[Shlomo]

Hello everyone, and welcome to my outdoor thread!

It is my intention with this thread to harvest advice and opinions, so please be critical!

As a backgrounder, I've only done outdoors from start to finish three times, always because of emergencies, either an impending bust or other location problem, forcing me outdoors. Always the plants were big, mothers for cloning, so pests not an issue really, but only one grow was successful, the other two lost to mold or drying out (neglect, basically). The good one was tended by many people taking turns, so it survived, five six-footers of a heavy-producing local strain known as "Jamaican." Oh yes, If you are offered "Jamiacan" from BC, know this - it sucks.

So, I'm basically an indoors guy, and I am not quite certain I'm doing the right thing... I'm experimenting a lot. This is my learning season.

I am growing Purpurea Ticinensis, the Swiss strain made famous here by Esbe's posts. The description of the origins charmed me, and the price for the old, unrefined by Esbe strain was 40 swiss francs for 25 seeds, so I bought 400. This is the "freaky" strain sold by Owl, bred by Felix, I believe. Bred for alpine climes, apparently, which is where I grow, in the heart of British Columbia. The germination rate was about 99%, though I think I was low on the total, but the dealer sent me some Maroc and other goodies - oh well.

So without further delay, here we go.

My first plot is deep in the woods, about 600m elevation, on a steep solidly south-facing hillside above a creek. The area is like a canyon, and it is impenetrable at creek level. Orienteering skills required. No sign of man.

I made two field cloners that I popped 71 towel-germinated seeds into. The cloner is a rubbermaid plopped inside of a rubbermaid. The top rubbermaid has holes drilled through it where wicks, jammed into the bottom of peat pots, go through into the rubbermaid below, which contains water and has a high water drain hole in case it rains a lot. Here are pictures....

The rubbermaid with the holes.


The wicks, made from cheap cotton yarn.


The setup on location. Note the deer netting tented over - it hangs from a branch and I tucked it under the rubbermaids.


The wicks in the water.


A few weeks later, I came back and found that only 24 seeds came up. The reservoir was full and the peat pots moist, despite the warm weather streak we had for that short while. The netting appeared jostled.


On closer inspection, almost all the peat pots had roots.


But they were snipped by pests... probably birds, it being that time of the year. I bet they just pushed the netting down with their fat feathered asses.


I planted the 24 pinners, the champions long gone, in little holes in the soil, with some slow release high nitrogen ferts and water-retaining polymers dropped in. The soil is loose, pebbly, and basically a mixture of log compost, leaf compost, and patches of clay, the PH 6.8. You can't even see the plants here, really. I draped the works in deer netting stretched out with tie wire and anchored with rocks, logs, etc., and covered the ground in diatomous earth. I knew I should have brought a spray, but I left them to nature - the hike was worth sixty to seventy plants, but now it was twenty-four, and half should be male. Not worth going back to tinkle some neem and garlic/pepper/castor juice onto, considering I was almost swept away by a creek, fell off a steep embankment twice, filled my hands with thorns, and so on.



I'll be back in August to pull males, if there's anything left.

I had another seeder like this in a different location, but it was inadequately protected, as I forgot the netting, so I made a cage of tie wire and the grid was too pourous. 40 seeds out the window, not one was left, all snipped. Pestulance!

More to follow. Again, let me know what I am doing wrong, if you please. I learned lessons here which I will highlight in my next patches, so I am not totally clueless, but, you know... please let a player know anyway, as he would be grateful.

[Jon]

Good luck bro. How big are the holes you're putting the peat pots in? What's the native soil like?

[BACKCOUNTRY]

Does the creek flow year round? Will they tap into that for water? Are you in western Oregon or further north?

[Shlomo]

My third patch will be more secure against pestulance. I set up on a wooded hillside perhaps a kilometre from a deactivated logging road, in a clearing caused by multiple tree drops. This is basically a 6'X8' hardware-clothed in patch, the cloth bent at the bottom margins, dug in, and anchored by rocks, logs, etc. I tilled the soil,, removing big rocks and creating a loose, well aerated mix of loam, some clay chunks, and log compost about one foot deep, the PH coming out at, again, 6.8. I mixed in slow release ferts with a touch of Urea fertilizer (not much), and water retaining polymers.






Since my plants, now started indoors, are still pretty small, combined with the weather we've been getting (wet and cold), I plan on dropping thirty seedlings in this one, assuming, after male cull and nature/stupidity takes its toll, I'll have maybe seven left, probably all small.

When I plant the babies I will get deer netting over the top and around the whole thing, hung off tight lines of tie wire tacked to the logs surrounding the spot. I have a spray mix of Einstein oil, castor oil, garlic juice, and cayenne pepper extract (sitting in mineral oil for a week now) to coat the seedlings and protect against any savvy infiltrator. I considered poison, but I don't want to poison any undeserving animals. I may pick up some traps and put them on the inside edge of the fencing, but I still don't know about that.

Here is the remainder of my crop, about 210 plants under a 1000W. I was caught out of town on an emergency and had a friend watch them, and so twenty plus were lost, otherwise they'd be in the ground now. They're leggy, the light not lowered fast enough, so I staked them up, but the oldest, in the cups, are good to go, and they will in the next few days.

[Shlomo]

Originally Posted by BACKCOUNTRY

Does the creek flow year round? Will they tap into that for water? Are you in western Oregon or further north?

I'm in British Columbia in the mountains, within 200km of the border. The creek is year-round, but well below the site. The average rainfall for that specific plot is decent until mid July (with polymers), and with this year's weather so far, it is bound to be a "wet one." Of course, I never trust predictions, so I watch all the weather reports like a hawk.

[Shlomo]

Originally Posted by Jon

Good luck bro. How big are the holes you're putting the peat pots in? What's the native soil like?

The soil is loose and pebbly, with a strong loam component, leaf compost, cedar log compost, and some clay. I mixed the elements in the holes and the ph is 6.8, the holes for the first plot are maybe a gallon, but the ground below is quite porous, mainly old leaf compost layers with small to medium rocks.

[Shlomo]

First, I burned some 1/2" chicken wire.


Then I went and found a spot, driving my truck through all manner of fucked up back roads before settling in at washout. Then I started hiking, and after a while I came across a gently sloping, ancient clearance area, at the edge of which, facing south, was a pretty spot slightly above a series of mossy streamlets. After hacking and uprooting four-foot tall plants for a good while, then tilling the soil to a depth of a foot, taking out rocks, and fencing, anchoring, and so on, here it is pointing solidly south, about six by seven feet:




And here it is, ten feet away:


I did not check the PH, but the soil was richer than hillside, and the clay, though moist, was more crumbly. I'm bringing a cup and my meter next time, when I plant the goods.

I have a fifth patch set up, but no pics. My sixth patch is the daddy, way deeper into nature and closer to water... and irrigated, a la BACKCOUNTRY (I just have to build it ).

[esbe]

wow bro, i think you got quite the right strain for your grow. you have done a hard and fine job bro and i pray that they wont be killed by nature. damn i wish we had just 1% of your nature over here. we are 98% cultivated.

[Jon]

I'll keep an eye on this bro. What number grow is this for you? I wish I had the balls to do it guerrilla style.

[Shlomo]

Originally Posted by Jon

I'll keep an eye on this bro. What number grow is this for you? I wish I had the balls to do it guerrilla style.

This is the fourth outdoor, and the first serious outdoor. As for the balls, when you're in nature, you forget all about the paranoia. A cop could come upon me, holding an M-16 and a German Shepherd, ten feet from a patch, and I'd be like, "Top of the morning to you, officer!" Quite a bit different from indoor - much better actually.

Originally Posted by esbe

wow bro, i think you got quite the right strain for your grow. you have done a hard and fine job bro and i pray that they wont be killed by nature. damn i wish we had just 1% of your nature over here. we are 98% cultivated.

Yeah, poor old Europe... thanks for the purpurinspiration, by the way!