UK Outdoor 2008 Guerilla Style

[RealSupreme]

Hey m8"!
They luk great! Nice thread,, its a pleasure to follow that show bro!
Good luck for ya great line-up"! good choice!
peace.1

 

[Guest]

Hiya houndog, I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned shock. In my experience of guerills growing, avoiding shocking the plants too much when you first put them out is key. Of course, it is far better to 'harden off' your plants in a greenhoue or cold frame or cloche outdoors for a week or so before committing them to the great outdoors, but that isn't an option for me. I am hoping the idea of filling sacks with a good soilmix and planting the clones in those will help avoid too much shock, although plants that have been grown indoors under CFLs are always gonna experience something of a shock when plonked in the middle of nowhere to fend for themselves. I suppose it's like releasing a hand-reared animal back into the wild, some adapt immediately, others never do adapt fully.

Back in 2005 the plants I planted directly in the ground in one spot were nbadly shocked and died off, in the other spot they stalled for a couple of weeks after planting then when they had rooted, really took off and were doing great until someone found them and tore them up.

I had to cancel my walk to one of the prospective spots today as the weather is rotten, lots of rain and no sun.... I've got the flu and am propped up in bed with a cup of tea and some Trainwreck, typing on my laptop. Can't wait for the better weather to arrive!

 

[houndog]

Hey there BH, I live in a fairly hot climate area in southern BC. I recall putting out some seedlings without hardening them off, and when I looked a few days later they were bleached almost white (sunburn). Most did make it. I have taken plants out and kept them in semi-shady areas for a few days, then planted.
I am sure your plants will do well, you are very commited to your cause, I can appreciate that devotion and it's outcome.
I have had plants & seeds stolen myself, it sucks!
Hope you get that weather you are looking for. Ah, a warm drink for a crumby cold.

 

[Guest]

I decided to start some more seeds for outdoors to have some more variety and try to ensure at least some varieties finish. I'm putting a couple of large clones into flower shortly and giving a couple more smaller clones to folks so will have a bit more room, but things are gonna get tight in my veg spaces, I'll put the first clones outdoors in early April so that will free some space to veg the seed plants a bit longer. I;m praying the weather turns good early this year!

I popped these into paper towels tonight:

4 x Purple Power - Female Seeds - not the best in aste or potency but very purple and very reliable even in a bad year

5 x Biddy's Sister - a gift test pack from gerrit at Magus from last year's icmag cup. Seen so many glowing reports of Biddy Early outdoors and Gerrit did an inspiring outdoors Biddy's Sister backyard grow last year so hoping for some potent indica goodness from these

10 x Bahia Blackhead - KC Brains - supposed to be a very good strain and good outdoors, given my past results germing KC's seeds i'll be lucky to get 3 plants from these. I only got 3 Leda Unos to germ a few months back out of a ten pack and got one runt mutant, one male and one female that produced very frosty buds with good taste and potency but pathetic yield - 3g from a plant vegged for a month and pruned into 6 colas! It was a comedic sight, never seen top buds so tiny so hoping the Bahia is better.

 

[Guest]

I found this pic by Colt122 showing his sack grow, he uses 75lb potato sacks he prefills offsite. My sacks are smaller than this, but you get the idea:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=82701

 

[Sammet]

Sounds like some good strains there. I'm not sure we're going to get any good weather soon, but I found this weekly updated Gardening Weather for the UK on the bbc site - might come in handy? Obviously it's a general uk forecast but it's a decent summary I reckon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/ukweather/gardening.shtml

 

[Elevator Man]

I went up to my spot again today for a poke around, and found another clearing I can use - I thought it was too high up the hill, but it's actually perfect - Google Earth is not so accurate on the terrain mapping! I'm getting all fired up already, and it's not even March yet. I love the sack idea, BTW...

 

[Chiefsmokingbud]

Hey BH, not sure exactly where you are going to plant in those spots (middle?) but it's always a good idea to spread them out and plant them along the tree line, southern facing. Not sure if you have to worry about copters but one mistake ppl make is to plant it dead center in an open area and it sticks out like a sore thumb.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the link Sammet, looks useful!

Hi EM, I get my car back in 2 days (finally!) so I can't wait to go check out my spots properly, I'm gonna take soil samples in little plastic bags and bring em home for analysis of their ec and ph.

Hi Chief, yes I plan to plant along the southern side of the tree line, one of the reason I want to use sacks is that it makes it much easier to place the plants among the other foliage to hide them.

No half-assed measures this year, Wilkos were doing a two for 2 quid special offer on Growmore fertiliser granules (7-7-7) so I now have 5 kilos of the stuff plus a couple of kilos of other ferts, I reckon if I mix this with the leaf compost I collect and add a handful or two of lime I will have a good soilmix.

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/invt/6115540

 

[herbie5000]

hey hempire, u all set but i just wanted to add my own exp. grown guerilla in uk a few times. best strain i used was hollands hope, ready by mid oct, nice and frosty. i know u got ur strains all ready and stuff but thought i should throw it in. most other strains i've grown outside in uk haven't beaten the mould situ in late autumn. good luck mate, will be watching keenly.

 

[Guest]

I've grown Holland's Hope before and I didn't like it, too leafy I thought. I didn't like Top44 either even though it grows into monster trees in even a bad summer. Great for commercial outdoor. To be honest, most of my plants will be clones, I have loads of clones already vegging and I know they will work outdoors here as other folks have tried these cuts outdoors here.

 

[Paddi]

Talking about HH. I have grown it for 2 years. I had nice phenoes.
This one 07 outdoor:










Back to BC´s growshow
Peace
Paddi

 

[Guest]

Hey BH!!

I wish you luck with your grow. You're making me think I want to do an outdoor one. Big risk here since the growing season is so short.

Have you considering learning to go to your grow area(s) in the dark?

Much less risk of being seen, WAY less risk.

The UK doesn't have any dangerous animals to worry about....unlike here where going around the forest/bush in the dark is not advisable, since we do have dangerous critters to deal with.

pedro

 

[Elevator Man]

That approach can have mixed blessings over here though, as no-one really goes wandering around at night - not in the countryside anyway.

For example, my spot is right on the border of city outskirts and open countryside, and the way in and out is via public roads. One way is fine, being on the main highway, but the other leads down lanes that are public, but clearly weren't, once upon a time - they're 'negotiated access' public. After running by a stables setup with horses in fields, they then pass two houses - large houses with big dogs, who often go crazy when you walk past, and then you hit the first properly housed street, which also includes a police station - etc. etc...

So in many ways I find it's better to be there in broad daylight, as then at least I'm not up to a suspicious activity automatically, and sometimes take my tripod etc. so I have an excuse for what I'm doing in all that undergrowth! There's deer there, which whilst not really dangerous can be unpredictable. But also give me a subject to be photographing...

I visited today as dusk was approaching, and negotiated my way around the spot fine - once your eyes are used to it, it's amazing how long you can sit it out. It was just about dark when I left, but I was feeling more dodgy the darker it got, for the reasons above. I guess it largely depends where you are.

 

[Elevator Man]

Just to further the point above, for those outside Great Britain, we've just had three serial killers jailed in the last week, all for murdering women. One of them killed five, and dumped all the bodies in open countryside, just on the outskirts of Ipswich.

So many people at the moment are going to be just that bit more observant about strange men furtively hanging around in undergrowth at dusk, possibly with shovels and large bags of soil, and who appeared to be burying things.

Something else to bear in mind for outdoor growers, definitely...

 

[Guest]

Not a chance of being able to visit these plots in the dark, like EM says that would be highly suspicious, and if you've ever tried negotiating our rocky landscape at night, it's a good way to break an ankle and end up freezing to death or getting hypothermia at least.

The best camouflage is a pair of hiking boots, a wooly hat and a rucksack - lots of hikers around these parts. A trippod and camera bag is also great, I take my clones to the site in a camera bag actually and like EM says, a tripod is good too. Also, walking the dog is good camouflage, us Brits are great dog walkers!

 

[Guest]

I can see your point. Different cultures, etc. Driving around back roads at night here is not uncommon. Not that there are loads of people doing it. There are literally 100's of miles of "public" mountain roads around me here.

And though I am an avid hunter/bowhunter I always enjoy my times hiking in the bush whatever the reason there. I love seeing all the animals in the woods...and this area is blessed with quite a variety of wildlife....and I have seen all of them (the larger ones predator and prey both) except mountain lions and wolverines. Lions are quite plentiful around here, but very adept at avoiding human contact. I always have my Bird Book and my Tracks and Scat book with me. I saw a Rough Legged Hawk today on its favorite perch on a dirt road I drive a lot. The hawk has been elsewhere for a month or so because of deep snow. He/she is back though now that there are bare places in the fields it watches. Rough Legged hawks are very beneficial predators, eating almost exclusively small rodents like mice and voles.

ramble ramble
sorry
pedro is stoned again

But you are correct. It is best to go to your grow in such a manner as it won't attract attention.

 

[Elevator Man]

Lions? Wow, where are you? Roughly...

 

[Guest]

Rockey Mountain North West.

"Lions" here means "mountain lion" or "puma" technically know as "felis concolor". Males can go as big as 200lbs. I've seen them in captivity but never in the wild. They feed mainly on deer. Human attacks are very rare in this area....Possibly because they are hunted here (a limited number of permits is issued in this region).

Moose are actually what I worry over the most while tramping around here whether it is day or night. Moose cows can be EXTREMELY aggressive, especially when they have a calf...which "drop" right when one would be putting out plants hereabouts-early June. There are lots of people around here who have had bad encounters with moose. I've seen pics of everything from snowmobiles to 1 ton pickup trucks that have had the shit "kicked" out of them by moose. I mean beat in doors and windows, broken windshields, etc. They can be scary as hell.

Grizzley bears get all the "good press" but bears generally move away from people unless they are surprised on a kill or a favored huckleberry patch, etc. Moose are unpredictable and aren't afraid of anything....and they will aggressively pursue "intruders" in their space. I've had encounters with 2 moose, both were bulls though. That was scary enough for me. Moose are very large animals. I'm well over 6 feet tall and the bulls I saw towered over me. I have about 15 minutes of video of one bull that came withing 15-20 yards of me. The other I was within spitting distance of and I almost wet my pants. When you can see those bloodshot eyes rolling around and the slobber drooling out of their mouth...it's a hair raising experience-literally-....an experience I love remembering and telling about, but not something I want to happen again!!

pedro

 

[Guest]

Actually moose, or rather elk, which is the same thing really, kill loads of people in Scandinavia all the time, if you run into one in a car often you can kill yourself. This is why Saabs are designed to survive the 'elk test' - they run Saabs into fake elks to see how well protected you are, you don't want a few hundred pounds of very rare venison coming through the windscreen! I drive a Saab and it;s reassurign to know I can plough into as many moose/elk as I like and not die!

Soory bben smoking Trainwreck, strange frame of mind....

Never noticed EM's post about serial killers, i never watch the news so hadn't heard about that! I;m avoiding the shovel and sack of fertiliser sceanario, would look far too suspicious! Hence the sack and leaf compost idea...