Outdoor plots using a minimum of carried in products/soil/amendments

[Parabola]

So how does one go about making good plots with out carrying too much in the way of soil? I know it depends a lot on the area and the type of soil and I will be better able to give specifics in a few weeks but I am wondering if anyone has good experience as a minimalist grower.

[vapor]

ask bram....

[vapor]

if you have rotting trees around fir works well you have to cook it down a bit first etc.
i think coco might be a good option because of compression some perlite..

[Parabola]

yeah, I was wondering about coco. The fact that it is compressed and grows when wetted seems like it would be easy to carry for very remote plots.


I'm thinking lime would be neccessary in any acidic soil types and maybe some worm castings for the start? camo painted wire fencing maybe too.

[vapor]

i think coco s ph is between 6 and 7 so maybe some lime for a calcium and mag source...
if you did it chemy you could carry in all your chemys at once..
a little more work and organics are so much nicer!
you can use rags of panther piss in a tree around the garden etc
ratts and mice are something to consider aswell..
there is a product called skoot aswell spray it on the plants and the deer taste it and dont like it... it can last a week or so depends on rain etc..

[Parabola]

The area is quite swampy with slow moving waterways and lots of mounds. It is very remote and a lot of trekking will be in order. A canoe will be used but it will also need to be portaged in a few areas. Hence the minimal amount of carried stuff. Seeds will be planted directly to plots.

[vapor]

you could dig out the mud and let it dry out and see what the "soil" is like,then you would have a little res by each plant..

[c-ray]

you might want to put 2 litre pop bottles over the seedlings for a few weeks

[Parabola]

what about using grasses from the area to mulch for the first few weeks to hold in moisture? I'd prefer to leave the area free of plastic and/or chems if possible.

[c-ray]

I was thinking more for protection, but also warmth...what did the french call those things.. cloches?

[capt carnuba]

2 lbs o ferts per 3 plants, otherwise spindly, spindly with a shitty aftertaste. Swamps and detrital muck will give you a rich chocolatey taste. Do a reread of my outdoor checklist and think work/reward and then factor in swaths of blackflies and slightly later mosquitos. Then there are the fun factors of deet burn and the toxicity of the very shit, but in pm the capt has a solution organically. In short, there is no way past sweat, discomfort and the general nuisances.

[capt carnuba]

And lime is a huge factor in overhydration as it attracts water, in anything but small quantities, it is a shitty idea. Haul good dirt, sweat.

[vapor]

The capt is right there is no way around the work.
for about 600 bucks you can pull a 10 pound garden...

[c-ray]

I could do it with $550

[vapor]

hahaha i am sure you can!

[Parabola]

Avoiding work is one thing, knowing what the minimum you need for success is another. It is sounding more and more like a less remote location is pretty much unavoidable.

[justcurios]

hey parabloa, nice thread. how about up in any trees that not to far away. small buckets of pre mixed medium, that you could prepare in advance, could be lifted or hoisted into the spot. i know it has draw backs, and location is a key factor as well, but for a few plants it can work. with minimum effort i had decent luck. peace bro, J.C.

[capt carnuba]

Don't let remoteness dissuade you P. Do everything in pieces. Slow, easy and steady wins the race. In fact, you should be out there now. Remoteness means you arent feeding crackheads and so called hunters the sweat of yer brow.

[Parabola]

Thanks for all the encouragement and advice guys.

[outdoordreams]

Great thread!
My neighbour pulls off at least 10 lbs for less than 10dollars a year!
Nothing beats homemade compost!!!!!!
Myself last year was about $700 per 10lbs!

[The Cannarchist]

"Get your nice 5kg bricks of cocopeat here...."

Easily carried and expands to 70 ltrs of medium.

I knew there was gonna be good money in those!

[Parabola]

^^ right now that is sounding like the best option for the bulk of medium.

[dpn]

+ an added handfull of dry mix and when the holes not in use plant some green manures to improve the soil. Urine could be used for veg growth?...

[Bram]

just noticed this thread. I would have to say the most minimalist way to go about getting a good crop is plant in known ground that will be moist/ wet through out the summer. Lime it and mix in a few scoops of chicken shit and your good to grow. You can be even more minimalist and just put them right in the ground with no lime and no ferts, makes for some killer persie.

[Dopester]

Like most things your results come from the prep. Get in the year before and fertilise,compost,lime ,animal manure and any local organics that will rot down over winter will give you the best results. Dope grows itself, it's up to you to optimise its chances by protecting,fertilising and putting the best strain available(preferably clones so you don't gotta pull out boys or end up with crap). Here in NZ the things you gotta watch are possums,police and people. Don't make tracks,net well and early prep are things you gotta care for...

[The Cannarchist]

Got any nice early strains there down yonder Mr NZ?

[Parabola]

that is some good advice there Dopester. I agree 100%. In a perfect world we would all have our plots worked out the year before hand with well composted rich, fertile plots. What I am asking is what to do if you want to do the best you can with the least amount of carried in stuff for this year, even though last year you didn't have as much forethought as you would like to have had.

It seems now that the area being considered is not quite as difficult to reach as I had originally anticipated. This year will be considered as experimental and good soil will be carried to plots where the native soil is poor (but water is near) and some plots will also be tried in a hardwood forest where the soil should be quite good with minimum added, maybe just work to loosen it up and a few amendments (however water is scarce and a reservoir and dripper system will be implemented).

[Dopester]

Big thing I forgot to add is to be sure those babies get plenty of sun :)

[justcurios]

ol capt. carnuba has a thread about forsite on sun patterns and such , .Things to note and limitations to realize,is the thread i belive.

[Gantz]

coco is great...if you're strong enough to carry the water needed to expand it.
ad a folding shovel, some slow release chem ferts for vegetables and you're all set.

[Green Supreme]

Those crystals that capture water are good too. Peace GS

[c-ray]

hi gantz have you used coco outdoors before and if so do you have any tips or recommendations? my friends are thinking of using some on a few plants, maybe mixing in 10% worm castings, some yucca powder and some slow release organics and setting up a reservoir and drip system

[Parabola]

it seems to me that the biggest challenge with coco would be making sure it never dries out. Anyne used growtech compressed coco before? The 5kg bricks are available locally for 10$

[c-ray]

I used some indoors, worked pretty good but it seemed like it could use some wetting agent

incidentally a friend was talking to the main Canna™ dude the other day and he was saying that it is not a good idea to mix coco and peat

[Gantz]

never used it outdoors. but i intend to...in layers. coco, soil, coco, soil, sprinkle some slow release fert, soil, coco, soil,coco, soil, leaves and voila...it looks natural. :D

[criminalzen]

chimp reminded me to suggest buying high quality coir blocks. he purchased some cheap big blocks, and after 5 rinses it was still running off over 2400 ppm.

[gforce]

we grew on clearcuts in the NW forests of oregon... the first year the feds found out stash from the air, we had to go up to water 3 times a week and it left tracks that were hard to miss from the air... what worked out much better was to plant in the ravines of the steepest mountains we could find. the steeper the grade the less likely hunters were to be in the area... we are talking 45 degrees of grade here... the cool thing about this location was the access to water... on any steep hill in our area you can depend on finding water making its way down the slope a few inches below the surface if you know where to look... and the place to look is anywhere you find thick patches of horsetail... you dont plant at the top where you begin to find the stuff but go down several feet. this is because it will dry out twards the top as summer moves in but there will be more water the farther you go down the slope... horse tail clears out easly [its like snapping off a straw] and it has the same bright green color as the herbs so the crop wont stand out like it does around darker hillside plants like ferns. the place we planted we would go and look for fresh tracks in the road every week and found only one set in 6 months ... we made own amendments from straw, cow shit, and some other stuff for like 100. max...every hole got 3 to 4 shovel fulls of amendments... then we planted female clones from the grow room... it was a slick operation... best of all, once everything was in, there was NO watering... we would just go out every week to check up on the ladys

[Parabola]

Ok so everything was done with pro mix carried to the swampy sites. there was some early gold that finished in mid august that was pretty decent smoke for being done so early. The stuff that went longer was a mix of strains and not enough cataloging was done so it is a mix. holy shit! there was some good weed mixed in there. The yeild would have been nearly doubled if not for all of the completely seeded and or mouldy bud. The successful stuff is all lightly seeded :allgood2:

The hash from the overly-seeded stuff is to-fuckin'-die-for.

thanks to the seed donors, you know who you are.

peace,

p

[Parabola]

thanks for the really cool tip gforce!

[islandgrow]

Ok, I didn't want to start a thread but I kinda wanted to toss around this soil idea. Let me know what you think, it needs/doesn't need.

40% coir
20% perlite
25% manure/compost
10% green sand
5% worm casting

make it all before hand and carry it in, in 5 gallon buckets? each 5 gallon bucket fills 2 holes?.