Creekside Plot up against a steep mountain

[krazay]

Just put 15 girls outside today in small pots. packed in bone/blood meal and some lime expecting sandy soil. found a wide opening full of boulders. nearby there are alot of rotten trees, Red in color and covered with moss. if you break the moss away you can easily shovel the rotting tree into a rubbermaid. enough to fill fifteen 70L grow bags. It wasn't full of insects but it looked like it really supported the woody bushes and moss that grew off of it.

Will this be okay for a planting medium for my outdoor pots if i add ferts? does anybody know the PH of that kind of soil?

If not I might be able to pack in a few bales of peat. saw a black bear downstream also so i picked up some bear spray. its quite a fast running and wide creek. very safe location.

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

The PH of the woody material is going to be lowwwwwwwwww, like maybe 4.5-5, but thats about as bad as Peat moss, any soil that grows Moss probably is below 6.2. The woody soil is probably not very high in Nitrogen either.
Are the trees conifers or broadleaf? A little rotten tree in the mix won't hurt, but I'm not sure if it would make great potting soil or not, perhaps consider bringing some Peat and trying a 50/50 mix of both? Make sure you add 2TBS of Dolomite per gallon of soil, regardless of using Peat, wood or a mix of both, all have low PH.

 

[krazay]

ah thanks so much for the response backcountry! i'm searching like crazy.

there all coniferous evergreen trees. I already have a big bag of dolomitic lime sitting up there + 6lb of bone/blood. I hope that stuff doesn't attract bears?

its a pretty good treck across the stream to pack stuff in, hip waders and good balance.

if you think a 50/50 mix of peat and the rotting tree will work i'll do it. and ill add the lime in like you say.

the rotting tree holds moisture really well. i figure adding some sand/pebble at the bottom of the grow bags will help drainage.

should i consider mixing chemical nutes in the water before watering them?

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

I always advise against bone, blood, and fish meals, especially in guerrilla situations, it could attract Bears, Coons, and many other animals with scavenger tendencies. I always advise using Manures and/or Guanos instead.

Using a product like Miracle grow when you visit will give your plants nutrients that are immediately available, but I wouldn't rely on them for all your plants nutritional needs.

I have no idea if the rotting tree is going to work, I've never tried such high amounts, 50% is the highest I'd try, but if I had my druthers, I would use only 25% if any at all.

I'd feel better about your situation if you replaced the Meals with Chicken and steer manures(or Guanos), and avoided using the tree compost very much. But it sounds like you have kinda committed yourself to your situation, how stuck are you?

 

[krazay]

No no, not committed at all. There sitting in pots up there right now. the pots are in the pile of rotten wood i figured they would not dry out so fast.

there was fresh bear shit 20 feet from them, we just shoveled it right in the pile of rotten tree we dug up hah. I didnt add the bone/blood meal its in a garbage bag with the lime still. but theres human hair and a jug full of piss there.

Okay I can pick up some chicken or steer manure. Maybe I should scrap everything and pick up straight promix or sunshine mix and mix it in with the manure? the sunshine-mix and manure wouldnt need any lime am i correct? what size of pots should I be using, biggest i can pack in and fill full of soil basically, right?

Im going back up there saturday morning there 30 more seedlings that have to be outside.

thanks BC much appreciated

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

I'm not familiar with Sunshine mix, but if it doesn't indicate that the PH is balanced, or unless it says it is limed, I'd still add dolomite at a rate of 2 TBS per gallon of soil.

Pot size? Anything less than 5 gallons is unacceptable, 7.5 -10 gallon range are even better.

Good luck this season!

 

[krazay]

Okay i know its not the most interesting grow and i'm a pretty novice grower. they always fuck up. but im putting alot of effort into this.

15 clones out there doing real well. for soil we used. about %80 sunshine mix #1 (google it, basically peat moss with perlite and lime) %20 mix of steer, sheep, mushroom manure and black earth topsoil. and then 1 cup bone/blood meal. and 1 cup dolomitic lime. its not the dusty stuff its kind of like grains of sand, i don't know if it will have the same effect?

38L kitchen garbage bags inside a 70L garbage bag to protect the roots. used a pitchfork and stabbed the bottom a couple times for some drain holes.

location is bouldery. up against a mountain. doesn't get early mornign sunlight its blocked by a mountain but it gets at least 8+ hours of direct.

creek is a 5 min walk (steep incline) going to pack water in every week for the first month then every two weeks the next.



it was a hell of a workout getting that much soil up there.
after, in another location, put out 25 seedlings on their 3rd set of leaves outside on a rock ( pretty windy) in cups, leave them til next week and we'll dig holes and amend the soil (river side soil) with some composted manure.

any tips will be treated like gold lol

 

[krazay]

Yeah crossing the creek you see was the easy part, then we had to pack it by hand up a steep hill. Next two pics are uphill view and downhill view of sun. third is the seedlings day before they went out. 4th is what the second area looks like.

 

[jockhorror]

nice location.. best of luck

 

[greennuggets7]

Very nice dude especially those rubbermaid boxes dug in vertically.

 

[PazVerdeRadical]

hey BC, why would you think peat is best to mix with his already acidic substrate? wouldn´t it be better he brought some vermiculite and/or coco instead? peace

 

[Koi]

Awesome spot!

I wish you best luck. Keep posting pictures.

 

[zappa66]

Very nice dude especially those rubbermaid boxes dug in vertically.

lol, start a new trend: cliff growing tops turvy style...

krazay: best of luck man I cant say I envy you the watering, looks waaaay the hell up there

 

[krazay]

Ya you can expect pictures every weekend. hiked up again today. bought 4 more clones and packed up 4 more bags of mushroom/sheep manure. put the rest in bags poked drain holes. all the work is done, just need to water like you say.

hopefully you will envy the final product =)
the water will be NOTHING compared to packing up those bales of peat moss. I can tell you my whole body is sore lol..
the rivers a steep, 5 minute walk. probably bring two, 12 gallon jugs i think thats what they are, make two trips. once every week. My partner saw the bear again today and said he didn't seem to mind we were on his turf.

hmm. we mixed all our soil on top of the rotten wood so very few chunks might have made it in the bags. we chose not to use it at all. we thought about making a top layer of it but figured it would hold moisture in, yes but prevent it from getting down too when we water.

 

[krazay]

week 2

week 2

WOW has the creek risen. barely crossable. hiked up a jug of water and a watering backpack from a watergun lol. showing a bit of growth.. most of its in the roots i hope. looks good so far. one of them got covered by the bag a bit so it looks pretty bad. we tied a string around all them to stop that from happening again hopefully.

pics........

 

[krazay]

shithooked on a rock

 

[#1cheesebuds]

dammm this looks like a sweet grow and a sweet grow spot.

 

[krazay]

any suggestions?

 

[Bionik Kronik]

Beautiful Mountain, everything looks covered by some form of green. I really like the spot you have chosen. Sucks you have to carry water up there.

I'm a fan of grow bags in general but in your case, I saw one in a hydrofarm or sunlight supply catalog recently that is 15 gallons and instead of black it's green camo.

 

[krazay]

yeah carrying water sucks! its only 5 minute walk straight up the hill. 10 with the water. but a pump for $200 really i dont think is practical for the amount ill be getting from these.

yeah i wish i had time to get some bigger grow bags NONE of the hydro stores had anything bigger than 7gal!! i could have used those i guess. but these had to go out on such short notice i didn't think about it early enough and had no time to order them when the time came. thanks for the input bionik