Hamstrings striking seeds in the bush 2009

[hamstring]

Been so damn busy just now have time to update. If you take a look at the comparison you can see that in 4-5 days they more than doubled in size again. They are bumping their heads on the top of the cold frame. This is very bad because they burn when this happens.

Every Year I learn something the hard way and this year is no exception. I will never let them get this size again before transplanting into the ground.

The first thing is the burning when they hit their heads no huge deal but any loss in growth is bad news for an early strain.

The second thing is they stretch out too much making them less robust when you transport them. I built a new transport pack and it worked great but no matter what you get some breakage because they are too tall and thin.

The first pic is of 4 days agao and the second is the most recent. I would reccomend transplanting at the 5-6 inch rather than the 12-14inch seedling stage.


Same pic just enlarged.

 

[still2big]

Hell yeah man...nice start

 

[little j]

if im looking at it right your plants look great in those cups. keep doing what your doing. those weeds look healthy and strong. thanks little j

 

[cellardweller]

lookin really great, hammer..
I have yet to transport mine and they have a long journey ahead of them.
you saying to transport them smaller makes me want to push things ahead faster than I'm ready. I have a decision to make I think.

 

[hamstring]

Still2big
Thanks brother still so much to learn about starting seedlings in the patch. This could be a master’s thesis.

Littlej
Thanks brother they do well in the cold frame just have to keep your eye on them.

CD
Hey bro I here for any advice I can provide I appreciate all the back N forth in the thread.
I spent a lot of time designing a transport pack. I have a little bit of wood working experience but you couldn’t tell by looking at it Heheheheh.

PM me if after reading the following you want to see the transport pack or more info.

The problem is when they get 12-14 inches the are tall and thin so just the act of pulling them in and out of the cold frame causes some damage. Now take that and then pack them even closer together in a transport pack and now you have a tangled mess.
Now pack that through a 40 min walk through the bush and the trips and slips that come with that. You get the picture.

Not ready to show my pack because of security reasons (one of kind not like red cups) but I can give a couple of general advice tips. I designed my pack so that it was sectioned off. You can put 15 cups but not all in one group need to keep some separation. The main reason though if you don’t do anything else make sure that the cups are packed in tight and I mean so you have to pinch the cup and squeeze it into groups of 3 or 4. So now you have 4-5 groups of 3-4 cups.
If were to try that with all 15 cups without any sectioning off they want to squirt out and will not stay secure in the pack.

Just as important is that you have a cover over the top. My pack was designed so I could fit a paper bag over top of the seedlings (paper doesn’t get caught on branches or thorns like plastic). This is a must if you don’t want to shred the plants on the walk through the bush. I took my plants on a journey of rose thorns and spinney vines and marsh and hills and they were relatively fine.
PEACE

 

[cellardweller]

thing is ham, when I am ready to transport, I have a tackle bag that all my small square pots will fit into. It kind of goes with the idea of going fishing at that pond in my thread. I haven't tried to section it off, and Im not sure if there is even any room to try and do that. The pots will be snug up against each other, but I worry about the height of the plants now, and having to carryt that bag through the woods. I suppose if I am careful everything will be fine. I just dont want to break any mainstems any lower than what a usual topping would be. I think I will probably use some wooden skewers to try and stabilize the stems in transport.
By all means, shoot me a pm..
:friends:

 

[hamstring]

Holes in cups work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holes in cups work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was moving (transporting) a second cold frame full of seedlings and as I was pulling them out of the container/cold frame and I noticed that the holes in the bottom of the cups had worked. The roots had come out of each cup and each time I pulled a cup out I felt the tug of the roots from the soil in the cold frame container.

As I was pulling the cups out I noticed some of the seedling were smaller no big deal but I didn’t feel that tug of the roots that should have been there so I looked at the bottom of a few of the cups and I had forgot to cut holes in a few of them.

Well that’s when it really hit me those holes worked much better than I thought. The plants without holes in the cups were 30-35% smaller than ones with holes. Even though they had enough moisture with or without holes the expansion of the root system simply out preformed the ones that did not have this option. As mentioned by other growers there are many factors that could account for the difference like not enough moisture too much i.e. less O2 to the roots but no matter how you slice it the cups with holes are they way to go.

The reason I am so excited is I now know that lugging that 100lbs of soil was worth it. Had I just put the cups in the cold frame with no soil under them the results would not have been as good. This allows me anyways, to look at selecting spots for cold frames at greater distances away and less visits.

This continues to be such a great learning tool for me the last 3-4 years of trying to perfect this system.
PEACE.

 

[Paddi]

I guess we´re all still learning hamstring
I do - every day :smile:
Will we the the girls in their new homes?


P

 

[hamstring]

Paddi
Thanks for stopping in your insight is much appreciated. You are so right about always learning it keeps us going I guess knowing that there is more knowledge to be gained from something that can seem so simple at times but in reality has so many nuances.

The GG2s are in but still have to put the AK99XFL in their new homes but very close. Weather is causing some hold ups but they are waiting patiently for me (I hope) can never be too confident or secure especially since they do not have the security of the cold frame.

I still have one more cold frame waiting on my return full of BBXNL F2s. I have not babied these at all and have only visited them a couple of times. They are getting the true guerilla style treatment. Its funny when the seeds aren’t store bought you don’t treat them as well. Nice to have plenty of these to go around.
PEACE

 

[little j]

keep it up hamstring. i think you have some success going on. i really want to see your gg finish for you. im learning too. check your thread in curing. im dropping suggestions i hope you can use.
thanks, little j.

 

[hamstring]

little j

Thanks for the positive vibes brother and I read and appreciate your input.
PEACE

 

[hamstring]

The Cold Frame Thesis Goes On.

The Cold Frame Thesis Goes On.

Well last but not least on my cold frames. I haven’t checked on this one since 05/25/09 it contains nothing but BBXNL.
This cold frame container was buried 1-2 inches from the top. Now I have only been to this cold frame 3 times total and this one has taken a beating to say the least. Burying the container is great for security this one is almost invisible but absolutely terrible on the plants.



As you can see from the first pic there is standing water in the container. I couldn’t keep it out because of the rain run off in the container. Doesn’t happen when container is above ground.
.

Take a look at the second pick you can see the cups are so saturated that they have fungus growing on top of the soil.

Now for the final two pics you can see that they were basically in a cave of vegetation and they still look good un f***ing believable. MJ never ceases to amaze me. Well they all have new dry homes in the ground but the cold frame master thesis goes on.

I would love to be able to burry the containers for security reasons but don’t think it’s a viable option. Maybe 4-5 inches above would keep water run off out of the container not really sure but its worth a try next season.

So long from the cold frames but will update the grow as it progresses.
PEACE

 

[pipeline]

Good work, hamstring! Love your mini coldframe... Getting the kinks worked out.... Seems to work very well for you! Hope you're getting close on getting everything put in...

For transporting we just use a standard backpack and wrap each container in newspaper and use duct tape to keep it wrapped. Milk crates wire tied together or even that coldframe tub would work for transporting many of them at once...

 

[Paddi]

Best luck hamstring.
Those plants are wery wet...
They would love a little sun and they´ll grow crazy :smile:


P

 

[hamstring]

Pipe
Thanks for stopping in appreciate the comments on the cold frame still a work in progress. I learned a lot from your thread and work with your cold frame. All the plants are now in the ground so we shall see how the season goes this year.

Paddi
You couldn’t be more right on that they need some sun and they should be getting it they all have been put in the ground with some water soluble 20-20-20 and a bunch of slow release ferts. These will be my low maintenance plots from the cold frame to harvest.

 

[hamstring]

4 inchs of rain you will not believe your eyes!!!!!!!!

4 inchs of rain you will not believe your eyes!!!!!!!!

Parts of the Midwest got hit by a storm that led to 4inchs of rain in my area. Who wants to see what 4 inches of rain looks like.

Well 4inchs can be considered a small amount or a large amount depending on time period.
All these pics are of Grass that was 5 ft tall and now not even up to your ankles. Look at all the debris everywhere. This area had the road washed out. Here in the Midwest because of all the fields large rains in a small time period run off the fields like water on concrete. This small stream turned into a raging river in 2 hrs.

4inches of rain and a 30 ft log carried from where I don’t know because no trees this size around for a ½ mile. The debris pile here is 4ft at least. Can you believe I have or had a patch of 10 plants in this area?

Ok lets go take a look at the plants or at least where they were at one time. Lets try and find them they are in 2 patches of 5 plants each.
Ok here’s where the first 5 should be planted them 6 aprox days ago.

What’s this patch of debris and this one and this one?

Lets take a look inside and see if anyone is home

 

[hamstring]

Lets head over to the second patch of 5 and see how things went. Holy shit here’s the sight and directly behind it is this f***king pile of logs. Take a look at this shit no way anything survived this because the logs would have went right over top of them. Incredible only 4 inches of rain mind you.

Lets look around to see what we find.

Well 8 plants still green or muddy green out of 10. Not sure if any will survive but its been 3 days since the storm and they are still alive but only time will tell.

 

[hamstring]

Only one thing left to do is find the cold frame that grew these plants lets go look for it. It was in a large patch of nettles and vegetation remember from my last post take a look at a side by side now.

BEFORE

AFTER

Lets look inside where the cold frame was with another side by side. Nothing left but a steaming hole of shit. There goes one cold frame.

AFTER

BEFORE

Such goes the guerillas life its never easy and sometimes devastating.
PEACE

 

[cellardweller]

oh hammy..I'm soo sorry..I know how hard you worked on it too.
at least there are a few you can salvage and the season is still somewhat early..
I have yet to experience such storms, but I'm sure they are a-comin..

 

[exploziv]

After seeing those pics I was thinking you lost your plants.
Looks like you are lucky.. Those plants look like will be ok..