(2013) Gold Country Gardening with Shcrews

[furrywall11]

girls are lookin good too... you're going to have training those big ones

 

[Shcrews]

Yes the water in yosemite is definitely good for swimming, only in the summer tho. Santa cruz is always beach time.

And yes dealing with the monster blue dreams will be fun.

Peace!

 

[OLDproLg]

110 degree heat...

Gotta love summers,not me when i can grow year round
and i know what ya mean with the hand watering,thats all i did..

They are lookin great man,just keep'em wet!
Lg

 

[DHF]

Good luck Shcrews.......I`ll be over here on my bucket pullin for yas....

Peace.....Freds..........

 

[boobs]

Most of our plants are a bit smaller, one to two feet tall.

do you guys think these plants look alright for this part of the season? should they be bigger? (strains in the pictures are GSC, Headband.)

the reason i'm asking is because my friend down the road has monster bushy 7-footers already outside, and He offered to give me some of his monsters but i feel they may be too big already.

on the other hand i feel some of my girls may still be too small for my needs. i would like to get at least 3lbs per plant.

any thoughts? let me know if better pics are needed

hey Shcrews, if you're still wondering whether you'll be able to pull 3lbs per plant...I was looking at some pics of my garden from last year to see where we're at this year in comparison and I found this...picture from last year 7/6 (today)

and here is the same plant come late september

pulled over 3lbs off it, hope this encourages you. and good great thread so far, love the pictures from Yosemite.

 

[CountryGoldGuy]

I'd just like to add, that plant was getting less than 4 hours of direct light come the end of bloom. It was a very shaded/moist location. I just add this so you can perhaps have more confidence in your situation, as i know how it feels. Mid July through Mid August is damn near magic...and then the real magic happens

 

[Shcrews]

Haha thanks guys for the positive reassurance. Its really cool to have your pics as a reference for what is possible. Everything is looking great right now. The entire hillside gets 12 hours of direct sun per day

We are still watering by hand. Not watering everyday but i think probably will need to start soon. Boobs, GCG, Yes4Prop, all my big plant peeps, do you mind sharing some watering tips?

I am wondering how much water i should give and how frequently, and how does it change as the plants grow into the 200gal pots and mature. Handwatering now but may set up a drip eventually. Im really just not sure where to begin as I havent ever done outdoors on this level

Also, i have been using plain water since transplant, how often does everyone like to use tea, nutes, etc? What should i be using throughout the season? Our soil is plenty hot and the girls seem to be loving it as is. And foliar feeding???


Anyone please feel free to chime in here, talk all the shit ya want, free speech is a right not a privelege!

 

[whatthe215]

broooo....

this is awesome! i want to do a legal outdoor someday... maybe next season let's trade houses for a few months?

any plans to use that garage this winter?

 

[furrywall11]

I'd love to get some watering tips, too. I started off slower and just watering around the base of the plant and right now I'm up to about 20-30 gallons per day hand watered to my 200 and 300 hundred gallon pots. I'm thinking of upping it. This Vermifire soil is designed for big drainage to promote more feedings - it seems almost impossible to over water it. I know a lot of people swear by letting it dry out almost completely between waterings to the point of near-wilt, I've been one of those people, but I'm starting to think that they grow faster when you keep 'em moist all the time. I do a half strength feeding and a aerated compost tea about once every ten days. I've also used Calcium25 and SN14 foliar. Every year I get closer to setting up a drip system but, I feel like by hand watering I'm learning more about what the plants need. Plus, I listen to podcasts, audio books, whatevs... It'd a good meditation. Let's get that watering advice goin'... or maybe a link thanks!

 

[Yes4Prop215]

handwatering can risk over watering.....we hand watered last year and lost a few plants to root rot. it was a bad combination of over watering and too much hay on top, stifled the perspiration of the pots.

drip emitters are the best because you can calculate exactly how much water hits each pot...this year i know that each 1hour feeding, with 30 1gph emitters on each pot puts exactly 30 gallons evenly spaced into the soil, the plants are loving it and showing zero signs of over watering. in the heat wave they still managed to skip a day between waterings...now with the temps cooled down i still only water 30 gallons per 200 every other day and the fan leaves are always pointed up and the plants are growing inches a day so im sticking with it. just plain water, no feedings yet. outdoors is different than indoors in that regard, you dont need to feed with water soluble nutrients that much like indoors. our soil guy instructs us to feed minimally to the root zones, just give them water, and to feed the nutrients via foliar spray.

i would definately reccomend building a drip irrigation system instead of handwatering....handwater works good for doing a weekly tea feeding but other than that can be a total pain in the ass, especially in 100 degree heat. everyone i know gets all their drip irrigation stuff through dripworks in the 707...they do online order and can ship in 2-3 days...get the 1/2 'drip emitter tubing 9' spacing 1gph per emitter. use 1inch black poly tubing and buy the barbed reduced Ts to 1/2inch. then regular non punctured 1/2 inch to run up to the 1/2inch drip line...and make sure to use clamps and glue to hold the Ts together or they will leak. and you gotta calculate the pump versus how many emmiters. so 15 plants using 30 1gph emitters on each will require a pump of at least 450gph, but i use a little bigger like 600-800 and havent had any issues, just gotta get out there and look for leaks and then clamp them down tight.

 

[boobs]

handwatering can risk over watering.....we hand watered last year and lost a few plants to root rot. it was a bad combination of over watering and too much hay on top, stifled the perspiration of the pots.

I think that not knowing how much water you're applying would obviously be a risk, but how the method of applying a predetermined amount would make a difference is where you lose me. I have no experience with drip lines though, but maybe your desire to get to the lake and inability to measure is leading to a bias?... ... ...I like what furrywall11 said about the pros of handwatering.

-

I've found that watering is the least discussed topic, by far. Time to break the silence! This in large due to the fact that there are so many factors (forecasted weather, current moisture level, soil blend, etc.) to take into consideration and rather than risk trying to explain and justify why each watering was done and how much was applied and sound like a dope it's easier not to talk about it. But, I'm not afraid of sounding like an idiot, as I'm sure you know by now.

The best answer I've got from anyone is to rely on instinct, so here I will try to explain instinct...however, by the end of it that is where we'll be back to, instinct.

I've found that by taking in large amounts of information and spending as much time as possible with your plants you can develop your instinct.

here are some good places to start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_respiration
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil#Soil_water
teaming with microbes pg. 32 - air and water

understanding how the soil respires and how oxygen diffuses into it we are better equipped to determine how much and when to water to best stretch out times of ideal moisture level.

here are some tools to help us

http://www.groworganic.com/fertilizers/soil-test/orp-tester.html
http://www.groworganic.com/soil-moisture-meter-17.html

There are several major factors at play in the soil that relate to watering. You have the transpiring plant, using up the water and you have respiring roots and the microbial community, using up oxygen and releasing CO2 as they break down organic matter.

When you water you allow fresh air to follow in and replenish oxygen supplies and also give the plant something to drink! however, initially upon watering you are filling all the pore spaces in the soil with water and there is then very little area for air. During this time it is possible to develop anaerobic conditions if the water sits too long without moving as it does during good transpiration and periods of high evaporation. A lot of what we can do starts by becoming familiar with our soil so that we apply the right amount to saturate properly so the water is tied up by cohesive forces and not create soggy water logged environments. A water logged soil is an environment that kills a lot of good stuff by increasing their inner water pressure causing them to basically explode, then you have people that move in and mess stuff up. What did that one guy say... insects are natures garbage collectors and diseases are her cleanup crew. In this way, they are great teachers, showing us where we messed up, they are not something to be combatted, but something to learn from.

This is why I think watering in the morning is probably best in most situations unless you have very mild night time temps and extremely hot mornings where you might be losing much of the applied water through evaporation.

I am just to the point where I notice the actual plants having an effect on water moisture levels in my smart pots, before they were all drying out evenly, but as plant size has increased certain larger plants are drinking amounts that require me to pay more attention to them leading to more specific waterings. Some pots require water every other day, some have gone five days w/o...some maybe more, I'd have to check my notes, but I do my absolute best to avoid watering based on the amount of days that have passed and focus on the actual current moisture level although if too long has gone by I will freshen them up with an amount based on the current moisture level, I don't like to let anything go longer than six days, in the smart pots.

On the mounds I am able to control water loss through transpiration a little by cutting back or letting the cover crops grow. Lately I've been giving them amounts of water based on the forecast for three days ahead and their current moisture level as determined by my probe.

...

letting a plant get near the point of wilting sounds retarded to me as when it is wilting it is starting to kill itself off so that it has less water requirements and when it kills parts of itself off things are going to move in and clean that up.

...

I've lost my train of thought, if I had one to start with, so that's all for now. Hope that gives you some insight into my instinct.

if you wanted to know actual numbers I have data all the way from last year detailing everything I've ever done.

here are some posts from other, more respected, members on the subject...

TomHill
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=3432589&postcount=639
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=3424288&postcount=601
"[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]As a rule of thumb I calculate a water volume of around 10% of soil volume per "maintenance" (normal) watering. Occasionally I'll do a light watering (5%) or a more thorough soaking (15%) but 10% is the "normal" watering once we are in maintenance mode."
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=1176970&postcount=7

Ganja D
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=5197961&postcount=3
[/FONT]

 

[warthog]

^Word up

 

[boobs]

All that being said I still fudge it up, lately I've been training myself to water a day after I first think I should and I like the results. Our plants were slightly overwatered at some crucial times. I say slightly because less than 5% of them showed any problems. We were also shcrewed over by the weatherman on more than one occasion.

Regarding teas, I don't think you can over do it. I'd focus on applying them at critical points in the plants life such as transplant, onset of flowering etc. Elaine Ingrahm say that three applications of ACT via foliar throughout a plants life is good.

The calcium spray followed up by the high protein foliar (ppd) works because you provide calcium at growing tips where it is in short supply and high demand due to its immobility, where it can then be used in new cell walls then the PPD provides the filling so to speak, lol, it's more complicated than that mechanically but conceptually that's basically what's going on...I think. Lol...

Most of the other popular foliars are about optimizing photosynthesis which leads to energy reserves in your soil and providing micronutrients which makes things stronger and more resilient.

 

[Shcrews]

It's Been A While...

It's Been A While...

howdy yall, i've been up in the hills for a couple weeks, we have no internet access yet.

Everything is looking great except for a few minor glitches in the system. the seed plants are getting big and some of the clones are catching up too..

We got cages around the big plants, and trellised the huge ones. looks pretty good.

 

[Shcrews]

GSC

GSC

still not sure which cut this is but it is definitely some kind of cookies. I particularly like this one in the picture, she's grown like a weed

 

[Shcrews]

Pure Kush x Northern Lights

Pure Kush x Northern Lights

these seed plants are bushy as fuuuck, got about 50 cuttings from each pheno when we were pruning the insides a bit.

 

[Shcrews]

Cheesequake

Cheesequake

i put a few clones of subcool's Cheesequake out in the middle of july, this one has taken off! transplanted from a 1gal pot 20 days ago.

 

[Shcrews]

Sunrise and Sunset

Sunrise and Sunset

but which is which?

peace y'all! more updates coming in august

 

[CountryGoldGuy]

Thanks for sharing! Beautiful sun pics.

 

[furrywall11]

I'm going to say the one on the left is the sunrise and the right is the sunset.