I'm planning an outdoor grow this year...actually, several 1-2 plant grows in a few different places. I've read a bunch of journals here...real interesting, some real disturbing though, for all the threats the grower and plants face. Especially wierd when the grower just disappears. Anyway, is there a consensus or even majority opinion of seasoned growers on whether to, and if so what to, give the seedlings or clones as a structure for protection in the first month or so, until established and outcompeting native veg? I've seen descriptions of 2' high hardware cloth fences, plastic fences, just a few strands of monofilament, just a metal collar to stop cutworms, and nothing at all. I'm torn about it...for a couple of my likely sites, I'd like to have as little as possible there early on for stealth' sake. But there's lots of wildlife around most of my planned spots--coons, groundhogs, possum, beaver, deer, wild turkey, and black bear. And I am trying to plan most of my sites so I visit them as little as possible consistent with watering needs. I will use an organic super soil mix, but perhaps no blood meal in there given the bears. SO I'm tentatively thinking of hardware cloth, maybe even with some camo'd floating row cover, held down with some metal stakes or pins. But I sure wish any of you seasoned guerillas out there would set me straight about the costs and benefits of that, and better alternatives if there are any. FYI, sites are likely to be: abandoned fields with broom sedge, briars and scattered pine trees; an opening in the woods above a big cliff; an opening just a few yards away from a perennial stream; and an island in a big river. thanks
My method is deoderant soap in a black sock,same method with moth balls ,i straight up take a shit next to my plots (im a hippy that likes his meat), garlic/water mixture for a spray on deterrant, umm idk what do against black bears they aren't in my area,no bloodmeal is a good method comsidering bears,some build chicken wire fences ummm idk I hope I helped
Hardware cloth or chicken wire is a MUST bro. Da wild life will rip your ladies to pieces. Trust me on this. Just paint the wire green.
piss in a spray bottle and spray your grow sites, the animals wont come near if they smell human, but id recommend a fence too just in case
what i do is chicken wire fence and for the first month inside that fence i make, out of 2x4s making the frame and cut up clear 2 liter pop bottles for the roof, a mini shelter with no walls so i still get sufficient air circulation and a reliable roof to save my babies from any bad weather but still get plenty of sun through the transparent roof....(i start mine inside for the first few weeks tho until they are about 6-12 inches tall) and i use a shit load of Irish spring soap bar shavings and i think its called 7 dust for my insecticide but not sure(its a powder and at my partners house so couldn't get the for sure name)... other than that try new things maybe a few different ideas at different spots figure out whats ur favorite or most proficient method. every year for every aspect of growing i use many different methods on each strain im growin... this helps me weed out the bad from good methods and elaborate on the things i see more rapid growth with. EXPERIMENT hope i helped bruh
u can scatter som dog shit if you got a dog... just feed Meat the night before and collect the shit the next day.( i wouldn't put it closer then 5 foot from the ladies)........ bring a gallon of water and chug that, when you get there you'll be pissing all over the place in no time..... try to get a finer mesh chicken wire that little coon hands don't fit through.
Good ideas, dudes, thanks. I get from that to def plan on some physical protection at least for the first month or so, and yeah, my dogs will like processing some meat to support the grow. So physical + chemical/biological barriers are important to most folks. anyone with additional experience on what works and what doesn't, I'm still curious. I like the plastic bottle idea, but am a little afraid at most of my sites that anything reflective and plastic might draw attention.
yeah my my hardening box set up is hidden very well and i still stress about somone finding it... it sucks when ur op is over before harvest... but that overlapping the hard plastic works perfect for protecting the delicate babies from a hard rain or anything ele that might crush em....
Wait... what do you mean when a grower just "disappears"? You got me feeling all paranoid and shit now.
Find the biggest fucking bear out there and just beat the shit out of it. Make sure everything else sees you do it. After that nothing will fuck with your plants. I wouldn't thats for dam sure.
I was reading an outdoor journal a few weeks ago...I can't even remember the name of it now, and it was a couple of years old...really good journal, guy took you all the way through to sept or so, then he had a couple of sites compromised and ripped, but he still had a few plants that weren't found yet, and then he just stopped posting, and no one knew what happened. I know a lot of folks don't finish journals, but this was creepy because things were looking so good with the grow, then they went bad fast, but not completely bad, and then just whompf no more entries. Maybe a bear got him...
these are all amazing suggestions! especially shitting and pissing at the plot. garlic mixture is great to keep animals away.. i use a cyan pepper based solution and works amazing. no bloodmeal and no fish fertilizers or els the bears will be digging. chicken wire fences to be extrat cautious for sure! "you must spread some reputation around before giving it to Philosophy again"
An old trick I don't see to much anymore is we used to take chicken wire and cut a square the size of your hole. Then take and cut a square in the center big enough for your plant to fit through. Then lay the chicken wire flat against the ground with your plant in your hole and just cover the chicken wire with dirt. This makes it were no one can see the wire and if anything comes digging the wire will hurt its claws. I know this works on koons, possums, and armadillos. All they want is the grubs from the loose soil or like 70 said if they smell blood or bone meal. Don't know about bears though. As for any insects go to this site www.ghorganics.com they talk about most insects and critters and ways to get rid of them.
Thanks, Early. I think I'll try that approach this year, and save kicking the bear's ass for next year. Actually, I found this guy's excellent thread which follows your method, but with hardware cloth, and that's what I'm gonna try. There are a lot of coons (and lots of coon hunters) around here. I'll just hope the deer leave 'em alone. If not I'll have to rethink this...
Hey Marapa I live in an area that has the highest deer population in N. America. There are 45-55 deer per square mile here and thats a serious undercount. I know deer very well. First, Deer Away, Deer Repellant, Animal repellant, soap, rotten eggs, moth balls, piss of any nature, human,dog or coyote/wolf, hair of anykind, squalking landscpe toys and every other method you have ever heard of is straight up bullshit. None of those products or approaches will even hinder a hungry deer. I have sprayed plants with deer repellant and have had them eaten by deer before the stuff dried on the plants. None of these remedies are effective. Cure: We growers in this area have such a bad problem with deer, that weve been researching the problem for years. We have found a solution. The solution is to fool the deer into thinking that your cannabis plant is really a plant they dont eat. Make the plant smell like another plant. Method/Recipe: A Brown Eyed Susan Tea Extract You need a A good bunch of Brown eyed susans. Deer wont eat Brown eyed susans, no matter how hungry they get. BESusans have a chemical that is astringent in nature and i guess it tastes awful, but deer wont touch them. Brwneyed susans arent poisonous or toxic. Get a boquet of brown eyed susans purchased at the flower shop or picked from the side of the road, soak in 1 gallon of water for 4 days, shaking vigorously daily. On the 5th day, strain the tea, put it in your sprayer and spray your plants. The deer now believes the cannabis plant is really BESusan and they wont touch it. We put 4 apples on a heavily trafficked deer path that were untreated, and 4 that were sprayed with the Brown eyed susan extract. By that afternoon, all 4 untreated apples were gone. The treated apples hadnt been touched. Deer love apples. That approach is 100 % effective, however, it has to be reapplied after a heavy rain. We are now testing surfacants to see if we can make the scent last through a rain fall. For deer and other pests: Cages: Buy a 36" tall roll of metal fencing and cut it down the middle, to make 2/18" rolls. Cut pieces 30" in length and form a circle and wire the hoop together. Your finished product should be a wire "hoop" 18"X 8" in diameter. Cut pieces of rebar 3/8- 4' long. Put the wire hoop over your seedling and then drive a piece of the rebar down through the wire hoop so that it cant be moved. Tilt the piece of rebar slightly towards the plant so that the deer cant put his head down toward the top of the wire barrel surrounding your plant. Once the plant is 2', you can move the wire hoop and strap the plant to the rebar, making it impossible to pull up. The rebar should remain throught the grow as it protects the plant from being blown over or, broken over by a passing deer. I hope there's something you can use. Good luck.
CLodhopper, great info, thanks, I will definitely add that cage approach to my hole design. Brown-eyed susans don't bloom until mid-summer around here, so I'm gonna consider adding some seeds to my indoor cab. I definitely need all the deer protection I can get--my best looking site is in a little opening at forest-field edge where it's clear they bed down, and there is an animal trail coming into it with sign all over the area. I see there are a few different species of Rudbeckia...I think what most people call "brown eyed susan" is most commonly Rudbeckia trilobia, and there's the much more common (around here) Rudbeckia hirta, black-eyed susan. I don't supposed you'd know whether one or the other species is the shit for deer-away? It looks like R. hirta is easier to grow from seed--you have to cold-stratify R. trilobia for three months, or so it seems. I will check more on this from the botanical pros around here. Anyway, great post. My hole design is getting more complicated, but it's all starting to make sense.
Marapa, weve found several plants that work. Milkweed latex tea is another. Foxglovel, ST. johns Wort works well. The principle and requirements are simple. The plant has to be one that deer dont eat and that isnt toxic to humans or the plant. Many of the wild plants that were used by native americans as medicine work well. Brown eyed susan tea was used by them as an antiseptic wash to clean wounds with among other uses. . There are really quite a few plants that fit those conditions. One fellow here is actually using a cedar tea, in which he soaks cedar needles in a manner similar to the BRwneyed susans and its working well too. He says the tar in the cedar is sticking to the plants better than the Beyed susan tea. This is experimental, and really at this point, we only know that the concept works very well. Finalizing the specifics is still a work in progress, but i didnt have a single plant touched by a deer that was sprayed with it..