Small guerilla grow in Western Ireland 2011

[devon232]

Hi all,

I live in the Republic of Ireland and I hate having to pay 20 euros per gram (3 grams for 50 euros).
I thought the UK had gotten expensive (3.3 grams for £25) until I came over here...

I bought 5x Greenhouse feminized A.M.S seeds online in March this year and germinated them on my windowsill.

AMS apparently means "Anti Mould System" or similar, so I figured they would be ideal for Irelands wet summers (and ever wetter autumns).

I grew the plants for the first month in the back garden (in a blind spot which was not visible by any of my numerous neighbours).

Two of the seedlings got eaten by slugs at this time (though I always expected to lose one or two early on).

While the plants were growing in my garden, I spent many weekends driving around the countryside near where I live, looking for a good spot to grow them.


I had done a guerilla grow in the UK before so I have a little experience, specifically I was looking for:

• A south facing hill.
• Thick gorse/bramble patches in an unkept field.
• Good soil quality (Not boggy, or heavy clay)
• Quite far up the hill, away from any streams (Ireland does not need water, or the accompanying damp).
• Far away from people (kind of difficult because Irelands countryside is dotted with houses).

I found my area, it was not as isolated as I would have liked, but it was OK.
I bought some garden gloves, secetaurs, pruning saw etc and crawled into the gorse bushes (about 3 metres in) and started clearing myself a little patch.
The patch is about 3 metres by 2 metres, all the large bushes I cut down, I piled against the sides of the patch to prevent people from peering through the bushes and seeing anything.
I used a compass and worked my way south, cutting the tops off all the bushes which were south of patch, to give my plants as much sunlight as possible (which is especially important in september as the daylight starts to reduce).

Once the patch was ready, I put the baby plants into 2 litre bottles so I could pack them in my Backpack.

I then planted them about 0.75 metres apart.

I then cut the plastic container bottles to make collars to protect the plants from small animals that may want to eat the leaves.

The plants had been a bit droopy for a few days, not sure if it was just them being confined to the small pots, perhaps the lack of light or some kind of deficiency.
All I knew is that as soon as they were living outside, I didnt need to worry about feeding them or watering them since mother nature would take care of everything
I am confident that the soil is of a high quality so I needent worry.

Anyway, see the photos below (Taken 2nd May 2011).

 

[devon232]

Update

Update

Here is the next update.

I left the plants for 2 weeks to allow them to adjust to the transplant.

Unfortunately the very hot dry weather changed to rain just as I planted them so they have not grown as much as I would have liked.

I was happy to see they were no longer drooping. As I said, Mother nature does a good job of providing all the nutrients the plants need (so long as the soil quality is good).

The plants are looking much more healthy (and not too badly eaten either).

I sprinkled some slug pellets around the plastic collars, cleaned some cookoo spit larvae off the branches and left.

I will now leave the plants for a month or so, I dont want my car to be seen in the Area (I parked about half a mile down the road and walked to the patch, across a field).

There is nothing I can do for the plants now so its best to leave them to their own devices.

These pictures were taken 15th May 2011

 

[greenluv707]

very nice DEVON232 im gonna be keeping an eye on this one,hope every thing goes as planed.good luck buddy.

 

[COOKIE MONSTER]

There is nothing I can do for the plants now so its best to leave them to their own devices

Devon and welcome to paddy land.

A couple of things you can do in the interim would be to pop wire cages around them if they wont be seen.
Starting to spray for mould as early as possible will give you a fighting chance, mould season really gets into swing from mid Sept onwards over here, it's best to get a nice organic spray you can use regurlarly.

Looking great so far and dont worry about the slow growth this cold spell will shift soon.

 

[GOT DANK]

good luck

 

[sweet-emotion]

well done, nice job, I'll keep an eye on this

 

[T.rips]

Ireland! thats sweet

 

[yesum]

Very interesting. I am in Cali. so nice growing weather, but water is a real problem in summer. Nice you do not have to even worry about that, just the mold.

Good plan with the collars. I did something similar with my outdoor veggies, damn slugs and earwigs.

 

[hamstring]

I love your transport idea is that a "ship in the bottle" technique where you plant the seed in the bottle and just let it grow?
Good luck to you I hope you pull off a nice harvest.

 

[Paddi]

Best growluck devon232


P

 

[devon232]

Hi all,

Thanks for the kind words.

I am open to reccomendations regarding mould sprays, I havent got a clue!

regarding mould protection.

I plan to top the plants (and keep topping them) until around july.

I will probably use the tops as cuttings and give them to a friend for an indoor grow of his.

My reasoning for cutting the tops off the plants is to avoid a large central cola.

Nice fat centre buds look nice, but in my experience, unless the climate is dry they can become too fat and dense and its asking for a mould infection.
Given the damp climate, lots of smaller buds from the side shoots pose a lesser risk of major bud rot.

Regarding the "ship in a bottle" query. I grew them outside in the garden without the bottle for the first month. That bottle would have created way too much heat and humidity inside and caused the plant (or even the compost) to get very mouldy.

I just put the plants in the bottle before I put them in my backpack, it prevented me from crushing the foliage when transporting them.

Laters...

 

[COOKIE MONSTER]

Hi all,


I am open to reccomendations regarding mould sprays, I havent got a clue!

regarding mould protection.


My reasoning for cutting the tops off the plants is to avoid a large central cola.

Nice fat centre buds look nice, but in my experience, unless the climate is dry they can become too fat and dense and its asking for a mould infection.
Given the damp climate, lots of smaller buds from the side shoots pose a lesser risk of major bud rot.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=181003
^ hope this may be of some help to you.

I too usually top plants for the same reason.

 

[Claude Hopper]

Devon,

Looks great! I like your approach! You garden like me!

I have my "growpack" that holds up to 4 2 liter bottles, In this picture I had 2 plants, each in a 2 liter bottle and then stuffed into a soda carton to protect the top.

Like you I don't fertilize or water. I also look for those tough to get to places.

I'll be watching this grow, brother guerilla!

 

[devon232]

Update

Update

Hi All,

It has been three weeks since the last visit so I thought it was time to take a look how things have gone.

These last few days have been nice and warm but on the whole, the last three weeks have been cloudy and rainy.

To be honest, I was slightly dissapointed by the size of the plants and an apparent bug attack on two of them.

I decided to cut back some more of the surrounding undergrowth (mostly brambles and blackthorn bushes) to give the plants a wider angle of sunlight.

I used my secateurs and saw to cut back several bushes (especially on the western side of the patch).

I sprayed the plants and surrounding foliage with some bi-carb mix spray to try to protect against mould.

I also like to squeeze the stems (between the nodes) of the plants while the stems are still fleshy. I squeeze until I feel a slight crunch. I have learned that when the plant heals from this squeezing, the stalk becomes thicker and stronger and has a larger mass to transfer nutrients and water to the tops of the plant.
I read about this kind of technique on the "Overgrow.com" forums years ago.


I am concerned to see that two of the plants are suffering from some kind of problem. They have got these small holes dotted all over the larger fan leaves. I guess these are some kind of bug, but I dont know exactly what.
I did notice some cookoo spit on one of the nodes (which I promptly removed) but I do not believe these are the main culprits.
Any advice will be appreciated here??

The last picture is the Irish countryside not far from my patch. Ireland is indeed beautiful when it is not raining

 

[yesum]

I do not know about those holes, but I put slug bait around my outside plants and the damage from insects has stopped. Watermelon not cannabis, that is indoor only.

That picture of the countryside is like a painting.

 

[mad librettist]

mulch! you need mulch!


preferably a living one, like a clover groundcover perhaps?

mulch it up!

 

[devon232]

Whats the benifit of Living Mulch??

 

[007.]

The full benefits of living mulch won't really be realized in a GG, since much of the purpose of living mulch is nutrient fixing. You won't reap the benefits until the first of your clover dies and is incorporated back into the soil.

It will give you some benefits though.

First of all, it's a mulch like any other, and it will help with soil temp and water retention. If you have exposed soil above your rootmass, then rain will cause it to form little riverbed shapes, which will make water sort of skate over your topsoil and not stick around to be absorbed as readily.

IMO the biggest benefit of living mulch though is this. People see plants integrated with other plants and think "foliage". People see pot leaves silhouetted against bare dirt, and think "GG".

Although I suppose that the stealth aspect would be mostly nullified by those collars. I understand the trade off between bug attack protection and stealth, and really have no right to tell you how you should reconcile that trade-off. But for me, I would do full chickenwire cages or nothing at all (save things like chemicals, etc. for slugs/bugs). Bits of plastic are one thing I definitely would not have at the site, because when the light catches it just right, it can really catch a person's eye.

The only time I've found another plot while tending to one of my own, it was because they had plastic on site that caught the sun. In a GG, security trumps ideal plant environments every time IMO. But I have a pretty hefty dose of The Fear.

Your neck of the woods sure does look gorgeous. I can't believe you have to pay that much for pot though. Why don't more people grow indoor commercially there? Are the penalties extremely harsh or something?

PS: I forgot to mention (I'm a little baked), your plants look great. In the great outdoors, you have to expect to see some areas where leaves get gnawed on. You should count yourself lucky that you don't appear to have any major deficiencies, and that the plants seem mostly healthy.

Fingers crossed for a successful and full finish!

 

[mad librettist]

The full benefits of living mulch won't really be realized in a GG, since much of the purpose of living mulch is nutrient fixing. You won't reap the benefits until the first of your clover dies and is incorporated back into the soil.

that's the old line. now the clover people describe it as a drip feed. That's because the nodules aren't permanent. They come and go, and if you mow, for instance, lots of root dies off. It's a constant death and renewal, and assuming you have nodulation (actually not foolproof), you are getting a steady N drip.

you may have some great groundcover more suited to your area just hanging around that you could transplant. Shamrocks maybe?

In your case, companion plant might help if conditions are too wet. They keep it moist in dry times, and help drain in wet times.

 

[devon232]

June 26 Update.

Okay, its three weeks since my last visit so I decided to take another look.

Thankfully the leaf insect issue I had previously (the tiny holes on the leaves) seems to have stopped.

Apart from one instance of cookoo spit, the plants seem bug free.

They have also grown a bit more (which is a relief).
The largest is around 20 inches tall. The smallest is around 15 inches tall.

I spent a bit of time clearing a larger area of the western side of the patch (where the smaller plant is located) in order to get more direct sunlight during the late afternoon.
The surrounding brambles and blackthorns are now full of foliage which were obscuring the plants light significantly (especially the smallest plant which I believe is so small due to less direct sunlight than the other two).

I took a pump spray with some bicarb mixed water with a little soap. I have read it is a good fungicide and given the dampness of the Irish climate, I need to employ all these methods to try to reduce the change of a serious mould infection.

It has been a rather dissapointing June weather-wise, though more sunny weather is predicted over the next week or so.

I will return again in around three weeks, at this point I will cut the tops off the three plants (make curttings of them and give them to a friend).

If you look at the last picture, I noticed that some of the older leaves (toward the bottom of the plant) had this discolouration.
Can anyone advise what this is?? Is it some kind of deficiency?
The rest of the foliage towards the top of the plant seems very healthy.