xet
Active member
I started an outdoor grow journal for this year and a late freeze and few other elements (birds) destroyed my last of the crop so this is a late, but not too late, grow.
No pics on this first post but the ball is rolling.
I direct sowed 10 beans of Nanda Devi last night.
This time my patch is covered on all sides until large enough to remove the top that is preventing birds from snacking on the sprouts.
Also I had to slightly shade the top as the sun is hot enough this year it burns to a crisp the flowers on my garden vine.
1 bean was super huge and 3 were tiny while the rest were medium to smaller size ranging in color from light brown to golden yellow on the larger bean.
Luckily I have no winter freeze until January even February some times.
The main purpose of this grow is for F2 seed-stock plus some herb to cob up.
I went back and forth whether I wanted to plant Dark Devil Auto or Kerala and ultimately waiting an extra month for more bud ruled out the Auto and the potentially endless wait-time ruled out Kerala until next year. Nanda Devi fits right in with a September/October harvest time but with my hot weather (110'F / 44'C in June) I anticipate maybe a November harvest.
For the whole patch I dug one very large hole, maybe ~500L / ~125 gallons and mixed layered 1 layer Fox Farm, 1 layer diatomaceous earth, 1 layer native soil, and repeated this half a dozen times. The top layer is ~1 bag of Fox farm and over the layer of Fox farm is 400L of heavily rotted woodchip compost/mulch that will continue to produce good compost tea with watering as well as trapping moisture. It has Amendments like beet root, garlic, Chlorella algae, Kelp powder, coffee grounds, egg shells, red kale, dinosaur kale, other kale, carrot, cayenne, milk, onion, blueberry, cranberry, strawberry, spinach, orange, chia, sweet potato, chicken blood, cacao powder, green tea, flax, broccoli, hemp protein, pea protein, apple, cherry, agave, goji powder, quinoa, shiitake, neem, tomato, grapes, guava fruit, mango fruit, b12, b complex, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, ginger, nutmeg, sulfites, oregano, savory, basil, parsely, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, sage, nutmeg, cloves, pink salt (600+minerals), red pepper, banana peels, various rock dust, a couple gallons of cabernet, a couple gallons of blush wine, cilantro, plus quite a bit of piss from digging and preparing the hole and adding this final amendment and probably other things. But all in all I would say this is well-aged compost.
The hole then had 2 months to rest after prep and when I went to visit yesterday there were so many bugs I kneeled for a moment and had every type of critter running up my leg. Everything was moving very fast. The bush nearby had several hundred butterflies on it. The compost is so fungally active that when I press on the mulched top layer it has a very elastic effect to it. Everything under the soil is very aerated and moist as the mulch traps the moisture and the bugs aerate everything. The worms are active.
I will update in a few days with some sprout pics and catalog as things progress.
edit: 0 for 13 on my Nanda Devi seedpack. Old seeds is my guess. Other strains pulling thru so keep reading.
No pics on this first post but the ball is rolling.
I direct sowed 10 beans of Nanda Devi last night.
This time my patch is covered on all sides until large enough to remove the top that is preventing birds from snacking on the sprouts.
Also I had to slightly shade the top as the sun is hot enough this year it burns to a crisp the flowers on my garden vine.
1 bean was super huge and 3 were tiny while the rest were medium to smaller size ranging in color from light brown to golden yellow on the larger bean.
Luckily I have no winter freeze until January even February some times.
The main purpose of this grow is for F2 seed-stock plus some herb to cob up.
I went back and forth whether I wanted to plant Dark Devil Auto or Kerala and ultimately waiting an extra month for more bud ruled out the Auto and the potentially endless wait-time ruled out Kerala until next year. Nanda Devi fits right in with a September/October harvest time but with my hot weather (110'F / 44'C in June) I anticipate maybe a November harvest.
For the whole patch I dug one very large hole, maybe ~500L / ~125 gallons and mixed layered 1 layer Fox Farm, 1 layer diatomaceous earth, 1 layer native soil, and repeated this half a dozen times. The top layer is ~1 bag of Fox farm and over the layer of Fox farm is 400L of heavily rotted woodchip compost/mulch that will continue to produce good compost tea with watering as well as trapping moisture. It has Amendments like beet root, garlic, Chlorella algae, Kelp powder, coffee grounds, egg shells, red kale, dinosaur kale, other kale, carrot, cayenne, milk, onion, blueberry, cranberry, strawberry, spinach, orange, chia, sweet potato, chicken blood, cacao powder, green tea, flax, broccoli, hemp protein, pea protein, apple, cherry, agave, goji powder, quinoa, shiitake, neem, tomato, grapes, guava fruit, mango fruit, b12, b complex, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, ginger, nutmeg, sulfites, oregano, savory, basil, parsely, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, sage, nutmeg, cloves, pink salt (600+minerals), red pepper, banana peels, various rock dust, a couple gallons of cabernet, a couple gallons of blush wine, cilantro, plus quite a bit of piss from digging and preparing the hole and adding this final amendment and probably other things. But all in all I would say this is well-aged compost.
The hole then had 2 months to rest after prep and when I went to visit yesterday there were so many bugs I kneeled for a moment and had every type of critter running up my leg. Everything was moving very fast. The bush nearby had several hundred butterflies on it. The compost is so fungally active that when I press on the mulched top layer it has a very elastic effect to it. Everything under the soil is very aerated and moist as the mulch traps the moisture and the bugs aerate everything. The worms are active.
I will update in a few days with some sprout pics and catalog as things progress.
edit: 0 for 13 on my Nanda Devi seedpack. Old seeds is my guess. Other strains pulling thru so keep reading.
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