, as i see people adding both vermiculite/peat for retension, and perlite/rocks/sand for drainage at the same time. It's amazing to me that i ignored so many aspects of soil preperation, and my plants still grew relatively well last summer. This year's gonna be great. Starting indoors under 2-3 6500k daylight CFL's, roughly the second week of april. Going to be transplanting second week of May. Lots of preperations in the meantime... Any pointers would be great.
For good moisture retention and drainage I'd go with a mix of 30% perlite, 20% worm castings, 50% organic potting soil mix, if you're area doesn't have much clay then you can use peat as well or vermiculite with the perlite, I put a little mound at the bottom of my holes of sand so that helped to improve my drainage from over 30 minutes to around 10. You can also elevate your hole so that you plant them a 1/2 foot above the ground to help keep the roots out of stagnant water that may sit in the bottom of your hole. As for nutes go at 25% strength at first of the recommended dosages and then you can up them if you don't see it causing any nute burn. Better to work your way up than have to flush and cut back. Be careful using dolomite lime as it will increase your soil pH
From what I gathered, peat shouldn't dry out. Perlite drains water, and vermiculite holds water . Use total 20 or 30% of perlite/vermiculite: they don't deef the plant. The vermic. will keep the soil and the peat moist in case of drought and the perlite will drain excess water. Adjust ratio perlite/vermic. according to your area (esp. in Fall). They both air out the soil. Perlite can be replacd by builder's sand or lava rocks (cheaper). You can also hold more water by lining the holes. Use 20-30% peat, 20% worm castings, 40% good potting soil or native top soil. OP's fish and you're set.