Sucess without watering.

[doctor.dank]

Have any of you outdoor growers had any success without watering your plants for an entire season? I don't mean neglecting completely but just not having to haul water for them ever? I live in an area with about 3"-4" of rainfall per month during the growing season. Temps stay under 85 degrees F for the most part. Do you think this is possible to pull off?

 

[originalogrower]

As long as you ammend your soil correctly it can be done. There are water pellets that i normally use they are like little gel pellets. Just hope that you don't have a bad spell of rain. I don't use pots or bags just dig the hole add soil mix and mix with the dirt that is native as long as its usable.

 

[festerous]

The trick with the water pellets is establishing a good set of roots before the heavy spring rains drown them.

 

[moondawg]

no and its unlikely to be succcessful. cannabis generallly requires considerable moisture: 1" of rain per week may-aug. if you have that youre plants will tthrive. They will survive with as little as 1/4" per week but wont grow big.

True kush strains come from the high kush range where it is arid and the soil poor. Its hard to kill mostly kush plant with drougt. Morrocan has also adapted to dry soil for 2-3mo periods and i think there are a couple of outletss for marocan. "Morroc" from female seeds but there are others.

 

[zielonylasss]

I usually water my plants in wild forest once-twice a season.
Cannabis is very hardy plant and can survive without maintenance in my climate.
Check my albums to see if you can't believe. I usually get 150-300g from a single plant.
Here is an example... Once watered plant:

 

[hamstring]

I hate these type of responses they seem so wishy washy but it depends on your environment.

Whats the soil like clay or loam? They both retain water fairly well. If you are growing in a forest the soil can be poor with just a few inches of good top soil. Obviously stay away from sandy soils (unless its in the lowlands).

I stopped watering 3 years ago and before that i only watered to fert every 2-3 weeks. I grow in lowlands so the moisture content is high and the soil is black gold. I have looked at forested areas and found the soil to be much different.

So as lame as it sounds you have to take many factors into account. Keep in mind if the moisture is lower that doesn't NECESSARILY mean the plants will die you MAY just get smaller plants. CAPS meant to show that nothing is absolute better to plan for the worst (water pellets, water retaining amendments, etc) and hope for the best.

 

[mogrow]

if you get 3 or 4 inches of rain in the growing season, you can absolutely pull it off. the under 85 temp thing only makes it easier. god i wish i had your conditions you lucky bastard..
good luck and hope you have a successful grow.

 

[WelderDan]

It's certainly possible. Feral cannabis grows wild (and thrives) in numerous places.

When I grew outdoors I had plants spread far and wide (harder to find them than when they are grouped in patches). It would have been impossible to haul water to them being so spread out.

Cannabis is a very hardy plant. Site selection and proper soil amendment worked for me.

 

[chefboy6969]

just my ....but in order to grow quality smoke...you MUST take care of your plants...whether it be..watering, feeding, trimming, training, whatever...YOU MUST BE PRESENT for quality...

Set and forget is a dream, unless you live in the tropics...


peace
Chefboy

 

[Buddah Watcha]

In a swampy/marsh area you can set it and forget it... Had great success last year and never watered my plants.

If the water bed level is high your chances are better! Really depends on the location!

Good luck!

 

[bajangreen]

just my ....but in order to grow quality smoke...you MUST take care of your plants...whether it be..watering, feeding, trimming, training, whatever...YOU MUST BE PRESENT for quality...

Set and forget is a dream, unless you live in the tropics...


peace
Chefboy

not even in the tropics bud. you got to care those babies if you want the best smoke

 

[frankenstein2]

Last outdoor season i put a sugar black rose way back in the woods. I fed it twice with water. It yielded 63 grams dry weight. I had another sugar black rose that was not so far in the woods. The close plant got watered twice a day if it needed it 5-10 gallons at a time. That plant yielded 10 ozs. dry weight. In my album you'll see a nice size great white shark im holding, that plant yielded 400+ grams just shy of a pound it was. It was watered everyday as well, sometimes twice. Without watering the only way to get a half way decent yield would be to have lots and lots of clones out.

 

[doctor.dank]

Thanks for the responses guys!

@zielonylasss - That plant looks great! I'm surprised you could get 150-300 grams with only watering once, but I do totally believe it! That is my dream! Do you know how much rainfall that you get in jun/july/aug on average? (You can check it out at http://weather.org/weatherorg_records_and_averages.htm) Whats the temps like during those times too?Thanks man!



I would agree with those that said "set and forget" is a dream. Growing marijuana is A LOT of work. However, with the area my plants will be in, watering them on anything other than a once a month basis would be damn near impossible. However I will be checking them weekly.

I'm planting directly in ground but I am bringing in all my own soil (forest soil here is shit). I'm only using 2 gallons per hole. I'm going with a peat moss mix (essentally DIY promix) with aqua gro as my wetting agent, light mix of water crystals (from my experience it is very easy to over do it), and than 3" of shredded bark mulch.

I'm also thinking about sprinkling a tiny amount (like half a pinch) of watercrystals on the top of the soil before I put down the mulch. Anyone try that?

 

[Eugen]

hi dank,
see the outdoor grow in my signature? none of these plants ever got watered by me. i just let nature do its thing.
of course plants are gonna die if tehre is no rain for over a month. but anything else, i am not too worried about.
i got one spot that is near a river so theroots will always get water, since the water level is near.
the guerilla spots in the woods are 300 meters further away from the water level of the river but still they all survived last year.
except the ones in 30L buckets with soil. those dried out in july or so.

in short: i never water and i hope this year wont be toooo dry in the summer, and not too wet in the autumn and all should be fine again...

when growing 10+ guerilla spots you cant visit them for watering etc. i am working on getting my routines ready for ca 3 max 5 visits a year:
1.may bringing out the seedlings, cutting back vegetation, turning soil around/adding organic nutes/powders to the soil + training the plants branches to grow more bushy
2. june/july: pulling males, cutting bak hedges/surrounding vegetation + training the plants
3. september/october: harvesting, digging/turning soil around for next year

happy growing
*edit*
i never used those watercrystals, i used perlite a couple of times.

 

[Highcountry]

If you grow in swamp tubes you don't have to water. Also check out hugelkulture. Interesting stuff.

 

[Ajunta Pall]

Grow in areas with ground cover. Dig deep holes foot in diameter, add water crystals then mulch generously, but don't over do it. Cover with surrounding plants to camouflage the mulch. This should help stop evaporation and help retain water to a degree. I would give them ferts high in P 2-3 times during flowering if water isn't an issue.

 

[lasthippie]

From my experience you have to water for the first 3-4 weeks, than you can left and come back to harvest if you don't fertilize in between assuming there is no long drouth. I have read raports from people growing next to rivers or lakes, they don't need to water their plants at all. With swamps it is clearly so.

 

[Oregonism]

Even though you might be on to other things this year, it is all about location, location location!

Planting by swamps, rivers, bogs, springs, etc, all have one thing in common, they are in a riparian area. Riparian areas are technically where land and river/ lakes meet. The vegetation and ecology is dominated by hydrophilic [water loving] plants and animals. However riparian areas also exist outside of river/ lake interfaces, such as springs, wetlands and seeps. Again, these areas are generally characterized by hydrophilic organisms, boggy soils and abundant diversity[other common identifiers: riparian forests, mesic, etc.].

These areas do tend to accumulate minerals faster than surroundings areas that are catchment areas as they accumulate run-off and mineral de-location from subsurface water above. These areas can generally tend to be acidic as a lot of buffering and alkaline minerals are quickly water soluble, but this can also lock up phosphorous in nature especially as the soil trends towards alakaline.


I use two principles, key line design and botany/ecology. It helps that I have a few years of hands on botanical experience [I know not everybody has this], however, I am just showing you the shortcut, saving SOME hardwork.

Learn to identify plants in the outdoors whether they are native or weeds, that love water! I have found some of the best plots by just recognizing a flower from Tansy Ragweed for instance. Bright yellow, easy to take a quick look.


Key line design is the big fancy piece of work by an Aussie and is a big part of permaculture. I kind of use it as a practice to understand where subsurface water may be flowing to. If you have a site where there is water loving plants or surface water and the surroundings area 100mx100m are lush, you are probably in luck.

Remember [most surface waters have much larger sub-surface components aka underground Amazon River]. Since weeds really are plants able to send their tap roots far down into the subsoil unlike other annual/perenials etc., locating subsurface water, a reliable source is really your goal. If it is a boggy area, it is just a plus for added nutrients without having to amend.

As far as amending, if you are really good, you can simply amend with your surroundings. I chop down all the nettle, horsetails and wild grass around my plots and mulch them with sticks, thrown away tires from rednecks, leaves, whatever I can use quickly, orderly and on site.

Many plots certainly increase your percentage and it has taken me a couple of seasons to scout and locate spots.

But I have multiple sites that I visit for pleasure [maybe some weed clearing here and there-fucking giant hog weed!] but they are all plant and forget.

 

[Swamp Thang]

My experience has been that even with swamp tubes, seedlings do still need watering for the first couple of weeks until their roots can reach down a few inches into the planter's soil column, where the water from the swamp has wicked up.

Also, since my spot doesn't get optimal sunlight due to the location selected for maximum concealment , those early seedlings tend to grow tall on weak stems, so I have to be there every couple of days at the start, to pile up more and more top-soil around each fragile stem so that it doesn't keel over from the tiny weight of its first leaves. Like the watering, that adjustment of soil level is only needed for a couple of weeks, until the plant stems thicken up.

All told, even swamp tubes cannot be planted and abandoned to grow until harvest, since I have to be around on at least a weekly basis when flowering begins, to exterminate the muchachos with extreme prejudice, leaving the chikitas to mature into killer swamp bud trees.

 

[RosettaStoned]

I have to keep an eye on the weather, but I've had to water maybe twice this season. It's a double edge sword in the swamp though, if it rains too much they'll stay wet for weeks, which cannabis is definitely not a fan of. It happened this June, but luckily it's over with and now we're having some nice dry weather with a little rain here and there.