Oregon Organic Guerrilla 2009, with your host BACKCOUNTRY

[North]

My original target yield was 3-4oz out of this device, but I have a feeling this plant may be 6oz or more. 6oz is larger than any yield I have gotten from a plant in the boonies, at home it would be easy, but not when all the water arrives on you back, not in this climate.

So in short, for me this is a big plant, definitely not a one pound plant, but great for my situation.

BackCountry,

Looking like your attention to detail and dilligence is paying off!

after you posted your (approx)latitude, it tells me I'm 150ish miles north of you.given your quote, I know the feeling, folks dont get how different parts of the country can be, we dont all have 190-200 day seasons with lots of sun,rain, and good temps. doing this on the real downlow,in the bush ,hauling everthing....sets limits.

GREAT JOB,

PS-i bet you might be able to get away with smaller boxes?

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

totally off-topic. Backcountry, are you familiar with a strain available in called "the Cough"?

I've heard of it online alot, never seen it in person or smoked it, seems like alot of stuff is called "cough". I assume it is a clone? I don't deal in clones much, since I have no way to keep moms. Is it good?

your lab is a big pup. looks rathered relaxed in that pic. my cousins black lab is only 80lbs. labs are awesome dogs.

Yeah, I love Labs, very good companion dogs. I borrow this one for my journeys into the bush, my lab cross is very old now and doesn't handle trips at all anymore.

eL_keif-Thankyou!

PS-i bet you might be able to get away with smaller boxes?

Well, the soil capacity is fine, I may even shrink it a bit to experiment with some next year. But the water capacity needs to get much larger.
Part of the original idea of this system was to extend watering visits from once or twice a week, to once or twice a month. This seasons E.H. has 6.5 gallons of water capacity, and the plant has been using 5-6 gallons per week for a month now.

These will be the basic layout for next years E.H., the reservoirs are 18 gallon rough totes, the kind you can get for $5 at some places. If I use the double tote version, and use 3 gallon wicks, that would give me 30 gallons of capacity, or about enough to extend visits to 5 weeks through the hottest weeks of my summer.

I could use the single tote version for E.H. that aren't so distant.

 

[Chesire Cat]

puppy looks stoked to be with you doing the deeds

 

[Lifebreather]

Glad to see that the heat wave didn't affect you much. Wasn't that just crazy?

The plants in the four corners of my greenhouse aren't fairing quite so well as the others, and I think it was due to the heat.

My indoor plants got all spindly and wispy because I was completely unable to control temperatures--even at night!

Oregon...gotta love it!

Keep on keepin' on...

 

[North]

sorry I havent followed the numbers that close, I've been AWOL for awhile.

I meant smaller soil capacity, have you thought about trying to use a cheap plastic garbage can? suspend a 5 gallon pail for the pot, and wick it up with rope,foam, or heavy felt? maybe a standtube of peat?
I think it may have been mentioned early on in your planning thread?

either way, you've added 50% to your harvest by the looks of it..NICE JOB!

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

A garbage can carries its volume in a tall column, the average large garbage can carries about 32 gallons, unless you go really big. Trying to bury 30 gallons of garbage can beneath a Earth hole is going to require a very deep hole, while 30 gallons of rough totes requires a shallower hole. Whats more, I've found that gallon for gallon, Tote boxes are cheeper than garbage cans.

 

[AlreadyInUse]

Greetings BackCountry,

Thank you so much for sharing this, this is a true inspiration.


I was wondering if i could possibly ask you 2 questions.

1) It looks like you haven't had any PH issues? Even with the passive water system?
2) In regards to your terracotta pots, I have an idea for a bigger reservoir system, do you think this would work?

Please see picture below or see link (Newbie!! hope its attached alright)
https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=8007&pictureid=142124








Basically, a tote or container which has tubing running from the bottom down to the plant (Gravity). The tube gets a cloth / tshirt material attached to the end to stop clogging and shoved into the ground next to the plant. Id probably run 2 tubes from the tote to the plant just as you have used 2 terracotta pots.


I'm hoping this would act the same as your terracotta pots. How do you reckon it'd go??

Any feedback / comments would be appreciated

Thanks alot!

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

AlreadyInUse- No PH issues that I can see, actually the plant seems exceedingly healthy.

I have often wondered if exactly what you are proposing(the pipe with a wick attached) could work. One thing that concerned me was that if the pressure of water above the wick could force it through the wick, rather than allow the passive "sweating" to occur.

I've tried to figure out ways to provide for a "soaker" approach, making a device that could be hooked up to a reservoir via a hose, and buried in the root zone of the plant.
The best idea I've seen is the Terracotta bottle approach, the only commercial version is the Australian Wetpot system.

In short, I like the idea of the idea, but I have not figured out the best way to start experimenting with it I guess, maybe next year

 

[AlreadyInUse]

BackCountry,

Thanks for the reply, I might experiment with some ideas and what not.
Ill be watching how this one turns out

Keep up the good work,

Thanks again!!

 

[coralreefer]

My plants were given to me by an older man. He has been growing for many years now and has managed to get his hands on Super Widow which is a cross between Super Silver Haze and White Widow. The Super Silver Haze is very sativa dominant, while the White Widow is much closer to a 50-50 mix. Its a beautiful strain to grow, the hybridization is perfect. Have not smoked it yet due to the fact that my plants are still in the ground growing, but he says its the greatest high ever. Crossing my fingers he is right.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

i would love to see some pics of the watering system mane.

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Is this what you are looking for smokey?

This section is to help catch everyone up on my Earthhole experiment.

OK, I planted my only Earthhole on May 28th.

...........................................

I started by digging a hole, and placing my wooden Earthhole emitter in the bottom, and placing the fill tube in place.

Next I filled the wick with Coco coir, this will soak up the water in the rez, and transfer it to the potting soil.

Now I place a large garbage bag on top of the emitter, the bag has a hole the bottom, which I center over the wick.

Now I fill the garbage bag with a highly potent organic potting soil I made. There will be 10 gallons total in the garbage bag.

I carefully filled in around and over the garbage bag with some native soil, leaving the opening to plant in.

I filled the rez of the emitter with water and let it sit for a few days.

When I returned with a plant a few days later, the rez was holding water nicely, and only a little water had been used to moisten the soil.

A cutaway view of the Earthhole I have going right now.

Earthhole #1 May 28, 2009

Here is the OR95 seedling planted in the hole.

Earthhole #1 June 25th, 2009

As you can see, this plant not only survived nearly a month of cool, often rainy weather(not much need for moisture, I feared the plant may become waterlogged) in the Earthhole but has grown to 3' tall and quite wide(this plant was topped). No problems with wet roots, or stagnet water as many predicted.
I didn't fill the rez as it was only half empty.

Earthhole #1 July 2, 2009

Here is the plant compared to a 1 gallon jug.
I filled the rez this day, and will start monitoring water use on a weekly basis. Once I know how fast it uses water, I'll know how big I'll need to build future Earthholes so they will last several weeks between fillings.

 

[Dr Dog]

still impresses me everytime I see that design

I think I may try a few of those next years here and there

 

[Doobydan]

still impresses me everytime I see that design

I think I may try a few of those next years here and there

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

I'm honored you guys have so much confidence in the design. One thing I want to make sure everyone knows is that I did not invent the thing that drives the system, that being the soil wick. I really didn't really invent the Earth hole itself, its just a adaption of the Earth box and other self-watering planters that use a soil wick, you could get similar results by buying or making a Earth box and burying it in the ground.

My attempt here was to demonstrate the idea of the soil wick concept, and its possible benefits for Guerrilla growers in climates with little or no summer rainfall.
I also tried to create a system that works like a Earth box, but has greater average capacities for soil and water, and used cheaper, lighter materials(to make transporting in the bush easier).

Now I have to wonder which types of climates this would benefit? Obviously this would be of benefit growers in dry climates, but how dry would it have to be to justify the trouble?
Just guesstimating, I'd say it would take a climate with 3-4" of rain per week minimum, to grow a plant as large and healthy as my Earth hole plant, with out adding any supplemental water(or planting on naturally wet soil. The irony is that a climate with this much rain in summer may also not be able to provide the quantity and quality of sunshine needed.

I'd say all guerrilla growers with 20 plants or less, living west of the Rockies(with the exception perhaps of Maritime Washington and B.C.), could qualify. Many growers east of the Rockies could qualify as well. But if your rainfall averages around 2" a week, it may make more sense to continue watering by hand occasionally to supplement, rather than going to the trouble of building the Earth holes, in this case digging big wide holes right in the ground would be more efficient.

Also, I'd say that if you aspire to grow really large quantities for sale(in dry climates), a "drip" type system would be vastly more labor efficient than building Earth holes.

The Earth hole idea is meant to make growing a moderate supply of quality bud easier for the little guy, especially in climates that don't forgive a missed weekly watering visit.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyways, I thought it would be fun to post a report of my Earth holes progress through the "vegging" part of the season, the first bits of bud are forming on all my plants now, the bloom season is upon me!

This is what it looks like inside the box-

These are the ingredients for my potting soil-

Pic from planting time, May 28-

June 25-

July 2-

July 9-

July 16-

July 23-

Aug 4-

Aug 11-

I need to remember to take a pic of the stem next time I go.

 

[Hollaachu]

Backcountry I have a Nev99 female plant outdoors that I am having trouble getting full sun to it....I am trying to decide whether or not to move to a more sunnier location close by, or to leave it alone....I don't want to damage my plant by tearing up the roots....I need your input on this matter....I want to get the most out of this plant that the great outdoors can provide, your expert advice is greatly needed concerning this matter....Please Brother, tell me what you would do!!!!Here's the Nev99....I took these photos today...We had a violent rain storm yesterday, so she looks a little waterlogged....I think that she is doing OK considering the fact that she had been preflowered for sex, then revegged!!!!She has just began to form her Fall preflowers!!!! Help!!!! Hollaachu!!!!

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Hollaachu- How much sun is it getting? How long has it been in the ground?


Earthhole test, Aug 12- Aug 17

Sorry, no pic this time, low batteries

Daily totals
Aug 12- High 91F, Low 58F, Avg humidity 43%
Aug 13- High 83F, Low 62F, Avg humidity 46%
Aug 14- High 79F, Low 54F, Avg humidity 48%
Aug 15- High 85F, Low 48F, Avg humidity 54%
Aug 16- High 90F, Low 51F, Avg humidity 43%
Aug 17- High 98F, Low 54F, Avg humidity 40%

Week totals
Average high 88F, Average low 54F, Average mean 72F
Average humidity 45.6%
Total Precipitation: 0.00 in
Water used in this period= just shy of 5 gallons in 6 days(would have been a bit under 6 gallons for a week

I got out and watered my plants the other day, partly I wanted to get a head start on the 100 degree weather we are having right now. We had 3 days of significant cooling this period, the 14th actually had extensive cloud cover much of the day. Water usage by the EH dropped a bit in response to the cooling it seems, but not much.

My pitcher plants all had some water in the bottom of their Terracotta pots, usually all the 1 gallon pots are empty after 3 days, let alone 6 days since the last fill. These plants have used less water during this cooling trend. After really looking at these plants, they actually seem to be promising a good 3oz harvest each, which would be my norm. I was afraid they might yield even lighter, but they have grown over 6' and seem to have enough bud sites to put on some decent bud.

 

[Hollaachu]

Backcountry this plant was actually hid in the woods....I made a small clearing, enough for about 4 large human beings to fit into....I had it in dappled sun....I saw that it wasn't getting nothing but dappled noonday sun, so I went in last week and cleared out some more small trees!!!! I should have done more planning, but the plant got put out in my haste due to security reasons....It is now getting more sunlight, but not as much as I would like....It is probably getting about 6 hours of mixed dappled to full sunlight now....I have one more Oak Tree limb to clear and I will be OK!!!!It went into the ground in early June, but it had to fight thru a Re-Veg!!!!This plant should be much, much larger than it currently is now!!!!I'm afraid that I won't get much bud from her....I will make BX1 seeds from her, and I vow to do a better job of growing her!!!!I am ashamed of this specimen!!!! Holla!!!

 

[BACKCOUNTRY]

If you could clear some branches and let more light in, that would be better than moving a plant that old.

 

[bongcritter]

Hi there BC - looks good!! You are like a mad scientist at work with this Super Earth Hole stuff!!!

Your ladies look spectacular though!