The growing large plants, outdoors, thread...

[Dr. Purpur]

Yo PurPur, when you expecting them to finish?

Hopefully in seven weeks or less

 

[Nez]

Thank you to everyone posting useful info on this thread. It has helped me greatly over the past few seasons.

What spacing can I get away with if i use 8x8 mounds? Is 12 foot centers enough? Any input is much appreciated

 

[Sir D]

Depending on your soil's clay content, you might end up with a layer of poorly drained, anaerobic deadness underneath your good soil.

This happened to us one year when we started a new garden: spread out tons of composted horse manure, but didn't incorporate it. Had several spots of real problems in the garden, and checking it out after the season I found organic matter from the previous year that looked like it had been preserved in a bog.

Here I think u meant bag?

I think it's right that starting a new garden is one of the times you need to cultivate the soil, particularly when you have a lot of clay. It often needs a lot of organic matter mixed into it before it will perform for you.

Yeah thats the main consensus of most of what ive readabout it possibly turning anaerobic. Cultivating the soil is exactly what Dave the worm guy was saying did you mean to till? He was saying to not even use gypsum which is contrary to what i was thinking on doing and what I've read but I do have to admit he is making quite different soil compared to most which is making me think of trying it ESP when it comes so highly recommended and not just here on ic mag.

SIR D - I'm no expert on what to do with clay soils but I'll share what I've been doing in a native soil amendment project in my back yard.

Taking about 200 square feet of compacted clay soil, which was under cement driveway just last year. During the rainy season it would flood and take a few days to drain out.

In January I worked it over with my pick axe, loosened to a depth of about 12"

Then added 44 pounds of gypsum and worked that in with a stiff rake.

Let it sit for a week or than worked it again, this time there was tons of earth worms working their way through the soil!

At this point I planted a cover crop, which is thriving now, about a foot tall. In the next couple weeks I'm going to cover the current cover crop with a peat/pumice/compost mix and plant another cover crop.

The plan is to have it ready for veggies and tobacco by June! We'll see how everything works out.

Oh and it drains much much better now! No flooding! The last rain event we had seeped right in

Thanks! Makes sense and if it didn't drain after all that work Ida been pissed lol! I'm probably still gonna do it but I might experiment with some and just leave it but I'll have to talk to Dave another time to get clear on his reasoning. I do have to say in the summer time it's very dry here all the vegetation sucks the moisture right out of the air and we usually don't get any rain till late sept here. We shall see we shall see!

 

[MrSterling]

I started working the one bed for a neighbor who wanted help. Nice sandy loam so I figured we had it easy. Then I hit the English ivy roots. Can barely turn the soil over. Gonna be a hard couple of days of ripping and tearing.

 

[CheechWizard]

Re: The growing large plants, outdoors, thread...

Hey greenhouse guys!

What kind of plastic do you use?

Theres a product I'm interested in called Solarig, anyone have experience with it?

It says it has 88% light transmission

Light diffusion 55% +/- 10% (not really sure what this means)

It also says it blocks out harmful UV-light which sounds like light I want!

Opinions?

Hi. I'm on my fourth year of using a solarig . So far i'm very happy with the quality of the plastic. it's extremely durable and you can't see in from the outside. Are you going to get the solar light so you can have a double layer and blow air in between? It also drips and wicks moisture away nicely. On the down side I don't think it lets light in as well as standard 6 mil film.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Durdy]

I'm not aware of what the solar light is?

Why would one blow air in between the layers of plastic?

What options do you have with your plastic? IR additive? UV-Block?

Have you used regular six mil plastic (like painters plastic?)? If so how do your buds compare to the Solarig?

I was under the impression it would diffuse and spread light better than regular 6mil.

The ends of my greenhouse are shade cloth so it can create a good cross flow, allowing the whole structure to "breath"

Thanks for the response BTW

 

[bEasty]

Why would one blow air in between the layers of plastic?

they usually do it for insulation purposes at wintertime, or early season.

 

[nomaad]

Is 12 foot centers enough? Any input is much appreciated

no way. in 5 foot wide smartpots, 15' on-center spacing was BARELY adequate. with clones. given the right genetics, conditions and care, seed varieties will surpass this.

Been a while since I posted in here, but I've been keeping an eye on things. i've been tapped to consult on a couple of outdoor gardens this year, so after taking a break from it all last season, I'm back in the sun. Feels good.

 

[nomaad]

mounds, eh?

 

[Nez]

nomaad, thanks for stopping in. Il do 15' centers minimum

glad to see your back, iv watched your grows the last few years now and you were always one of the guys i liked to watch most... no homo.

Whats the best way to protect mounds from gophers? poison, chicken wire, mesh wire?
The only other time i planted in ground on my property i lost a quarter of my plants to gophers... gonna do my best to prevent that this year

 

[Veg N Out]

Nomaad, no fabric pots or other bs is more money on soil for bigger trees that are happier...its so easy to make a pile.

Yall need to buy a rodenator or pay me to come blow them up for you. Its some good old off white trash fun.

The concussion blast gets em and collapses the tunnel network.

Mark out those gopher holes with some flag stakes and bright ribbon and do work on them.

 

[Veg N Out]

Thank you to everyone posting useful info on this thread. It has helped me greatly over the past few seasons.

What spacing can I get away with if i use 8x8 mounds? Is 12 foot centers enough? Any input is much appreciated

I did mine on this..well really my gardens consist of 2 trench/mounds..theyre embarrassingly deep 8' wide this year and almost 3' above ground..one is 50 ft one is 80, I put 8 plants in the big trench and 4 in the small trench..the rest of them get a 10x10 square and the 10x10s touch on top of that this year im piling 1 to 2 yard depending on where on the farm and forming a 5x5 mound and planting in that.

The point of my stoned ramble was I found it to work fine when the 10x10 spaces were touching.

 

[McDank8O5]

Glad to see you're back Nomaad ! Shiiiiit veg wanna come down south for a rodenator job!? Can't wait for this summer to kick off.... here's a flash back to last summer since i haven't seen pics on here in a few pages..

 

[boobs]

mounds, eh?

mounds

 

[Veg N Out]

Get some microbe mulch on those mounds..help keep em from packing and youll start building fungi before you plant

 

[Durdy]

What about planting a cover crop on the mounds? Then chop and drop a few weeks before planting.

I'm curious VEG, when do you put your clones out that will finish up in the fall?

 

[boobs]

Get some microbe mulch on those mounds..help keep em from packing and youll start building fungi before you plant

What about planting a cover crop on the mounds? Then chop and drop a few weeks before planting.

microbe mulch? ...so last year bro , you're living in the past. our mulch is ALIVE! ...planted cover crops days ago and hit with some ACT wayyy back, so that fungi has been building for weeks now. ...i'm actually worried I've got too much fungal growth!

 

[warthog]

mounds


View Image

gorgeous! those pot plants are gunna ruin that beautiful view of yours

nice to see you nomadd.. will you be posting some progress pics this year? always enjoyed your garden

 

[Sir D]

Mounds Nomaad mounds! Why waste the time and energy in digging holes or buying up pots? Just dump and grow!

Veg n your out of control brother but with the right idea!

So gotta question I was at the dump the other day and on my way out I seen these collasel rows of compost probably 15 ft high hundreds of ft long that just looked so rich and delicious. My question is this would it be a good idea to use compost from the dump? It did appear they were doing there job properly I mean it really looked rich and I can't imagine they charge too much for it. Any thoughts?

 

[boobs]

gorgeous! those pot plants are gunna ruin that beautiful view of yours

nice to see you nomadd.. will you be posting some progress pics this year? always enjoyed your garden

I think we may have differing opinions on what constitutes a beautiful view.